Ashok Leyland starts construction of a new battery pack plant in India
The new factory will be a greenfield facility in the SIPCOT Pillaipakkam Industrial Park, about 43 kilometres from Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The project entails an investment of 4–5 billion rupees (approx. 37–46 million euros) and is the first phase of the total 75-billion-rupee (approx. 694 million euros) investment the company announced for Tamil Nadu in September last year.
Initially, Ashok Leyland will manufacture the battery packs using cells imported from China’s CALB Group, and according to a report from Autocar Professional, they will be LFP units. The company has confirmed that CALB Group will serve only as a supplier and will not make any investments in the project. It is targeting a 2027 start of production and has yet to disclose a more specific timeline.
Ashok Leyland plans to use the locally manufactured battery packs for its own electric vehicles and will also supply them to other EV manufacturers as well as energy storage companies. In September last year, the company said that it would invest more than 50 billion rupees (approx. 463 million euros) in its battery pack localisation initiatives over the next seven to ten years.
In addition to the Ashok Leyland brand, the company markets EVs through its Switch Mobility subsidiary. In the first nine months of FY2026, it sold 850 electric buses and approximately 1,200 electric light commercial vehicles through Switch Mobility. The company has an order book of 1,350 Switch EVs, MD and CEO Shenu Agarwal said during the Q3 FY2026 earnings conference call last month.
“Ashok Leyland, along with its subsidiary, Switch Mobility, have already developed a vast range of electric Commercial Vehicles, and have taken a lead position in the EV market. The groundbreaking of the new battery pack manufacturing facility marks an important step in our electric mobility journey and reinforces our commitment to building a strong domestic EV ecosystem,” said Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman, Ashok Leyland.
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