Yogesh Dhawan in Calcutta on Monday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, July 9: The Tatas have big plans for their storage battery business for the auto sector. Its joint venture with Japanese major GS Yuasa is expanding its marketing network to tap the after-sales market for batteries in two and four-wheelers.

The company will also bid for all OEM (original equipment manufacturer) contracts to supply batteries to car makers.

Yogesh Dhawan, chief executive officer of Tata Autocomp GY Batteries (TGY), said the company would also try to bag the contract to supply batteries to Tata Motors’ proposed small car plant in Singur.

“We have received the specifications they want. We are working on it,” Dhawan, who was in Calcutta to launch the battery under the Tata Green brand, said.

The company has secured an OEM contract from Piaggio for its three-wheeler Ape.

“The OEMs want a battery company to have a pan-India presence. We will reach that stage by the middle of August.

“The company plans to bid for all OEM contracts, especially for the existing models,” he said.

TGY said its batteries were positioned for the top end in terms of price and performance but consumers would pay less if they bought Tata Green.

An executive said a TGY battery would be Rs 500-600 cheaper than the competition in case of four-wheelers.

Moreover, it comes with the longest warranty of 50 months and no top-up (refilling water) for 1 lakh kilometres. TGY has set up a plant at Pune with a designed capacity to manufacture two million four-wheeler and 3.5 million two-wheeler batteries.

Dhawan said the company hoped to reach the two-million sales mark within the next three years. The four-wheeler market in India is 10 million pieces and growing at 10-15 per cent.

Calcutta-based Exide Industries is the market leader in lead-acid storage battery in India. It offers a warranty of 48 months but without any promise on top-ups. But the company has an extensive sales and service back-up network which any company would have to fight hard to match.

TGY wants to focus more on the after-sales business than on OEM contracts. Traditionally, after-sales or retail business gives higher margin than OEMs.