India's EV & Battery Industry: News & Discussions

[Azaad]

View: https://twitter.com/lakshmishaks/status/1857436108218654863?s=19

 

[silentassassin265]

Work on lithium exploration in Reasi has started: Reddy

New Delhi: The government is planning to begin the auction of offshore mineral blocks in the next two to three months and around 10 such mines are likely to be

kashmirreader.com

 

[rockdog]

Not 100% relevant, but good reference.


The CEO Mr Zeng of CATL commented the failture of this EU's only hope:
“It's because they have the wrong design. And secondly, they have the wrong process. Thirdly, they have the wrong equipment How can they scale up?"


Here is key points of this failture of Northvolt, i translated into English.

The Information (www.theinformation.com) published an investigative report that thoroughly reviewed how Northvolt, the "only hope" of the European battery industry, suffered a complete failure.

-Before filing for bankruptcy protection last week, Northvolt had already raised a huge investment of $14 billion, and now only $30 million is left in cash on its books. A series of top investment institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Volkswagen, Siemens, etc., are facing the result of losing everything, which may be the most devastating investment failure event in the technology industry;

-It is not an exaggeration to say that Northvolt was born with a golden spoon in its mouth. In order to regain the dominant position in the new energy battery industry from China, from the founding country Sweden to the entire European Union, and even to Canada in North America, Northvolt has been granted special loans and land grants along the way, and subsidies have been given to everyone;

-But Northvolt's entry into the battery industry was "impure" from the beginning. Its advantage in positioning itself was neither technology nor price, but a politically correct commitment to produce only environmentally friendly energy sources such as hydropower and wind power. European car manufacturers, for reputation reasons, will lean towards suppliers with their own "redemption coupons";

-The initial development was indeed as expected. Famous factories such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Volvo placed orders with Northvolt and provided sufficient advance payments. Volkswagen even took out $1.6 billion from its own pocket to invest, firmly embarking on this path of not being choked;

-Everything seems to be going smoothly, the only problem is that Northvolt finds itself unable to make batteries;

-To be fair, Northvolt is not a scam. Its founding team came from Tesla's supply chain and has a deep understanding of batteries. However, building a battery manufacturing plant from scratch, there are few people in Europe who know what to do;

-Northvolt's confusing operation began from the factory site selection stage, driven by the pursuit of clean hydroelectric energy. It placed its local factory in Skellefte å, a small port town in the Arctic Circle, but the weather here is not dark in summer and not bright in winter, and the biological clocks of the relocated workers are disrupted. In the end, even Swedes are unwilling to come to work;

-In the end, only over 100 outsourced workers from China and South Korea were available. They lived in their own dormitories and were transported to the factory by bus every day to work. Due to language barriers, there was little communication. One time, an alarm sounded and European workers did not hear it. Chinese workers had to open their phones and use Google Translate to tell them what had happened;

-The outsourcing workers in China mainly come from a battery upstream equipment manufacturer in Wuxi. In order to meet the deadline, Northvolt denied the process of testing equipment in China and requested that all be completed in the Swedish factory. As a result, the integration became a disaster because from the grassroots employees and engineers to the managers and board of directors, none of them had production experience;

-The former employees of Northvolt interviewed believed that it was not the problem of Chinese partners, but that Northvolt was too incompetent. "We have no technology, no knowledge, everything needs to be taught by Chinese hands, machines are given by them, factories are built by them, and we can do nothing without them";

-As of December last year, Northvolt's battery production capacity had only reached 1/200 of its planned target. The previously confirmed purchase orders were cancelled one after another, and several banks that had previously strongly supported them also changed their faces. After the failure of debt financing last month, the CEO resigned;

-With the end of Biden's term, the policy of subsidizing the domestic battery industry in the West is expected to become obsolete. At least in the lithium battery market segment, there is no second Northvolt in Europe and North America. Two thirds of the world's lithium batteries are produced in China, and the average pricing is one-third of that of Western lithium battery manufacturers;

-The founder of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, was a guest on the Norwegian Sovereign Fund's podcast, where he contributed the catchphrase: "Why can't Europe make good batteries? Firstly, their design is wrong; secondly, their craftsmanship is wrong; and finally, their production is wrong

The Electric: Northvolt’s Blunt Message to Fellow Battery Startups—Don’t Expect a Bailout​

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-electric-northvolts-blunt-message-to-fellow-battery-startups-dont-expect-a-bailout

Struggling Battery Maker Northvolt Misses Payment to Laid Off Employees​

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/struggling-battery-maker-northvolt-misses-payment-to-laid-off-employees

Interview with Robin Zeng, the CEO of CATL.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VIXjjw4u9A

 

[silentassassin265]

New Mahindra EVs launched.
Looks and features wise they are miles ahead of tata Nexon and curvv, xev 9e gives Tesla run for their money.

 

[125mm_Smoothbore]

New Mahindra EVs launched.
Looks and features wise they are miles ahead of tata Nexon and curvv, xev 9e gives Tesla run for their money.

