Reliance New Energy plans to commission the first phase of its 40 gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery cell gigafactory this year as all the equipment required to produce cells has been delivered, Anant Ambani, executive director of Reliance Industries, said at the company’s annual general meeting on Friday. 

“All the equipment has already been delivered at the site, and we have now committed to scale this up to 120 gigawatt-hour of annual capacity,” Ambani said in his address, without sharing the timeline for the expansion. 

“When commissioned, this will make Reliance one of the world's largest manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate batteries,” the Ambani family scion said. 

He also called the conglomerate’s battery cell gigafactory a “strategic imperative” to make India self-reliant. 

“In a world where supply chains are being contested and access to technology is being weaponised, building world scale battery manufacturing capacity in India is not merely a business decision. It is a strategic imperative for national resilience,” he explained. 

This comes after China imposed export controls and restrictions on battery cell technology access. 

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries had bagged 15 GWh of cell capacity under the government’s Rs 18,100 crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage. 

The conglomerate initially plans to assemble battery packs initially rather than getting into cell manufacturing directly.  

In its annual report, RIL said its Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) gigafactory is in the advanced stages of commissioning with civil construction is complete and equipment installation is underway. Production is set to ramp up through the second half of 2026, focusing on LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) chemistry for utility-scale BESS and mobility applications. 

In May, Bloomberg reported that Reliance is in talks with Chinese battery cell giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) to procure parts for battery cell gigafactory. 

Published on: Jun 19, 2026 4:13 PM IST