"The government has given enough time for indigenisation but the industry has not taken it seriously'

Amitabh Saran, Founder and CEO, Altigreen, shares his views on problems inthe EV industry and battery localisation solutions with Amit Vijay M.

Affordability is a big issue when it comes to buying an EV, especially for entry-level models. Industry claims that 35-40 percent of the EV cost is for the batteries. And that most batteries are being imported. How can localisation help and what's needed to move forward in this direction? Amitabh Saran has some ideas to share in this aspect, HAY

How do you address that aspect to remain competitive?

The big shift towards EVs and the confidence in their abilities has happened in the last couple of years with eL5N and e2Ws. Fossil fuels have had a long 100-year history. The tides are turning in favour of EVs even as Li-ion cells were the biggest and most expensive component. This focus on Made-in-India with 93 percent domestic value add excluding Li-ion cells) allows us to keep costs low. And, a large in-house R&D team helps with value-engineering on components to right-size them, thus keeping raw-material costs low.

In your opinion, why are some EV manufacturers struggling with high production costs, and what should be a workable strategy from an industry perspective?