Amara Raja Group, one of India’s leading energy storage companies will commence commercial production of lithium-ion batteries in the next 2 years.
The announcement was made by Vijayanand Samudrala, President, Amara Raja at the India Energy Storage Alliance’s (IESA) 3rd annual India Battery Manufacturing and Supply Chain Summit (IBMSCS) in Hyderabad.
Samudrala said that Amara Raja will have the first giga factory up and running before the end of next year. “We will have 3-4 individual factory buildings, dealing with two chemistries, both NMC as well as LFP, and two formats, cylindrical as well as prismatic. Amara Raja is aiming for 16 GWh of lithium-ion battery cell capacity and up to 5 GWh of battery capacity. These will cater to a range of mobility as well as energy storage applications. The first phase will be completed in less than 24 months, which means our first giga factory will be operational before the end of next calendar year (2025).”
He further said that “Giga factories require an integrated approach that marries high technology, large capex, giga scale factories with an eco-system, so it is not just about a large standalone factory, but also trunk infrastructure in terms of road connectivity, water availability, power facilities, training facilities, and upstream and downstream value chain players”.
Referring to Amara Raja’s upcoming R&D facility close to the airport Samudrala highlighted that the company is also setting up its E Positive Energy Lab on 300,000 square feet of built-up space, adding that a significant part of the facility would be dedicated to collaborating with customer, supplier partners, start-ups and innovation entities. With this initiative, the company aims to create an ecosystem, an infrastructure, for those who want to try innovative technologies. Referencing his visits to giga factories across Europe, China, Korea, and other countries, he outlined what was necessary for giga factories to flourish, pointing out the importance of an ecosystem rather than just a large standalone factory.
“The kind of emphasis our national government has given under the ACC PLI scheme, the support provided by some states like Telangana, and the dynamism of the private sector, all augurs well for our country. I’ m confident we can surpass these targets [of 150GWh of ACC] quite easily. There is no difficulty in achieving the target of 150GWh ACC by 2030, and India could possibly go beyond that too. Of the 150 ACC GWh of battery manufacturing in the country, we are very fortunate to get 30 GWh of that in our state itself,” he further added.
Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Founder and President, India Energy Storage Alliance and President & MD, Customized Energy Solutions (CES) added “India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has a vision to make India a global hub for R&D, manufacturing, and adoption of advanced energy storage technologies. What we have seen in the last two years is a tremendous increase in enthusiasm in making this dream a reality. For many developed countries, it is not possible to localise all aspects of manufacturing, so we have an opportunity to not only support domestic giga factories coming up in India but also support global battery manufacturing capacity.”
