Australia to Give Minerals to Indian EV Makers

Context:

Australia is all set to supply critical minerals required for India’s electric vehicles, solar power projects and other strategic areas, said Canberra’s Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia Madeleine King on Monday.

Relevance:

GS III- Indian Economy (Infrastructure)

Dimensions of the Article:

1. Key Points
2. Unlocking Australia-India critical minerals partnership potential
3. Eight priority critical minerals
4. About Electric Vehicles
5. National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020

Key Points:

Australia will commit $5.8 million to the three year India Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership

Australia has the resources to help India fulfil its ambitions to

• lower emissions
• meet growing demand for critical minerals to help India’s space and defence industries,
• manufacture of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles

Unlocking Australia-India critical minerals partnership potential:

The programme highlights ways Australian companies and institutions can partner with India to:

•          supply critical minerals
•          attract investment for Australian mining and mineral processing projects
•          export services and technology to process, refine, recover and recycle critical minerals
•          help with mineral exploration in India
•          support India’s mining-related environmental management
•          carry out joint research projects.

India offers:

• economies of scale for off take projects
• a pipeline of manufacturing-led commercial innovation opportunities.

Eight priority critical minerals

• The report lists eight critical minerals that matter most to Australia and India.
• These are in three groups, based on their end-use industries:
• traditional – titanium and vanadium
• sunrise – lithium
• mixed use:
• cobalt
• nickel
• graphite
• light rare earth elements (LREEs)
• heavy rare earth elements (HREEs).

About Electric Vehicles:

• The earlier guidelines and standards were issued by the Ministry of Power in December 2018 and will be superseded by the new guidelines.
• Lack of charging infrastructure is one of the main reasons behind poor adoption of electric mobility in India.
• According to a survey by the Economic Times in May 2019, with appropriate infrastructure is in place, 90% car owners in India are willing to switch to EVs.
• Under the NEMMP 2020, there is an ambitious target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles by the year 2020.
• At present, EV market penetration is only 1% of total vehicle sales in India, and of that, 95% of sales are electric two-wheelers.

National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020:

• It is a National Mission document by Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises providing the vision and the roadmap for the faster adoption of electric vehicles and their manufacturing in the country.
• As part of the NEMMP 2020, Scheme named Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) was launched in the year 2015 to promote manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicle technology and to ensure sustainable growth of the same.
• The Phase-I of this Scheme (FAME I) was initially launched for a period of 2 years and was implemented through four focus areas:
  • Demand Creation,
  • Technology Platform,
  • Pilot Project
  • Charging Infrastructure.
• FAME II
  • It was launched in March 2019 for a period of 3 years.
  • The main objective of the scheme is to encourage faster adoption of electric and hybrid vehicle by way of offering upfront incentive on purchase of electric vehicles and also by establishing the necessary charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

-Source: The Hindu