Chennai, Dec 3

As copper is an important material in electric vehicles (EVs) and the renewable sector, industry stakeholders urge the government to develop a stronger domestic copper industry to tap the emerging export potential and also to prevent any supply shortfalls in the future that could hamper India’s progress towards net-zero emission goals.

Copper, described as the metal of electrification, is essential to EV technology with its supporting infrastructure, and the increase in electric vehicles in the market will have a substantial impact on copper demand.

“Copper is a major component in electric vehicles as it is part of electric motors, batteries, inverters, wiring, and in charging stations. Electric Motor typically has 10-15 per cent weight of copper inside, every lithium-ion cell has 10-12 per cent weight of copper inside. Including inverters, wiring, and chargers, the copper requirement is quite significant for electrification of the mobility,” Mahesh Godi, Founder & CEO of Godi India, a Hyderabad-based company that is into the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and storage products.

On an average, a battery electric vehicle contains about 83 kg of copper and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle contains about 60 kg, while an internal combustion engine car needs an average of 23 kg of copper.

Supply side risks

India is presently dependent on imports to meet EV battery requirements. As of now, lithium-ion cells are imported from China and Taiwan and assembled into batteries in India, or pre-assembled battery packs are imported for EV industry needs.

As the adoption of EVs gathers pace and a host of companies including Godi India are investing in cell manufacturing projects across Karnataka, Gujarat, Andra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, industry stakeholders seek to warn about possible supply-side risks for copper in future.

Godi explained that the manufacture of lithium-ion cells requires a very high-purity copper grade. There is a very good opportunity for traditional copper-based electrical component manufacturers to explore this huge requirement. India has the potential to become a leading exporter of electric motors for EVs, inverters, chargers, and Lithium-ion cell-grade copper foils.

“Centre and state governments can also play aggressive roles in supporting the ecosystem by policy and incentives,” he added.

Sops for materials companies

US government’s recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a much-appreciated step for the localisation of raw materials for battery manufacturing with $2.8 billion support to 20 materials companies. Industry representatives pointed out that incentives to materials companies with favourable conditions will be the need of the hour.

India’s present installed capacity of 1.02 million tonnes is sufficient to cater to the annual domestic copper demand. But, the country produced less than half of the capacity (4.42 lakh tonnes during the January-November 2021 period). Despite this, India has now become a net importer of copper due to reduced domestic supply. This was mainly because of the closure of the Sterlite plant in Tamil Nadu in 2018.

Copper price surges

“Copper is going to be the key resource that will lead India into a carbon-neutral country. The copper intensity of EVs are 4 times as much of traditional vehicles and with India currently being its net importer, could potentially face a shortage or fail to achieve the PM’s 2030 EV mission,” said Mayur Karmarkar, Director, International Copper Association.

As the global demand for copper is on the rise in view of net-zero emission targets, copper prices have also shot to $10,000 in 2022 from its average price of $6,023 in 2018, underscoring the importance to ramp up domestic supply, said an analyst in a brokerage firm.

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