India, a country with ambitious dreams of becoming an EV powerhouse, is now coming face-to-face with the realities on the ground. The India EV Show 2025 laid bare every facet of the electric vehicle ecosystem - technology, infrastructure, policy, and consumer behavior. From AI-powered battery swapping and software-defined vehicles to sodium-ion batteries, a wide array of solutions was presented. Yet, the country’s complex market structure and manufacturing foundations remain key challenges.
Still, the event went far beyond being just another industry showcase. It sparked serious, grounded discussions around one critical question: how can India truly grow? The country now stands at a pivotal moment - ready to leap from being an EV assembler to becoming a hub of innovation. Sarada Vishnubhatla, special correspondent for Automotive Electronics Magazine(AEM), reports from the India EV Show 2025. [Editor’s Note]

By Sarada Vishnubhatla_sarada@autoelectronics.co.kr

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Related Interview Article: Sarada in India: At Mobility Experiments for 1.4 Billion People





The 2-day Entrepreneur India’s EV Show 2025 opened with opportunities. India’s electric mobility sector offers a literal gold mine of prospects, inherent structural gaps, yet the culmination of the show highlighted a clear and strategic roadmap to scalability. The show indicated towards the India’s EV Show 2025 attracted stakeholders from across the EV value chain - from battery innovators to system integrators, startups, AI experts to policy observers to take stock of India’s progress and outline concrete strategies for the future.

Day long sessions addressed themes critical to the long-term growth of EVs in India, consumer and driver behaviours, manufacturing readiness, battery innovation, software adaptability, and the complexities of charging infrastructure. Several panel discussions provided granular insights into the immediate challenges in local cell production, BMS development, material processing, and end-of-life battery recycling. The experts at the conference seemed eager to build robust partnerships with Indian stakeholders.

Looking at the numbers, we see that the global passenger EV market is likely to reach 20 million units in 2025 for BEV+PHEV recording a penetration of 20+% in the light duty vehicle sales. In comparison, the Indian market is likely to record ~138,000 in unit sales in (Jan-Dec) 2025 with almost all of it being BEVs and marking a growth of ~40%. By 2031, EV sales will likely to reach close to ~700,000 units with a stiff competition amongst major home-grown OEMs with different business models. (Source: Frost & Sullivan)

But the wakeup call for the entire EV fraternity came early in the day. It was Padmashri awardee and the celebrated IIT Professor, Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Ex-Advisor (Ministry of Power) and Chairman, Immersive Technology and Entrepreneurship Labs who said, “We must stop thinking of electrification as a distant dream. The real crisis isn't just fossil fuel but it is the way we design systems that waste energy by default. Unless we build an ecosystem powered by genuinely green electricity and supported by reliable infrastructure, EV adoption will be only half a solution. The goal is not just to replace petrol with power, but to reimagine how mobility, energy storage, and sustainability intersect at scale. Vehicle manufacturers have yet to invest enough to take leadership. Today, they depend on international components and R&D. There should be serious efforts to indigenize and drive the cost down by working with academia and start-ups. In terms of policy, the central Government is fully behind EVs, but some states are starting to give subsidies to hybrids - which could be detrimental.”









Local Cell Manufacturing - Gaps and Innovations
India currently lacks large-scale gigawatt-hour capacity in cell production. The absence of domestic mineral refining infrastructure severely limits India’s ability to scale battery manufacturing. “The refining stage is not implemented in India right now. That directly affects growth in the local cell production,” Guru Punghavan, CEO - Boson Cell said. Boson, which started with battery recycling, has since forward-integrated into cell manufacturing and is now exploring ways to provide low-cost cells for rural and EV markets.
The reliance on imported cells and limited domestic production is also a barrier to India’s aspirations of becoming a self-reliant EV manufacturing hub. Despite ambitions, India is yet to build infrastructure for equipment manufacturing in the battery domain. The broader consensus though remains that India must invest heavily in power electronics, rare-earth-free alternatives, and cross-cutting technologies like AI, ML, blockchain, and digital twins to build a resilient supply chain.
Yet, on high-end tech fronts, frugality meets intelligence. Why not swap instead of make is the question. Tin Hang Liu, Co-Founder & CEO- Open Energy is reimagining battery swapping with AI-powered, modular infrastructure. “We aren’t building robots for rich people,” he said with refreshing honesty. “We’re building scalable, efficient systems that democratize EV access - especially in Southeast Asia and India.”
Anant Badjatya, CEO - Indofast Energy is also betting on battery swapping. For him, it is not a novelty, but a practical, and scalable solution. “In India, range anxiety and upfront EV costs are major barriers,” he explained. “Swapping removes both. And our innovation is not just technical - it’s behavioural. We’re aligning EV use with how Indians already operate.”

