| | APRIL 20218CURRENT EV BATTERY MANUFACTURING SCENARIO AND WHAT TO EXPECT IN FUTUREBy Rajat, CEO, LohumI ndia is showing the right intent in adapting to e-Mobility at a sub-stantial speed and along with it the assembling and manufacturing of EV battery is also picking up steadily.The business of manufacturing lithium-ion EV batteries is understand-ably seeing a lot of action as everybody is rushing in to try and make the most from the latest sunrise industry. Manufacturing lithium-ion bat-teries is not a one size fits all venture; batteries for cars and other 4-wheelers require an entirely different set of core competencies than say, batteries for 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers. While it's great that the battery space has generated a lot of interest amongst both early-stage entrepre-neurs and large companies, the prob-lems to make an efficient, reliable and safe battery pack are not easy. I do expect that the good will be separat-ed from the also-rans in the industry based on efforts put into R&D, specif-ically in the areas of prolonging bat-tery life without increasing costs, fast charging of batteries, robustness of batteries to handle various environ-mental conditions, better battery man-agement systems and most important-ly, around making battery packs safer than ever. Besides focusing on the above problems, we at Lohum offer a closed loop Li-ion battery solution that is cre-ating a fresh perspective to a greener and sustainable future for energy stor-age. Lohum produces first life batter-ies for EV sector, 2nd life batteries for the storage sector and recovers criti-cal battery raw materials through ex-traction at battery end-of-life. The focus on developing battery technologies locally gives a huge fillip to EV adoption across price sensitive markets like India and creates oppor-tunities to penetrate even the hinter-lands by reducing costs throughout the life cycle of the battery. Moreover, every single battery comes with an end life, and brings with it the ques-tion of safe disposal or recycling. Bat-tery companies and vehicle OEMs will need to have an effectual end-of-life strategy. Aggressive investments in devel-oping full stack li-ion battery recycling technology to recover battery raw ma-terials makes Lohum a key driver of growth in the global battery ecosys-tem. Lohum's life cycle model is defined by two core technologies--battery re-use (second life) and battery material extraction (recycling). The process sounds simple on paper- gathering used batteries and reuse them to cre-ate new battery packs for low-power applications among vehicles such as e-rickshaws and storage applications- but involves a lot of research and ob-structions to filter good from the dead.The major problems faced by man-ufacturers is an over-dependency on international suppliers for a continu-VANTAGE POINT Rajat, CEO
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