An ISRO spin-off that is expected to fuel India’s electric vehicle boom is finally turning into a reality.
ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumba here has hand-picked 14 companies for the commercial production of its Lithium-ion battery, a technology that finds wide application in electric vehicle transportation and communication.
The 14 firms were picked from a list of 141 companies that had evinced interest in the technology, VSSC director S Somanath said.
“The selection process, done in collaboration with NITI-Aayog, is now over. Several conditions were set so as to ensure that the technology does not leave the country. One condition was that the firm should be Indian with the majority shares held by Indians,” Mr. Somanath said.
Licence fee
The companies will now be asked to pay the licence fee of ₹1 crore for transferring the technology, which has been dubbed ‘a green alternative to fossil fuel’ by the VSSC.
As of now, VSSC expects to ink MoUs with all the 14 companies, the VSSC director said. Once the paperwork is over, the VSSC will train the personnel in manufacturing the cells and help the companies establish manufacturing plants.
Technology transfer
The VSSC had originally developed Li-ion cells of capacities ranging from 1.5 Ah to 100 Ah for use in its launch vehicles and satellites. Acknowledging its use in boosting the power storage requirements of the country, a decision was taken to transfer the technology to the industries.
The VSSC had been on the lookout for an industry partner since 2011, but efforts to attract entrepreneurs did not bear fruit until last year when a Union government panel recommended the battery’s development under the ‘Make In India’ initiative.
The VSSC had floated the RFQ for technology transfer in June this year. In July, a pre-application conference was held at the VSSC.