Structural Challenges - Scale, Technology, and Investment
The multiple panel discussions conducted across two days acknowledged that many Indian OEMs remain dependent on Chinese imports and often function more as vehicle integrators and not as ground-up developers. “It’s a chicken and egg problem,” said Pramod Nanjundaswamy, VP & Global Delivery Head (Automotive & Mobility), Cyient. “Without a predictable domestic market, investing in local manufacturing becomes risky. But without that investment, the market can’t grow.” Startups, in particular, struggle to stay operational amid volatility in raw material supply. “If production halts even for a month due to shortages in lithium, copper, or nickel, the financial pressure is enormous,” he pointed out. The way forward, according to several experts, lies in both decentralizing the risk and deepening India’s materials ecosystem - from recycling electronic waste to enabling advanced chemistries.
Another perspective that emerged was that India presents a mobility paradox. It has among the lowest vehicle penetration rates globally, yet it sees one of the highest daily movement of people - 1.4 billion citizens, many without personal transport, navigating through a tapestry of two-wheelers, rickshaws, buses, and metros.
"India isn’t Japan or Germany," noted Mahesh Babu, Global CEO - Switch Mobility. “We aren’t transitioning from personal car ownership to EVs. We are leapfrogging from shared, public, and multi-modal transport straight into sustainable mobility ecosystems. That’s our strength.”
Switch Mobility, known for its electric buses and commercial vehicles, is focusing on solutions tailored to Indian density and diversity. Their view is clear: clean mobility in India is not an option - it’s a public health imperative.
As per Prajyot N Sathe, Research Director - Frost & Sullivan, the game changers in EV technology and manufacturing in India will be advanced automation, 3D printing, smart assembly lines, advanced robotics, shift towards 800V architecture, skateboard platforms, and new business models to quote a few examples.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) - From Mobility to Energy Resilience
Leveraging EV fleets not just for transport, but for power distribution can help India become resilient. “We need to shift our mindset. Energy consumers can and also are becoming energy contributors,” Kavita Verma, CEO - Maxwell Energy Systems said. A case in point is her own company which is piloting machine-learning-enabled BMS systems for electric fleets that can feed energy back into the grid. “Initial results show 8 ~ 10% additional earnings potential. It’s not just about mobility - it’s about energy resilience,” she said.
This vehicle-to-grid potential depends on two core enablers - a highly advanced BMS and corresponding grid infrastructure. According to Kavita, “For V2G to scale, we need battery management systems that are AI-enabled, modular, and capable of handling real-time energy optimization.”

Digital Factories and Predictive Manufacturing
The summit also highlighted how AI and digital twin technologies are shaping the next wave of EV manufacturing. The future of mobility is no longer mechanical but computational. Bhanu Prakash P, Head - Product Lines - Autonomous Mobility, Continental Automotive India, illustrated this shift. He said, “Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) are not buzzwords - they are here. And India is writing the code, literally.”
One speaker emphasized that optimizing the plant layout - even before construction - helps reduce turnaround time and cost. Simulating factory environments can lead to better inventory control, efficient material flow, and more robust predictive maintenance systems.
Predictive control systems based on AI and sensor feedback—acoustics, vibrations, temperature—are already being used to reduce machine downtime. “Using adaptive controls ensures raw materials like electrolytes are used efficiently, minimizing waste,” Guru noted. This kind of precision is vital, especially in an industry grappling with constrained material supply and tight cost margins.
Role of Software in Battery Optimization
While hardware remains essential, the software that powers the BMS has emerged as equally critical. There are companies in India today who no longer look at it as just a hardware problem. Different chemistries - LFP, NMC, solid-state, sodium-ion - are emerging. While configurations may change, the core algorithms that manage state of charge, state of health, and charge balancing must be adaptive, the panels discussed.
Modular BMS architecture allows for scalability across a range of voltages and chemistries. Moreover, software must meet functional safety standards and cybersecurity protocols. As one speaker emphasized, “These are safety-critical systems. The software must be model-based, secure, and tested for reliability.”

