BATTERIES INCLUDED: AMARA RAJA'S GAME PLAN

The company wants to become India's biggest lithium-ion battery maker. But does it have what it takes?

- N Madhavan

We are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation," says Jayadev Galla, chairman and managing director of Amara Raja Batteries Ltd, India's second-largest lead-acid battery manufacturer.

The battery industry is in the throes of change with the emergence of lithium-ion batteries, which are enjoying a boom in demand thanks to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles.

If Amara Raja does not invest in the new technology, it will be finished. If it does, Galla explains, its margins will take a hit in the interim as the imported content in a lithium-ion battery will be high and the stock market will punish the company.

The Amara Raja boss, however, is clear that he will not miss the bus. A lot has happened in the last few quarters. Amara Raja has announced a ₹9,500 crore investment in a lithium-ion Giga factory at Divitipalli in Mehaboob Nagar district of Telangana (a Giga factory produces lithium-Ion batteries on a large scale). It has laid the foundation for a state-of-the-art research facility near Hyderabad, which will look into not just lithium-ion batteries but also other advanced cell chemistries. Indeed, over the long term, Amara Raja harbours ambitions of becoming India’s biggest li-ion battery maker.