Exide-Leclanche JV to scale up production at India battery plant (updated)

Leclanche SA

06/05/2022 14:23

(Recasts May 5 story with executive comments)
    By Aditi Shah
    NEW DELHI, May 5 (Reuters) - Nexcharge, a joint venture
between Indian battery maker Exide Industries  EXID.NS  and
Switzerland's Leclanche SA  LECN.S , will scale up production at
its lithium-ion battery plant to 100% within four years, the
company's CEO said on Friday.  
    The plant, where it started mass production of batteries on
Thursday, is currently operating at 30%-40% of its total
installed capacity of 1.5 Gigawatt hours (GWh), Chief Executive
Stefan Louis told Reuters. 
    "We have capacity to meet customer demand for the next few
years," Louis said, adding that the company is on a "fast-track"
to cater to demand from the mobility and utility sectors. 
    Nexcharge said it has so far invested 2.5 billion rupees
($33 million) in building and setting up the plant, which also
has a cell testing lab.
    The push by Nexcharge comes as Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's government is giving billions of dollars in incentives to
companies to build clean cars and their components, including
batteries, locally.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VK0GA
    Electric vehicles and clean energy are critical to India
meeting its carbon reduction and climate change goals.   
($1 = 76.2826 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Aditi Shah;
Editing by Bill Berkrot and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
 ((aditi.shah@tr.com; +91-11-4954 8023, +91-11-3015 8023;
Reuters Messaging: twitter: @aditishahsays))