Maxwell & Tianjin Lishen Battery To Introduce ‘Hybrid’ Energy Storage Solutions Combining Ultracapacitors and Li-Ion Batteries
Maxwell Technologies, Inc. and Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co., Ltd., (Lishen), a Chinese producer of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, announced an alliance through which they plan to manufacture and market what are described as novel "hybrid" energy storage products combining the companies’ respective ultracapacitor and li-ion battery technologies.
David Schramm, Maxwell’s President and CEO, said that the companies see a large market opportunity for products that leverage the complementary strengths of double layer capacitor and li-ion battery technologies. "We believe that the products we envision will give end-users the best of both worlds in terms of the long cycle life, rapid charge/discharge characteristics and low temperature performance of ultracapacitors and the large energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries. We also plan to move some of our BOOSTCAP product assembly to Lishen in order to leverage our joint process engineering capabilities, and Lishen will conduct development and qualification testing on battery electrode material produced through Maxwell’s proprietary dry process, so we see this as a deep and strategically important alliance for both companies."
Lishen currently produces more than 130 million li-ion batteries annually in its 860,000 square-foot, production facility, located in Tianjin, China, supplying rechargeable batteries to multiple cellular telephone manufacturers, including Motorola and Samsung, and numerous consumer electronics manufacturers, including Apple for devices such as MP3 players.
Qin Xing-cai, Lishen’s President, said, "When we determined that we wanted to market hybrid energy storage products, we identified Maxwell as the ultracapacitor technology leader, so we are very excited about joining forces for this collaboration."
The companies have identified a number of initial target applications for the new products, ranging from quick-charge cordless tools to electric vehicles, and anticipate production and delivery of initial product samples in early 2008.
