Exide to start making lithium-ion battery from next fiscal

Battery maker Exide Industries plans to start manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in the second quarter of next fiscal, an official said on Thursday.

"Our capital expenditure would be Rs 1,100 crore in the current fiscal ... The bulk of capex would be deployed in Haldia plant (in West Bengal)," said company's Managing Director and CEO G. Chatterjee.

The battery maker has been pursuing the development of lithium-ion technology for applications in the emerging demands for electric vehicles.

The company, recently, bought over the Gujarat facility of Tudor India, a part of US-based Exide Technologies, Chatterjee said.

"It is a 16-acre plant and the bulk of this facility will be used for lithium- ion battery. We intend to start lithium-ion battery in a year from now (by second quarter of 2019-20)," he said after the company's 71st Annual General Meeting.

Chatterjee also pointed out that the company was focusing at reducing lead dependency in the years to come due to volatility of raw material price. It was looking to develop a new bipolar battery technology in association with a US-based company.

"We are currently working on bipolar lead acid storage batteries and have entered into a technical agreement with Advanced Battery Concepts for acquiring the know-how," he said.

The company has not yet decided the location of the plant for manufacturing bipolar batteries.

"These bipolar batteries may be manufactured in Haldia plant or Hosur (TamilNadu). It would depend on what kind of batteries we will develop first. If it is for telecom, the plant would be in Hosur and for e-rickshaw, the plant would be in Haldia," Chatterjee said.

The company has secured 40 acre land in West Bengal's Haldia for expanding its existing plant and setting up a scrap battery recycling plant.

The city-based battery maker has two recycling plants, one each in Bangalore and Pune.

--IANS

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