APC project gives UK SME the confidence to secure £40 million international deal
Hyperdrive Innovation has signed a £40 million deal to expand its battery technology from Tynemouth to Taipei, as the Sunderland-based innovator prepares make its mark on the Asian market.
The deal follows Hyperdrive’s collaboration with Nissan, formed through an Advanced Propulsion Centre funded project, which resulted in a global supply agreement to incorporate its leading lithium-ion cells into Nissan’s high performance battery systems.
The long-term agreement will see Foxlink Automotive Technology manufacture, sell and distribute its modular battery pack across Asia in addition to Sunderland. Foxlink is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers with revenues of almost US$3 billion in 2016 and 63,000 employees as at the end of 2017.
Following the significant boost in employee base, reputation and turnover following Hyperdrive’s project with Nissan, the Foxlink partnership is a further boost to its growth plans with turnover already expected to double this year as a result of a growing customer base in off-highway vehicles, autonomous and industrial machines, and stationary energy storage
Hyperdrive’s compact modular battery pack is market leading in terms of energy density and is readily available as a standard product, with integrated battery management providing flexibility to scale up systems for different applications. It enables manufacturers to make a swift transition to vehicle electrification and clean energy storage, avoiding the need for bespoke battery development and the significant investment and time this would entail.
The Foxlink partnership gives Hyperdrive a strategic presence outside of Europe for the first time and opens up the Asian market for its world-leading technology. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Foxlink produces connectors, cable assemblies, power management devices and battery packs for some of the world’s leading makers of communications devices, computers and consumer electronics including Apple and Microsoft.
Chris Pennison, CEO of Hyperdrive Innovation, says:
The agreement with Foxlink is a major development for Hyperdrive and means our world-leading technology can now be delivered globally. The support of such a major partner, willing to invest in a new manufacturing facility to produce and distribute our modular battery packs, under the Hyperdrive brand, is a terrific endorsement of the quality of our technology. The agreement will give us a strategic foothold in Asia, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions and transform awareness of Hyperdrive. As well as being great news for us, it also shows the strength of the North East of England as a world-leader in battery technology.
As part of the agreement, Foxlink will set up a new manufacturing facility in Taiwan to replicate Hyperdrive’s existing facility in the UK. This plant will be sized initially to produce 20,000 modular packs, under the Hyperdrive brand, each year with the option to add further capacity in China to meet demand. Foxlink will manufacture and distribute large volumes of packs across the whole of Asia.