Industrial and automotive battery major Amara Raja Batteries on Saturday (6 May) held a ground-breaking ceremony for lithium-ion cell gigafactory in Mahbubnagar district in Telangana to produce Lithium Cell and Battery Pack.

The ground-breaking ceremony officially marked the beginning of ‘Amara Raja Giga Corridor’ which includes first-of-its kind advanced energy research centre in Hyderabad and giga scale manufacturing of advanced cell technology products.

The giga scale cell production facility will be India’s largest Li-Ion Cell manufacturing facility with 16 GWh (giga watt hour) cell manufacturing output and a Battery Pack Assembly unit up to 5 GWh.

For Amara Raja, whose corporate office is in Hyderabad, this would be first manufacturing investment in Telangana. The company, whose existing battery manufacturing plants are in Chittoor and Tirupati, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, made the decision after evaluating multiple locations in south and western India and the incentive package offered by the States.

At its Tirupati facility, the company has been working on Li-ion cell chemistries and supplying, as part of a pilot project, lithium battery packs and chargers to some 2 and 3-wheeler OEMs.

The foray into advanced cell chemistry manufacturing is the latest in its pivot to becoming an ‘Energy & Mobility’ enterprise.

Rs 9500 crore Investment

Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL) had earlier said it will be investing over Rs 9,500 crore, over a period of 10 years to spur development of a comprehensive EV and ACC (Advanced Cell Chemistry) ecosystem in Telangana, thus creating a large-scale manufacturing hub, creating many direct and indirect jobs.

This is not only the group’s largest investment till date, but it is also India’s largest investment in advanced cell chemistry till date.  

Earlier in November 2022, the company had signed an MoU with the State government for the state’s first Lithium-ion Battery Gigafactory facility in Divitipally, Mahabubnagar district.

The facility also aims to create direct employment for about 4,500 people and a similar number of indirect jobs that will make significant contributions to the socio-economic development of the region.

E-Hub

The ARBL has recently signed a land lease agreement with GMR to set up an Advanced Energy Research and Innovation Centre, called the E-Hub, at GMR Aerospace & Industrial Park, AeroCity Hyderabad.

The R&D centre spread across approximately 7 acres in the Industrial Zone of the AeroCity centre will be a one-of-a-kind institute in India that will pioneer the development of advanced clean energy technologies for mobility and energy storage.

The E-Hub will be equipped with advanced laboratories and testing infrastructure for material research, prototyping, product life cycle analysis and Proof of Concept demonstration.

This will cater to the development needs of the Amara Raja as well as to provide a range of facilities open to other players in the energy and mobility ecosystem.