Amara Raja breaks ground for customer qualification plant for EV cell manufacturing; eyes lead acid battery plant up north – Times of India

DIVITIPALLY: Battery maker Amara Raja Group, which has entered the race to set up India’s first gigafactory after players like Ola and Exide, is looking to set up a 6 million units per annum lead acid battery plant in North India.
This is part of efforts to de-risk the business and cater to markets in North and West India better, Amara Raja group chairman Jayadev Galla said at the inauguration of its 1.5GWh Lithium-ion battery pack plant and ground-breaking of its customer qualification plant (CQP) for cell manufacturing on Saturday.
The CQP, a commercial pilot plant that will manufacture cells for testing and validation by customers, is expected to be completed by March 2025, with the first cells expected to begin rolling out by April-June 2025.
Top Amara Raja officials said the first few lines of the GWh operations are expected to be commercialised by Q4 of 2026 and expansion to 16GWh will happen by FY2029. The gigafactory is being set up by Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies (ARACT), a subsidiary of Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Limited (ARE&M).
The company has already a MoUs with Piaggio Vehicles Private Limited to develop and supply Li-ion cells and chargers for its EV 3 wheelers in addition to developing cells and battery packs for its upcoming 2-wheeler offerings to be produced in India. It recently inked a pact with Ather Energy to develop and supply NMC (nickel manganese cobalt), LFP (lithium iron phosphate), Li-ion and other advanced chemistry cells from the facility.
In Dec 2022, the Tirupati-based battery maker announced plans to set up a 5GWh Li-ion battery pack assembly plant along with a 16GWh cell manufacturing facility, which it plans to expand to 30GWh.
The gigafactory is coming up on a 260-acre giga corridor that will generate over 4,500 direct jobs and as many indirect ones. ARE&M is also building an advanced energy research and innovation centre near the Hyderabad international airport called ePositive Energy Labs.