- Tesla Motors recently acquired Canada-based Hibar Systems. These are the details about the deal.
Tesla Motors recently acquired Richmond Hill, Ontario-based battery manufacturing company Hibar Systems Ltd. The deal happened sometime between July and October 2019. And this acquisition was essential for Tesla Motors as the electric vehicle maker has been aggressively focused on its own battery manufacturing initiatives.
Electric Autonomy Canada also pointed out that Tesla Motors has another connection with our friends up North. Tesla signed a five-year agreement with Jeff Dahn, a Dalhousie University physicist and lithium-ion battery global research leader. Tesla did respond to a request for a statement with Electric Autonomy Canada. And Hibar Systems president and CEO Iain McColl referred Electric Autonomy Canada to speak with Tesla.
Hibar Systems had originally launched in the early 1970s and was founded by German-Canadian engineer Heinz Barall. The company started out as a small cell battery company through a highly mechanized pump injection system.
In April 2019, Hibar was one of the Greater Toronto Area companies to receive grant funding through the federal National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program. Specifically, Hibar was awarded $2 million to develop a high-efficiency lithium-ion manufacturing system built for mass electric energy storage.
Since 2014, Tesla has been working with Panasonic for its battery packs. And earlier this year, Tesla acquired California-based battery technology company Maxwell Technologies.
