December 1, 2022: The boss of India’s Exide Industries has said the development and sales of lead batteries continues to be the company’s “core business”, despite its foray into the lithium ion sector.
Exide CEO and MD Subir Chakraborty told a second-quarter earnings call on November 16 that the firm’s market share of the overseas lead batteries market “continues to grow rapidly” — along with increased requests for quotes to supply auxiliary lead batteries for electric vehicles.
“We are now exporting to 60 countries globally, with the largest markets being Europe, the US, Saudi Arabia and southeast Asia.”
Chakraborty also confirmed that Nexcharge, its lithium ion joint venture with Swiss battery storage firm Leclanché, was now a 100%-owned Exide subsidiary. Exide previously held an 84.90% stake in Nexcharge.
Meanwhile, Chakraborty said Exide was pushing ahead with its collaboration with SVOLT Energy Technology for lithium ion cell manufacturing in India.
SVOLT, which has its headquarters in China’s Jiangsu province, is supporting the setting up of a state-of-the art green field manufacturing plant on a turnkey basis to be built by the Exide Energy Solutions (EES) subsidiary.