Micelio Mobility’s “Closing the Loop: Building a Roadmap for Battery Circularity in India” report has identified the creation of a circular economy for batteries as a key priority for India’s electric mobility sector. The report was released during the company’s Global Clean Mobility Summit 2025 held in Bengaluru.
The report projects that India’s demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries will exceed 128 GWh annually by 2030, with a cumulative market potential of about 600 GWh between 2022 and 2030. In 2023–24 alone, India imported over $2.8 billion worth of battery cells, mainly from China and Hong Kong, underscoring its reliance on imported raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
Micelio’s analysis notes that over 90% of India’s spent lithium-ion batteries are processed by the informal sector, resulting in material loss, environmental hazards, and safety risks such as fires. In contrast, the formal recycling sector accounts for less than 5% of total capacity but is expanding with advances in hydrometallurgy—a process that can recover over 99% pure metals from used batteries.
The report also highlights the domestic potential of “black mass,” a powder derived from shredded batteries, estimating its market value to surpass $1.56 billion in 2024.
Several Indian startups were profiled in the report for their contributions to battery recycling and repurposing. Bengaluru-based MiniMines has developed a hybrid hydrometallurgy process that recovers more than 96% of materials, while Noida-based Lohum operates a 10,000-tonne annual capacity recycling facility and partners with major automotive manufacturers, including MG Motor and Mercedes-Benz. The report differentiates between repurposing, where batteries with 70–80% health are reused in energy storage, and refurbishment, where batteries with more than 80% health are restored for vehicle use.
Policy and digital infrastructure are identified as essential enablers of this transition. The report cites the Battery Waste Management Rules (BWMR), 2022, and its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework as central to building accountability and recycling compliance. It also highlights the “Battery Aadhaar” initiative—a pilot project to assign digital passports to individual batteries—to enable traceability throughout the lifecycle.
According to the report, advancing circularity is critical for achieving India’s long-term targets of energy independence by 2047 and net-zero emissions by 2070.
The findings were presented during the Global Clean Mobility Summit 2025, which brought together representatives from industry, academia, and policy to discuss clean transport and electric mobility. Speakers included Jan Kuenne (Grundig Akademie für Wirtschaft & Technik), Kris Gopalakrishnan (Infosys and Axilor Ventures), Raman C. V. (Maruti Suzuki India), Kasturi Gomatham (Shell), and Priyanka Bisen Shah (Bajaj Auto).
Ather Energy Co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta received the Individual Contributor of the Year 2025 award at the event. Panel discussions explored topics such as “What’s Next in Mobility” and “Building Brands in the New Mobility Economy.”
Micelio and the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) reaffirmed their partnership on the Digital Twin Lab, which enables testing and validation of electric mobility technologies. The summit concluded with a discussion between Tarun Mehta and Kris Gopalakrishnan on India’s innovation and investment outlook in the clean mobility sector.
Micelio Mobility, founded in 2019, operates initiatives such as the Micelio Fund, a $30 million seed fund for clean mobility startups; Micelio Discovery Studio, a testing and validation facility; Micelio Engage, a community platform; and Micelio Pulse, a think tank on policy and advocacy. The company reports a network of more than 4,000 participants across its programs.
