Exide Industries To Fund Rs 1,000 crore For Lithium-ion Cell Manufacturing

Exide Industries Ltd, a battery manufacturer, plans to invest roughly Rs 1,000 crore in its lithium-ion cell production and battery pack solutions subsidiary, Exide Energy Solutions Ltd, during the current fiscal year, according to company management. This investment is part of the Rs 5,000 crore set aside for the initial phase of its lithium-ion cell manufacturing project. 

EESL was established in 2022 as part of the company's strategy to enter the lithium-ion cell sector. Exide Industries is establishing a giga facility in Bengaluru to manufacture lithium-ion cells with a capacity of 12 GWh under EESL. The first phase of the project, with a capacity of 6GWh, is anticipated to be finished by 2025.

Exide Industries has made investments of Rs 2,300 crore in the lithium-ion cell industry so far. “As of now, we have invested Rs 2,000 crores in EESL. And earlier we invested Rs 300 crore in the pack and module-making unit. So put together, it comes to around Rs 2,300 crores. Now total investment as in phase one, capex will be approximately around INR 5,000 crores,” Exide Industries Director of Finance and CFO Asish Kumar Mukherjee said in an investor call.

The project's investment is being funded via loan funding as well as internal accruals. Three GWh of the six GWh capacity that will be added in the first phase are designated for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries and three GWh for nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries.

More than 300 experts work at EESL to assist the lithium-ion cell industry's critical execution in areas like sales, manufacturing, procurement, R&D, IT, finance, quality, and safety. Additionally, EESL operates a 1.5 GWh lithium-ion pack and module facility in Prantij, Gujarat.