Tractor and utility vehicle specialist Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will explore a partnership arrangement for tapping the government announced production linked incentive (PLI) scheme on advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery storage, a top company official said.
M&M was one of the ten Indian companies that had placed bids for the ₹18,100-crore ACC PLI scheme which aims for achieving a manufacturing capacity of 50 GigaWatt Hour (GWh). Since the electric vehicle segment is going to be a long-term play, the Mumbai-based company would look at potential partners for this project for support.
Anish Shah, Managing Director and CEO, M&M, said, “It is very unlikely that we will go alone in this space. The EV space has a long way to play out. We are likely in the first 5-10 overs in a (cricket) test match and what we are looking at is how the battery technology is evolving, who are potential partners who can come in. Once we have that in place then we will look at how we take that forward. At this point, we don’t have full clarity on that.”
Shah and other senior executives of the company were talking to analysts in a post-earnings conference call.
Electric PV space
Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Farm and Automotive sectors, M&M, said, “In no scenario will be taking majority control of it. It is a potential play that we are considering but we don’t intend to lead that.”
While M&M is the leader in the organised electric three-wheeler market with brands such as Treo in the cargo and passenger segment, the company does not have an in-house cell and battery manufacturing unit. The company, however, has aggressive plans for the electric passenger vehicle segment where launches are expected to happen next year.
M&M has committed investments of ₹3,000 crore over a three-year cycle for the EV vertical. This includes development of electric SUVs, electric quadricycles and electric small and light commercial vehicles. In all, the company is eyeing 16 EV launches in seven years.
One of the first of these launches will be the electric version of the XUV300 which will be available in the Q3 or Q4 of FY23. The electric version of the KUV100 is also on the cards.
Other bidders
Last week, the Centre made public the list of 20 companies whose applications were approved for the Champion OEM Incentive scheme which is also a PLI scheme having budgetary outlay of nearly ₹26,000 crore. M&M also participated in this scheme and is among the 20 approved applicants list.
The ACC PLI scheme also saw the participation of Reliance New Energy Solar (a Reliance Industries company), Hyundai Global Motors, Ola Electric, Lucas-TVS, Amara Raja, Exide Industries, Rajesh Exports, Larsen and Toubro, India Power Corporation.
The ten bids have a collective capacity of 130 GWh which is 2.6 times the manufacturing capacity to be awarded.