ABS, Robert Bosch Battery Systems ink deal

Under the proposed agreement, ABS will acquire the testing lab assets for high-voltage battery systems and will lease 40,000 sq. ft. for prototype battery pack assembly and offices in Lake Orion, Mich. In addition, ABS will acquire the 172,000 sq. ft. facility located in Springboro, Ohio, where Robert Bosch Battery Systems has assembled lithium-ion battery packs for use in the automotive industry since 2009, a press release stated. "We are proud to offer capabilities to the market through the acquisition of high-voltage assets," said ABS Chairman and CEO Subhash Dhar. ABS will supply modular battery solutions to underserved transportation, industrial and commercial markets, primarily in North America and Europe. It will partner with the world's leading OEMs, system integrators and battery manufacturers to supplement and extend their brands with a combination of engineering, testing and manufacturing services. The venture will partner with leading cell manufacturers, to offer a variety of chemistries and cell form factors to optimize each application. "We will leverage our significant automotive experience to bring electrified mobility battery systems to new emerging transportation, industrial and commercial segments," Dhar said. "We see tremendous opportunity for growth in robust battery systems with flexible business models as the business cases in these new segments are enabled with lower cost lithium ion batteries." Dhar said. ABS was founded in 2019 by Subhash Dhar and KCK Group, a principal investment firm that has committed over USD 50 million in capital to bring electrified mobility battery systems to emerging transportation, industrial and commercial markets. The ABS leadership team includes Dr. John Warner, chief customer officer; Ivan Menjak, vice president, business development and Arun Kumar, director, electronics.