Nexcharge starts making lithium-ion batteries in Gujarat

Nexcharge, a joint venture between India's Exide Industries Limited and Swiss-based Leclanché SA, has begun the mass production of lithium-ion battery packs at its factory in Prantij, Gujarat.

The plant, which is spread across six lakh square feet, has six fully automated assembly lines and testing labs with an installed capacity of 1.5 GWh.

Exide and Leclanche pumped in Rs 250 crore to set up the plant, which will see its six assembly lines used to make about 150 products that the company developed in the last four years.

"The six assembly lines will make modules using cells and then convert those modules into battery packs of various forms including pouch, prismatic and cylindrical to cater to the energy storage requirement of India's electric vehicle market and industrial applications,” Nexcharge Chief Executive Officer Stefan Louis said.

Nexcharge offers battery packs for many products including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, personal and commercial vehicles and inverters.

The company, which has an in-house R&D facility in Bengaluru, currently sources its cells from China. It has 35 clients in India.

"However, we plan to localise up to 95% of our inputs in the next two years since about a dozen cell-making Giga factories are expected to come up in that time," Louis said.

Nexcharge's majority shareholder Exide had earlier applied for the battery production-linked incentive scheme announced by the government but was placed on a waitlist.