INTERVIEW | Sajjan Jindal shares his love for cars and plans for the EV venture

Sajjan Jindal, CMD of JSW Group, says India's mobility sector is on the verge of a transformation and they want to be a part of it.

"I was always very passionate about cars...it's a new beginning for us," he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 after JSW Group and MG Motor India today (March 20) announced a joint venture (JV) for electric vehicles.

The JV plans to launch its first car in in the festive season in October 2024 , and a new car every three to six months.

A: Because I believe that this is a moment where India is going to go through a transformation as far as mobility is concerned. And it's an opportunity, which if we handle it correctly, can become a big opportunity. And, given India's dependence on oil, import of oil, and the support from the government in the policy advocacy, and the changes in the policy, I feel this is a great opportunity. And, also, it's my passion. So both things come together. So, therefore, I am putting my best foot forward.

A: What I meant with Maruti moment was that it brought in new technology, it changed the face of India from a car which we have been using since the 1960s We came in new technology, the new cars were coming every two-three years, Maruti was bringing a bouquet of cars and the whole industry got churned and then started to compete. So, I believe very strongly that electric vehicles and New Energy vehicles can do a similar kind of churn within the industry, if you bring high-quality New Energy vehicles, then we will save on fuel we will bring clean cars into the cities and it will be a new thing in the in the country.

A: Our investment in Odisha is primarily to put up a refinery. We are in the steel business primarily. And we like to integrate - it's called integrated steel. So, we like to be mining to refining to manufacturing steel to value add steel. So, we want to have a full value chain. So, in the electric car, we want to do a similar thing. We want to refine lithium and then manufacture the anode and cathode and then manufacture the cells then the batteries, then the electric cars make the eDrive then etronics. So, we want to do the whole thing and we will bring partners who will also do what we won't do which are small things then we will have the partners who will help us do that. So, we want to make a very comprehensive complex, so that we can make it a very cost-effective solution for Indian consumers.

A: We haven't planned how we are going to do it because this ₹40,000 crore is not coming in one go. First, we will set up the battery plant, cell manufacturing plant and then we will backward and integrate lithium refining with anode and cathode manufacturing. So this will happen over some time. So this money probably will mostly come from JSW Group and maybe from private equity or something. We haven't yet figured that out, how are we going to do that? But that's not an issue.

A: So, if I had the choice, I would have been making cells yesterday because as a country we are already behind, we don't manufacture any cells. Today, so many electric buses are running in our country, and we are importing everything. So, therefore, I am really pushing my team to set up the cell manufacturing facility as soon as possible (ASAP) in Odisha. Also we are putting a lot of pressure on the government of Odisha to allot us the land and we can start the activity ASAP. And so, we are hoping that in the next 18 months, we should be able to start producing cells.

A: Yes, the Government of India has come out with the PLI for battery manufacturing, and cell manufacturing. They are trying to promote this industry in a country because rightly so because we are importing so much oil in our country; our biggest import bill is oil. So we have to do things to replace that. We can replace that with hydrogen, but then it's still something which is yet to become economical, because there is no production of hydrogen, but that will also happen. So, fuel cell vehicles will come for long-distance operations, but the battery is already developed in the world. And today New Energy vehicles are becoming very popular globally, and India must not stay behind. And that's the whole idea that JSW Steel will support this New Energy vehicle and will take India to its rightful place.

A: So, as I said we are in the heavy industry sector. We are not in the B2C sector, consumer durables or consumer sector we are not there, but we know how to do manufacturing very well. We have a very efficient process, where we do manufacturing very efficiently. And we take pride in integrating our facilities and we handle complex manufacturing extremely well - auto is one of them, and we work very well with our partners. And again auto is what you need good partnerships.

So, I think what we will do is we will deeply localise component manufacturing and car manufacturing. We will set up R&D centres, and design centres within India and we will manufacture cars for Indians in India and people abroad; we will be exporting. That's what we have done with our steel industry. We export 25% of our steel output globally, and 50% of India's steel exports are done by one company that is JSW Steel. So, on similar lines, I believe that we don't have the legacy of the auto industry. We have no baggage that we have to do it this way or that way. We are thinking very fresh. And we are bringing our thought process of large manufacturing into the auto industry and we are going to make a big difference to the auto industry.

A: We are right now in the five verticals steel, energy, infrastructure, cement and paints. These are the five businesses that JSW Group is involved with. Steel is the primary mover and now we are 28 million tonne and in the next three months, we are commissioning our 7 million tonne more capacity. So we will go to 35 million tonne in FY25. So that that is a significant capacity and we are doing a brownfield expansion in our existing plants to take by the end of 2030, we should be close to 50 million tonne capacity that is our plan.

Similarly, in the energy we are focused on our renewable energy, and we are pushing hard to build more and more capacity in the renewable. Our stated goal is that by 2030, we want to be 20 gigawatts renewable company. But probably will exceed that and we will achieve that much earlier. Because I am again very bullish, and I feel that India really needs this renewable energy and JSW can lead that space for the country.