New Delhi: India can attract investments worth $90 billion (about Rs 7.5 lakh crore) in the manufacturing sector of advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries and related equipment in the next five years. This has been said in an industry data. According to India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), the ACC manufacturing industry is expected to create 50 thousand direct jobs during this period.

On the demand of IESA, the government has approved six-month visa to foreign experts to help in setting up and starting ACC manufacturing plants. This visa will allow foreign experts to travel multiple times and its duration will not be extended. IESA President Debi Prasad Dash welcomed the move and said that this will create opportunities to set up ACC battery and battery equipment plants of more than 100 GWh capacity in India in the next five years.

Additionally, this will save foreign exchange spent on ACC imports and reduce India's dependence on China and other countries. He said that to become a global electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing hub, India should develop a comprehensive and indigenous value chain for EVs and its components. Currently, manufacturing of ACC batteries in India is in its initial stages.

About 50 per cent of the cost of EV manufacturing is related to ACC batteries. The Ministry of Heavy Industries introduced the PLI scheme in 2022 to set up 50 GWh indigenous ACC manufacturing plants.