As per newspaper reports, Sona being India’s biggest importer of rare earth magnets, plans to locally manufacture the critical components used in electric vehicles, tapping into the government push to incentivize their production at home as China restricts their exports.
(China, which produces around 90 per cent of the world’s rare earth magnets, put restrictions in April on their exports as part of its response to the US tariffs)
- India has the world’s 3rd largest car market and has 5th largest reserves of rare earths.
- Country is working on a new program to incentivise magnet production locally to reduce dependence on China.
- Sona is the 1st Indian Company to have shown interest in domestic magnet production.
- The company, which supplies gears and motors to car makers such as Tesla and Stellantis, imported 120 metric tonnes of magnets from China in the last financial year.
- It had plans to import 200 tonnes of magnets this year to meet the growing needs of its EV customers which make up about a third of its revenue
- Timelines are unclear given so many variables involved.
“Being the largest importer of rare earth magnets, we are the single largest affected party in the country. We have to look at India’s self-sufficiency on magnets and are working with the government on it,” Sona Comstar CEO Vivek Vikram Singh told Reuters in an interview.