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| Amar Raja Battery's Plant at Tirupati [Image - amararajabatteries.com] |
India's first technology hub to develop lithium-ion cells has been launched in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, by Amara Raja Batteries, the country’s second largest automotive battery maker, known for brand AMARON. The company has opened the country’s first tech hub to develop Li-ion cells at its factory in Tirupati.
Named as "Advanced Lithium-Ion Technology Research Center", the hub is the pilot project located at its the company's headquarters in Tirupati. According to S Vijayanand said. , CEO of Amara Raja Batteries, the hub will become the country’s first private-sector lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant in the coming years.
To recall, in August last year, Mumbai-based firm Epsilon Carbon has had set up India's first manufacturing facility for Li-ion battery component, that is to produce graphite anode materials for Li-ion batteries.
Amara Raja Batteries has also entered into a technology transfer agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) -- since early 2019 -- for the lithium-ion cell technology transfer. Amar Raja Batteries is among 10 companies that got the technology licence and the company have to pay only the bidding fees and technology transfer fees that have already been paid by Amara Raja.
It was in June 2018 when ISRO invited bids from local startups and suitable firms for its in-house indigenously made technology of large-scale production of lithium ion batteries.
According to a report, Lithium-ion based battery technology companies received the most VC funding in 2020, with $649 million. Other categories that received funding included Solid-state batteries, Energy storage downstream, Energy storage systems, and Flow batteries.