The company is working with IIT-Chennai to build a 100 megawatt-hour assembly plant in Andhra Pradesh
Amara Raja Batteries Ltd will build a lithium-ion assembly plant as it seeks to grab a slice of the market for electric vehicle power packs that are set to grow to $300 billion by 2030. Well, the incubation work is going on as they are at a beginning stage both from the market-demand and product-development perspective. They are building solutions for the early stage of electrification of vehicles and work with the OEM programs at the same time.
As per the government think-tank NITI Aayog, Indian and overseas companies are gradually entering the new segment to manufacture green vehicles. However, the shift will be gradual as India needs to push for EVs in a consistent manner over a long period of time and also ensuring that automobile jobs stay unaffected.
Growth of e-rickshaws and small three-wheeler taxis
S. Vijayanand, CEO of Amara Raja Batteries Ltd told that the company expects the market for supplying batteries to e-rickshaws and small privately-owned three-wheeler taxis, to grow at a compounded rate of about 20 per cent over the next five years. He also mentioned that this new lithium-ion pack assembly is expected to generate business by the end of this financial year, ending March 2019.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce the second phase of the country’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) program. The 55 billion-rupee ($766 million) program seeks to give incentives for the adoption of EVs.
Ali Izadi-Najafabadi, head of intelligent mobility at Bloomberg NEF mentioned the fact that currently there’s no lithium-ion battery cell production plant in India. He also told that Amara Raja is primarily interested in winning demand from the second phase of the FAME scheme which is expected to subsidise a limited number of electric buses and three-wheelers.
