Responding to rising energy storage needs, a Chinese battery maker is exploring plans to set up a large scale manufacturing plant in India.
China’s Envision Group is weighing plans to set up a battery manufacturing plant in India as the country accelerates efforts to strengthen its power grid and integrate more renewable energy. The company is evaluating a 5 gigawatt hours per year facility valued at about $34 million, said Suman Nag, Envision’s global head for contracts. The unit would initially source battery cells from China, with rack assembly and software systems built locally.
Nag said the company is committed to meaningful localisation. “As an Indian subsidiary of a Chinese company, we’ll be happy to localize. Just passing the equipment through our books and counting it as sales adds no value to our company in India,” he said. The company expects to make a final investment decision within 18 months, depending on how quickly the market scales.
India’s push to expand renewable energy capacity is increasingly constrained by limited battery storage, a critical tool for balancing the grid. With fewer than one gigawatt of storage currently installed, grid operators are frequently forced to curtail surplus solar output that could otherwise charge batteries and provide reliable night time supply.
The opportunity is drawing investor interest, with the country’s storage potential projected to surge to 46 gigawatts by 2032. Batteries, Nag noted, can deliver grid frequency management in milliseconds, a stark contrast to coal plants that take hours to ramp up or down underscoring their growing importance as India’s energy transition gathers pace.
