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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government will adopt an integrated approach and come out with a policy to make India self-reliant in the area of advanced battery technologies to power electric vehicles (EVs) and other applications. Pitching for an integrated approach for developing indigenous fuel cells in the field of electric vehicles, he said India today stands at the cusp of becoming the world leader in this field as well as automobile manufacturing.

He said ‘So far work is happening in silos in the area of alternative fuel. We will now work in an integrated and concerted manner bringing together the best technologies. We will also focus on economic viability...We need a policy in this regard and for it we have decided to take an integrated approach’. He said scientists, academia and industry can together harness green hydrogen-based energy through water, for it being a cost effective and easily available mode in the country. He indicated towards the lowering costs of solar power in India, which can help energise other modes of fuels. He added that vast scope is there in the area of Lithium-ion battery too despite countries like China dominating in the sector. About 81 per cent of Lithium-ion battery components are available locally and India stands a very good chance for value addition at lower costs.

Stressing the need for advanced and concerted planning, the minister said this is one area where there is good scope for becoming the world leader as the automobile sector which has a turnover of Rs 4.5 lakh crore is set to take it to Rs 10 lakh crore in future. The resultant employment generation will be huge and vehicle scrapping policy under which initially one crore vehicles will go for scrapping will result in availability of cheaper aluminium, copper, rubber, steel and other products which will reduce the price of the components. After going through the presentations from different organisations on different technologies including Lithium-ion, metal-ion, Sodium Sulphur, Hydrogen, Iron Sulphur, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Cell System, ZincGel, etc, Gadkari said, economic viability is the basis of any successful technology.