Re-Bidding For Battery Manufacturing PLI Scheme Announced

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has announced the re-bidding of Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for 10 GWh Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) manufacturing. The MHI says this will allow prospective bidders to submit their applications for domestic manufacturing facilities for ACC, helping them qualify for incentives under the PLI ACC scheme. 

The tender documents have been available from January 24 onwards and the bidding due date is April 22, with bids opening on April 23. A pre-bid conference will also be held on February 12. The MHI says the bidding process will be held online through a transparent two-stage process, under the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) mechanism through the Central Public Procurement (CPP) portal. 

Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister of Heavy Industries, said, “MHI is supporting the growth of India's manufacturing capabilities and exports in the automobile and automobile component sector and MHI is fully committed to taking forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve of a self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) and developed India (Viksit Bharat).”

In May 2023, Hyundai announced its large-scale investment plans in Tamil Nadu. The South Korean manufacturer will set up a state-of-the-art battery pack assembly plant with an annual capacity of 1.78 lakh units of batteries. 

In August 2022, Maruti Suzuki committed to invest ₹7,300 crore into a dedicated battery plant in Hansalpur, Gujarat and will be operational in 2026. Additionally, Maruti Suzuki recently announced a ₹3,200 crore investment in Gujarat to add a fourth production line at its Hansalpur plant to help boost production of EVs. 

Furthemore, Vietnamese manufacturer VinFast is also reportedly setting up its second plant in Thodthukudi, Tamil Nadu. This plant is likely to be set up only for battery manufacturing, with the first plant earmarked for vehicle assembly. 

Tesla is close to setting up a battery production plant in India. This will only happen if Tesla agrees to commit to an investment of close to $2 billion (roughly ₹16,620 crore) into the facility.