log 9 content, which
Won in Top Innovator category at Economic Times Startup Awards 2021, seeks to expand its production of advanced lithium ion Cells on a giga-factory scale early next year. In an interview with ET’s Alanur Peermohammed, Akshay Singhal, co-founder and chief executive of Log9, said that the market for two-wheelers and three-wheelers electric vehicles Expected to grow rapidly over the next 12-18 months, by then the demand for battery packs will grow 10 times to around 10 Gw-h.
Edited excerpt:
what indicated log 9 content to grow and build cells and Batteries For electric vehicles?
We had good abilities in terms of manufacturing materials, customizing them and putting them to use, but we realized that it was very important for India to build batteries from the ground up. There are many types of batteries out there, but none of them are made for an India-specific use case, vehicle type, usage pattern, and driving conditions. Our physics competency gave us the platform to launch battery technologies from the ground up – from materials, to cells, to battery packs – for use in India and then to take it to many other economies that are of similar use. In terms of patterns, climate and other things.
There are many global and local lithium-ion battery manufacturers and some large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are also looking to get into the business. What is the difference between log 9?
Compared to the ecosystem right now, we provide batteries that charge nine times faster, nine times longer life and nine times more performance in terms of safety, reliability and pickup… regardless of vehicle platform – regardless Be it a two-wheeler, a three-wheeler, a car, a bus or a truck… we feel that it makes far more sense to solve this for commercial vehicles as we are going electric because we want to save the environment, and 70% of vehicular pollution comes from commercial use, not personal use of vehicles. Also, in commercial use, there is already price parity (between fossil fuel vehicles and EVs), but the batteries are not good enough.
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Log 9 has run a bunch of pilots with customers. Are you ready to commercially launch the solution later this month?
We have one of the largest battery pack assembly lines installed in Bengaluru, so we are targeting a capacity of over 100 MW-h. This will be the largest ever in the two-wheeler and three-wheeler segment (in India), and we plan to increase it to a gigawatt hour (Gw-h) capacity in the next one year. We want this kind of scale and production has already started. We plan to take 200 three-wheelers off the road this month, and aim to have around 4,500 vehicles by March next year.
What about lithium-ion cell manufacturing? Will this also be done in-house or has the partnership with Amara Raja Batteries begun?
We have a pilot line to make the sale, but obviously we don’t have the commercial scale. As we see an increase in demand – and we are seeing it as unprecedented after winning the ET Startup Award – we will be announcing cell-scale manufacturing capability that will be set up with Amara Raja Batteries over the next one year. For Amara Raja, the interest is exclusively on Sail’s side. An important point here is that for our type of battery and cell, even if there is no PLI (Production-Linked Incentive) scheme, we will be far more economical and we will have better unit economics. From that perspective, we don’t even need government incentives to break into this market.
How much manufacturing capacity will Log9 be able to build over the next 12-24 months and demand forecast?
The next 18 months is where you are going to see things go crazy in terms of sales of electric vehicles. Already, we are seeing demand for around one Gw-h battery pack in the two-wheeler and three-wheeler space, so giga-factory-level demand is something we are already getting today. In the next 12-18 months, I would not be surprised if this demand increases to 10 GW-h.
With Petronas’ recent investment, you’ve talked about getting into energy storage. Will this require new technologies?
Energy storage will revolve around the technology that we have already developed. Simply making better battery packs for electric vehicles won’t be enough until we’re able to clean up the electricity used to charge them. Solar isn’t making up 100% of our energy production because it’s only available for certain hours of the day, unless combined with storage, which, if we do today, compares to the energy generated by burning coal. Solar becomes more expensive. With our battery technology, for the first time we will have a solution that is cost-effective. The life of our battery pack is so long that the cost of storage based solar power would be Rs 4 per unit, while electricity from coal plant costs Rs 7-8.
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