Base Batteries launches F1 car battery

Base Corporation Ltd which owns Base Batteries has officially launched their first car battery for a Formula One car. Base Batteries has managed to become the first Indian battery company to do so. The research and development department of Base Batteries has developed the battery in collaboration with the Hispania Racing Team (HRT). HRT has used the battery since May earlier this year and they declared that the product is a success. The HRT Formula One team has confirmed their association with Base Batteries for the next five year, depending on performance the contract can be extended by another five years. Mr Aditya Arora, COO Base Batteries, expressed his confidence in producing F1 batteries by saying, “More F1 teams are in talks with Base Batteries for batteries for their F1 cars.” A Formula One car uses one battery per race, just so you know. 

The budget for producing the Formula One car battery was $ 3 Million. Mr. Aditya Arora, said, “With a high budget we could use the best of materials for developing the battery and our R&D came up with a battery which uses silver instead of lead.” Base Batteries intends to launch a new range of batteries for passenger cars as well and we can only hope that they use their knowledge from developing an F1 car battery to produce better, high quality, durable car batteries. Mr. Aditya Arora announced that they will be launching their new range of batteries branded ‘Silver’ batteries for normal road cars. 

Currently Base Corporation Ltd produces their range of ‘Base Terminal’ car batteries in their plant in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. However, they are setting up a new plant for Base Batteries in Hosur, Tamil Nadu for producing road car batteries. When the new plant comes into existence it will become the biggest battery manufacturing plant in Asia. In the last financial year Base Batteries with its limited manufacturing capacity generated a Rs. 700 crore turnover from its Battery, Inverter and UPS businesses. The new manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu is expected to produce 2000 crore batteries per year. Base Batteries plans to export batteries to Singapore and Dubai once its new plant becomes functional. The plant is conveniently located next to the sea port to facilitate easy transportation of goods for the purpose. 

The battery plant in Tamil Nadu will also have a race track attached to it. The track is primarily built to test Base Batteries’ products. However, to recover the cost of setting up the plant, the track will be open to various car manufacturer’s who’s factories are located nearby to test their vehicle’s for performance, top speed, etc. 

Mr. Arora announced that the track will also be open for motor racing events, a very noble idea that. Indian motor sport could use as many opportunities as possible to develop and grow. 

Base Corporation Ltd will also open a racing school at the track so that young driver’s in India can train to become professional racing drivers. 

While it is good to see yet another Indian company become a forerunner in its field of operation and take the necessary steps to survive in the market Base Corporation Ltd has firmly set its sights on the distant future. By distant future a period of about 25 years is referred to here when the number of Electric Vehicles and Hybrids will grow backed by the demand for the next generation of automobile batteries. Base Batteries will have a R&D centre for development of these products. 

The launch of India’s first ever Formula One car battery was preceded by an advertisement for Base car batteries with the motive of communicating their Formula One pedigree in making batteries for normal cars. 

To unveil the Formula One car battery Base Batteries had bought the battery, the HRT Formula One car and Narain Karthikeyan himself. Narain Karthikeyan assured the performance and quality of the Formula One battery from Base Batteries and commented that he was very pleased to see another Indian company becoming part of the Formula One motorsport. 

As expected Mr. Karthikeyan was showered with a host of questions about the inaugural Indian GP and about his expectations as an F1 driver. Narain Karthikeyan was very humble in his reply and said that considering the car’s capabilities due to limited resources, as compared to some of the most established teams, he would be very happy to finish the race and said that aiming for the points charts was a tad too ambitious at this moment. But the support from his home crowd could make a huge difference by helping him extract the best performance out of him. 

Narain Karthikeyan also commented on the new Indian F1 Grand Prix track. He said that he would rate the track amongst the top five in the world. The track is very wide with elevations and off-camber corners. The track he said, is very good for overtaking, so we should have plenty of overtaking action. Drivers will have to also use a more technical approach to drive around the corner rather than just outright speed. He concluded by saying that the track requires a smooth driving style.