Exide Industries is fundamentally a bet that the lead-acid battery still has decades of life left in it. Founded in 1946 and profitable ever since, the company built a near-eight-decade dominance by making the widest range of these batteries on earth - from tiny 2.5Ah cells to submarine-sized 20,200Ah units - and then, instead of retreating as the world talked about lithium, it doubled down with a "last-man-standing" mindset while quietly building a lithium-ion gigafactory of its own. The recurring pattern is circular: it sells a battery, buys back the dead one, recycles the lead, and makes a new battery - a loop that cuts costs, locks in customers, and funds the next venture.
Business segments
Two engines, one old and one new - a lead-acid cash cow that touches every vehicle and home, and a lithium-ion bet under construction that aims to power the electric vehicles those same customers will buy next.
1. Lead-acid batteries: the circular cash engine
A 92% core business that makes money on every battery sold, then makes money again by recovering the lead from the old one - all while competitors walk away.
- Widest range in the world - the company makes lead-acid batteries from 2.5Ah to 20,200Ah, covering everything from motorcycles to naval submarines, which means no single customer or end-market can destabilise the whole business.
- Replacement demand is built-in - in the automotive aftermarket, a battery sold to a carmaker today becomes a replacement sale roughly three years later, so the installed base of vehicles creates a recurring revenue stream that lags but never disappears.
- Half its lead comes from its own recycler - subsidiary Chloride Metals runs three plants with 346 KMT of refining capacity and supplied about 50% of Exide's lead needs in FY26, insulating the company from the full swing of London Metal Exchange prices.
- Old batteries are bought back, not discarded - end-of-life batteries are recovered through pricing mechanisms, buyback schemes, and auctions tailored to dealers, institutions, and OEMs, so nearly 79% of all lead used comes from recycled inputs.
2. Lithium-ion cell manufacturing: the greenfield bet
A 12 GWh gigafactory being built from scratch with a Chinese technology partner, already lined up to supply Hyundai's electric cars in India - a business that does not yet sell but has already locked in its first big customer.
- Turnkey plant, not a science experiment - the Bengaluru gigafactory is being built with SVOLT Energy Technology of China, which has roughly 500 lithium-ion R&D experts and is delivering the plant on a turnkey basis, compressing the time to stabilisation.
- Two chemistries, multiple shapes - the factory is designed for both LFP and NMC chemistries in cylindrical and prismatic form factors, so it can serve electric vehicles and stationary storage from the same site.
- Hyundai signed on before the first cell shipped - a binding term sheet with Hyundai Motor India makes EESL a named supplier of cells and packs for its Indian electric vehicles, a process that takes 1.5 to 2 years of homologation and gives Exide a head start over anyone starting now.
- Just-in-time beats importing from China - by manufacturing locally, EESL can offer OEMs delivery on demand rather than forcing them to hold weeks of inventory and working capital on battery imports.
- Rs. 4,802 crore already committed - the parent has funded the subsidiary entirely through equity, with cumulative investment reaching that figure by March 2026, so the project carries no debt on its own books.
Group structure and partners
A listed parent with two wholly owned subsidiaries - one that recycles lead, one that makes lithium cells - plus a web of technology partners that supply the recipes for both chemistries.
- Chloride Metals Limited is the recycling arm, operating three lead plants in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and West Bengal with 346 KMT of refining capacity, acquired in 1998 and now supplying half the parent's lead.
- Exide Energy Solutions Limited houses the entire lithium-ion play - cells from the Bengaluru gigafactory and modules and packs from a 1.5 GWh facility in Prantij, Gujarat, which was originally built under a joint venture with Switzerland's Leclanché and later folded in.
- SVOLT Energy Technology Co. Ltd is the turnkey partner for lithium-ion cell manufacturing, bringing the process know-how and supply-chain access that let EESL start with proven technology rather than inventing it.
- East Penn Manufacturing (USA) provides technology for the advanced AGM lead-acid batteries used in start-stop and ADAS-equipped vehicles, extending the lead-acid franchise into higher-value automotive applications.
- Two captive solar SPVs - a 26% stake in Clean Max Arcadia (14.85 MWp for the Bawal factory) and a 26% stake in Clean Max Beta (17 MWp for the Bengaluru gigafactory) - lock in clean power at predictable costs.