Exide Industries is preparing to scale up industrial battery exports to the European Economic Area from this fiscal year under a long-term strategic cooperation agreement with Germany-based ExCom Energy Solutions, according to a stock exchange filing and statements from company officials.
Under the arrangement, ExCom will lead distribution, technical project support and after-sales coordination for Exide’s industrial batteries and energy storage systems across as many as 27 countries in the European Economic Area. The batteries will be manufactured at Exide’s plants in India and marketed and sold under the ExCom brand.
The partnership will initially focus on traction and motive-power battery solutions for material-handling equipment, logistics operations and other industrial mobility applications. It will also cover stationary battery systems used in industrial, infrastructure and energy storage applications.
Exide Industries Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Avik Roy said the European Economic Area was strategically important to the company’s industrial energy storage business because of demand for dependable, efficient and sustainable energy solutions. He said ExCom’s market access, application expertise and local execution capabilities would be combined with Exide India’s manufacturing scale, product portfolio and technological expertise.
“By combining these strengths with Exide India’s manufacturing scale, diversified product portfolio, and technological expertise, we aim to create long-term value for customers across the EEA and accelerate the growth of our industrial battery business in the region,” Roy said.
The Kolkata-based company has historically maintained a strong presence in Europe for industrial batteries, particularly traction batteries. However, a senior Exide Industries official told BusinessLine that the company’s overall export share had declined to around 5 per cent from approximately 8 per cent over the past two to three years. The official attributed the decline to geopolitical conflicts, export restrictions and market consolidation in Europe.
The new arrangement is intended to strengthen Exide’s access to European customers by giving the company a local partner for distribution, technical project support and after-sales coordination. Those functions are particularly relevant for industrial battery systems, where customers require application-specific support and continued service after installation.
Holger Aschke, Managing Director of ExCom Energy Solutions GmbH, said the companies intended to build a European platform for traction batteries while exploring additional industrial energy storage opportunities. He said the cooperation could eventually expand beyond advanced lead-acid battery technologies into selected advanced chemistry applications, depending on how the relationship develops and how demand evolves.
The immediate scope of the agreement remains focused on lead-acid batteries, traction and motive-power systems, and stationary energy storage. Any expansion into advanced chemistry solutions will depend on future cooperation and market demand, the companies said.
