Clean mobility ecosystem player, Micelio, on Friday held its third Global Clean Mobility Summit in Bengaluru. At the event, it launched a report addressing India’s battery ecosystems and identifying unique challenges and laying out the paths to address these problems. 

The report, titled “Evolving Ecosystems: Unlocking the Potential of India’s Domestic Battery Value Chain”, was a collaboration between Micelio, nonprofit organisation RMI, and the entrepreneurial hub at IIMB, NSRCEL. 

India is currently seeing rising adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) with current penetration standing at 6.8% in FY23-FY24. Going forward, with the rollout of favorable government policies such as PM E-drive, new EV vehicle sales are expected to touch 30% by 2030, the report says. 

At the core of this rising transition to EVs are batteries. Innovation in battery technology is an important step and India is making strides towards developing this ecosystem with the help of several government initiatives such as Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cells (ACC) to promote domestic battery production by 2030. 

However, the ecosystem is not without challenges. India imports 100% of its lithium needs and 70% of its cobalt and nickel, primarily from China, which dominates 80% of the global lithium refining market. The report addresses this challenge and suggests that while India explores more lithium reserves, the Ministry of Mines can work towards forming stable partnerships with countries to source lithium and cobalt to mitigate supply chain risks. 

India needs over $10 billion in investment to develop needful infrastructure refining and gigafactory infrastructure for battery production. This can be addressed by leveraging public sector undertakings (PSUs). By leading investments, PSUs can lower barriers for private sector players to scale up operations, the report says. 

Quality issues in batteries are a key sticky point in today’s EV ecosystem. Imported battery materials, including raw materials, cells, and other elements are assembled into battery cells and/or packs. These often have quality issues, reducing their lifespan by about 30%. This inconsistency also increases maintenance costs for EVs, affecting consumer confidence in these vehicles. 

The report addresses this problem by suggesting that the Indian Bureau of Standards (BIS) and local battery manufacturers develop and implement a battery grading framework. The guidelines would define performance benchmarks and quality parameters specific to the Indian market. 

With the rising influx of EV batteries in the ecosystem, there comes an increasing need to promote a circular economy in the EV ecosystem. However, today, India’s recycling rates are below 5%. Rather than missing out on oppurtunities to reclaim valuable materials like lithium and cobalt from these batteries, the report suggests the development of a Battery Traceability System, a form of Battery Aadhaar. 

Under the system, each battery will have a unique identification number which enable real-time tracking for its entire life cycle, from production to disposal. 

To facilitate these problems and encourage collaboration among various stakeholders, RMI plans to form a battery consortium to bring together manufacturers government agencies, research and financial organisations to deploy solutions to help localise production, promote a circular economy, and improve resource efficiency. 

Zinka Logistics Solutions Ltd, a digital platform for truck operators, on Friday, said it has fixed a price band of Rs 259-273 per share for its Rs 1,115 crore initial share sale.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) will open for public subscription on November 13 and conclude on November 18, the company announced.

The IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 550 crore and an offer of sale (OFS) of up to 2.06 crore shares. The OFS by promoters and investor-selling shareholders is valued at Rs 565 crore at the upper end of the price band.

A discount of Rs 25 per equity share is being offered to eligible employees bidding in the employee reservation portion.

Proceeds from the fresh issuance to the extent of Rs 200 crore will be used for sales and marketing initiatives; Rs 140 crore for investment in Blackbuck Finserve for financing the supporting the capital base to meet future capital requirements; Rs 75 crore for funding of expenditure in relation to product development, and a portion will be used for general corporate purposes.

Zinka Logistics is dedicated to transforming the trucking industry in India by digitally empowering truck operators to manage their businesses and increase their earnings. The company’s BlackBuck app serves as a comprehensive platform, providing solutions for payments, telematics, load management and vehicle financing.

The Bengaluru-based firm processed a Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of Rs 5,356.20 crore and Rs 17,396.19 crore in payments in the three months ended June 30, 2024, and fiscal 2024, respectively. The payments platform addresses significant expenses for truck operators, such as tolls and fuel.

The company partners with FASTag banks and multiple oil marketing companies (OMCs) to offer efficient and secure tolling and fuelling solutions, generating revenue through commission margins based on transaction values.

For the three months ended June 2024, the company’s revenue from continuing operations stood at Rs 92.17 crore with a profit after tax of Rs 28.67 crore.

The company said that 75% of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 15% for non-institutional buyers and the remaining 10% for retail investors.

Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley India Company, JM Financial and IIFL Capital Services are the book-running lead managers to the issue.

Ola Electric‘s net loss narrowed in the second quarter of the current financial year (FY25) as the Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV maker reported a 39% jump in sales.

Ola Electric reported a net loss of Rs 495 crore for the July-September quarter, down from Rs 524 crore in the year-ago period. The company’s revenue from operations jumped to Rs 1,214 crore in Q2 from Rs 873 crore a year earlier.

However, on a quarterly basis, Ola Electric’s loss widened from Rs 324 crore in the April-June quarter. The company’s sales declined from Rs 1,644 crore in the previous quarter.

The results come days after the EV-maker’s share price fell below its listing price, two months after the company listed on Indian stock exchanges. On Friday, Ola Electric’s share price closed at Rs 72.67 apiece, down 2.53%. Ola Electric got listed on India’s stock exchanges on August 9 at Rs 76 per share. The company had hit an all-time high of Rs 157.40 apiece.

Ola Electric, currently the market leader in the E2W segment, has also come under intense scrutiny over rising consumer complaints pertaining to its vehicles. In October, the company received a show cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) seeking alleged violations of consumer rights, misleading advertising, and unfair trade practices.

The company, in a BSE filing on October 22, said it has provided all requested information and clarification sought by the consumer watchdog. Additionally, Ola Electric said it resolved 99.1% out of 10,644 complaints it received from the CCPA.

The SoftBank Group-backed firm has since doubled down on expanding its service centers and hiring service technicians to help streamline operations and clear backlogs.