India’s apex auto testing body looks to accelerate to the green lane

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India’s primary vehicle research and testing body plans to expand facilities that are focused on so-called new energy vehicles, seeking to keep pace with the government’s rapidly accelerating green mobility drive. The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) will focus on electric and hydrogen-based powertrains or engines as well as research on vehicular emissions, according to two government officials, who declined to be identified.

“One of the two Chakan facilities will undergo capacity expansion… new facilities will be provided for the sector," one of them said. Currently, ARAI operates from three locations in Pune, Maharashtra—one on Vetal Hill in the heart of the city, and two at Chakan on the city’s outskirts. It also has a regional office in Chennai.

The auto testing and research body under the Union ministry of heavy industries saw its operational income in FY24 jump 20% year-on-year to cross ₹500 crore for the first time, driven by the government’s robust policy push towards green mobility. A crucial part of ARAI’s plans includes a lifecycle analysis study on lithium-ion battery recycling, the association indicated in its annual report for FY24, published in September. This comes amid rapidly growing electric vehicle sales in India even as EV battery costs are falling globally.

EV sales in India surged to more than 1.3 million during April-November, up from about 1 million in the same period a year ago, the ministry of heavy industries informed the Lok Sabha earlier this week. EV battery costs have had a downward trajectory in recent years. Goldman Sachs forecasted in October that EV battery costs would fall to $80 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2026 from $153