Battery is from byd/vw i guess and have chassis help from vw group

Not saying its bad i think its a welcome step to develop in house tech once these lineup are mainstreamed

 

[TopWatcher]

Battery is from byd/vw i guess and have chassis help from vw group

Not saying its bad i think its a welcome step to develop in house tech once these lineup are mainstreamed

Is it inhouse developed by mahindra??

 

[Anants]

Battery is from byd/vw i guess and have chassis help from vw group

Not saying its bad i think its a welcome step to develop in house tech once these lineup are mainstreamed

no there is no chasis help from VW. Its developed inhouse, battery cells from BYD and motor from valeo. Battery pack designed inhouse.

 

[ezsasa]

𝗢𝗹𝗮 𝗴𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
Mass production of 𝗟𝗶 𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 for electric vehicles


View: https://x.com/Raghunandan_05/status/1861761782076895341

 

[125mm_Smoothbore]

Is it inhouse developed by mahindra??

as corrected by @Anants cells are imported but chassis / design is in-house

 

[FalconSlayers]

Ola Wants to scale up this plant to 100 GWh in future. Insane.

View: https://youtu.be/LcZ6d2MFzEo?si=mYyOBo6JbwGtsvk3

 

[Anants]

𝗢𝗹𝗮 𝗴𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
Mass production of 𝗟𝗶 𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 for electric vehicles


View: https://x.com/Raghunandan_05/status/1861761782076895341

Its good, but now I mostly have wish is that these assembly machines should be made and sourced within India instead of Germany, China, Korea or Japan. We are in near future going to reach stage - where ideas and prototypes would be plenty but productionizing would be expensive and hard without creating a industry which starts to think making Line equipment's and assembly automation for high tech industries.

 

[silentassassin265]

Battery is from byd/vw i guess and have chassis help from vw group

Not saying its bad i think its a welcome step to develop in house tech once these lineup are mainstreamed

Right now ola is the only company who has developed their own battery cell hence there new vehicle are cheap AF

 

[SKC]

New Mahindra EVs launched.
Looks and features wise they are miles ahead of tata Nexon and curvv, xev 9e gives Tesla run for their money.

Dudes, pls let it come to market first. The product will be in market after 3-4 months. And no, they are not going to give Tesla any run for their money. Tesla is miles and miles ahead!

 

[SKC]

Battery is from byd/vw i guess and have chassis help from vw group

Not saying its bad i think its a welcome step to develop in house tech once these lineup are mainstreamed

Battery and motor both are not inhouse, comes from Chinese players. However, BMS is internally developed.

 

[ArjunMK1A]

We don't have sufficient EV component base from Indian suppliers.

Motors from Valeo, Bosch and VW. Battery from BYD.

Surprisingly hyundai/ Kia will going to use Exide battery who is having an JV with Chinese battery manufacturer.

 

[SKC]

We don't have sufficient EV component base from Indian suppliers.

Motors from Valeo, Bosch and VW. Battery from BYD.

Surprisingly hyundai/ Kia will going to use Exide battery who is having an JV with Chinese battery manufacturer.

The Automotive EV Industry started quite late in India so the EV supplier's ecosystem is not developed in large scale. BYD started working on EVs back 2008 itself and over the years gained manufacturing and technical knowhow.​

 

[RocketMan]

Is it inhouse developed by mahindra??

Most of the tech is in house developed. M & M have filed for various patents regarding suspension & EV architecture. With 282 BHP & 550kms WLTP range , this car is a game changer.

 

[SKC]

Most of the tech is in house developed. M & M have filed for various patents regarding suspension & EV architecture. With 282 BHP & 550kms WLTP range , this car is a game changer.

Not a fan of the design but these cars are loaded with features and priced really well. This will lead to all competitors to price their EV better. Currently most options are prices inflated specially Tata which has priced of its EVs - Tiago, Tigor, Punch, Nexon and Curvv anywhere from INR 50K to 2.5Lac more than it should have been.​

 

[RocketMan]

Not a fan of the design but these cars are loaded with features and priced really well. This will lead to all competitors to price their EV better. Currently most options are prices inflated specially Tata which has priced of its EVs - Tiago, Tigor, Punch, Nexon and Curvv anywhere from INR 50K to 2.5Lac more than it should have been.​

Even the base model BE 6E @ 18.9 lakhs will translate to ~ 20.8 lakhs on road in Bihar (with 50% less road tax on EVs) which is comparable to lower model creta automatic & BE6E is far superior is safety , power & features . With 231BHP & 59 Kwh battery pack(~400+ kms range) it's sufficient to be primary car.

 

[Varoon4]

At 40:41, good news about battery recycling company, which also extracts cobalt, nickel et al as by products. The video feature is about awards in the business community.


View: https://youtu.be/HwSgVdx-2zI?si=D8w-JVbu9_W4LaCP