Yverdon & Lappeenranta, 4 May 2015 – Leclanché SA and Visedo Oy have entered into a strategic alliance concerning close cooperation in marketing, selling and developing Visedo’s electric drive trains with Leclanché’s battery systems. Within this partnership, Leclanché will provide high quality lithium-ion solutions and batteries with long calendar and cycle life.

Leclanché and Visedo will collaborate to develop a joint BMS platform by merging Visedo’s battery control system and Leclanché’s battery management know-how. The integration of battery and traction control systems will establish the first full plug-and-play drive train system in the marketplace applicable to any electric bus or other EV-solution. Leclanché and Visedo’s solution is a true breakthrough for the industry as real-time tests show that it is 30-40% more efficient compared with its peers currently on the market.

The first joint project with Visedo’s drive train and Leclanché’s battery system will be an electric bus project for a European city. After successful installation and testing of the system, the end customer has committed to order the first fleet of 30 to 50 electrified bus drive trains including batteries starting in 2016, each with approx. 30-50 kWh resulting in a total amount of 1.0-2.5 MWh of batteries.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché SA, commented: “Leclanché is proud to offer its energy and power intensive battery technologies to Visedo Oy in order to develop and combine the offering of both companies into an integrated plug-and-play drive train solution for electrical and hybrid engines. This is truly an industry leading offer delivering the most optimum solution to further reduce CO2 emissions and other harmful particles affecting the environment. We are also proud to announce this alliance’s first significant success as we have already secured commercial orders within the sustainable electric mobility segment. This achievement also constitutes a validation of Leclanché’s growth strategy announced in September 2014. Leclanché is ready to fully capitalize on the opportunities within the market leveraging its production facilities in Germany and Switzerland”.

Kimmo Rauma, CEO of Visedo Oy, added: “I am excited to have a strategic business partner with a team specialized in batteries with the best technology. The Leclanché battery cells combined with Visedo’s existing BMS-technology form an integral part of the complete drive train solution. Visedo has been involved in several heavy machinery drive train projects where the battery technology and especially the BMS selected have been the key success factors to win the customer confidence. By this alliance we will be able to bring to the market a full proven electric drive train which meets and exceeds customer requirements and with which the time-to-market is now minimized”.

In addition to the transportation segment, Leclanché and Visedo are cooperating in electric drive- and propulsion projects for industrial machinery and the marine industry. These segments are also facing an increasing regulation for energy efficiency and to reduce local emissions and acoustic noise. Leclanché and Visedo have already been selected to be preferred suppliers of electric drive and propulsion projects with batteries of more than 10 MWh in terms of battery capacity for the years 2016 – 2020.

Leclanché and Visedo are confident that this strategic alliance will provide a new and novel offering to the market replacing diesel power trains at an increasing pace in the transportation, industrial machinery and marine customer segments.

For further information
Claude-Olivier Rochat, Voxia communication – Mobile +41 (0)79 203 52 19
co.rochat@voxia.ch
Rohan Sant, Voxia communication – Mobile +41 (0)79 120 00 28
rohan.sant@voxia.ch

About Leclanché

Headquartered in Switzerland, Leclanché SA is a leading provider of high-quality energy storage solutions designed to accelerate our progress towards a clean energy future. Leclanché’s history and heritage is rooted in over 100 years of battery and energy storage innovation and the Company is a trusted provider of energy storage solutions globally. This coupled with the Company’s culture of German engineering and Swiss precision and quality, continues to make Leclanché the partner of choice for both disruptors, established companies and governments who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. The energy transition is being driven primarily by changes in the management of our electricity networks and the electrification of transport, and these two end markets form the backbone of our strategy and business model. Leclanché is at the heart of the convergence of the electrification of transport and the changes in the distribution network. Leclanché is the only listed pure play energy storage company in the world, organised along three business units: stationary storage solutions, e-Transport solutions and specialty batteries systems. Leclanché is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: LECN).

SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker symbol LECN | ISIN CH 011 030 311 9

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Leclanché’s business, which can be identified by terminology such as “strategic”, “proposes”, “to introduce”, “will”, “planned”, “expected”, “commitment”, “expects”, “set”, “preparing”, “plans”, “estimates”, “aims”, “would”, “potential”, “awaiting”, “estimated”, “proposal”, or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding the ramp up of Leclanché’s production capacity, potential applications for existing products, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products, or potential future sales or earnings of Leclanché or any of its business units. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Leclanché regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that Leclanché’s products will achieve any particular revenue levels. Nor can there be any guarantee that Leclanché, or any of the business units, will achieve any particular financial results.

Contacts Leclanché

Media Switzerland /Europe:

Thierry Meyer

T: +41 (0) 79 785 35 81

E-mail: tme@dynamicsgroup.ch

Media North America:

Henry Feintuch / Ashley Blas

T: +1-914-548-6924 / +1-509-494-4053

E-mail: leclanche@feintuchpr.com  

Media Germany:

Christoph Miller

T: +49 (0) 711 947 670

E-mail: leclanche@sympra.de

Investor Contacts:

Anil Srivastava / Hubert Angleys

T: +41 (0) 24 424 65 00

E-mail: invest.leclanche@leclanche.com