Digital transformation unlocking significant capacity expansion without capital investment - company added 6 million battery capacity above existing levels without major capex through Industry 4.0 initiatives.

“We are almost able to add 6 million battery capacity over and above our existing capacities without adding much of a capex. So all this should give us more help in the coming period, we'll be able to meet higher demand requirements without much of a capex getting invested in some of these areas.”

— Y. Delli Babu, CFO

“Chinese pricing aggression forcing strategic recalibration of New Energy expansion plans, with management openly acknowledging investment decisions now "much hinged" on ability to compete with Chinese cell pricing.”

“Obviously, our investment decisions will also be much hinged – further investment decisions are much hinged on our confidence in being able to meet these prices. We believe that we're going to definitely be paying anywhere from 15%, 20% penalty to make cells in India on day 1.”

— Vikramadithya Gourineni, Executive Director - New Energy Business

“Export vulnerability emerging as trade policy uncertainty puts 12-13% annual growth driver at risk, with management admitting to "wait-and-watch" mode on key revenue segment.”

“But at this point of time, it is still a bit of a flux situation today, maybe one month or maybe two months down the line, how based on these trade agreement discussions, how they pan out might give us an idea which way this is going.”

— Y. Delli Babu, CFO

High trading revenue dependency (15% of total revenue) masking organic growth quality and margin improvement potential, with management indicating continued reliance even after tubular plant restart.

“Going forward, obviously, once we start our manufacturing activity, the amount of trading that we do will come down, but we will still need some batteries through the vendors because our requirement will be higher than what the capacity that we have put up.”

— Y. Delli Babu, CFO

New Energy expansion entirely dependent on Lead Acid cash generation with ₹2,000-2,500 crore Phase 1 funding requirement, creating strategic vulnerability if core business margins deteriorate.

“From our cash flow management point of view, we believe the first phase would require in the New Energy Business close to INR2,000 crores to INR2,500 crores, which we believe we can easily meet with our existing lead acid business cash flow generation.”

— Y. Delli Babu, CFO