India’s Reliance Infrastructure is exploring the possibility of manufacturing electric cars and batteries. The company, part of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, is seeking partnerships, including with Chinese firms, and aims to finalize its plans in the coming months. External consultants have been hired to carry out a “cost feasibility” study for setting up an EV plant with an initial production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year, which could be expanded to 750,000 over time, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters.
Reliance Industries is also assessing the feasibility of establishing a battery manufacturing plant, starting with a capacity of 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) and scaling up to 75 GWh over the next decade. Following the Reuters report, the company's shares, which were initially down by 0.2%, closed nearly 2% higher. Anil Ambani, the younger brother of Mukesh Ambani, heads Reliance Infrastructure. The broader Reliance Group has diverse business interests, including oil and gas, telecommunications, and retail.
In 2005, the wealthiest person in Asia, Mukesh Ambani, and his younger brother, Anil, divided their businesses. Crucially, Mukesh Ambani's business is also engaged in the production of batteries. Anil Ambani began producing batteries concurrently with the introduction of cars, meaning that the two brothers were competing in the race for electric vehicles.
