NEW DELHI: In its bid to tide over India’s complete dependence on lithium-ion batteries whose production is dominated by China, the road transport ministry is roping in agencies such as Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and IIT, Kanpur to carry out research on new technologies such as metal-ion and metal-air batteries.

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has called a high-level meeting to prepare a road map for other options of high-quality batteries for vehicles other than lithium-ion for electric vehicles. Speaking at a webinar by the International Road Federation, the minister said the government needs to fix two issues road crashes and vehicular pollution.

According to a recent report by Bloomberg NEF on Global Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Ranking, China leads the list of countries. It said China’s success has come as a result of its large domestic battery demand, control over 80% of the world’s raw material refining, 77% of the world’s cell capacity and 60% of the world’s component manufacturing. It has also projected that China will continue to occupy the top post while India’s position would remain at number 16 in 2025.

The scientists, from Stanford University, have said that the rechargeable aluminium battery may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames. Officials said the studies have shown that the rechargeable aluminium batteries can get charged fast and they have a long life.