The Hindu Business Line : Amara Raja gears up for battery-driven car markets

Chennai, May 26 Amara Raja Batteries Ltd is gearing up for an era of battery-powered cars in India. The company is talking to “a few Indian passenger car manufacturers” to develop batteries for them, the company’s Managing Director, Mr Jay Galla, told Business Line on Monday.

True, the market for battery-driven cars is practically non-existent in India, but that will change. Vehicle manufacturers will come up with hybrid versions and those cars will need batteries.

For ARBL, the task on hand is not so much the technology for batteries as the use of the technology for developing an appropriate product for the Original Equipment Manufacturers. ARBL’s American collaborator, Johnson Controls, has the technology for Lithium Ion batteries, through a joint venture with the French battery producer, Saft.

Tech roadmap

Johnson Controls, which has a 26 per cent stake in ARBL (same as Indian promoters, the Galla family), is working with Saft on developing next-generation batteries that have a significantly lower weight and appreciably reduce petrol consumption.

“We will have access to that technology,” Mr Galla said. “We are watching the market closely. We have the technology roadmap for that.”

ARBL has just rolled-out a range of two-wheeler batteries and the plant that produces these small batteries can also produce those needed for powering electric motorcycles. There is a very small, but growing market for electric bikes —last year, 1-lakh such vehicles were sold. Two-wheeler manufacturers such as Hero Electric and TVS are working to expand this market.

Meanwhile, ARBL expects to start providing engineering design services to Johnson Control. Providing the services for a fee was a plan the Indian and American promoters of ARBL discussed five years ago. The idea was shelved for want of confidence. But now, the landscape has changed, with Johnson Control having bought-out a Chinese company and picked up majority stake in a Korean company. Johnson Controls is now willing to use ARBL to service the Asian market.

Divide and rule

Before Johnson Controls made those acquisitions in Asia, ARBL was its sole presence in the continent. Today, ARBL finds itself competing with its collaborator’s ventures in the neighbourhood. Johnson Controls’ increased presence in Asia has created a different set of dynamics.

“We have broken up the world into areas where one of us is strong, neither of us is strong and both of us are strong. We have to address each segment in a different manner,” Mr Galla said, when asked to comment on the relationship between Indian promoters and Johnson Control.

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