Exide's lithium-ion cell project secures Rs 2,000 crore line of credit from banks

Exide's lithium-ion cell project secures Rs 2,000 crore line of credit from banks

Exide Industries Ltd's Rs 6,000 crore lithium-ion cell manufacturing project has secured a line of credit of Rs 2,000 crore from banks. Exide's wholly owned subsidiary, Exide Energy Solutions Limited, will be taking the credit facility for rolling out its lithium-ion cell manufacturing and associated projects, which are coming up near Bangalore, a company official said.

Exide has extended a corporate guarantee in favour of five banks for the sanctioned line of credit, the company informed the stock exchanges. The five lenders are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HSBC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The subsidiary will utilise the funds in tranches.

Earlier, Exide MD and CEO Subir Chakraborty had said that the estimated project cost for the first phase would be Rs 4,000 crore, with a capacity of 6 GWh (gigawatt hour). The total project capacity of the project is 12 GWh. Exide Industries has also applied for regulatory approvals for the merger of its wholly-owned subsidiary Exide Energy Private Limited (EEPL) with Exide Energy Solutions (EESL) to bring all lithium battery business entities under a single roof.

EEPL has a 1.5 GW fully automated lithium-ion battery packs and modules manufacturing plant at Prantij, Gujarat. EESL is the promoter of the lithium cell plant. The construction of the greenfield lithium-ion cell manufacturing project at Bangalore is in full swing and we expect to commence the first phase by the end of next year (2024-25), Chakraborty told shareholders at the recent company's annual general meeting.

Despite the possibility of a multi-chemistry energy mix in the future, the company remains bullish on lithium-ion. Approximately 70 per cent of lithium-ion battery demand is expected to come from automotive applications, with the remainder coming from industrial applications. Meanwhile, in 2023-24, Exide Industries has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 700 crore so far towards increasing capacity, technology upgradation, and meeting statutory and compliance requirements.