US-based lead-acid battery maker Enersys plans to also target the defence and aerospace sectors as it pushes deeper into the lithium-ion battery storage market, the company’s CEO has said.
David Shaffer said Enersys had “added some talent in the aerospace and defence sector specifically to go after some of the thermal battery business, and that’s primarily lithium”
“We’ve got some contracts that we haven’t announced yet that we’re pretty close on,” Shaffer said in a first-quarter earnings call.
Enersys first moved into lithium-ion technology in 2018 with the acquisition of Canadian firm Alpha Technologies.
Enersys has since started hiring “new talent on the Alpha side of the business, where they have a foothold into the solar business with solar inverter and pre-packaged home energy storage systems, commercial grade”, Shaffer said.
Shaffer underlined the company’s commitment to lead— in particular development of its thin plate pure lead (TPPL) technology— but said that was why he was hedging his bets.
“I want to just let our shareholders know that that’s why we put money on red and we put money on black, and we’ll let the market choose what it wants to do,” the CEO said.
Earlier this year, Enersys said it would invest an additional US$100 million to expand its TPPL capacity. The company also unveiled plans to push ahead with its commercialisation of Greenseal bipolar battery technology, under licence from Advanced Battery Concepts.