JSW Group has paused its deliberate battery manufacturing facility in Odisha whereas it hunts for a know-how associate able to producing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells.
Jindal clarified that the group has already gotten two issues operating: a cell-to-pack meeting line below JSW Vitality for grid-scale battery storage, and a separate cell-to-pack unit devoted to JSW MG Motor India.
What’s lacking is the tougher piece, precise cell manufacturing. Notably, viable LFP cell-making know-how merely is not accessible outdoors China simply at current, which is the core motive the challenge cannot transfer ahead as deliberate, the experiences mentioned.
A Rs 40,000-Crore Guess Now in Limbo
The stalled enterprise traces again to a February 2024 MoU between JSW Group and the Odisha authorities, below which the corporate dedicated to constructing an built-in EV and battery manufacturing advanced. The plan known as for a 50 GWh battery plant at Naraj, Cuttack, backed by a Rs 40,000 crore funding. Whether or not and when this proceeds now hinges solely on JSW touchdown an LFP know-how associate.
Why This Issues Past JSW
This can be a structural bottleneck dealing with India’s broader battery ambitions, not only a JSW-specific hiccup, and the numbers present why.
India’s battery import invoice has already risen eightfold, from $384 million in FY2019 to over $3 billion in FY2025, as per IEEFA report of Might 2026, with roughly 75% of the lithium-ion batteries utilized in Indian EVs sourced predominantly from China.
Home cell manufacturing capability stood at solely about 1 GWh by the tip of 2025, in opposition to roughly 60 GWh of pack-assembly capability already put in, a mismatch that, if uncorrected, might push India’s annual battery import invoice previous $23 billion by FY2030 as demand scales to 272 GWh. As many have mentioned, that is shifting dependency from oil imports to Lithium cells, not precisely what the EV shift promised.
Reliance Industries can also be engaged on a big LFP gigafactory at its Jamnagar advanced. It plans to achieve 40 GWh of capability this yr and finally develop to 120 GWh. Nevertheless, the corporate has not publicly disclosed the place its LFP cell know-how will come from. And even oif has made progress on the sodium ion know-how it has entry to from Faradion, the British agency it acquired. This implies that discovering the proper LFP know-how is a wider problem for India’s battery trade, relatively than an issue confronted by only one firm.
ALMM Priority
India’s photo voltaic sector already exhibits what can occur when the federal government requires home sourcing earlier than native manufacturing is prepared. The Accepted Listing of Fashions and Producers (ALMM) is an effective instance.
After the ALMM-II guidelines for photo voltaic cells took impact in 2026, Wooden Mackenzie anticipated utility-scale photo voltaic system costs to rise by 20% by the fourth quarter of 2026 as a result of home cell manufacturing was not sufficient to fulfill demand. Costs have been anticipated to fall solely 3% between This fall 2026 and This fall 2027, that means prices might stay excessive via 2027.
The coverage additionally didn’t instantly cut back India’s dependence on imported cells. As an alternative, the supply of imports modified. Indonesian cell imports almost tripled in early 2026 as corporations seemed past China, whereas India nonetheless imported round 20 GW of photo voltaic cells within the first 5 months of 2026, in accordance with Wooden Mackenzie.
If India introduces an identical home sourcing rule for batteries round 2028-29 as speculated, the battery trade might face the identical downside on a a lot bigger scale. Battery pack and meeting capability might develop sooner than precise cell manufacturing, main to provide shortages, challenge delays and better prices for customers. It might additionally make Indian batteries and EVs much less aggressive in opposition to merchandise from China and Southeast Asia. The important thing will likely be to shut India’s LFP cell know-how and manufacturing hole earlier than such a mandate comes into drive.
