Sheffield battery company Faradion snapped up by Indian firm Reliance Industries for £100m

A Sheffield battery company has been snapped up for £100m by an Indian company - which is promising a further £25m to make it a world leader.
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Faradion is being acquired by Reliance Industries which says the Sheffield firm’s technology is ‘the most exciting opportunity globally’ for energy storage and electric vehicle applications.

The company has signed agreements to acquire Faradion Ltd for an enterprise value of £100 million. In addition, subsidiary, Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd, will invest £25 million to accelerate commercial roll out.

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Testing Faradion batteries with sodium-ion anode materials.Testing Faradion batteries with sodium-ion anode materials.
Testing Faradion batteries with sodium-ion anode materials.
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Faradion is based at the The Innovation Centre on Portobello in Sheffield city centre, it also has a site in Oxford.

It specialises in sodium-ion powered batteries which it says are as cheap as old lead-acid batteries but with the same performance as hi-tech lithium-ion phosphate, ‘with runway for further improvements’.

In 2015, it demonstrated the world’s first sodium-ion battery-powered vehicle – an e-bike – in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering and Oxford University.

Dr Chris Wright, chairman and co-founder of Faradion, said: “This deal with Reliance firmly establishes Faradion’s sodium-ion batteries as an integral part of the global value chain for cheaper, cleaner, more sustainable energy for decades to come.”

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James Quinn, chief executive of Faradion, said: “Faradion has been one of the first to champion sodium-ion battery technology. Reliance is the perfect partner for supporting Faradion’s growth in the rapidly expanding Indian market and to jointly speed up the transformation of the global energy market. Becoming part of the Reliance group validates the incredible work our team has done in advancing sodium-ion technology.”

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, said they would use Faradion’s technology at its planned ‘energy storage giga-factory’ at Jamnagar in western India.

He added: “This will further strengthen our ambition to create one of the most advanced and integrated new energy ecosystems and put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies.”

He added: “We will work with Faradion management and accelerate its plans to commercialise the technology through building integrated and end-to-end giga scale manufacturing in India.

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“We believe this will be one of our many steps that will also enable, accelerate, and secure large scale energy storage requirements for our Indian partners developing and transforming India’s EV mobility and transport sector.”

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