The timeline for the production of battery packs by the oil-to-telecom conglomerate, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has been pushed back from 2023 to 2024, details in the company’s latest annual report suggest.
In the annual report for the financial year 2023, released on Sunday, the commencement of battery pack production is listed under 2024. This contrasts with the timeline presented a year ago at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM), where Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the company, announced, “We aim to start production of battery packs by 2023 and scale up to a fully integrated 5 Gwh annual cell to pack manufacturing facility by 2024.”
However, the timeline for scaling up to a fully integrated 5 Gwh annual cell to pack manufacturing facility remains unchanged at 2024, as indicated in the latest annual report.
An email query sent to the company on Monday received no response at the time of writing this story.
Battery manufacturing falls under RIL’s focus on the new energy business, representing a deliberate shift away from fossil fuels, which, according to Ambani’s latest statement, cannot continue for much longer.
In December 2021, RIL announced the acquisition of Faradion, a leading global sodium-ion battery technology company, for an enterprise value of 100 million pounds. RIL plans to utilise Faradion’s state-of-the-art technology at its proposed fully integrated energy storage giga-factory in Jamnagar.
According to Faradion’s website, the now wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL installed its first sodium-ion battery in Australia in December 2022.
An analyst tracking RIL, who wished to remain anonymous, downplayed the significance of the timeline change, stating, “From our vantage point, any timeline change is not a big concern, as we value the investment only at book. Further, such delays are expected with new technologies.”