JSW Group in talks with Chinese carmaker Leapmotor for EV tech: Report

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : India's steel-to-energy JSW Group is in early talks with Chinese automaker Leapmotor to license technology to build electric vehicles in India, according to people familiar with the discussions. Under the technology licensing agreement, JSW would use Leapmotor's platform - the structural underpinnings of a car on which it is built - to manufacture EVs in India under its own brand name, the sources said, in the company's second attempt to enter the growing business. JSW is likely to use a single platform on which it can build at least three mid-sized sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), one of the sources said, adding that Leapmotor will also engineer the cars for the Indian company.

The sources did not say when production might begin. The group has also been in talks to buy a stake in MG Motor India, owned by China's SAIC Motor Corp, for its EV push in the country but those discussions have slowed, the person added. India's EV market is small, with Tata Motors dominating sales that made up less than 2% of all cars sold last fiscal year.

But growth is rapid and the government wants to boost EV sales to 30% of the total by 2030. "JSW wants to sell cars under its own brand for which they need the technology more than an investment or joint venture in an existing carmaker," said one of the people, adding that it had been in talks with a few other Chinese automakers as well. All sources declined to be identified as the talks are still ongoing and a final decision has not been made.

Leapmotor declined to comment. While JSW declined to comment, its billionaire chairman Sajjan Jindal has publicly talked about his intention to build EVs and its discussions with MG Motor. The company made its first attempt to get into EVs in