India's Battery Race: Safer Alternatives Emerge as Demand Set to Surge

The safety risks of lithium-ion batteries, the search for alternatives to lithium, dependence on China for critical materials, and the challenges of building a battery company in India were among the key issues discussed in the latest episode of People by WTF, hosted by Nikhil Kamath.

Kamath, who has been investing in energy-transition companies through his private-equity fund, spoke with Henning Rath, CEO of EnerVenue, and Kun Tang, Executive Chairman of HiNa Battery, about the future of battery technology and whether India should build its own battery industry. The discussion covered battery chemistry, industrial policy, manufacturing, AI infrastructure and the economics of establishing a battery company from scratch in India.

One of the most striking exchanges focused on lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, batteries, the chemistry powering most electric vehicles globally, including many Teslas and BYDs.

Rath explained the phenomenon known as thermal runaway, in which a battery reaches a certain temperature and its internal reaction becomes self-accelerating and cannot be stopped.

Tang said the world recorded over 14,000 LFP battery fires in 2025 alone. “The higher the energy, the more safety issues,” Tang said. “The energy is like water in a pump, but the tube is thin. That's easy to break.”

Neither guest treated battery fires as purely a chemistry problem. Tang noted that safety incidents cluster heavily among smaller, tier-two Chinese manufacturers, while companies such as CATL and BYD charge a premium because of tighter production quality.

The conversation then shifted to battery technologies beyond lithium. Tang, whose company has already supplied what it describes as the world's first 100-megawatt-hour sodium-ion storage project, said sodium costs roughly a tenth of lithium, resists thermal runaway at current energy densities and uses materials such as sodium, iron and phosphate that almost any country can source domestically.

The technology's trade-off is energy density. For now, this limits sodium-ion batteries largely to grid storage and short-range vehicles such as scooters and three-wheelers rather than long-range cars.

Rath's EnerVenue is pursuing a different alternative through a nickel-based, water-electrolyte battery adapted from technology NASA once used. The technology is designed to sharply reduce fire risk by removing the higher-risk components that trigger thermal runaway and is rated for 30,000 charge cycles. It currently works only for stationary storage and not for vehicles.

Both guests were skeptical that solid-state batteries, often presented as lithium's true successor, are close to market. Citing an industry readiness scale of one to nine, Tang placed the technology at around level four, saying it is strong in research papers but remains far from commercial production.

Looking further ahead, Rath described the next decade as being shaped by three converging “super cycles” — electrification, manufacturing and AI — all running ahead of supply. He argued that countries seeking to compete will need genuine energy independence rather than continued dependence on imported lithium and rare earths.

Rath expects that dependence to become more contested as globalisation gives way to regional blocs. He pointed to 2023 as the year renewable power paired with batteries quietly became cheaper than fossil fuels across much of the world, a shift he expects AI data centres to accelerate as they move away from diesel backup power toward safer battery storage.

The discussion then turned directly to India, where Kamath is considering entering the energy-transition sector himself.

“After my trip in China, I want to go back to India and start a business,” Kamath said, asking the guests whether he should build an electric car company or a battery company.

Rath's answer was unambiguous: skip the car company and build a battery company decoupled from lithium and rare earths altogether. He identified India's scooter and three-wheeler market as a natural first customer for sodium-ion technology.

The two guests also examined how BYD evolved from a phone-battery maker into a fully vertically integrated EV and battery giant within roughly a decade. Rath attributed part of that rise to what he called China's “government venture capital” model, under which dozens of companies are funded in a sector, with only a handful, including BYD and CATL, ultimately surviving and dominating.

The episode also examined China's relationship with AI. Both guests described the country's approach as being defined more by curiosity than anxiety, with Tang drawing on three generations of his own family, from his 90-year-old grandfather ordering drone food delivery to his six-year-old daughter.

“The excitement is outpacing the anxiety,” Rath said, describing it as a marked contrast to the mood he encounters in the United States.

“No single technology will solve our problem,” Tang said. “We need more different chemistry to meet different demands.”

The episode is available now on YouTube.

People by WTF is a global podcast platform hosted by Nikhil Kamath, featuring in-depth conversations with leaders across business, policy, technology, culture and academia. The show explores long-term institutional, technological and economic questions shaping global society through candid, high-signal dialogue. Past guests include Elon Musk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty, Martin Escobari, Bryan Armstrong and Ranbir Kapoor.

Henning Rath is CEO of EnerVenue, a California-based energy storage company commercializing nickel-hydrogen battery technology originally developed by NASA and refined at Stanford University. EnerVenue closed a USD 300 million Series B extension in 2026 and is scaling manufacturing in Changzhou, China. Rath previously served as Managing Director and Chief Supply Chain Officer at German renewable energy company Enpal.

Kun Tang is Executive Chairman of HiNa Battery, a Beijing-headquartered sodium-ion battery company spun out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017. HiNa has supplied what it describes as the world's first 100MWh sodium-ion energy storage project and holds over 30 patents across sodium-ion cathode, anode and electrolyte technology.

The episode examined why LFP batteries dominate EVs and why they catch fire, sodium-ion and nickel-hydrogen batteries as alternatives to lithium, China's industrial-policy playbook for building battery and EV giants, energy independence amid deglobalisation, data centres and diesel backup power, the case for safer batteries, solid-state batteries and their technological readiness, the prospects for building a battery company in India, and AI adoption in China across generations.

A related People by WTF episode, “WTF is Happening In EV?”, features Punit Goyal of Blusmart, who explores why electric mobility is fundamentally an energy and infrastructure business and argues that charging networks, renewable power procurement and fleet financing must be built together for EVs to scale. The episode also discusses battery ownership economics, including battery life cycles, second-life battery use and how battery costs shape the long-term economics of EV businesses. It examines how EVs become more environmentally and economically compelling as India's renewable energy share rises, linking battery demand directly to the country's evolving power mix and energy security.

Chetan Maini of SUN Mobility examines battery swapping as an alternative to larger batteries, discussing how swapping can lower vehicle costs, reduce downtime and make electric mobility more viable for scooters, commercial vehicles and logistics fleets.

Tarun Mehta of Ather Energy examines India's battery and EV manufacturing opportunity, highlighting GST structures, PLI incentives and supply-chain challenges that could determine whether India builds a globally competitive battery and electric mobility ecosystem.

The discussion underscores the growing importance of battery chemistry, manufacturing capability, supply-chain independence and safety as India considers how to build a battery industry while lithium-ion demand rises sharply and dependence on imported cells and critical materials persists.