RUSNANO and Thunder Sky Group Set Agreement to Establish Joint Russian-Chinese Nanotech Plant

RUSNANO and Thunder Sky Group Limited will establish in Russia the joint company Lithium-Ion Technology to implement the joint project. The total budget of the project is estimated at 13.580 billion rubles. RUSNANO will invest 2.090 billion rubles in cash in project’s equity and provide a loan of 5.500 billion rubles. Thunder Sky Group Limited will invest 2.090 billion rubles in cash, technologies and the intellectual property in project’s equity and provide a loan of 3.900 billion rubles.
“This is a remarkable example of cooperation between Russia and China in the science and technology field. The project will help transfer and develop the world’s latest technology in Russia”, notes RUSNANO Managing Director Sergey Polikarpov.
The sales of the project’s production are expected to reach 13.1 billion rubles in 2015.
The high-end lithium-ion batteries project implies building a plant in Novosibirsk (Russia) with four fully automated and environmentally friendly production lines from Thunder Sky. It will create more that 500 hi-tech jobs in the region. The flexible modular production process could be easily reconfigured depending on the customer’s demand and the new technology emergence. Along with production and research units, a sales and marketing division will be established to advance the Thunder Sky technology on Russian and East European markets.
The Russian plant will produce batteries which will be primarily used in electric buses and minibuses. The batteries will also be used in uninterrupted power supply units in IT, telecommunications and renewable energy.
The battery production will be launched in 2011. The annual production capacity will reach 400 million ampere-hours by 2012, enough to power 12,000 electric vehicles a year. The guaranteed demand for major part of batteries produced in first four years is ensured by the Thunder Sky contracts with Chinese producers of electric vehicles. The Russian market sales are expected to grow along with the demand generated by the production of new and re-equipment of existing model such as GAZelle mini-trucks.
The Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant will supply the cathode material and lithium compounds for batteries production. Other imported ingredients will be gradually replaced by domestic production, give an impetus for the emergence of new cluster of high technology industries in Russia.
The project’s Science and Technology center will adapt the nanotechnology developments of Russian scientists that will considerably improve characteristics of the Thunder Sky batteries and create new market niches for their application. The Russian production unit will ensure faster commercialization and implementation of the scientific developments.