Next-Gen Battery Chemistries
India’s battery future may not lie solely in lithium-ion. While chemistries like NMC and LFP dominate, experts at the summit pointed to the rise of sodium-ion as a viable alternative. “Sodium offers advantages in cost, safety, and temperature tolerance,” said Guru. His company sees sodium as the most commercially scalable alternative and a strong contender to eventually complement or partially replace lithium-based systems in specific applications.
However, the path to next-gen chemistry adoption isn’t linear. “Solid-state batteries show promise in lab-scale, but scaling for mass production remains a challenge,” one participant observed. India’s role, many agreed, lies in simultaneously investing in raw material refining and pursuing commercial viability in new chemistries.
Giving the central government’s perspective, Dr. Anita Gupta, Scientist ‘G’ - Advisor, DST, Government of India, said, “India today stands at a pivotal point, where science, innovation, and sustainability must converge not just in policy papers, but in everyday life. Our challenge is not just to build advanced technologies, but to ensure that they reach the last mile, touch real lives, and solve real problems. It is time that we moved beyond isolated excellence and embrace a collaborative ecosystem - where research institutions, industry, and government co-create solutions that are scalable, inclusive, and globally relevant. We are not just imagining the future - we are engineering it.”

Sudeep Ambare, CEO - ARAI (Advanced Mobility Transformation & Innovation Foundation) shared his opinion that, “No matter how much we push through the government, private investors, or encourage localization, the decision really lies with the consumer.” 

Academia-Industry Synergy in Manufacturing Innovation
Several speakers highlighted the importance of adapting dry coating and low-emission electrode fabrication processes developed in academic labs. “Dry-coated electrodes have shown better performance in some cases,” said one researcher. “These methods can reduce both cost and environmental impact.”
Others suggested closer collaboration between academic R&D and manufacturers to mainstream these innovations. “If we invest in coating and crystallization techniques early, we can leapfrog traditional limitations.”







BMS - The Nerve Center of EVs
As chemistries evolve and use-cases diversify, BMSs must keep pace. It is the battery management systems that enable intelligent charge balancing, predictive health assessment, and real-time energy optimization. 
To accommodate emerging chemistries like sodium-ion, software-defined BMS platforms will be essential. “The architecture must be flexible enough to adapt to new configurations while maintaining safety and reliability,” said one expert.
Ultimately, the road to cost competitiveness runs through domestic manufacturing and supply chain control. “Raw materials play a big role, but so does localized production of BMS, pack assemblies, and even algorithms,” noted a speaker. “Cost reduction isn’t just about cheaper components - it’s about building systems that last longer and perform better.”
India’s ability to become a global EV hub will hinge on its commitment to foundational infrastructure - refining capacity, recycling systems, manufacturing capabilities - and a forward-looking approach to software and systems design.

Cautiously Optimistic
India’s EV ambitions are tempered by practical realities, but optimism was a consistent theme. The summit’s panelists agreed that the challenges - geopolitical, technical, or financial - are complex but solvable. “It’s not a single problem; it’s a layered one,” said a participant. “But if we have a collective resolve and collaborative approach, we can address it systematically.”
The India EV 2025 ended with a clear message that India’s electric vehicle journey will not be linear, but it is inevitable. With collaboration across startups, corporates, academia, and government, the country can move from being an assembly hub to a true manufacturing and innovation powerhouse.