The JSW Group has put its proposed battery manufacturing plant in Odisha on hold as it continues to look for a technology partner for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells, Parth Jindal, Director of JSW MG Motor India and Managing Director of JSW Cement and JSW Paints, said on Wednesday.

“We are very keen to make cells in India. But the LFP technology currently is not available for us. The hunt is on for a technology tie-up. We have not yet secured a technology tie-up, and hence, that project currently is on hold,” Jindal said in Mumbai.

The company has already commissioned its cell-to-pack assembly line through JSW Energy for battery energy storage applications, as well as a cell-to-pack facility for JSW MG Motor India, he said. However, manufacturing battery cells remains a key challenge for the group, particularly because of the limited availability of LFP technology outside China.

“Making the cell, which is the key, the most important and most crucial part of an electric vehicle, that technology on LFP is not available anywhere in the world outside of China. And right now, they [the Chinese] are guarding it like a weapon,” Jindal said.

The JSW Group had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government in February 2024 to establish an integrated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility in the state, with a proposed investment of ₹40,000 crore.

Under the proposed project, the group was to set up a 50 GWh electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant at Naraj in Cuttack.