Amara Raja hits 1 GWh telecom lithium mark in 2026

1 GWh milestone in India’s telecom networks

Amara Raja Energy & Mobility (ARE&M) said it has deployed 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of cumulative lithium energy storage across 50,000 telecom sites in India. The company said the deployments were executed over four years, covering diverse operating conditions. ARE&M positioned the milestone as evidence that lithium storage can scale across Indian tower environments, where reliability and operating costs have historically shaped adoption decisions. The company’s statement also linked the deployment to a broader transition underway at telecom sites away from diesel generators and legacy lead-acid batteries.

Harshavardhana Gourineni, executive director at ARE&M, said the 1 GWh deployment is a “proof point” for lithium storage scalability under Indian conditions and addresses a barrier that has limited wider adoption in the tower ecosystem. The company’s business head for industrial batteries, MM Venkata Krishna, said the scale, systems, and customer relationships built in telecom can support deeper presence as 5G deployment accelerates and tower-level power demand rises.

Why telecom towers are shifting away from diesel and lead-acid

ARE&M said telecom infrastructure providers are moving mobile networks from diesel generators and lead-acid batteries to lithium-based storage systems. The migration matters because energy storage at towers is directly linked to uptime, operating costs, maintenance cycles, and fuel logistics. Lithium systems are increasingly being deployed at scale, based on the company’s description of on-ground rollouts across thousands of sites.

The company’s comments also highlight how tower operators and telecom players have moved from prolonged pilots to broader deployments. Vikram Gourineni told Moneycontrol that large telecom operators and infrastructure providers have tested lithium for several years, but adoption accelerated sharply over the past year. He specifically referenced Indus Towers as having moved to full-scale deployments.

Market share claim and competitive context

ARE&M said the milestone strengthens its position in the telecom battery segment, citing 35% cumulative market share. In a separate interaction, Vikram Gourineni described the company’s lithium market share in telecom as about 35%-40%, while competing with Southern EMEA (Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) players and Chinese imports.

The company also underscored that telecom is not new for Amara Raja, noting it had a dominating market share in lead-acid batteries for decades. The current push is framed as recreating that leadership in lithium, supported by scale in deployments and existing customer relationships across the tower ecosystem.

2026 deployment targets: doubling to 2 GWh and growth expectations

Harshavardhana Gourineni told PTI that ARE&M is looking to double cumulative lithium energy storage deployment in the telecom sector to 2 GWh this year. Separately, Vikram Gourineni said the company is projecting about 1.5 GWh of additional lithium deployment in telecom this year alone.

Taken together, the statements indicate an aggressive growth plan for telecom lithium deployments in the near term, aligned with higher tower power demand and ongoing network rollouts. Vikram Gourineni also said that over the next two to three years the company expects aggressive telecom rollouts, followed by replacement cycles, with a growing focus on stationary storage applications such as UPS and utility-scale storage.

Expansion beyond telecom: data centres and energy storage systems

ARE&M said it is sharpening focus on fast-growing telecom and data centre segments, while also highlighting energy storage systems (ESS) as a large opportunity. Vikram Gourineni said ESS could become one of the largest segments after electric vehicles.

In data centres, the company said it already has a presence through its lead-acid UPS business and is working with customers to transition to lithium. Vikram Gourineni said testing has begun at select sites, and the company expects a trajectory similar to telecom.

Cell manufacturing roadmap: pilot plant in June, gigafactory by 2027

Vikram Gourineni said Amara Raja is set to begin cell production at its pilot facility in June. He described the first capacity as a commercial qualification plant, essentially a pilot plant meant to deliver cells for customer testing. If run at full capacity, he said it can deliver 60 to 100 MWh.

He also said the company’s first giga facility with 2 GWh capacity is on track to be operational by the end of 2027. According to his comments, this facility will primarily serve the mobility market, with ESS and stationary storage following the year after.

Capital plans and Telangana investment commitments

Vikram Gourineni said the company has announced an investment of about ₹10,000 crore in Telangana to set up the lithium value chain, from lithium cells and packs to energy storage systems. Elsewhere in the provided material, ARE&M is described as embarking on a ₹9,500 crore, decade-long investment in lithium-ion cell manufacturing aimed at a 16 GWh capacity.

Separately, the material also states the company will commit an additional ₹1,200 crore by FY27 towards its lithium-ion cell manufacturing initiative, bringing total investment in its first 1 GWh cell production line to ₹2,400 crore. The same section notes the gigafactory is coming up in Telangana under Amara Raja Advanced Technologies, with an overall project cost pegged at ₹9,500 crore.

Exports: current footprint and targeted expansion

On exports, Vikram Gourineni said the company has started commercial exports to the US in lead-acid batteries. He added that the company exports to 55-60 countries and aims to expand to 80+ countries, including exports from India and potentially overseas operations. He also said ARE&M is taking an opportunistic approach by targeting markets where China does not have a dominant advantage or faces restrictions, and that telecom lithium exports have started to some African markets.

Stock and analyst reference points in the provided material

The provided material shows ARE&M stock at ₹773.40, up 0.97%. It also references a Feb. 13 note stating Nomura adjusted ARE&M’s price target to ₹942 from ₹1,119 and maintained a Neutral rating.

The same compilation includes commentary that the stock has been trading near its 52-week low and that analyst views are mixed, citing both ‘Hold’ and some ‘Sell’ recommendations, alongside concerns related to telecom segment decline in legacy lead-acid and raw material volatility.

Key facts at a glance

What the 1 GWh milestone signals for ARE&M’s transition

The 1 GWh deployment anchors ARE&M’s claim that it has moved beyond pilot-scale lithium supply into large, repeatable rollouts across tower networks. It also indicates that telecom is becoming a key bridge segment for the company as customers transition away from lead-acid solutions.

At the same time, the company’s stated manufacturing roadmap and investment commitments show a parallel effort to build cell capability, expand lithium packs, and target stationary storage and data centres. The next set of verifiable milestones will include the pilot plant output beginning in June and progress toward the planned 2 GWh gigafactory timeline by end-2027.