See Bull Run's current pages for Exide Industries and Amara Raja Energy & Mobility.

Q1 FY27 scorecard

Exide still has the larger earnings engine

Exide's consolidated revenue increased from ₹4,695 crore to ₹5,528 crore.

Consolidated PAT increased around 28% to approximately ₹351 crore.

The mature standalone battery business was even stronger.

Standalone revenue reached approximately ₹5,305 crore.

EBITDA reached approximately ₹655 crore, up about 19%.

Standalone PAT increased to around ₹407 crore.

This distinction is important because the lithium-ion subsidiary is still in an investment and commissioning phase, which reduces consolidated profitability relative to the mature parent business.

Exide's core margin held up despite input pressure

Standalone EBITDA margin was approximately 12.4%.

The company faced pressure from imported inputs and currency movement but used operating leverage, pricing and cost efficiency to protect profitability.

Automotive OEM demand remained particularly strong.

The OEM business grew more than 25% year on year for the third consecutive quarter according to management commentary.

Replacement batteries remain the core cash engine

Battery replacement is economically attractive because demand comes from the installed vehicle base rather than only new vehicle sales.

Every car, motorcycle, truck and commercial vehicle eventually needs replacement batteries.

That creates a recurring demand pool across millions of vehicles.

Exide's replacement business delivered another quarter of double-digit growth.

Industrial demand adds a second legacy earnings stream

Exide also sells batteries into:

• industrial UPS;
• telecom;
• infrastructure;
• railways;
• solar;
• home inverters;
• mining;
• defence;
• other stationary applications.

This diversification reduces dependence on one vehicle category.

Inverters and solar businesses grew more than 20% during the latest quarter, while exports also returned to stronger growth.

Amara Raja's lead-acid franchise also had a powerful Q1

Amara Raja's consolidated revenue increased 23.9% to ₹4,214.5 crore.

The Lead Acid Batteries and Allied Products segment generated approximately ₹4,005 crore, up from around ₹3,280 crore a year earlier.

That is roughly 22% growth in the mature business.

Strong automotive OEM demand and aftermarket volumes drove the performance.

So Amara Raja's transition to lithium does not depend on a collapsing core business.

Amara's margin pressure came from raw materials and investment

Consolidated EBITDA reached approximately ₹406 crore, up around 12%.

But EBITDA margin fell to approximately 9.6% from above 10.5% a year earlier.

Material costs rose significantly.

The company also continued spending on brand-building and strategic new-energy initiatives.

This is the main reason revenue growth outpaced EBITDA growth.

Amara's New Energy segment grew more than 70%

The business includes lithium-ion solutions, battery packs and other advanced-energy products.

Its segment loss narrowed compared with the previous year while revenue expanded strongly.

This is important because Amara Raja already has a visible commercial new-energy revenue base before its full cell gigafactory reaches scale.

Telecom lithium gives Amara a real-world operating advantage

In April 2026, Amara Raja announced that cumulative lithium energy-storage deployment in India's telecom sector had crossed 1 GWh.

The solutions were deployed across approximately 50,000 sites.

This gives the company operating data across difficult Indian climatic and field conditions.

That experience can be valuable when developing larger stationary storage systems and battery-management technology.

The lithium race: Exide's 12 GWh versus Amara Raja's 16 GWh

Headline capacity makes Amara Raja look larger.

But announced GWh is not the same as economically productive capacity.

The more important variables are:

• yield;
• chemistry performance;
• customer qualification;
• plant utilisation;
• cell pricing;
• localisation;
• warranty performance;
• raw-material sourcing;
• capital cost per GWh;
• return on capital.

Exide is approaching commercial cell supply

Exide Energy Solutions' Bengaluru plant is designed around cylindrical and prismatic formats.

The platform supports both NMC and LFP chemistries.

During Q1 FY27, the NMC cylindrical line began customer sample deliveries.

The LFP prismatic line also moved into sample supply for applications including three-wheelers and telecom.

Management expects initial commercial dispatches from the new plant during FY27.

This is the critical transition from construction project to revenue-generating manufacturing asset.

Customer qualification matters more than factory completion

A lithium-ion plant can be mechanically complete but economically useless if customers have not qualified the cells.

Automotive OEMs require extensive testing around:

• cycle life;
• thermal behaviour;
• safety;
• charging;
• high-temperature performance;
• low-temperature performance;
• consistency;
• warranty durability.

The sample-supply stage therefore is one of the most important milestones in Exide's lithium transition.

Exide has already committed more than ₹5,100 crore

That number demonstrates the scale of the capital-allocation bet.

It is already equivalent to several years of Exide's current annual standalone profit.

