NEW DELHI, Jan. 8 -- Your electric vehicle (EV) battery could soon have its own Aadhaar number, with the road transport and highways ministry proposing a new 21-digit Battery Pack Aadhaar Number (BPAN). This identity number will provide key metrics about the battery such as its health, and will allow battery makers, importers, vehicle owners, financiers and insurers to get accurate information about the effectiveness of the battery, which makes up for as much as half the cost of an EV.

Another key use-case is the identification of the origin of batteries, which could help the government assess whether claims of indigenously made batteries under the Rs.18,100-crore production-linked incentive scheme for advanced chemistry cells are genuin...