{"id":3674,"date":"2019-02-04T12:54:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2019-02-04T12:54:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:54:52","slug":"tesla-to-buy-battery-tech-maker-maxwell-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=3674","title":{"rendered":"Tesla To Buy Battery Tech Maker Maxwell Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc has agreed to buy energy storage company Maxwell Technologies Inc for $218 million in an all-stock deal that could help the electric car maker produce batteries that hold more energy and last longer at a time when it needs to cut costs and faces growing competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla is rapidly increasing production of its Model 3 sedan and needs to lower the price to reach a broader customer base than its pure luxury vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell executives told investors in January that it had developed and patented a “dry electrode” technology that could significantly increase the driving range and reduce the cost of electric vehicle batteries. In a presentation, Maxwell said it expected strategic alliances “within six months” centered around this technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also makes ultracapacitors, which discharge energy faster than batteries and are seen as complementing battery technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultracapacitors, combined with the energy of batteries, can enable rapid response times, function across a broader temperature range and lengthen battery life by up to two times, according to a blog post on Maxwell’s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volvo-owner Geely Holding Group last May announced a deal with Maxwell and described the company’s ultracapacitor technology as helping to deliver “peak power” for hybrid cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tesla needs Maxwell’s solvent-free battery electrode manufacturing for a viable path to lower battery costs,” said Craig Irwin of Roth Capital Partners. “Real competitors are coming now, so Tesla needs to move fast.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell’s customers also include General Motors and Lamborghini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The offer values each Maxwell share at $4.75, representing a 55 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Friday, the companies said. Maxwell shares rose to trade at $4.58.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Japan’s Panasonic Corp is the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla chief Elon Musk had highlighted the importance of ultracapacitors back in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m a big fan of ultracapacitors. Was going to do my PhD at Stanford on them. But we need a breakthrough in energy density…,” Musk had tweeted https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/336598500156518400?lang=en.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla also sells power storage, often in conjunction with its solar power business, and ultracapacitors could be used in backup systems for homes and for utility power grids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell expects the deal, which has already been approved by its board, to close in the second quarter of 2019, or shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DLA Piper was Maxwell’s outside legal counsel, while Barclays Capital was the independent adviser. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Tesla as outside legal counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, Peter Henderson and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and by Joe White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla Inc has agreed to buy energy storage company Maxwell Technologies Inc for $218 million in an all-stock deal that could help the electric car maker produce batteries that hold more energy and last longer at a time when it needs to cut costs and faces growing competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2303,2203,1397,814,868],"tags":[819,2315,2150,2390,818,655,1780,447,3271,463,3272,707,1661,3273,2030,745,2870,1074,1841,3278,1348,2421,3270,769,3277,708,412,3279,1090,1288,3276,1193,101,3269,742,1093,542,815,3275,1272,3274],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electric-vehicle-news","category-finance-news","category-stock-news","category-tesla","category-transportation-news","tag-819","tag-battery","tag-buy","tag-capital","tag-car","tag-company","tag-corp","tag-deal","tag-dry","tag-electric","tag-electrode","tag-elon","tag-energy","tag-geely","tag-general","tag-group","tag-holding","tag-hybrid","tag-inc","tag-lamborghini","tag-luxury","tag-maker","tag-maxwell","tag-model","tag-motors","tag-musk","tag-news","tag-panasonic","tag-partners","tag-reuters","tag-roth","tag-sedan","tag-stock","tag-storage","tag-technologies","tag-technology","tag-tesla","tag-tsla","tag-ultracapacitors","tag-vehicle","tag-volvo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3676,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions\/3676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}