Panasonic India Supportive Of Governments PLI For Battery Manufacturing

Panasonic India is very supportive of the Indian government's proposed PLI to promote localised manufacturing of batteries to further the cause of electric cars in India. Manish Sharma, who is the CEO of Panasonic in India and President for India and South Asia for the Japanese giant has said this move is key to setting up battery manufacturing in India.

"The 18,100 crore PLI for setting up battery storage manufacturing is a step in the right direction. The Government has already announced its agenda to increase manufacturing of Electric Vehicles by 2030 and setting up local battery manufacturing will be key to its success. This will also help bring down the oil import bill and help in earning green energy credentials. Besides powering Electric Vehicles, it will also generate clean energy for domestic consumption," said Sharma who also heads the FICCI Energy Storage Committee.

Add image caption here

Panasonic is key player in battery technology. It was Tesla's key partner in the development of battery cell and manufacturing for models like the Tesla Model S ands Tesla Model 3. Panasonic retains a healthy presence on ground at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada.

In the last couple of years, with the advent of China becoming one of the key growth markets for EVs, Chinese and South Korean battery makers have usurped it. China based CATL is now the world's largest EV battery supplier, while LG Energy Solutions is a string number two.

Panasonic remains a key partner for Tesla in the US, but CATL has mostly replaced it in China with CATL taking up that market. Panasonic will be looking at India for the same and will do well to make investments in a growth market before other battery players get entrenched in the manufacturing ecosystem in India.