In July, Bajaj Auto’s Chetak, the best-selling electric scooter in India, faced a significant setback than production targets could not be met due to an Insufency of rare-earth metals. Only 10.824 units of Chetak were produced in July as compared to 20.384 units produced in the same period last year.
Bajaj has quickly redesigned certain motors to minimize the use of these metals and reworked the supply chains. These measures are expected to help recover close to half of July’s planned output of electric two-wheelers, with the target of reaching around 60% during August and September.
A cutoff of Rares-earth exports by China in April is causing an industry-wide shortage. The lack of these metals endangering the automobile sector is a matter of deep concern as these are key to making strong magnets used in electric vehicles.
India has the fifth-largest reserves of rare-earth elements but struggles with limited infrastructure, technological issues, and regulatory hurdles for mining these.
La Unveiling of Strategy to expedite Mining and Processing:
India’s dependence on China comes with risks, evident recently through the shortage issue. This has resulted in a call for expedited mining and processing of rare-earth minerals within India. The approach of developing domestic refining fits India’s long-term strategic vision of becoming self-reliant in critical sectors, according to the Geological Survey of India (GSI). However, the time taken to set up refining units might be longer than the usefulness of rare-earth technology itself, which is expected to evolve.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/8/28/how-rare-earth-shortages-are-stalling-indias-burgeoning-ev-sector?traffic_source=rss
