Exide Technologies and Maxwell Technologies have formed a strategic alliance designed to develop and market an advanced, integrated, battery-ultracapacitor energy storage solution for transportation and industrial applications.
The alliance will include joint identification and evaluation of market opportunities for integrated products; collaborative product development and testing; and joint calls on prospective customers to establish demonstration projects.
“The integrated products developed through our alliance with Maxwell Technologies will provide a wide range of benefits for users who require the most that today’s battery technology has to offer,” said Paul Cheeseman, Exide’s vice president, global engineering and research. “These benefits will include high energy density, rapid charging and discharging, extended operational life and superior performance in extreme temperatures.”
Exide offers AGM (absorbent glass mat) battery technology that allows for deep cycling combined with high charge acceptance. Its products support start-stop vehicles, energy recuperation, intelligent charging and other advanced power train features to reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.
“Exide’s battery technology leadership, extensive manufacturing capabilities, established global distribution channels and strong existing industrial and transportation customer relationships make it an ideal alliance partner,” said David Schramm, Maxwell’s president & CEO. “We have always believed in the synergistic nature of ultracapacitors and batteries, and this relationship will enable us to significantly accelerate development of products embodying the benefits of both technologies.”
Maxwell’s ultracapacitor products store energy in an electric field, which is unlike batteries that produce and store energy by means of a chemical reaction, it said. This electrostatic energy storage mechanism enables ultracapacitors to charge and discharge in as little as fractions of a second, perform normally over a broad temperature range (-40 to +65C), and operate reliably for one million or more charge/discharge cycles. Maxwell offers ultracapacitor cells ranging in capacitance from one to 3,000 farads and multi-cell modules ranging from 16 to 125 volts.
