Amara Raja giga factory will start operations next year

Leading automotive battery maker Amara Raja will have the first giga factory up and running before the end of next year, President Vijayanand Samudrala told the India Battery Manufacturing and Supply Chain Summit in Hyderabad today.

Outlining Amara Raja's upcoming complex, he said: "We will have 3-4 individual factory buildings, dealing with two chemistries, both NMC as well as LFP and two formats, cylindrical as well as prismatic." Amara Raja is aiming for 16 GWh of lithium-ion battery cells capacity and up to 5 GWh of battery capacity. "These will cater to a range of mobility as well as energy storage applications," Samudrala told the conference, adding: "The first phase will be completed in less than 24 months, which means our first giga factory will be operational before the end of next calendar year (2025)."

"We are also setting up our E Positive Energy Lab on 300,000 square feet of built-up space," he said, referring to Amara Raja's upcoming R&D facility close to the airport, adding that a significant part of the facility would be dedicated for collaborating with customer, supplier partners, start-ups and innovation entities "so that we create an ecosystem, an infrastructure, for those who want to try innovative technologies."

Referencing his visits to giga factories across Europe, China and Korea and other countries, Samudrala outlined what was necessary for giga factories to flourish, pointing out the importance of an ecosystem rather than just a large standalone factory.

"Giga factories require an integrated approach that marries high technology, large capex, giga scale factories with an eco-system, so it is not just about a large standalone factory, but also trunk infrastructure in terms of road connectivity, water availability, power facilities, training facilities and upstream and downstream value chain players," he told the audience.