India’s Amara Raja Batteries and Johnson Controls (JCI) have signed a technology collaboration deal to introduce “a new wave” of advanced battery technologies” to India.
The companies said they will expand their 20-year partnership “to share and improve product design and manufacturing technologies enabling higher performance across starting, lighting and ignition, enhanced flooded batteries and absorbent glass mat batteries.
Amara Raja said in a National Stock Exchange of India announcement it would license JCI’s proprietary PowerFrame grid technology as part of the collaboration.
“This patented technology is up to 66% more durable and more corrosion resistant to other grid designs,” the company said. “PowerFrame has been tested in multiple cities around the world, in the most extreme, real-world conditions, across the full range of automotive low-voltage battery products.”
JCI said PowerFrame grids are made by rolling metal into strips that are then stamped into the grid shape. The process is continuous and provides the greatest flexibility for power optimisation.
The grid technology will be “critical” to meeting performance requirements associated with emission standards to be introduced by the Indian government in 2020, Amara Raja said. The standards aim to regulate air pollutants from internal combustion engines and Spark-ignition engines equipment, including motor vehicles.
The announcement came just weeks after Amara Raja said it was investing US$120 million to expand production lines of lead-acid batteries— in the wake of opening a trading base in the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier this year JCI, the biggest western player in the global battery market, fuelled speculation that it was preparing to sell its Power Solutions division— essentially all of its lead-acid and lithium business.
