Exide, Amara Raja rush to monetize $1 billion Li-ion cell lines as investor questions mount

Sluggish EV adoption and long testing cycles force India’s leading battery makers into telecom and energy storage projects for quick cash flow while big automaker orders remain pending.

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India’s top battery makers, Exide Industries Ltd and Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd, are rushing to operationalize their lithium-ion cell lines amid investor pressure over returns on more than $1 billion in investments. Exide has invested $632 million so far, while Amara Raja has deployed $248 million and approved an additional $247 million this month. The push comes as both firms await large orders from car and two-wheeler makers, despite having secured preliminary tie-ups with Hyundai-Kia and Ather.

About the Author

Ayaan Kartik is a Delhi-based journalist tracking the ever-growing world of automobiles and their components. With an experience of five years ranging from short-form news at Inshorts to longform journalism at Outlook Business magazine, he has dabbled into different storytelling formats. At Mint, he tries to regularly mix story styles, from longforms to crisp news stories.

He has completed his graduation from Delhi University where he developed a liking for reading and writing about the world we live in today. Apart from automobiles, Ayaan likes to read up on geopolitics which has increasingly affected various sectors of the economy. Of all the promises journalism holds, he likes the fact that it allows a person to simply explain to readers about what is happening in the world.

And what better sector than automobiles, which everyone since growing up has seen and felt connected to. Whether it is China's increasing grip on automobiles to growing affection for EVs in the country, Ayaan likes to connect his love for geopolitics and data to his stories as readers become more demanding on the types of stories they want.

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