The conversation about silver in India has, for decades, been almost entirely about jewellery and festivals.
That conversation is now outdated. Silver is no longer primarily a precious metal with an investment case. It has become something more important — a critical industrial material that the global green energy transition cannot function without.
And the numbers behind this shift are not incremental. They are structural, accelerating, and already showing up in five consecutive years of silver supply deficits that the market has never seen before.
Makro tracks silver's industrial demand data, COMEX inventory levels, and MCX silver prices together — because understanding silver in 2026 means understanding that it lives at the intersection of investment metal and industrial commodity simultaneously.
The Number That Changes Everything: 25–50 Grams Per EV
An average petrol-powered car uses approximately 15–28 grams of silver for its electrical components — wiring, switches, contacts, sensors.
An electric vehicle uses 25–50 grams of silver per vehicle. That is between 67% and 79% more silver per vehicle than a combustion engine — for the same car, simply electrified.
The reason is straightforward: EVs are fundamentally different machines. Where a petrol car manages mechanical energy, an EV manages electrical energy — at every stage, from battery to motor to regenerative braking to the sophisticated power electronics that control the flow. Silver's unmatched electrical conductivity makes it the material of choice for:
- Battery management systems — monitoring and balancing cells across large battery packs
- Power electronics and inverters — converting DC battery power to AC motor power
- Charging infrastructure — every fast charger contains silver contacts
- Autonomous driving systems — radar sensors, cameras, and processing units all use silver
- Electrical contacts throughout — switches, relays, and connectors at far higher density than in a petrol car
Samsung's development of solid-state batteries featuring a silver-carbon composite layer adds yet another dimension — this next-generation battery technology could push silver consumption per vehicle significantly higher, with some projections estimating up to 1 kg of silver per solid-state battery pack.
In 2025, over 17 million EVs were sold globally. By 2030, EV production is projected to account for 59% of the global automotive silver market. EVs will overtake combustion engine vehicles as the primary source of automotive silver demand by 2027 — just one year from now.
The global automotive industry uses approximately 80 million ounces of silver annually. The Silver Institute forecasts this number reaching 94 million ounces by 2031, growing at a compound annual rate of 3.4%.
Solar Panels: The Bigger Story That Barely Gets Told
If EVs are the headline for silver's industrial demand story, solar panels are the underlying structural shift that most investors have not fully appreciated.
Each solar photovoltaic (PV) panel contains approximately 15–25 grams of silver — used as a conductive paste that captures and transports the electrons generated by sunlight. Silver's unique combination of electrical conductivity, reflectivity, and resistance to corrosion makes it difficult to substitute in this application.
In 2014, the solar sector accounted for roughly 11% of global silver industrial demand. By 2024, that figure had risen to over 30%. Solar is now the single largest industrial end-use for silver.
And solar is nowhere near its peak. The IEA expects that new solar capacity added between now and 2030 will account for more than 80% of the growth in renewable power globally — with solar PV becoming the foremost renewable energy source by 2030. The average annual growth rate in global solar capacity is expected to be 17% compound annually between now and 2030.
In 2024 alone, global solar installations topped 400 gigawatts of new capacity — a record year. Silver demand from the solar sector is expected to reach 261 million ounces in 2025, according to BMO Capital Markets.
By 2030, solar installations may top 500 gigawatts per year. This could mean the sector alone needs 250 million ounces of silver annually — roughly 25% of today's total global silver supply.
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View Live CFTC Data →AI Data Centers: The Third Demand Driver Nobody Is Talking About
EVs. Solar. These two are in the mainstream narrative. But there is a third major industrial demand driver for silver that is only beginning to receive attention: artificial intelligence data centres.
Silver is the best electrical conductor of all metals at room temperature — a property that makes it indispensable in high-performance electronic components. As AI adoption accelerates, so does the demand for the physical infrastructure that runs it.
Total global IT power capacity increased from 0.93 gigawatts in 2000 to nearly 50 gigawatts in 2025 — a 53-fold increase. By 2030, data center power requirements could quadruple, reaching over 1,400 terawatt-hours of annual consumption.
Every data centre rack, every server, every power distribution unit contains silver in its contacts, connectors, and high-frequency components. As the world builds out AI infrastructure at an unprecedented pace, silver demand from this sector is growing alongside it.
The Silver Institute describes silver as "The Next Generation Metal" precisely because its unique properties place it at the intersection of three of the most important technology buildouts of the 21st century: clean energy, electric transport, and digital intelligence.
The Supply Side: Why Mining Cannot Keep Up
Understanding silver's demand story requires understanding why supply cannot simply expand to meet it.
Approximately 75–80% of silver is produced as a byproduct of mining for other metals — copper, zinc, lead, and gold. This means silver production is largely determined by the economics of base metals mining, not silver prices. Even with silver trading above $60 per ounce in late 2025, primary silver mine production does not simply double because it is profitable. The decision to dig a new mine depends on the economics of the primary metal.
