Every electric vehicle sold in India today runs on a battery whose most valuable component — the cell — almost certainly crossed an ocean to get here. India manufactures lithium-ion packs at meaningful scale, but the cells inside them remain overwhelmingly imported, concentrated among a handful of East Asian suppliers. That dependence is simultaneously India’s biggest EV supply-chain vulnerability and its biggest industrial opportunity.

The government’s response is the largest industrial bet on batteries in Indian history: the Production Linked Incentive scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage — ₹18,100 crore aimed at 50 GWh of domestic gigafactory capacity. Meanwhile, at the pack level, companies like Ipower Batteries have spent years building the engineering, quality systems, and manufacturing depth that localisation actually requires.

Understanding where India truly stands on battery localisation — what’s imported, what’s made here, and why the distinction matters for buyers — is essential knowledge for anyone procuring EV batteries today.

The Supply Chain, Layer by Layer

A lithium-ion battery pack isn’t one product; it’s a stack of value-adding layers, and India’s localisation story differs at each one.

Layer 1 — Raw materials and cell components. Cathode materials, anode materials, electrolyte, separator, copper and aluminium foils. This layer is almost entirely imported — India has limited refining and component capacity today.

Layer 2 — The cell. Electrochemical energy storage in cylindrical, prismatic, or pouch form. This is the technology-dense, capital-intensive layer where the ACC PLI scheme is aimed — and where India currently imports nearly 100% of demand.

Layer 3 — The pack. Cells are assembled into modules, fitted with a Battery Management System, thermal management, enclosures, connectors, and safety systems, then tested to AIS-156/AIS-038 standards. This layer is substantially Indian already — and it’s where engineering quality determines whether the imported cells underneath perform for five years or fail in two.

Layer 4 — Vehicle integration and lifecycle services. Pack-to-vehicle fitment, telematics integration, service, warranty execution, and end-of-life management. Fully local, and arguably where the most durable competitive advantage lies.

The insight that matters: while headlines obsess over gigafactories, roughly 30–40% of a finished battery pack’s value — and nearly all of its safety, reliability, and serviceability characteristics — are determined at Layers 3 and 4, which India already controls.

The ₹18,100 Crore Bet: What the PLI ACC Scheme Actually Does

Approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2021, the National Programme on ACC Battery Storage commits ₹18,100 crore to build 50 GWh of ACC manufacturing capacity (plus 5 GWh of niche ACC). The design is deliberately demanding:

• Minimum scale: each beneficiary must build at least 5 GWh — gigafactory scale, not assembly shops.
• Domestic value addition: at least 25% within two years of the appointed date, rising to 60% within five years — forcing real manufacturing, not screwdriver assembly.
• Mandatory investment: ₹225 crore per GWh of committed capacity within two years.
• Timeline: gestation through end-2024, with a five-year performance period running 2025–2029.

The results so far: the first bidding round allocated 30 GWh to three beneficiary firms; a 10 GWh re-bid in 2024–25 attracted seven bidders offering a cumulative 70 GWh — seven times the available capacity — with Reliance Industries ultimately selected. Whatever the execution timeline, the signal is unmistakable: India’s cell manufacturing era has begun.

Why Pack-Level Localisation Matters More Than People Think

While gigafactories capture imagination, the pack is where batteries succeed or fail in the field — and where domestic manufacturing delivers immediate, measurable advantages:

1. Engineering for Indian conditions. A pack designed abroad assumes foreign duty cycles. Indian packs must survive 47°C summers, monsoon flooding, broken roads, dust, grid-voltage chaos, and relentless commercial duty cycles. Domestic design engineers who’ve watched e-rickshaws operate in Patna build different — and better — packs for this market.

2. Certification ownership. AIS-156 testing happens on the pack, not the cell. A domestic manufacturer owns its certification pipeline, controls design iterations, and doesn’t queue behind a foreign vendor’s priorities.

3. Customisation velocity. Indian vehicle OEMs need dozens of voltage, capacity, and form-factor combinations — 48V e-rickshaw packs, 60V and 72V cargo configurations, telecom-spec backup units. Local manufacturing turns a three-month import-and-modify cycle into a design conversation.

4. Quality accountability. When a pack fails in the field, a domestic manufacturer’s engineers can be at the site in days, pull the BMS data, and fix the process. Importers file reports. The difference compounds across a fleet’s life.

5. Duty economics and supply resilience. Imported finished packs carry tariffs and shipping risk; locally manufactured packs with imported cells minimise both — while PLI-driven domestic cell capacity progressively closes the remaining gap.

Inside a Modern Indian Pack Facility

What does world-class pack manufacturing actually look like? At Ipower’s Kundli, Haryana plant — built on Computech Systems’ power-electronics foundation dating to 1992 — the process runs as a controlled chain:

Incoming inspection — every cell batch is graded and verified for capacity, internal resistance, and voltage consistency before entering production. Mismatched cells are the root cause of premature pack failure; grading is where quality begins.

Automated module assembly — precision welding and assembly on automated lines, with cell spacing and thermal interface designed to the AIS-156 Phase 2 propagation requirements.

BMS integration and programming — the microprocessor-based BMS is flashed, calibrated, and verified for its full protection suite: over-charge, over-discharge, over-current, over-temperature, short-circuit, and regen protection.

Enclosure and sealing — ingress-rated housings built and tested for IP-level water and dust protection against monsoon reality.

End-of-line testing — every pack undergoes capacity verification, charge-discharge cycling, and safety checks in on-site testing labs before dispatch. Not sampling — every unit.

Module-level assembly inside a traction pack — the layer of the value chain where Indian manufacturing already delivers the most value. Photo: RudolfSimon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The system is validated by IATF 16949:2016 automotive quality certification, ISO management systems, and a government-approved R&D centre — the infrastructure that turns “assembled in India” into “engineered in India.”

What Buyers Should Take From This

For OEMs, fleet operators, and distributors evaluating battery suppliers, the localisation story has practical implications:

• “Made in India” needs a definition. Ask which layers are local. Pack assembly with Indian engineering, testing, and quality systems is meaningful today; claims beyond that deserve scrutiny.
• Ask about the value chain, not the flag. Cell sourcing quality, BMS capability, testing depth, and certification ownership reveal more than a Make in India logo.
• Service infrastructure is the localisation dividend nobody prices. A domestic manufacturer’s 200+ service-centre network (Ipower’s footprint) is supply-chain resilience that doesn’t show on a spec sheet.
• Watch the PLI timeline pragmatically. Domestic cells at scale are coming through the late-2020s — the manufacturers with the deepest pack-level capability today will integrate them best tomorrow.

The Bottom Line

India’s battery story is not “waiting for gigafactories.” It’s a layer-by-layer localisation already well underway: the ₹18,100 crore PLI scheme building the cell layer, and established manufacturers like Ipower already delivering the pack, BMS, testing, and service layers where batteries actually earn their reputation. The companies winning this transition are the ones building deep engineering capability now — so that when Indian cells arrive at scale, Indian packs are ready to carry them.

Ipower Batteries designs and manufactures AIS-156-compliant lithium-ion packs — LFP, LMFP, and NMC Rugpro series for EVs, plus telecom and ESS solutions — at its IATF 16949-certified Kundli facility, backed by a government-approved R&D centre and 200+ service centres. Partner with Ipower for Made-in-India battery solutions.