Exide Industries to invest ₹1,400 crore in FY27 for lithium-ion cell plant in Bengaluru

Storage battery major Exide Industries said on Friday that it is planning to invest around ₹1,400 crore this fiscal for the first phase of the multi giga watt hour (GWh) greenfield lithium-ion cell manufacturing project, which is expected to start generating revenue from the third quarter.

The company has already invested around ₹4,800 crore in the lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant in Bengaluru. In a post-AGM media interaction, Exide Industries Managing Director and CEO Avik Roy said the company is looking to begin the supply of indigenous lithium-ion batteries to electric vehicle makers and energy storage players from Q3FY27.

“We expect revenue to start flowing in from the Bengaluru plant by the third quarter of the current financial year. Initially, we will replace imported lithium iron phosphate cells for our Gujarat battery pack plant catering to the three-wheeler segment. By the end of the financial year, we also expect to start supplying for certain two-wheeler battery pack applications and nickel manganese cobalt cells for OEMs, subject to the homologation and approval process,” Roy told mediapersons.

He said the company expects to begin utilise around 3 GWh of the Bengaluru plant’s 6 GWh first-phase capacity during this fiscal.

“I am pleased to share that our giga factory in Bengaluru is progressing well towards operational readiness, with utility installations completed for all four lines. The facility is designed for multiple chemistries, including LFP & NCM, and multiple form factors, including cylindrical and prismatic cells. In the first quarter of FY27, we dispatched samples from our factory, an important milestone for this business. These milestones give us confidence that we are moving in the right direction,” the Managing Director told shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting.

Industry estimates project domestic demand for lithium-ion cells to rise to around 130 GWh by 2030, of which nearly 100 GWh is expected to come from electric vehicles. Exide Industries is targeting around ₹20,000 crore revenue by FY28 from its core lead-acid business. The company clocked standalone revenue of ₹17,269 crore in FY26, registering year-on-year growth of 4.1 per cent.

“We enter FY27 with confidence and optimism. The opportunities are encouraging across automotive OEM, automotive replacement, industrial UPS, railways, solar, data centres and infrastructure. At the same time, we are mindful of broader risks like geopolitical events and input cost volatility, among others,” Roy added.