Indian startups harness biodegradable waste to power up EV batteries

New Delhi: Electric vehicles are gaining popularity with its sales growing 49% Y-o-Y in 2023, FADA (Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Association) reported.

Rising adoption of EVs brings more advancements, thus bringing a room for Indian startups to step in the market with their unique sustainable ideas.

Twin sisters, Nikita Baliarsingh and Nishita Baliarsingh have decided to take the road of sustainability through biodegradable batteries. “We wanted to use a material which was, first, abundantly available in India, second, which was renewable, and lastly, which wasn't as expensive, resulting in cheaper batteries, " one of the twin sisters said.

To power the EV batteries, start-up Hop Charge, aims to provide door-to-door charging services for EV owners. This mobile infrastructure helps in saving time, and addresses the issue of limited charging infrastructure availability in India.

Addressing the need of quick charging in this fast-paced world, Exponent Energy came with a solution for providing rapid charging from 0-100% within 15 minutes through its batteries. With the company's e^pack (ev battery) at e^pump (ev chargers) any lithium battery can be charged in 15 minutes.

Another startup is using coconut shell powder to enhance the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries. The idea which was meant for the co-founder’s thesis has given him a groundbreaking solution for improving charging efficiency in EVs batteries. Cancrie, a four year old startup, chose coconut as its main ingredient after experimenting with 14 other biomass products.

Betting on innovation

In this evolving era, alternative fuels demand has increased rapidly be it electric vehicles, compressed biogas, hydrogen fuel, and others. EVs are fuelled by its batteries thus a good efficiency, a proper infrastructure, and proper decomposition of batteries post its usage is required.

Exponent energy, an energy start-up led by Arun Vinayak & Sanjay Byalal, has built a battery pack & charging station called the e^pack & e^pump that together unlock a 0 to 100% rapid charge within 15 minutes for EVs using regular Li-ion cells to make rapid charging affordable and scalable. EV batteries also have coolant technology which helps the batteries to stay cool even in the high temperatures.

Cancrie's uses coconut shell powder to increase the efficiency of e-batteries. “ We are using coconut powder in lithium batteries to improve the efficiency,” Akshay Jain, CEO and Co-founder, Cancrie. The company is owned by two friends who hold equal shares in the company i.e 42% each.

The rising popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) have highlighted the necessity for improved EV infrastructure.

Addressing this challenge, Hop Charge came with a solution for providing mobile charging of EVs. The Gurgaon-based startup is aiming to develop a connected charging system with mobile(any place, any where) charging, resolving the issue of unavailability of public EV charging stations.

Nexus Power, who believes in sustainability, manufactures electric batteries made of crop residues. “Peptides are smaller forms of proteins, so we use peptides,” Co-founder and CIO Nikita Baliarsingh told ETAuto. “We aim to price it about 25- 30% cheaper because our raw material is cheaper than lithium,” she added.

What are the challenges?

• Manufacturing Capacity

Manufacturing becomes a crucial issue to address for Cancrie, thus, they aim to 5x their current manufacturing capacity.

"At pilot phase we are producing carbon material to cater to 6MWh of battery production per month.…. The demand, which we are already getting from just 1-2 customers..Fairly sized MSME, is in the range of 30-50 MWh per month. It means that we have to expand big”, Jain added.

Exponent is now considering working on its expansion plans in production capacity, Arun Vinayak, Co-Founder and CEO of Exponent Energy told ETAuto.

• Material efficiency

While for Nexus the biggest concern is the dissolving of the materials. “Because the composition electrolytes are mostly salt combinations, if you have two different kinds of materials on the anode in cathode, the biodegradable material has this vulnerability to start dissolving in that composition itself, ” Baliarsingh added.

Fundraising - Know the most crucial part

Cancrie targets INR 3 crore revenue in FY2024-25. In FY24, the company sales revenue was INR 4 lakh, where the co-founder added they have got two paid contracts worth INR 1 crore in the same financial year.

Cancrie has already raised INR 4.2 crore from grants and contracts, talking more about it the co-founder said, “I would say INR 1 crore came from the equity or the investors and remaining INR 3.2 crore came from the grants and the paid contract.”

“Exponent Energy recently raised USD 26.4mn in a Series B round in December last year, so we have enough capital for the expansion," said Vinayak

For R&D of the company, Baliarsingh said, “We raised around INR 1.2 crore in grants and INR 3.3 crore in our fundraising round in 2022…So total about INR 4.5 crore is what we've raised from grants and equity.” The company is currently having its second fundraising round from which it aims to raise INR 10 crore-INR 15 crore.