Signs of green shoots in passenger vehicle and two-wheeler segment: Exide Industries boss

Exide Industries' MD & CEO Gautam Chatterjee on Tuesday said after few consecutive months of plunging sales post-Covid, there are signs of green-shoots in passenger vehicle and two-wheeler segments, where the year-on-year de-growth was much lesser than the previous months.

“The automobile sector was not performing at desired levels for the last two years. A similar situation persisted in the initial months during the post-lockdown period. However, there are some signs of an improvement in demand, particularly low-cost car as well as two wheeler segments. There is some expectation of improved demand for the automobile sector going into the festive season,” Chatterjee told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting.

"Many OEMs have registered improved sales vis-a-vis the past couple of months, and this brings back a sentiment of resolve to the sector," he added. However, Exide’s dependence on auto OEM was less than 20% and the after-market was not impacted. Exide was a leader in auto OEMs and after-market.

Chatterjee informed that two new companies - MG Motor (with its Hector model) and KIA Motors (with its Seltos) started this year with 100% use of Exide batteries.

A market leader in batteries for auto OEMs, Exide Industries said that it was committed to building capabilities and expertise for lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles and storage and the pandemic had not thrown a spanner in the plans. The company added that it expected demand for batteries to pick up in a phased manner.

It has already set up a joint venture company 'Exide Leclanche Energy Private Limited' with technical and financial collaboration with Europe’s energy storage solutions provider, Leclanché.

Chatterjee said, the JV was well placed with an assembly line with a capacity of 1.5 GWh to take a leading position in the lithium-ion battery market in India.

“Production lines have been ordered for battery pack assembly for cylindrical, prismatic and pouch cells, with some of them already in operation as we speak today. Many pilot orders have been collected from multiple automotive OEMs, as well as large telecom operators, UPS manufacturers and solar PV companies,” he added.

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be an advantage for Exide as far as lithium ion batteries are concerned. “Many of our OEMs who were planning to go to China for the batteries are now coming back to us,” Chatterjee explained.

He also spoke about introducing 'ultra-batteries' and other solutions in the energy storage space and the lithium chemistry domain. Chatterjee said with declining upfront costs and gradual improvement in technology, higher production of electrified vehicles is feasible now.