Munoth Industries Begins Pre-production at India’s First Lithium Cell Plant
Chennai-based Munoth Industries Ltd. (MIL) has begun pre-production of Lithium cells at its facility situated in one of Tirupati’s Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) on 16th September 2022. This unit is the first Lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility to be developed by an Indian firm.
Munoth’s Lithium-ion cell facility is to be developed in three phases with a total investment of Rs. 799 crore. “In the first phase, we will invest ₹165 crore to produce 20,000 cells of 10Amp hours (Ah) capacity daily and employ about 250 people”, said Jaswant Munoth, Vice President, MIL. In this phase, the company will manufacture cells for small electronics, phones and wearable devices. The following two phases will cater to producing Lithium-ion cells for Battery Storage Systems and Electric Vehicles.
Mr. Munoth added that currently, India imports Lithium-ion cells worth Rs. 15,000 to 20,000 crore annually from Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and South Korea and that MIL’s facility will be fulfiling 60% of the country’s Li-ion cell requirements.