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Two years after acquiring Maxwell for 1.5 billion, Tesla sold its supercapacitor business.

Published :7/24/2021 1:44:14 AM

Click Count:2103

According to foreign media Electrek, Tesla sold Maxwell’s supercapacitor business to UCAP Power, but the sale price is still unclear. In 2019, Tesla bought the company with a market value of US$235 million (approximately RMB 1.5 billion).

After the acquisition, Tesla had stated that it would integrate Maxwell's capacitor business into the company. But in the past two years, Tesilai has not used supercapacitor technology in its products. Therefore, foreign media speculated that Tesla’s original intention of acquiring Maxwell was for the company’s dry electrode technology, which will help Tesla improve vehicle performance.

Tesla used Maxwell's dry cell electrode technology in the 4680 battery launched last year. After Maxwell was acquired by Tesla, many employees in the company who focused on the development of the capacitor business decided to leave Maxwell and start their own company. Now it looks like this is a win-win situation for Tesla and Maxwell.


Last week, UCAP Power announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Maxwell brand, Maxwell Technologies’ South Korean business and other company assets, and has hired a group of Tesla and Maxwell former employees.

UCAP Power is a R&D company from San Diego focusing on the development of supercapacitors.

In 2019, Maxwell was acquired by Tesla with a market value of US$235 million (approximately RMB 1.5 billion). After the acquisition, Tesla announced that it would integrate Maxwell's capacitor business into the company, but did not indicate which product the technology will be applied to. Two years later, Tesla still has not used Maxwell's supercapacitor technology in its products.

Gordon Schenk, vice president of sales for Maxwell's division, said that the combination of Maxwell and UCAP Power will create new sparks in the fields of backup power, wind power and other fields.


Maxwell is a well-known supercapacitor design and manufacturing company in the industry. In addition to the research and development of supercapacitor technology, Maxwell is also committed to the development of dry electrode technology. The company has stated that this technology will have the potential to become a revolutionary technology in the battery industry. There is a huge market in the field of electric vehicles.

It now appears that the purpose of Tesla's acquisition of it is not to use Maxwell's capacitor technology in its products, but Tesla is mainly interested in Maxwell's dry electrode technology.

This technology not only improves the endurance of electric vehicles, but also greatly simplifies the manufacturing process, reducing manufacturing costs by 10 to 20 percentage points, and increasing battery energy density by at least 20 to 30 percentage points.


Foreign media Electrek said that Tesla's sale of Maxwell's supercapacitor business may be a win-win situation for the two companies.

For Tesla, Maxwell's dry electrode technology has made them more interested, which can greatly improve the performance of the vehicle in many aspects. For Maxwell, its own supercapacitor technology and UCAP Power, also a leader in the industry, are cooperating. Such a strong combination may also become a leader in this field.

For consumers, they do not care about the various mergers and acquisitions between companies, they only care about whether the performance of the product has been improved. Maxwell's dry electrode technology will effectively improve the vehicle's cruising range and charging speed to meet consumers' growing demand for vehicles.