The core lead-acid business therefore needs to continue generating enough cash to finance the transition without putting the balance sheet under excessive stress.

Exide has largely funded lithium expansion from internal strength

Exide's FY26 reporting highlighted a zero-debt parent balance sheet while substantial investment was being made in EESL.

Bull Run's latest consolidated debt-to-equity field remains low at approximately 0.08x.

This gives Exide flexibility.

It also explains why investors pay close attention to cash conversion rather than only PAT.

Amara Raja's planned lithium programme is even larger

Amara Raja has announced an investment programme of approximately ₹9,500 crore through 2031 for the Giga Corridor and related new-energy ecosystem.

The long-term plan includes:

• up to 16 GWh of lithium-ion cell capacity;
• up to 5 GWh of battery-pack capacity;
• research and development;
• customer qualification;
• battery-management systems;
• energy-storage solutions;
• supporting infrastructure.

The ₹9,500 crore number is a planned multi-year programme and should not be compared directly with Exide's already-infused ₹5,102 crore.

Amara Raja's Customer Qualification Plant is now operational

The company launched its Customer Qualification Plant during July 2026.

The facility helps manufacture and validate lithium-ion cells before mass-production scale.

This is an important de-risking step because customers need real samples to test before committing large commercial programmes.

Amara's technology strategy includes NMC and LFP

The company's R&D platform is designed around multiple lithium-ion chemistries rather than one fixed cell architecture.

This matters because different applications require different trade-offs.

NMC can offer higher energy density.

LFP can offer attractive cost, safety and cycle-life characteristics.

Two-wheelers, passenger cars, telecom and stationary energy storage do not necessarily require the same cell.

Battery packs create earlier revenue than cell manufacturing

Amara Raja already operates a battery-pack facility with initial capacity around 1.5 GWh.

This lets the company generate lithium revenue before the full cell manufacturing build-out is complete.

It also provides practical integration experience around battery management, pack design and thermal behaviour.

Exide has pack capabilities too

Exide Energy Solutions operates module and pack manufacturing capability in Gujarat alongside the new Bengaluru cell plant.

The strategy is therefore not limited to selling individual cells.

Exide can potentially participate across cell, module and pack value creation.

This matters because OEM customers may prefer integrated battery systems rather than purchasing cells alone.

Cash flow is the real test of the lithium transition

Bull Run's historical stock-data field currently shows approximately:

The historical free-cash-flow numbers should be interpreted carefully.

Large capital-expenditure programmes can make free cash flow appear weak even when operating cash generation is healthy.

This is especially true now that both companies are funding new factories.

The key question is future FCF per GWh

A gigafactory should not be judged by capacity alone.

Investors eventually need to ask:

How much free cash flow does each GWh of installed and utilised capacity produce after maintenance capex?

A 16 GWh plant earning low-single-digit ROCE can destroy shareholder value.

A smaller 6–12 GWh facility earning strong margins and high utilisation can be far more valuable.

Exide's lead recycling is another structural advantage

The traditional lead-acid business benefits from recycling and material recovery.

Recycling can:

• reduce dependence on imported raw material;
• support supply security;
• reduce working-capital volatility;
• improve environmental performance;
• lower effective material cost.

This remains important because lead-acid batteries will continue funding the lithium transition for years.

Amara Raja also benefits from a durable lead-acid franchise

The Amaron brand has strong automotive replacement recognition.

Amara Raja also supplies large OEMs and industrial customers across telecom, UPS, railways and other applications.

Lead acid is not disappearing immediately.

Internal combustion cars, hybrid vehicles, commercial vehicles, data centres and backup-power systems will continue using 12V and stationary battery architectures.

EVs do not necessarily eliminate lead-acid batteries

Many battery-electric vehicles still use low-voltage auxiliary batteries.

That means part of the traditional replacement market can survive even as propulsion batteries shift to lithium.

The precise chemistry and architecture may evolve, but the transition is not simply old battery demand going to zero.

Amara Raja has the higher current ROCE

Amara Raja's ROCE is materially higher in the current Bull Run snapshot.

Exide's return ratio is currently depressed partly by a large asset and investment base.

The decisive future question is how lithium capex changes these return numbers.

Exide's lithium plant initially reduces consolidated returns

Before commercial production, a factory consumes capital but contributes little or no revenue.

Once depreciation begins, reported profit can face another drag before capacity utilisation reaches attractive levels.

That means Exide's ROCE may remain under pressure during the ramp phase even if the project is strategically successful.

Amara Raja faces the same problem on a larger announced programme

A ₹9,500 crore programme is enormous relative to Amara Raja's approximately ₹16,500 crore current market capitalisation.

The project can transform the company if successful.

