Hyperdrive
First India EV Battery Plant Takes Shape to Cut China Dependence
- Vikram Handa will get raw materials from father-in-law’s mill
- Tesla has picked same state of Karnataka for its first plant
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The son-in-law of India’s biggest steel tycoon is betting big on converting coal tar into graphite anodes for electric-car batteries in a bid to test China’s monopoly in the sector.
Vikram Handa set up Epsilon Advanced Materials Pvt -- India’s first manufacturer of lithium-ion battery parts -- in the southern state of Karnataka in August, sourcing the raw material from the largest steel mill in the country that’s owned by his father-in-law, Sajjan Jindal. Handa plans to invest 60 billion rupees ($807 million) to produce 100,000 tons of synthetic graphite anode by 2030, or about 10% of estimated global demand.