American Battery Solutions, Inc. (ABS), an advanced battery systems company, announced its emergence from stealth-mode with engineering, testing and manufacturing services enabled by an agreement to acquire high-voltage manufacturing and testing assets from Robert Bosch Battery Systems. ABS is backed by a $50 million committed investment from KCK Group, a principal investment firm with global offices in London, New York, Bay Area and Dubai. ABS brings electrified mobility battery systems to new emerging transportation, industrial and commercial markets by leveraging the team's vast experience and expertise in automotive battery system development and manufacturing.
ABS will develop, design, test and manufacture modular battery solutions for underserved transportation, industrial and commercial markets, primarily in North American and Europe, according to Subhash Dhar, Founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ABS. "ABS brings an experienced team of world-class battery professionals and automotive experts with an entrepreneurial mindset together with world-class development and manufacturing facilities. We're a new start, not a start-up," Dhar says.
The company is founded by KCK Group and Dhar, a longtime innovator and industry leader in the development and commercialization of energy storage.
"ABS will focus on the middle of the spectrum of battery systems value chain," Dhar says, "concentrating on module production, pack assembly and customer integration." It will work 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 suppliers, to offer a variety of chemistries and cell form factors to optimize each application."
Target applications will include:
- High performance and autonomous EVs;
- Delivery trucks, buses and utility vehicles;
- Rail and marine;
- Mobile commercial power;
- Material handling equipment; and
- Construction, agriculture and mining equipment.
IDTechEx, a market research firm, forecasts that the electric vehicle market will reach $1.1 trillion in sales by 2028, including the construction, agriculture & mining markets which will reach over $100bn by 2029 as the prices of lithium-ion batteries decrease and enable solid business cases in these applications. "We see a huge business opportunity in these underserved segments. We will leverage our automotive experience to bring electrified mobility battery systems to new emerging transportation, industrial and commercial markets," Dhar says.