To acquire batteries for its electric vehicles (EVs) on Indian roadways, Hyundai Motor and Kia will work with Indian battery manufacturer Exide Energy Solutions.
On Monday, the two Korean automakers said that they had inked a memorandum of understanding with the business to get lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, a technology that is widely used in China.
As per the deal, Hyundai’s plants in India will get Exide Energy’s batteries, which will be installed in electric vehicles (EVs) intended for sale in that area.
In order to increase its overall production capacity to one million, Hyundai Motor recently purchased a General Motors facility in Maharashtra. Hyundai Motor currently operates a manufacturing site in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost region of India.
Recently, LFP batteries have gained attention as automakers race to produce more affordable electric vehicles. Lower cost but lower energy density are seen in LFP batteries compared to the highly effective nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries made in Korea.
A prominent supplier of lead-acid batteries with over 75 years of experience, Exide Industries is the parent company of Exide Energy Solutions, which was founded in 2022. By year’s end, it will begin making LFP batteries in large quantities.
According to Yang Heui-won, head of Hyundai Motor and Kia’s R&D division, “India is a key market for vehicle electrification due in part to the government’s carbon neutrality goals, which make securing cost competitiveness through localized battery production crucial,”
“Through this global partnership with Exide Energy Solutions, we will gain a competitive advantage by equipping Hyundai Motor and Kia’s future EV models in the Indian market with locally produced batteries.”
Hyundai Motor announced last year that it would develop 100 EV charging stations and a battery pack manufacturing plant in India over the course of the next ten years, investing about 200 billion rupees ($2.45 billion).
India possesses the third-largest automobile market globally, following China and the US. In recent years, Hyundai Motor has progressively increased its sales in India, now ranking second only to Maruti Suzuki.
