Reliance Industries to acquire battery manufacturer Lithium Werks assets

Reliance Industries said that its fully-owned subsidiary — Reliance New Energy has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Lithium Werks, a Netherlands-based lithium battery manufacturer, for a sum of $61m, which includes funding for future growth.

The assets involved in the deal include the full patent portfolio of Lithium Werks, its manufacturing facility in China, important business contracts, and recruiting of existing employees, said Reliance Industries.

Lithium Werks is engaged in manufacturing cobalt free and high-performance lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

The company was established in 2017 via the acquisition of some assets of Valence and A123 industrial division.

The management of Lithium Werks is said to have more than three decades of battery expertise and an annual production capacity of around 200MWh, which comes from coating, cell, and custom module manufacturing capability.

Lithium Werks has an IP portfolio of around 219 patents pertaining to the LFP process and technology.

Joe Fisher — Co-Founder and CEO of Lithium Werks said: “We are pleased to become a part of the Reliance New Energy initiative.

“This deal means increased resources and expanded global reach, while leveraging our experienced team and IP portfolio and providing scale and momentum to help drive our product innovation, capacity expansion and accelerate our clean energy strategy.”

Reliance Industries to acquire battery manufacturer Lithium Werks assets. Image courtesy of Dean Simone from Pixabay.

Reliance Industries said that the combination of Lithium Werks with Faradion further bolsters its technology portfolio. Faradion is a British sodium-ion battery technology company, which was acquired by the Indian conglomerate for £100 million.

The Indian group will tap Faradion and Lithium Werks to create an end-to-end battery ecosystem to manufacture at a large scale some key supply chain materials apart from operating a cell manufacturing facility.

Reliance Industries expects to gain the flexibility to manufacture batteries and battery module systems consisting of various chemistries for multiple applications in energy storage and mobility.

Mukesh Ambani — Chairman of Reliance Industries said: “LFP is fast gaining as one of the leading cell chemistries due to its cobalt and nickel free batteries, low cost and longer life compared to NMC and other chemistries.

“Lithium Werks is one of the leading LFP cell manufacturing companies globally and has a vast patent portfolio and a management team which brings tremendous experience of innovation across LFP value chain.

“We are looking forward to working with the Lithium Werks team and are excited about the pace at which we are progressing towards establishing an end-to-end battery manufacturing and supply ecosystem for India markets.”

The deal, which is subject to certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions, is anticipated to close by June 2022.