Chery partners with Taiwan's BenQ to make materials for EV batteries
Chery Automobile Co. and Taiwanese technology company BenQ Corp. signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to produce materials for lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles.
Construction on the plant will start in 2011 in Wuhu in east China's Anhui province, where Chery is based. With an initial investment of 160 million yuan ($23.5 million), the new venture will make lithium ion battery separator films beginning in 2012, Chery said in a statement.
Separator films provide a barrier between the anode and the cathode in a battery while enabling electrons to flow out to the electric motor.
Lithium ion battery separator films produced at the joint venture will be supplied to Chery as well as other customers.
BenQ is the second overseas company Chery has teamed up with on electric vehicle development this year. In April, California-based Better Place signed a preliminary agreement to jointly develop switchable-battery electric vehicle prototypes.
During the first seven months of this year, Chery sold 343,960 gasoline-powered light vehicles , up 40 percent from a year earlier.
