As large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in India move into the construction and delivery phase, the country’s domestic storage supply chain is expanding beyond project development into equipment manufacturing.
Since the beginning of 2026, companies including JSW Energy, GoodEnough Energy and Waaree have brought GWh-scale BESS manufacturing and system integration capacity online, while Reliance and Vikram Solar are advancing larger battery and energy storage manufacturing projects.
The shift is gradually changing India’s BESS supply model. Rather than relying heavily on imported complete systems, the market is increasingly moving toward a model in which cells and some key components are imported, while battery packs and system integration are completed locally.
JSW Energy’s 5 GWh battery assembly facility in Pune, Maharashtra, is one of the most prominent examples of this transition. According to the company’s FY2025-26 annual report, its 5 GWh Battery Container Assembly Plant has commenced operations in Pune, marking JSW’s expansion from energy storage project investment and operation into equipment manufacturing.
More importantly, the capacity is not being used solely to support JSW’s internal storage portfolio.
In July 2026, JSW Energy subsidiary JSW Energy PSP Eleven secured an order from Bondada Renewable Energy to supply a 200 MW/400 MWh BESS together with power conversion systems (PCS). The contract was valued at approximately Rs 4.44 billion.
The order indicates that JSW is beginning to compete in the third-party BESS equipment market, with its 5 GWh facility evolving from an internal supply-chain asset into a commercial storage manufacturing platform.
Local BESS Integration Capacity Ramps Up
JSW is not alone. Several GWh-scale BESS manufacturing and assembly facilities have emerged across India.
Tata AutoComp Gotion Green Energy Solutions, the joint venture between Tata AutoComp and Gotion, has established 6 GWh of BESS manufacturing capacity and has begun supplying storage systems to Tata Power.
GoodEnough Energy commissioned a 7 GWh BESS manufacturing facility in Noida in January 2026, while Waaree Energy Storage Solutions started operations at a 5.15 GWh automated BESS container manufacturing facility in Gujarat in July.
Together with JSW’s 5 GWh plant, these four companies alone represent approximately 23.15 GWh/year of publicly disclosed BESS manufacturing and assembly capacity that has already been commissioned or brought into operation.
India’s incumbent battery manufacturers are also expanding into lithium-ion battery packs and stationary storage.
Amara Raja has commissioned the first 1.5 GWh phase of its battery pack facility in Telangana, with long-term pack capacity planned at 5 GWh to serve both electric vehicles and stationary energy storage. The company is also developing up to 16 GWh of upstream cell manufacturing capacity.
Exide currently operates 1.5 GWh of lithium-ion module and pack capacity and, through Exide Energy Solutions, is developing a lithium-ion cell manufacturing complex in Bengaluru with planned capacity of up to 12 GWh.
The prospective capacity pipeline is significantly larger.
Reliance has said its BESS Gigafactory in Jamnagar has entered advanced commissioning. The facility is designed for 40 GWh/year of capacity and is expected to begin ramping up in the second half of 2026, with the company’s longer-term roadmap targeting 100 GWh.
VSL PowerHive, a subsidiary of Vikram Solar, plans to establish 5 GWh of BESS manufacturing capacity in FY2027 and subsequently expand further into battery cell manufacturing. Powertrac, meanwhile, announced in August 2026 that it would develop a 10 GWh energy storage manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad covering both cell-to-pack and pack-to-container production.
These figures should not be added together indiscriminately, as they include operating assembly capacity, projects under construction and longer-term cell manufacturing plans.
Nevertheless, the overall direction is clear: India’s BESS manufacturing industry is moving from relatively fragmented project-level integration toward GWh-scale industrial production, with battery packs, containers and system integration currently leading the capacity build-out.
“Made in India” BESS Does Not Yet Mean a Fully Localised Supply Chain
The rapid expansion in pack and container assembly contrasts with much slower localisation of battery cells and some other critical components.
Tata Power has said that India currently imports more than 80% of its battery cells. Until meaningful domestic cell capacity becomes available, the more practical supply-chain model remains importing cells and some key components, including certain BMS products, while completing racks, EMS, containers and system integration in India.
