Leading lead-acid battery company Exide Industries on Thursday said that the first phase of the 6 GW lithium-ion battery plant in Karnataka will be ready in 27-30 months and an investment of Rs 3,800-4,000 crore is planned for the implementation of the project. .
The project, which covers 80 hectares, will be expanded to become an integrated lithium-ion battery facility with a capacity of 12 Gwh (gigawatt hour), involving an investment of 6 billion rupees and will take 8-10 years to achieve. maximum power.
“The first phase of the 6GW cell manufacturing facility, including the Karnataka modules, will be ready in 27-30 months and will require an investment of Rs 3,800-4,000 crore. Financing will be a combination of internal building and bridge loans. The total capex will be Rs 6,000 crore to reach a capacity of 12 GWh,” Exide Managing Director and CEO Subir Chakraborty said in a virtual interaction after the company’s annual general meeting. .
He said activities at the site have already begun and the journey so far with SVOLT, its Chinese technology partner and the relevant governments has been very favorable.
Asked how dependent it is on importing lithium and other key raw materials for cell production, the company said it would have to import initially, but expects an ecosystem to develop there.
Chakraborty also expected lithium mining to pick up with increasing demand and a near-term increase in the price of the crucial ore.
The executive said that once the plant reaches its maximum capacity of 12 GWh, the company is expected to generate Rs 10,000 to 12,000 crore in revenue.
“There will be room for everyone as the overall pie will grow and they will be among the first to have their plant in the country,” Chakraborty said when asked about the competition to build manufacturing capacity in India. .
Several companies have announced plans to set up lithium-ion cell factories. It is assumed that by 2030 the demand will increase to 100 GWh.
Exide has a 1.5 GWh lithium-ion battery module manufacturing plant in Gujarat that has started operations. Once the factories in Karnataka start producing cells, they will be running this unit, built in partnership with Swiss partner Leclanche.
Exide officials said there are signs of stabilization in commodity prices and it may take another six months to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The company said it is also working on several new lead-acid battery technologies.
“In the future, applications may change, but lead-acid batteries with new technologies will not be redundant in the next 10-15 years,” said Chakraborty.
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