Electric vehicle maker Omega Seiki Mobility plans to invest Rs 800 crore in the next two years to set up two new facilities to manufacture batteries and powertrains, according to the company's founder and Chairman Uday Narang.
The company, a part of the Anglian Omega Group, has formed a joint venture with iM3NY, a US-based battery technology player, to bring the latter's cell technology to the Indian market and manufacture it locally.
It will also manufacture six electric vehicle powertrains with power capacities ranging from 7 KW to 34 KW, based on South Korean joint venture partner Jae Sung's technology in its bid to become a completely integrated electric vehicle (EV) OEM.
In an interaction with PTI, Narang said these technologies would give Omega Seiki Mobility (OSM) control over the critical parts of the supply chain and help it in becoming a large-scale player in the industry.
When asked about investments, he said, "We will invest Rs 800 crore over the next two years in setting up the two plants…We are going to set up the powertrain facility in Haryana…and the battery factory will be in Maharashtra".
On the battery factory, he said, "In phase one, we will primarily get cells from China and do battery packs. In the second phase, we will build a cell manufacturing facility. The first phase will start in June 2023, and then the next phase will be in 2024-25".
In terms of capacity, Narang said the company is ultimately looking at a "giga factory", but initially it would start with half of it.
As for the powertrain facility, he said the company is targeting 10,000 units this year and would gradually ramp up to 1 lakh units in the fourth year.
When asked about the funding of the investment, he said, "We will fund partly and we are also in the middle of a major fundraise of USD 100 million…but we will put money in and that will be done over the next two years. We believe that the fundraising we are discussing with various partners will close shortly".
On the shareholding of the JV with iM3NY, he said OSM would be the majority partner with a 74 per cent stake, and the remaining 24 per cent with the US-based partner, and the same is the case with the JV with Jae Sung.
OSM, which is mainly into electric three and four-wheeler cargo vehicles, expects to close this fiscal with sales of 6,000 units and in the next year, it is targeting to scale it up to 20,000 units, Narang said.
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