It can also dilute capital returns for years if utilisation, pricing or customer qualification disappoints.

This is why new-energy capex is both the bull case and the main risk.

Valuation: the P/E difference is almost meaningless

The trailing P/E multiples are only around one turn apart.

That means investors are not being asked to choose between a cheap stock and an expensive one on earnings alone.

Instead, they need to decide which company's current earnings are more sustainable and which lithium investment will generate better future returns.

Exide's market cap is more than twice Amara Raja's

Exide's market value is approximately ₹35,658 crore.

Amara Raja's is approximately ₹16,499 crore.

Exide therefore has roughly 2.2 times the market capitalisation.

But Q1 revenue is only about 1.3 times larger and consolidated PAT about 1.8 times larger.

The market is assigning Exide significant value for its scale, brand, distribution and lithium-ion platform.

Amara Raja has the lower price-to-book ratio

Amara Raja trades at around 2.0x book value versus Exide around 2.6x.

It also has higher current ROCE.

This creates an interesting valuation tension:

Amara Raja is only marginally more expensive on earnings but cheaper on book value despite faster revenue growth.

The offset is that its lithium programme is large relative to the size of the listed company and therefore carries greater proportional execution risk.

Share-price performance has also diverged

Bull Run's latest snapshot shows Exide up approximately 5.8% over one year.

Amara Raja is down around 13%.

This creates different investor expectations.

Exide has enjoyed stronger recent sentiment around progress at EESL.

Amara Raja needs new-energy execution to convert into improving earnings and capital returns to support rerating.

What must Exide prove?

• The Bengaluru cell plant must begin commercial supply during FY27.
• Customer sample qualification needs successful conversion into contracts.
• Cell yields must reach attractive manufacturing levels.
• Lithium subsidiary losses should narrow as utilisation rises.
• Core lead-acid margin needs protection against material inflation.
• The company must fund further capex without excessive leverage.
• ROCE should recover as EESL begins generating earnings.

What must Amara Raja prove?

• New Energy revenue needs to continue growing rapidly.
• Segment losses must keep narrowing.
• The Customer Qualification Plant should convert trials into commercial cell orders.
• Giga Corridor capex needs disciplined phasing.
• The 16 GWh long-term cell target should follow real demand rather than speculative capacity.
• Lead-acid margins must recover from Q1 pressure.
• ROCE should remain healthy despite large new investments.

What could make Exide outperform Amara Raja?

Earlier commercialisation of domestic lithium cells.

If Exide's first 6 GWh phase ramps successfully and EESL begins generating meaningful revenue during FY27, the consolidated earnings drag can gradually turn into a growth contributor.

Its larger core business can also absorb the investment burden more comfortably.

What could make Amara Raja outperform Exide?

Faster growth from its existing new-energy customer base combined with successful cell localisation.

Amara already generates more than ₹200 crore quarterly New Energy revenue.

If cell manufacturing allows it to internalise more of the battery value chain, revenue and margins can rise much faster than the mature lead-acid business.

Which has the stronger current core earnings?

Exide Industries.

It generates greater revenue, greater consolidated PAT and a roughly 12.4% standalone EBITDA margin.

Which is currently growing faster?

Amara Raja.

Consolidated Q1 revenue grew approximately 23.9% compared with Exide at about 17.7%.

Which has the larger announced lithium cell platform?

Amara Raja on ultimate announced capacity.

Its long-term target is up to 16 GWh versus Exide at 12 GWh.

Capacity alone, however, does not determine project economics.

Which has committed more visible capital already?

Exide has disclosed more cumulative equity capital already infused into its lithium subsidiary.

EESL had received approximately ₹5,102 crore from Exide by August 18, 2026.

Amara Raja's ₹9,500 crore figure is a broader long-term planned programme rather than capital already spent.

Which is better: Exide Industries or Amara Raja Energy & Mobility?

Exide Industries currently has the stronger scale-and-core-profitability case. Q1 consolidated revenue exceeded ₹5,500 crore, standalone EBITDA margin was around 12.4%, and its larger lead-acid franchise provides substantial funding capacity for the lithium transition.

Amara Raja currently has the stronger growth-and-new-energy visibility case. Revenue grew almost 24%, New Energy revenue exceeded ₹200 crore and current Bull Run ROCE is materially higher.

The valuation difference is surprisingly small.

Exide trades around 38x trailing earnings.

Amara Raja trades around 40x.

That makes the lithium investments decisive.

For investors prioritising current earnings scale and a more advanced large domestic lithium commissioning programme, Exide currently has the stronger operating base. For investors prioritising faster growth, higher current ROCE and greater proportional upside from new-energy expansion, Amara Raja offers the more leveraged transformation story.

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