India is still 10-15 years away from achieving self-sufficiency in battery storage despite global cost advantages due to challenges related to technology, financing and execution delays, according to a Wood Mackenzie study published Thursday.
Domestic battery manufacturing makes up less than 1% of the country's 260 gigawatt-hour demand pipeline from competitive tenders in 2026, forcing India to rely on imports despite expanding policy ambitions, Wood Mackenzie said citing its research 'Chasing Self-Sufficiency: Cost of Building an Indigenous Battery Storage Supply Chain in India'.
"Despite more than 226 GWh of cell manufacturing capacity announced for construction through 2035, execution delays, financial viability challenges and deep technology dependence on Chinese and Korean licensors mean India remains 10 to 15 years from a globally competitive, self-sufficient cell industry," Wood Mackenzie analysts said.
According to Wood Mackenzie Director Ankita Chauhan, while India's battery-storage ambitions were credible, a significant gap remained between policy intent and actual operational capacity.
Near-term opportunities are available in downstream components where localization is technically feasible and commercially viable, but developing a self-sufficient battery-cell industry could take a decade or longer and requires sustained, targeted investment beyond the incentive schemes, she said.
A 20% domestic content condition for grid-scale BESS projects under new tenders is expected to help the country focus on localization of downstream components in the next 2-3 years.
Meanwhile, India's locally made battery cells are likely to be 25-40% more expensive than imported cells due to limited scale, greater financing needs, and less developed supply chains.
However, the country remains globally competitive and is second only to China among major manufacturers, enjoying a major cost advantage over Japan and a smaller one versus South Korea, Wood Mackenzie said.
As of 2026, only four companies have operating gigafactories in India, with others still in planning or in early production stages.
According to Wood Mackenzie, financial viability is a major issue, with 5 GWh plants losing money, breakeven only possible at around 10 GWh, and positive margins needing at least 20 GWh. Most companies also depend on Chinese or Korean technology, limiting their control over pricing and supply chains, it added.
"India's cost position is genuinely competitive in a global context, and that matters as supply chain diversification becomes a strategic imperative," said Priya Shrivastava, senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
"The challenge is closing the execution gap fast enough to capture that opportunity before other emerging manufacturing hubs do."