Microlyte has been in existence from the last few years in India. Part of the Bhagwati Products group or better known by the name Micromax, Microlyte is primarily in to making Li-ion batteries in India. We recently had a catch-up with Sunil Bhatnagar from Microlyte. The country head for energy division, Sunil, says that the market for Li-ion batteries will be about Rs 2,500-3,000 crores in the coming days. Microlyte aims to capture at least 8-10 per cent market share by 2020. The brand currently has three plants. One is in Bhiwadi, the other in Rudrapur and the third in Hyderabad. Currently, the Bhiwadi unit is functional and produces around 300 batteries in a day. The total capacity at this plant is 1 Gigawatt hour. Manufacturing in the Hyderabad plant will start from January 2020.
On being asked what is the hardest bit about making Li-ion batteries, Sunil says that in the Indian market, it is procurement of the metal. Lithium is a rare metal and hence procuring it is a bit of task. However, given the experience with Micromax, it is easy for Microlyte to get these Li-ion batteries. Sunil says that they have ensured that their batteries pass through the most stringent tests here. This includes nail penetration, shock treatment and more. The core idea is to ensure that these batteries don’t explode or catch flames. In short, as safe as possible. Simulations are done and batteries given for real world tests too. After all, the Indian road conditions are the harshest. We overload our vehicles and even passenger units are used to transport cargo and vice-versa.
Microlyte is currently in to manufacturing batteries for electric scooters, e-rickshaws and autorickshaws. The motorcycle battery is a bit more complex. Moreover, since electric four-wheelers are still at a nascent stage in India, the brand hasn’t ventured in to it so far.
