On March 26th, Wanhua Chemical Group Battery Technology Co., Ltd (“Wanhua Chemical”) and IBU-tec, a leading European manufacturer of lithium iron phosphate materials, successfully held a signing ceremony for their Joint Research and Development Agreement (JDA) in Weimar, Germany. This collaboration with IBU-tec will not impact Wanhua Chemical’s ongoing discussions with other companies regarding potential large-scale collaborations.
Within the framework of the partnership, IBU-tec and Wanhua Chemical will carry out a scale-up towards the industrial scale in the coming months. The partners expect to have reliable results in the third quarter of the current year as to whether the joint development will meet market requirements in Europe and North America. If this is the case, it will open up extensive potential for the production of an LFP cathode material in Germany that would be part of a European value chain in the battery sector.
Dr. Hua Weiqi, Executive Vice President of Wanhua Chemical, Mr. Wang Xiaoxing, General Manager of Wanhua Battery Industry Company Limited, Mr. Jörg Leinenbach, CEO of IBU-tec and Mr. Ulrich Weitz, CPO of IBU-tec, attended the signing ceremony. This event marks the formal opening of the in-depth cooperation between the two parties in the field of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) materials.
In the field of battery materials, lithium iron phosphate has gradually become a mainstream product in the new energy automobile and energy storage market with its advantages of high safety and long cycle life. In recent years, Wanhua Chemical has established a technology platform integrating battery material technology development, equipment technology development, and electric core application technology research, and its lithium iron phosphate products have been upgraded continuously. In this cooperation, the company will establish a local supply chain to supply LFP materials to European customers.
Dr. Hua Weiqi said: LFP shows the dominant position (almost 80% share in EV in Chinese market), and is almost the only commercially available solution for energy storage. Wanhua Chemical adheres to the globalization strategy and has set up 7 R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hungary, Spain, etc., 9 production bases and more than 10 overseas sales organizations, and IBU-tec, as a local German Li-ion material factory, focuses on the R&D and production of LFP, and owns a mature R&D and production system.
In the future, the two sides will also discuss the establishment of a joint laboratory in Europe, to begin cooperation in the field of battery innovation and R&D, to provide strong local R & D support for the development of the European battery industry.
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