German SLI battery producer IQ Power Licensing has welcomed a US$2 million investment boost as the company writes “a new chapter” for lead-acid batteries.
IQ, which produces Pb batteries mainly for the global automotive and storage markets, said it had won an additional $1.5m in working capital from an institutional lender that provided the company with $14m in financing just months ago.
And another shareholder in the company has invested an additional $500,000 in equity.
The company declined to outline its upcoming business plans or say how the investment would be deployed, but CEO Kevin Loman told BEST Battery Briefing: “We are creating a new chapter in the history of lead-acid batteries, enhancing their performance and increasing the number of applications in which lead-acid batteries can successfully compete with lithium.”
IQ’s principal geographical markets for its batteries— serviced by its Italian factory— span Europe, the Middle East & North Africa and North America. IQ produces batteries for other firms too.
IQ also continues to expand licensing of its 360° electrolyte mixing technology— for which it won a coveted Greentech award from the German Association of the Automotive Industry in 2017.
The mixing technology is claimed to avoid acid stratification and increase battery life by a factor of two.
Licence holders are not disclosed, but an IQ spokesperson told BBB they include manufacturers in South Korea and Brazil.
“Batteries with IQ 360° mixing are also manufactured in India and Bangladesh with our contract manufacturing partners exclusively for our distribution customers in the Middle East, Africa and Indian sub-continent,” the spokesperson said.
IQ describes its electrolyte mixing technology as “a passive plastic device that utilises kinetic energy created by a moving car”. “The mixing elements are universal and are inserted into the batteries’ cells during the manufacturing process of the battery. Forces created from acceleration, braking or cornering generate a hydrostatic pressure difference in the electrolyte of the battery via the design of the mixing elements. A channel balances the pressure difference and provides an efficient 360° electrolyte circulation.”
