Indian chemical manufacturer Epsilon Advanced Materials (EAMPL) and Japanese research firm KRI are planning to establish a battery materials testing facility in India. The 100GWh facility, which is double India’s target of 50GWh of lithium-ion cell and battery manufacturing capacity, will be located in one of three southern Indian cities: Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Chennai. EAMPL will set up the facility for basic and advanced cell testing with an investment of $36.4mn, and it will provide testing services for anodes, cathodes, electrolytes and electrode formulates. The technology centre will leverage on KRI’s technical know-how in lithium ion batteries and new energy segments, adding that the Japanese firm has capabilities to provide accurate and reliable results and certification.
The Indian government approved a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme in 2021 for achieving 50GWh of lithium-ion cell and battery manufacturing capacity. EAMPL’s advanced technology centre will be the backbone for the manufacturing battery value chain in India, to create an electric vehicle (EV) hub in the country. The facility can accelerate customers’ process of getting international testing certifications and reduce the timeframe for product development, he added.
EAMPL had in 2021 agreed to supply Indian automotive electrical component manufacturer Lucas TVS with domestically produced anode materials for a 10GW lithium-ion gigafactory in Thervoy Kandigai in Tamil Nadu state. The company signed an initial agreement with the Karnataka state government in November last year to invest Rs90bn to establish battery material manufacturing plants over a span of 10 years. EAMPL plans to increase production of graphite anodes for lithium-ion batteries to 35,000 t/yr by 2025, a move that would strengthen the security of supply for upcoming lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities in India, as well as enabling Epsilon to ramp up exports.
