October 25, 2018: Indian lead-acid battery giant Amara Raja confirmed on October 15 it is setting up another car battery plant in the Andhra Pradesh Corridor, the same district as its existing plants.
A budget of Rp700 crore ($95 million) has been earmarked for the new plant, which has a projected capacity of 6.5 million units in a first phase.
Eventually the capacity will reach 10.8 million units, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in India, the company says.
The existing car battery plants already make batteries for four and two-wheelers, as well as LVRLAs — large valve-regulated lead acid batteries.
Although in its 2017-2018 annual report Amara Raja mentioned the importance of lithium-ion batteries and their advantages over lead acid (charge time, efficiency, size), the company also forecast a compound annual growth rate of 8.36% up to 2022 for its core lead acid technology.
“Two-wheelers are among the largest user of SLI batteries and the automotive segment contributes in excess of 60% of the total turnover of the Indian lead acid battery market,” the report says.
“The automotive sector, smart cities, digital India program, shift towards data-driven telecom services, solar power projects etc will lead to a surge in demand for lead-acid batteries in India.”
Earlier in October, BESB reported on the agreement reached between Johnson Controls and Amara Raja, which pledged to bring new battery technologies to India.
The two firms have been working together for 20 years, and the new pact will share product design and manufacturing technologies for SLI, EFB and AGM batteries.