The gap is consistent with the progress of India’s domestic cell manufacturing industry.
The Indian government’s Advanced Chemistry Cell Production Linked Incentive (ACC PLI) scheme targets 50 GWh of advanced cell manufacturing capacity. By the end of 2025, 40 GWh had been awarded, but relatively little large-scale commercial production had materialised.
India’s Ministry of Heavy Industries said in February 2026 that Ola had established approximately 1 GWh of ACC manufacturing capacity by the end of 2025 and was in the process of stabilising production, while other major PLI-backed projects remained under development or in the capacity ramp-up phase.
Reliance, Amara Raja and Exide are expected to move progressively into construction, commissioning or commercial production windows during 2026-27.
Amara Raja, for example, commissioned its Customer Qualification Plant in July 2026 and plans to establish its first 2 GWh of commercial cell manufacturing capacity in 2027.
Only as these projects reach meaningful commercial output is India’s dependence on imported battery cells likely to decline materially.
India’s current BESS localisation can therefore be characterised more accurately as:
System manufacturing is localising rapidly, while localisation of the core supply chain remains at an early stage.
Battery packs, racks, containers, EMS, wiring, structural components and some thermal management and engineering activities can increasingly be supplied locally. Battery cells, along with some critical control and power electronics components, remain considerably more dependent on imports.
Local BESS Manufacturing Has Not Translated Into Lower Equipment Prices
In theory, assembling battery packs and containers locally can reduce some ocean freight, warehousing, customs clearance and working-capital costs associated with importing complete battery containers. It can also shorten delivery times and improve local after-sales service and spare-parts availability.
However, India’s rapid expansion in local BESS integration capacity has not translated into a corresponding decline in equipment prices in 2026.
Taking 5 MWh battery containers on a DC FOB basis as an example, Indian market prices were around $57/kWh during the low-price period in Q4 2025. Prices subsequently rebounded in 2026, with the September average reaching approximately $69.4/kWh.
That represents an increase of approximately 21.8%.
The price increase has occurred at the same time as significant local BESS manufacturing capacity has entered operation. JSW, GoodEnough Energy and Waaree, among others, have commissioned GWh-scale manufacturing and assembly capacity during 2026.
The apparent divergence reflects the structure of India’s BESS supply chain. Local manufacturers remain heavily dependent on imported battery cells, meaning additional pack and container assembly capacity cannot by itself remove the upstream cost constraint.
Localisation is therefore affecting supply-chain organisation and competition among system integrators before it materially lowers the overall BESS cost base.
On the one hand, growing pack, container and system integration capacity could intensify competition and compress local assembly margins. On the other hand, until India establishes large-scale domestic cell supply, movements in imported cell prices and upstream raw materials including lithium, copper and aluminium will continue to feed relatively quickly into BESS equipment prices.
India’s storage industry is therefore displaying a clear pattern of downstream manufacturing capacity expanding ahead of the upstream core supply chain.
Local integration can improve logistics, delivery and service capabilities, but a more structural change in BESS costs will depend on the successful ramp-up of domestic cell manufacturing.
China’s Role Could Shift From Complete-System Exports to Cells, Technology and Local Manufacturing
The expansion of India’s BESS integration capacity does not necessarily mean Chinese storage suppliers will be rapidly displaced from the market.
At present, India’s growing pack and system integration industry still relies considerably on overseas cell supply and technology.
Tata AutoComp’s BESS business is operated through its joint venture with Gotion. Amara Raja is also developing cell technology and manufacturing capabilities through cooperation with Gotion InoBat, while Exide has used external technology partnerships to support its domestic lithium-ion cell manufacturing plans.
For Chinese storage companies, the more important change is therefore likely to be their position within India’s storage value chain rather than the disappearance of Indian demand.
As Indian manufacturers develop their own pack and container manufacturing capabilities, directly exporting complete battery containers or turnkey BESS from China could gradually face stronger competition from local manufacturing, logistics advantages and potential localisation requirements.
