NEWS
CATL in contract with Schneider Electric to attack lead battery industry Chinese lithium battery giant CATL — probably the largest lithium battery cell maker in the world — agreed on August 5 to work with Schneider Electric with the specific aim of replacing lead-acid batteries with lithium. Chinese business journal 21Caijing reported a strategic partnership agreement was signed between the two at Schneider Electric’s online Innovation Summit 2020. This specified that one of its main targets was to replace leadacid batteries with lithium-
ion in new application areas, such as industrial and commercial fields and data centres. According to market analysis firm Grand View Research, lead is holding its own in these areas with 47% of the market share, while lithium and other chemistries combined now make up 53%. Grand View also says the lithium-based product segment should register the highest CAGR during its forecast period, 2020 to 2027, being used in numerous industrial applica-
tions, such as UPS systems, industrial automation systems and grid-level systems. It also cites the growing demand for renewable energy to be stored in lithium battery systems. “The two sides will cooperate in the fields of green smart factories, new energy power generation, safe electricity use and energy storage, including CATL helping Schneider Electric to replace lead-acid batteries with lithium,” according to 21Caijing. “They will also jointly
Insurance pay-out to Aqua Metals brings total to $20 million, plans to sell off plant Aqua Metals’ latest insurance pay-out for $5,279,000, brings the total collected to $20.3 million since a fire destroyed equipment at its Nevada site last November, the firm announced on August 26. Almost $7 million of this has been used to settle a bank loan with Veritex. The rest has been paid to the company. The firm said a month later that is has officially placed its recycling plant for sale. In an statement it said, “the company now plans to monetize this noncore asset with the sale of the plant as a means of financing the company’s continued acceleration of its core business of becoming an equipment supplier and licensor of AquaRefining technologies. “The company intends to market the land and building as a general use industrial facility. Residing on 11.5 acres, the 136,000 square foot plant contains 14,000 square feet of operational office space. The facility also includes three exterior dock doors with seven exterior grade level
doors, 13,000 amps of total building power and a temperature-controlled warehouse with negative or positive pressure. “The company believes the sale proceeds, potential future insurance collections (total policy of $50 million for equipment losses from the November, 2019 fire)
and the $20.3 million in insurance collected to date will be sufficient to fully fund the AquaRefining licensing business strategy as the company transitions towards scalable revenues.” Despite the damage inflicted on the Reno facility, where all 16 of the AquaRefining modules were de-
expand the emerging lithium battery application market. Schneider Electric, in return, will provide a full range of services for the planning and implementation of CATL’s green smart manufacturing projects, as well as helping the company establish advanced green smart factories.” It also says the two firms have similar customer groups and complementary products and they will work together to create a distributed energy platform. CATL already has a huge foothold in the EV market, in August adding Mercedes-Benz to its portfolio of OEM customers. stroyed, the company in June said it had managed to complete an initial run of its V1.25 Electrolyzer, two weeks ahead of the original schedule. “This first iteration of improvements ran very well and as expected, produced ultra high-purity lead metal assayed at 99.99+%, consistent with lead production from the previous electrolyzers in 2019,” Aqua Metals said.
Hoppecke signs deal with CATL to service EV batteries across Europe Germany-based battery manufacturer Hoppecke has signed a deal with the Chinese lithium-ion battery giant CATL to service its EV battery systems across Europe, the company said on July 27. Hoppecke, which makes predominantly lead-acid batteries, says it added lithium-ion to its portfolio 15 years ago to supply industrial trucks, rail and bus systems and large-scale storage systems. Last year it founded the Intilion company to focus on this market segment. CATL (which stands for Contemporary Amperex
24 • Batteries International • Autumn 2020
Technology Limited) was founded just nine years ago and is already one of the biggest, if not the largest, EV lithium battery firm in the world. Under the agreement, Hoppecke will test, repair and replace CATL batteries in electric vehicles across Europe, with an initial focus on vans and buses in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Hungary and the UK. “With 2020 gearing up to be the year of the electric car, many vans and buses are already ahead of the game,” said Hoppecke. “A wave of new models
is continuously being launched as electric models become Europe’s vehicle of choice. “However it is the lithium-ion battery that is the key differentiator in the choice to go electric, the focus being on capacity and service life. After-sales service is essential to the user’s experience and the safe handling of lithium batteries is sensitive and requires a lot of technical experience.” Hoppecke’s 23 subsidiaries worldwide and 300 service engineers in Europe give it good positioning to support CATL, it says.
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