India's Reliance Infra weighs EV push, taps ex-BYD exec, sources say

Reliance Infrastructure hires consultants for EV plant feasibility study, plans to manufacture batteries, sources say.

India's Reliance Infrastructure is considering plans to manufacture electric cars and batteries, and has hired a former India executive at China's BYD Co. to advise on its plans, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The company, part of Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, has hired external consultants to conduct a "cost feasibility" study for setting up an EV plant with an initial capacity of about 250,000 vehicles a year, to be scaled up to 750,000 over some years, the first source said.

It is also looking at the feasibility of building a battery plant starting with 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) of capacity and scaling up to 75 GWh over a decade, the person added.

Reliance Infrastructure did not respond to a request for comment on its plans, which are being reported for the first time. Shares of the company, which were down 0.2% before the Reuters report, closed nearly 2% higher after it was published.

Former BYD executive Sanjay Gopalakrishnan, who has joined as a consultant to advise on the EV project, did not respond to a request for comment.

Anil Ambani is the younger brother of Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man and head of Reliance Industries, which has interests ranging from oil and gas to telecoms and retail. The brothers split the family business in 2005.

Mukesh's company is already working to locally manufacture batteries and this week won a bid to receive government incentives for 10 GWh of battery cell production.