The paint-to-steel conglomerate has selected platforms—two each for electric cars and commercial vehicles for its own EV drive, they said. The business is likely to be housed under JSW Green Mobility. Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Group is in talks with Chinese companies including Geely and BYD among others, for a potential collaboration which could include a licensing agreement or a technology transfer, as part of a strategy to become a full-fledged, mobility company with electric cars and e-trucks under its own brand, said multiple people aware of the plans.
"With high ambitions in the EV space, JSW has been having discussions with multiple established industry players in China," said one of the sources aware of the plans. These plans, including the nature and area/s of collaboration/s, are expected to be firmed up in 2025.
Geely, also the owner of Volvo Cars, and part owner of Lotus Cars, already have an indirect presence in India through these brands. BYD, another Chinese major that JSW is learnt to have had talks with, has a direct presence in India’s emerging EV market. Led by electric two and three wheelers, India’s EV market reached the 1.87 million unit-mark in the first 11 months of the year and may end 2024 just short of 2-million mark.
The paint-to-steel conglomerate has selected platforms—two each for electric cars and commercial vehicles for its own EV drive, they said. The business is likely to be housed under JSW Green Mobility.
Though JSW’s existing joint venture, JSW MG Motor India will have synergies with JSW Green Mobility, the two will have independent operations.
Queries related to the talks with Geely and others, and new business plans, sent to JSW over a week ago remained unanswered till the publishing of this report.
JSW Green Mobility plans to invest INR 27,200 crore in central Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to make electric and hybrid cars. It would produce 5 lakh electric cars and 1 lakh commercial vehicles per annum. This was one among the seven projects approved by the State cabinet in September 2024.
The company has already started hiring for the key positions. In September, it appointed Rajiv Mehta as the chief of business. It has also hired Manoj Surana, a senior executive from electric bus maker Olectra Greentech, as head – homologation, and technical.
Meanwhile, JSW, which holds a 35% stake in its current JV with SAIC, may hike ownership to 60% after a listing of JSW MG Motor India, according to one of the sources mentioned above. The listing could take place within a year or two. Post the listing, it could also be that SAIC, which currently has a 49% stake in JSW MG Motor India, will exit the JV, added the source.
JSW’s scale of ambitions in the EV space is also reflected in its reported partnership with South Korea’s LG for battery manufacturing. One of the above-mentioned sources says a deal (with a Chinese firm Changzhou Liyuan New Energy Technology) by LG to access LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery technology was a dealmaker for the collaboration between the Indian and South Korean conglomerates.
