New Delhi: Once again the corona epidemic has taken a terrible form in China. Every day lakhs of people are getting infected here. Due to such a situation, industries around the world are once again in trouble. Talking about the Indian electric vehicle (EV) industry, it may also face the problem of the supply chain, as China is the main manufacturer of batteries and other important components of electric vehicles.
Battery manufacturers in India are largely dependent on suppliers from China. Producers believe that by the time the pandemic is under control in China, the country will shut down for the Chinese New Year in January. The problem is that none of the Indian EV manufacturers have supplies beyond January, as sales orders are yet to be placed for deliveries in February. Indian importers say deliveries are expected to be received in January, for which orders placed weeks ago are either in transit or lying in warehouses in China.
The situation in China is very bad due to Corona
Trolltech founder and CEO Samarth Kochhar told Financial Express that most of the suppliers in China are infected. The situation there is very bad. 50% of the employees are working in the factories. Trolltech is one of the many Indian companies that assemble batteries made from cells produced in China. Trolltech supplies these batteries to two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicle manufacturers.
India dependent on China for battery supply
The number of cell producers in India is negligible. China has almost monopoly control over battery supply in the Indian market. In the last financial year, 73% of the lithium-ion products consumed by India were from China. Some Indian automakers, such as TVS Motor Company, have achieved a high degree of localization with sales coming only from outside the country.
The speed of the new electric vehicle was low
New product launches in the electric two-wheeler segment have been slow due to the government’s reluctance to release subsidies to companies under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME-2) scheme since April. Battery producers do not have a backlog of orders after the implementation of the new battery rule from December 1 and weak demand from vehicle manufacturers. A battery pack assembler said, “We will have to wait for a few more days to understand the impact of Covid on production. We don’t have a backlog of orders yet.”
