Tesla has quietly bought the Richmond Hill, Ontario battery manufacturing company Hibar Systems to use its knowledge in battery manufacturing.
Public records show that the EV manufacturer bought the battery company sometime between July and October of 2019, according to Electric Autonomy Canada.
Both Tesla and Hibar have yet to comment on the matter, but federal documents show that prior to July 2019, Tesla Canada didn’t own any subsidiary companies, and now its most recent documents list Hibar as a company that it holds, reports Electric Autonomy Canada.
Hibar’s website is now just a simple landing page with some contact information, but according to reports, it previously said that it’s “truly unique in its capability to provide the world’s leading manufacturers with innovative advanced automation solutions that are engineered specifically to suit their production automation requirements.“
It also mentioned, how it was, “well-known for its high-speed integrated battery assembly lines and filling system,” plus, the website which can be found by using the Wayback Machine, mentioned the company holds some “intellectual property” related to battery manufacturing technology.
Hibar also made headlines in April 2019 when it received a$2 million grant from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, as reported by YorkRegion.com The government’s program website says that its focus is to help “small and medium-sized businesses increase their innovation capacity and take ideas to market.”
The cash injection was to help the Ontario company develop a form of high-speed lithium-ion battery manufacturing process.
Since then, the company has flown under the radar until the reported acquisition from Tesla.
This isn’t Tesla’s only connection with the Canadian battery industry. It also works with Jeff Dahn and a team of researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This team is developing next-generation battery technology that Tesla uses. You can read about it here.
There’s no solid information about what Tesla is using Hibar’s tech for, but it seems that it’s for its manufacturing process. The EV company also bought the battery manufacturer Maxwell in February of 2019.
Source: Electric Autonomy Canada, YorkRegion.com
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