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Panel: Building a Battery Supply Chain for India: What’s Available, What’s Viable and What Comes Next?
Date & Time
October 23, 2026 2:20 PM - 3:05 PM
TypePanel
With such large dependency in sourcing battery cells from China, lndia’s push towards building a domestic manufacturing industry for battery cells is a long road ahead as it looks to meet storage procurement targets. On what timeline can India realistically reduce that dependency to manageable levels, and what assumptions should developers and lenders be making in their models right now?
Battery cell prices experienced a 35–45% increase in less than seven months, making projects bid on falling-cost assumptions financially marginal or unviable. This session assesses how to build procurement and hedging strategies that protect project economics against further volatility.
The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has sought to incentivise deployment for advanced chemistry cell batteries. However, uptake is running behind schedule and several anchor applicants have not progressed as planned. Which PLI investments are real and on what timeline will Indian cells be available at volume? And what should project teams be planning for in the meantime?
There are signs of Chinese OEMs building manufacturing facilities: a development that could materially change the supply chain profile for lenders and developers if it proceeds. If Chinese manufacturer investments in India are credible, what would the timeline and scale look like, and how lenders are thinking about the bankability of domestically assembled versus imported cells?
