JSW in talks with LG Energy Solution to make EV batteries in India -sources

Toshiba

22/09/2023 02:21

(Repeats Thursay story with no change to text)
    By Aditi Shah and Neha Arora
       NEW DELHI, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Indian steel-to-energy
group JSW is in early stage talks with Korea's LG Energy
Solution (LGES)  373220.KS  about jointly manufacturing
batteries in India, two sources told Reuters, as it presses
ahead with plans to build electric vehicles locally.
    JSW held talks with senior LGES executives in Korea earlier
this month, proposing a partnership to manufacture battery cells
in India for EVs and energy storage, one of the people with
direct knowledge of the discussions said.
    LGES and JSW both declined to comment on any discussions. 
    The Indian company is also talking to other battery players
including China's CATL  300750.SZ  and Japan's Panasonic
 6752.T  and Toshiba  6502.T  as it looks to build a local
supply chain for EVs, said the second person, who is familiar
with JSW's EV plans. 
    "Due diligence wise JSW is talking to a lot of people
because it needs an ecosystem for an EV. It is looking at
storage, motors, battery management," the person added.
    LGES, which supplies battery cells to major automakers
including Tesla  TSLA.O  and General Motors  GM.N , has asked
JSW to share details of its requirements for EVs and energy
storage, the first source said.
    A third source briefed on JSW's EV plans said the company
wants to set up a factory to produce 20 gigawatt hour (Gwh) of
battery capacity in phases by the end of this decade, starting
with 8 Gwh in the first phase.
    JSW's billionaire chairman Sajjan Jindal has publicly aired
his desire to build EVs and its talks to buy a stake in China's
MG Motor  600104.SS .
    Discussions with MG Motor are now on the backburner and JSW
is in talks with Chinese automaker Leapmotor  9863.HK  to
license technology to build EVs in India under its own brand,
sources told Reuters last month.
    Panasonic declined to comment. Toshiba said it is not able
to confirm "at this point" if it is in talks with JSW for a
partnership to build battery cells. CATL did not respond to a
request for comment.
    All three sources declined to be identified as the talks are
still ongoing and a final decision has not been made.
    
    BATTERY INCENTIVES  
    India's EV market is small but growing, with home-grown Tata
Motors  TAMO.NS  dominating sales. Electric models made up less
than 2% of all cars sold last year and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's government wants to increase this to 30% by 2030. 
    It is offering companies billions of dollars in incentives
to locally produce batteries and other EV components, and is
working on a new policy for EVs that offers lower import tax in
return for investment in local manufacturing.
    Tesla is also eyeing India and is in talks with the
government to build EVs and batteries there. 
    JSW's talks with LGES come as the Korean company looks to
deepen its presence in the world's third-largest car market
where it opened an office in India's capital New Delhi earlier
this year to grow its automotive, mobility and energy storage
business, a government filing showed. 
    LGES, which already supplies imported battery cells to
India's top two electric scooter makers SoftBank group-backed
Ola Electric and home-grown rival TVS Motor  TVSM.NS , is in
talks with more companies, one of the sources added. 

 (Reporting by Aditi Shah and Neha Arora in New Delhi,
additional reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Daniel Leussink
and Miho Uranaka in Tokyo and Zhang Yan in Shanghai; Editing by
Alexander Smith)
 ((aditi.shah@tr.com; +91-11-4954 8023, +91-11-3015 8023;
Reuters Messaging: twitter: @aditishahsays))