Brunswick Acquires RELION Battery Company
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:57 am
As a corollary to Brunswick acquiring NAVICO, the boat electronics manufacturer, Brunswick announced on September 1, 2021 that it has acquired RELION, a prominent maker of Lithium Iron Phosphate Oxide (LiFePO4) batteries. Their press release did not mention the acquisition cost.
RELION is a relatively new company, begun in 2014, and has been selling batteries with Lithium-ion chemistry. Their headquarters are in South Carolina, and their engineering team is located in Seattle. They are a USA-based company, but I wonder where the actual batteries are manufactured. Their website seems to avoid that topic. On the batteries themselves there is often a label with an adaptation of an American flag motif that declares "Engineered in the USA." I think the inference to be made from that is some or most of the manufacturing is not done in the USA.
Modern lithium-ion batteries include an integral electronic module called a charge controller (or a battery management system). The module supervises the amount of current that can flow in or out of the battery, and can disconnect the battery if there are conditions present that would cause harm to the battery, such as excessive heating, too much discharge current, inappropriate charging voltage, or ambient temperature too low. Thus a lithium-ion battery is more than an old-fashioned lead-acid battery; it is a integration of the battery chemistry and a built-in electronic charge controller or battery managment system. The real value-added in RELION may be more in their electronic engineering than in just in the battery chemistry and construction, although I suspect that is also first-rate.
Brunswick apparently sees value in owning a battery company like RELION, probably in future products involving electric propulsion motors for boats. For the immediate, acquiring RELION will allow Brunswick to put its own battery brand onto the many new boats it sells. Brunswick will also acquire a lot of engineering talent and development experience in high-power battery management and manufacturing.
RELION is a relatively new company, begun in 2014, and has been selling batteries with Lithium-ion chemistry. Their headquarters are in South Carolina, and their engineering team is located in Seattle. They are a USA-based company, but I wonder where the actual batteries are manufactured. Their website seems to avoid that topic. On the batteries themselves there is often a label with an adaptation of an American flag motif that declares "Engineered in the USA." I think the inference to be made from that is some or most of the manufacturing is not done in the USA.
Modern lithium-ion batteries include an integral electronic module called a charge controller (or a battery management system). The module supervises the amount of current that can flow in or out of the battery, and can disconnect the battery if there are conditions present that would cause harm to the battery, such as excessive heating, too much discharge current, inappropriate charging voltage, or ambient temperature too low. Thus a lithium-ion battery is more than an old-fashioned lead-acid battery; it is a integration of the battery chemistry and a built-in electronic charge controller or battery managment system. The real value-added in RELION may be more in their electronic engineering than in just in the battery chemistry and construction, although I suspect that is also first-rate.
Brunswick apparently sees value in owning a battery company like RELION, probably in future products involving electric propulsion motors for boats. For the immediate, acquiring RELION will allow Brunswick to put its own battery brand onto the many new boats it sells. Brunswick will also acquire a lot of engineering talent and development experience in high-power battery management and manufacturing.