Exide enters the lithium-ion batteries industry

The joint venture agreement was signed on 27 June this year and the plan for the company is to address India's transition to green energy and clean transportation. The JV's production plant will be based in Gujarat, in western India. Exide Industries, who are committed to setting up large-scale manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, will be the majority shareholder and Leclanché will be a strategic minority shareholder of the JV. A module and battery pack assembly line is expected to be operational by the second quarter 2019 and a lithium-ion cell production plant is expected to be running by mid 2020. In the intervening period, cells will be sourced from Leclanché's plant in Willstätt, Germany. The will focus on e-transport, stationary energy storage systems and speciality storage markets. In e-transport, the target segment is fleet vehicles including e-buses, e-wheelers and e-rickshaws. Gautam Chatterjee, CEO of Exide Industries, said: "Leclanché SA is the perfect partner for us in India. The Company brings superior technology, modules and battery management systems, as well as immediate access to engineering resources to build market-ready products.”