Saint-Gobain eyes EV battery management

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₹8,000 crore to be spent on capital expenditure and acquisitions between 2021 and 2025. About 10% of the allocation was for acquisitions and company has already spent it. “We have already invested the allotted ₹600 crore- ₹800 crore for mergers & acquisitions (M&A), but we aren’t constrained by those targets, we are only constrained by opportunities and demand growth...We also have global ambitions in this.

So, it could be that some of that could come if there is a global acquisition," he said. The glassmaker provides various glass solutions for the automotive industry, with EVs being a large part of it. And the company will primarily concentrate to strengthen its electric mobility solutions business in the EV segment, where it provides special materials for insulating battery pack like thermal insulation barriers, battery management, gaskets, and provide seals to make sure that they are waterproof.

“We have several solutions in this, whatever the battery type that is going to happen, we have an opportunity in all of that...but we will only be in battery management. We have materials that go into making batteries, but the final battery manufacturing, we will leave it to battery experts," he added. Electric vehicle sales in the country hit a record high during fiscal 2023 registering a year-on-year increase of 155% at about 1.2 million.

While a whopping 95% of the sales came from two- and three-wheelers, the segment is estimated to register similar growth in the current fiscal. Saint-Gobain India earlier acquired Uttar Pradesh-based Twiga Fiberglass Ltd, a company that manufactures glass wool, through SG’s technology for ₹400 crore, and last year Rockwool India Pvt. Ltd, a manufacturer of stone wool in India with a wide