In 2024, silver mine production increased by just 2%, reaching a seven-year high of 844 million ounces. But global silver demand reached a record 1.2 billion ounces in the same year — meaning mining plus recycling together could not cover demand, leaving a deficit of approximately 117.6 million ounces for 2025.
This is the fifth consecutive year of a supply deficit. The cumulative five-year shortfall has grown to approximately 820 million ounces — nearly an entire year of average mine output. Since 2010, the silver market has accumulated a supply deficit of over 580 million ounces.
Where does the metal come from to cover this gap? From above-ground stockpiles — vaults, ETF holdings, industrial inventories. Which is exactly what Makro's COMEX warehouse data tracks: the depletion of physical silver stocks in real time as the structural deficit continues — a trend explored in detail in our analysis of COMEX silver vault depletion.
India's Specific Silver Story
For Indian silver investors, the global industrial demand story has a direct domestic dimension that is often overlooked.
India's solar buildout
India's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme aims to add 25 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity by 2026. India's renewable energy capacity target of 500 GW by 2030 requires enormous solar panel deployment. Each gigawatt of solar capacity requires approximately 600,000 ounces of silver. At India's scale of solar ambition, the domestic silver demand from this sector alone is becoming material.
India's EV transition
India's EV adoption is accelerating — two-wheelers and three-wheelers leading, passenger vehicles following. Every two-wheeler EV, every three-wheeler EV, every EV charging station installed across India's expanding network contributes to domestic silver demand in a way that was not present five years ago.
Silver ETFs on NSE
Indian investors can now access this silver demand story through multiple silver ETFs listed on NSE — Nippon India Silver ETF (SILVERBEES), ICICI Prudential Silver ETF (SILVERIETF), and others. These funds hold physical silver in approved domestic vaults, with NAVs directly tied to MCX silver prices.
When global industrial silver demand tightens supply — as the five-year deficit data shows it is doing — the price signal eventually flows through to MCX and then to ETF NAVs. Makro tracks MCX silver prices alongside COMEX warehouse data to give Indian investors the complete picture of silver's supply-demand dynamics.
The Substitution Question: Can Silver Be Replaced?
A fair challenge to silver's industrial demand story: as prices rise, won't manufacturers simply use less silver or switch to cheaper alternatives?
This is partly happening — and partly not.
Where substitution is limited: In EV power electronics and battery management systems, silver's conductivity and reliability are difficult to match at the precision required. Inferior conductors mean energy loss, heat, and reliability failures — unacceptable in safety-critical automotive applications.
Where substitution is occurring: In solar cells, copper metallisation technology has been advancing as an alternative to silver paste. The higher the silver price climbs, the more R&D investment flows into copper plating technologies for solar cells. However, next-generation solar cell technologies — TOPCon and heterojunction (HJT) cells — require more silver per cell to achieve greater efficiency, partially offsetting the thrifting trend.
The Silver Institute's analysis shows that industrial demand is expected to remain at record or near-record levels through 2030 despite substitution efforts — because the scale of solar and EV deployment is growing faster than thrifting can offset.
The Silver Deficit Scoreboard: Five Years and Counting
| Year | Supply Deficit (Million oz) |
|---|---|
| 2021 | ~51 |
| 2022 | ~104 |
| 2023 | ~184 |
| 2024 | ~182 |
| 2025 (projected) | ~95–117 |
| 5-Year Cumulative | ~820 |
The cumulative five-year deficit of approximately 820 million ounces represents roughly one entire year of global silver mine output. This metal has to come from somewhere — and it is coming from above-ground stocks, ETF holdings, and COMEX vault inventories.
Makro tracks COMEX registered and eligible silver inventory daily. The trend since September 2025 — a 55% decline in registered stocks — is the real-time expression of this five-year deficit finally showing up in the physical market's plumbing.
The Bottom Line
Silver's investment case has fundamentally changed. It is no longer primarily driven by investor sentiment, jewellery demand, or its historical role as monetary metal.
The structural demand story — EVs consuming 3x more silver than petrol cars, solar manufacturing consuming 30%+ of industrial supply and growing at 17% annually, AI data centres adding a new demand layer, and five consecutive years of production deficits — creates a supply-demand dynamic unlike anything silver has seen before.
For Indian investors who track MCX silver and hold silver ETFs on NSE, the industrial demand story behind the price is now just as important as geopolitical and monetary factors.
Makro tracks all of it — COMEX silver inventory, MCX silver live prices, silver ETF iNAV discounts, and the macro signals that drive the metal — in one place.
All market data referenced in this article reflects figures available as of March 2026. Silver prices and market conditions change rapidly. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult a SEBI-registered investment advisor before making investment decisions.