Exide Industries, India's largest manufacturer of lead acid storage batteries and power storage solutions provider, and Leclanché SA, one of the world’s leading energy storage solution companies, headquartered in Switzerland, announced a joint venture to build lithium-ion batteries and provide energy storage systems for India's electric vehicle market and grid-based applications.
With all the major cities in the world suffering from record-breaking pollution levels, there is an urgent need for radical new ways to power transport. Countries all over the world are working to find alternative solutions to reduce harmful NOx emissions, which are damaging to human health and the environment.
As part of the JV, Leclanché will provide access to its knowhow and intellectual property for lithiumion cells, modules and battery management systems and Exide Industries will leverage its extensive sales network and brand. As a result of this unique combination, the JV is ideally positioned to be a leading provider of storage solutions for electric vehicles and energy storage applications in India and will also contribute to developing solutions to increase the amount of renewable energy that is used and reduce India's dependence on fossil fuels.
The JV's production plant will be based in Gujarat. Exide Industries, who are committed to setting up large-scale manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, will be the majority shareholder and Leclanché will be the strategic minority shareholder of the JV. A module and battery pack assembly line is expected to be operational by Q2 2019 and a lithium-ion cell production plant is expected to be in operation by mid-2020. In the intervening period, cells will be sourced from Leclanché's plant in Willstätt, Germany.
The JV will focus on e-transport, stationary energy storage systems and specialty storage markets. In e-transport, the target segment is fleet vehicles including e-buses, e-wheelers and e-rickshaws.
Gautam Chatterjee, CEO of Exide Industries, said, "Leclanché SA is the perfect partner for us in India. The Company brings superior technology, modules and battery management systems, as well as immediate access to engineering resources to build market-ready products.
This ideally compliments our leading position in the lead acid storage battery market in India and will allow us to take the lead in the lithium-ion battery industry, which is expected to grow significantly in the next few years.
Efforts to develop alternate state-of-the-art technologies such as lithium-ion batteries and energy storage solutions are an important step in tackling the environmental challenges."
Shares of the company declined Rs 0.8, or 0.32%, to trade at Rs 247.00. The total volume of shares traded was 16,191 at the BSE (9.22 a.m., Thursday).
