Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry Wins 5-year Contract Order for Electric Bus Batteries from France

Taipei, April 6, 2012 (CENS)--Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry Co., Ltd., a Taiwan-based supplier of LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, has signed a five-year contract with a French customer to supply electric bus batteries worth about NT$12 billion when participating in an industrial cooperation meeting between officials of Taiwan and France, according to Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau (IDB).

IDB organized a business delegation, which was headed by IDB director-general T.C. Tu and composed of a couple of Taiwanese enterprises, to attend the 19th summit meeting between heads of Taiwan and France's industrial development authorities. Discussions at the meeting centered on bilateral industrial cooperation on electric vehicles, smart grids, textile, information and communication technologies, aerospace, design, biotechnologies etc. The meeting, IDB officials said, has generated positive outcomes to Taiwan's industry of electric vehicles, as the French Venturi announced its purchase of electric bus batteries from Taiwan's Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry in the coming five years.

The officials pointed out that Taiwan has joined hands with France to develop electric vehicles since 2010. After over one year of hard work along with the government's push, some Taiwanese enterprises of this kind have successfully built business ties with Venturi, and hence snapped up orders from France Post for 100,000 units of electric three-wheel scooters and mail vans. Furthermore, the French enterprise has also decided to strengthen its cooperation with Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry on the development of lithium batteries for use in electric buses in the form of the said five-year contract.

Founded in 2005, the LFP battery manufacturer has effectively extended its business reach to upstream sectors of FP-NCO (LiFePO4‧zM'O ) materials to downstream markets for e-bikes, e-scooters, power tools, robots, aviation crafts, UPS, medical devices and household appliances. Presently, the company's shareholders include Taiwan's Ruentex Group and U.S.'s KPCB, with Ruentex Group controlling a stake of over 20%

In addition to batteries, Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry noted that it will also reinforce its collaboration with Venturi Group on electric vehicle motors in the future, so as to build partnership with local electric bus battery swap stations to step up its foray into the European market.

Noteworthy is that Taiwan and France's industrial development authorities have also agreed to enhance cooperation on smart grids, in hopes of tapping complementary benefits to jointly explore the global market for such products. In 2030, scale of the market is expected to exceed US$100 billion.