Reliance New Energy Limited (“Reliance”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, has today signed definitive agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Lithium Werks BV (“Lithium Werks”) for a total transaction value of US$ 61 Million including funding for future growth. The assets include the entire patent portfolio of Lithium Werks, manufacturing facility in China, key business contracts and hiring of existing employees.

Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, said on the acquisition, “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.”

“Along with Faradion, Lithium Werks will enable us to accelerate our vision of establishing India at the core of developments in global battery chemistries and help us provide a secure, safe and high-performance supply chain to the large and growing Indian EV and Energy Storage markets”.

Mr. 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”.

Deal is quite significant for Reliance Industry due to specific emphasis placed in the recent budget on Battery Swapping Policy.

Battery Swapping Policy

In the budget, a special policy is designed for Battery Swapping. It covers setting up charging stations at scale. The battery swapping policy will be brought out and standards will be formulated interoperability. The private sector can play a major role in this sector as they will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for ‘Battery or Energy as a Service.’ It will bring a new level of efficiency in the EV eco-system as a large number of electric vehicles will upgrade towards new batteries with this swapping policy. It will reshape the complete motor vehicle Industry in India. The entire Electric Vehicle Industry will move towards efficient charging of vehicles, which means faster charging, more mileage per charging due to substitution of superior quality battery and charging station availability at scale. 

In the long run it will boost fresh investment in the EV space, help reduce domestic fuel consumption, dependency on crude oil import, fiscal deficit, and provide India with the tools to push towards its goals and commitment to reduce carbon footprint. 

Founded in 2017, through acquisition of certain assets of Valence and A123 industrial division, the management of Lithium Werks brings 30+ years of battery expertise and nearly 200 MWh annual production capacity including coating, cell and custom module manufacturing capability.

Lithium Werks is a leading provider of cobalt free and high-performance Lithium Iron Phosphate (“LFP”) batteries. With the recent resurgence in demand for LFP batteries, Lithium Werks is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the global opportunities before it through its integrated portfolio of LFP solutions:

• World class IP portfolio with ~219 patents related to LFP process and technology, including exclusive rights to superior LFP nano-technology, cell design, proprietary carbo-thermal reduction manufacturing method and, several next-generation electro- active materials.

• Exciting product development pipeline underpinned by unique IP and design & engineering expertise.

• An integrated cell manufacturing capability.

The combination of Lithium Werks with Reliance’s recently announced acquisition of Faradion Limited, a global leader in sodium-ion cell chemistry, further strengthens Reliance’s technology portfolio and provides it access to one of the world’s leading portfolio of LFP patents and a management team with vast experience of innovation in cell chemistry, custom modules, packing, and building large scale battery manufacturing facility.

Reliance is India’s largest private sector company, with a consolidated turnover of INR 539,238 crore ($73.8 billion), cash profit of INR 79,828 crore ($10.9 billion), and net profit of INR 53,739 crore ($7.4 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2021. Reliance’s activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services.

Incorporated in 2017, Lithium Werks is a cobalt-free lithium battery technology and manufacturing company, with operations in the US, Europe and China and customers worldwide. Its batteries are used in industrial, medical, marine, energy storage, commercial transportation and other highly demanding applications, where its proprietary Nanophosphate® powder delivers unique power, safety and cycle life performance in addition to being more ESG friendly compared to competing technologies.