The Lithium Werks assets being acquired by Reliance include its entire patent portfolio, manufacturing facility in China, key business contracts, and hiring of existing employees as a going concern. 

 

Reliance’s choice of LFP battery technology is in line with the global trend towards cobalt-free cathode chemistries as cobalt availability and price volatility pose a challenge for manufacturing metal-oxide chemistry-based batteries like NMC and LCO. About 60% of the world’s cobalt supply is believed to come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Further, cobalt mining has been linked to human rights abuses, corruption, environmental destruction, and child labor.

 

Speaking about Lithium Werks acquisition, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, said, “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 that brings tremendous experience of innovation across the 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.”