IIT-Madras incubated Grinntech to start making lithium-ion batteries

Chennai, Aug 27 After developing lithium-ion automotive batteries for two and three wheelers and light commercial vehicles and raising $2 million funding from four investors, the IIT Madras incubated research and development (R&D) outfit Grinntech Motors & Services will soon start manufacturing their product at their facility here, said top company officials.

They said talks are on with domestic and overseas electric vehicle makers, power drive makers and also battery manufacturers for business.

"The company has raised $2 million from four investors. Already a sum of $1 million has gone into the company put in by the two promoters and IIT Research Park," Lakshmi Narayanan, former Vice Chairman, Cognizant and one of the investors told reporters.

The other three investors are former Vice Chairman of Ashok Leyland V. Sumantran, realtor K.S. Manian of Radiance Group and automotive component group UCAL.

Sumantran and Narayanan will be joining the board of Grinntech.

Queried about sourcing of lithium-ion for the batteries Nikhilesh Mishra, Co-Founder and CEO Grinntech, said the company is not into battery cell manufacturing and the cells will be sourced.

On the central government's decision to allow registration of electric vehicles without batteries Sumantran said it is more for developing swappable batteries.

He said electric vehicle battery makers can come up with a subscription model for fleet operators.

Mishra said the company licensing its technology to a couple of battery makers and others have got responses with over 40,000 battery installations including far off places like Leh, Ladakh and others.

( With inputs from IANS )