At the same time, opportunities could remain for Chinese cell manufacturers, BMS and PCS suppliers and energy storage technology companies to participate through cell supply, technology licensing, joint ventures, OEM arrangements and local manufacturing.
In particular, while India still lacks large-scale domestic production of high-quality LFP cells, rapid growth in local system integration capacity could actually increase demand for imported cells in the near term.
India’s BESS manufacturing expansion is therefore more likely to produce a transitional supply-chain structure of “overseas core components + local Indian integration” before the country develops a fully localised battery supply chain.
Outlook: Localisation Policy Is Moving From Projects Toward Cell Manufacturing
India’s solar industry provides a useful precedent for how localisation in energy manufacturing can develop over time.
In solar, India has used Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) rules to require domestically manufactured solar cells and modules in specified government-supported projects, while the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) has established eligibility requirements for manufacturers and products used in government and certain other projects.
As domestic module manufacturing capacity expanded, policy attention increasingly moved upstream toward solar cell manufacturing.
A similar, although not identical, policy direction is beginning to emerge in energy storage.
In December 2025, India’s Ministry of Power stipulated that BESS procurement supported under the Viability Gap Funding scheme and funded through the Power System Development Fund must achieve local content equivalent to at least 20% of total project cost, including locally developed EMS application software.
The requirement does not currently apply to all BESS projects in India. BESS has also not been placed on the list of power-sector products that can only be procured from Class-I Local Suppliers.
The policy should therefore not be interpreted as requiring all Indian storage projects to use domestically manufactured batteries.
Nevertheless, the direction is significant: for certain government-funded BESS projects, local value addition is beginning to move from a policy preference toward a condition attached to financial support.
At the manufacturing level, India is simultaneously pushing localisation further upstream through its ACC battery PLI programme.
The programme targets 50 GWh of advanced cell manufacturing capacity and requires beneficiaries to establish manufacturing facilities in India while progressively increasing Domestic Value Addition. Beneficiaries are required to reach at least 25% domestic value addition initially and increase the level to 60% within five years.
Beyond the 40 GWh already awarded, India’s Ministry of Heavy Industries in July 2026 relaunched bidding for the remaining 10 GWh of ACC manufacturing capacity, specifically targeting Grid Scale Stationary Storage applications.
As of the end of September 2026, the 10 GWh remains in the bidding and allocation process and should not yet be counted as operational Indian cell capacity. However, the shift from an end-use-agnostic framework toward capacity specifically targeted at grid-scale storage indicates that policy support is moving directly into BESS cell manufacturing.
From an industrial development perspective, India’s energy storage sector is beginning to show a localisation sequence similar to — though not an exact replication of — the earlier solar manufacturing cycle.
When domestic cell manufacturing is insufficient, downstream activities such as battery packs, containers, EMS and system integration develop first. As the domestic storage market expands and manufacturing policies become stronger, localisation can then move upstream into battery cells, where capital requirements and technological barriers are considerably higher.
India’s BESS supply chain could therefore evolve through three broad stages.
The first is the model currently emerging: imported cells and key components + local battery pack and system integration.
The second could emerge as Reliance, Amara Raja, Exide and PLI-backed projects ramp up cell production, allowing domestic cells to account for a progressively larger share of some Indian projects and moving the supply chain toward domestic cells + local system integration.
Over the longer term, if government-supported projects impose higher local-content requirements or additional storage equipment is brought into domestic procurement frameworks, localisation could extend further upstream into battery materials and other critical components.
For Chinese companies, this suggests that competition in India could gradually shift from product exports toward supply-chain localisation.
In the near term, Chinese cells and other core components could continue to benefit from procurement demand generated by India’s rapidly expanding BESS integration capacity. Over the medium to long term, however, suppliers will need to closely track the actual ramp-up of Indian cell projects, implementation of the ACC PLI programme and changes in local-content requirements for government-backed storage projects.
As this transition progresses, cell supply, technology licensing, joint ventures and local manufacturing are likely to become increasingly important routes for participating in the Indian energy storage market.
