Tesla is one of the world's leading electric car companies, but it does not produce lithium-ion batteries for cars independently. Instead, it works with Panasonic of Japan.
But Tesla's approach to the battery business has changed. Tesla has quietly acquired Hibar, a Canadian-based battery manufacturing equipment and engineering company, in a bid to start manufacturing its own batteries for cars.
01 acquisition
Details of the acquisition have not yet been reported. But tesla recently listed Hamba Systems as a subsidiary in its registration with Canada's federal lobbying agency, according to a Report in the Canadian electrical industry.
In July, the battery maker wasn't on Tesla's list of subsidiaries, and now it's on the October 2 list -- meaning the acquisition happened in the past four months.
Currently, Hamba's identity has disappeared and the official website has been shut down, replaced by a page taken over by Tesla.
According to a web archive version of hamba's website, the company specializes in manufacturing specialized equipment for different battery manufacturing processes: "Hamba's latest technology offerings include advanced automatic vacuum filling systems for lithium-ion battery applications in hybrid electric vehicles, notebook computers and similar products."
Recently, Hamba has invested in developing a complete "high-speed lithium-ion battery manufacturing system." Last year, the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRCIRAP) awarded Hamba C $2 million to build a lithium battery manufacturing system in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. "C $2 million to support the development of high-speed lithium-ion battery manufacturing systems to meet the growing demand for high-capacity energy storage solutions," the document reads.
It's unclear if the battery manufacturing system has been deployed yet, but Hamba has been developing battery manufacturing equipment for a long time.
Hamba Systems is headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, But also has facilities in China and Germany, according to foreign media reports.
According to the profile, Ian McColl, a mechanical engineer, served as the company's president and CEO. The company went through a management buy-out in 2006 -- before Tesla's acquisition, all of the executives owned the company.
In all, Hamba employs 79 people, according to LinkedIn, the white-collar networking site.
02 Tesla's expansion in Canada
Tesla's expansion into battery manufacturing in Canada isn't surprising, as the automaker already has a battery research deal with JeffDahn, Canada's renowned lithium-ion battery pioneer.
In 2016, Dane transformed his research team from a 20-year research collaboration agreement with 3M to a new alliance with Tesla under the new NSERC/ Tesla Industrial Research Institute Canada program.
Through the deal, Tesla invested in a new research lab near Dane Group, near Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This collaboration has recently resulted in several interesting patents and research papers on a new type of lithium-ion battery that will last much longer than current technology.
03 Make batteries independently
The acquisition of Hamba also comes at a time when Tesla is trying to build up its own battery manufacturing capabilities.
After years of working with Panasonic, Tesla recently added South Korea's LG Chem as a battery supplier. LG Chem has started mass production at a battery plant in China that will supply lithium batteries to Tesla's electric car factory in Shanghai.
Earlier this year, Tesla acquired a maker of ultracapacitors called Maxwell, but the acquisition is speculated to have more to do with the company's new lithium-ion electrode technology.
Last month, foreign media reported that Tesla had started opening battery manufacturing jobs.
Now, with Hamba's acquisition, Tesla also owns a company that makes equipment to make batteries.
The relationship with Panasonic
Panasonic of Japan has been Tesla's most important lithium-ion battery supplier and battery production partner for the past few years. Panasonic and Tesla jointly operate a lithium-ion battery factory in Nevada, which has yet to reach its intended capacity and is still slowly being built on the go.
But recently, foreign media reported that Tesla and Panasonic's partnership "cool" news. According to Japanese media reports, Tesla and Panasonic had originally planned to increase lithium battery capacity at the Nevada plant by half by 2020, but Panasonic halted expansion plans at the Nevada plant earlier this year because of concerns that sales of Tesla's electric cars were not strong enough to consume the batteries produced at the plant.
So far, Panasonic and Tesla have invested nearly $4.5 billion in the Nevada lithium-ion battery plant. Late last year, Panasonic executives said they would invest about $1 billion more, but those plans have been put on hold.
It is worth noting that not long ago the foreign media in China on the construction of Shanghai plant is analyzed, think of Shanghai plant in the case of has not yet been put into production has been expanding, currently outside of the electric car factory may be held in new plant construction preparation, is likely to be in China for the production of automotive batteries. The news has not been officially confirmed by Tesla.
Panasonic is also looking for more customers for lithium-ion batteries, as sales of Tesla's electric cars fall short. Foreign media recently reported that Japan's Toyota will use matsushita's lithium-ion automotive batteries, which are essentially the same as those used by Tesla, in its hybrid models sold in China.
Panasonic executives have also said in the past that they would like to work with Tesla on lithium-ion battery production in China, as the company begins to build localized production capacity in China.
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