August 30, 2018: Exide Industries, the Indian battery maker, has signed an agreement with the Furukawa Battery Company that allows it to make and sell the UltraBattery for the Indian automotive sector, Furukawa announced on August 16.

The sub-licence agreement includes a contract for Furukawa to provide technical assistance to Exide, with which it has had a technological alliance since the mid-2000s, the company said.

“Furukawa Battery is providing Exide with technologies to produce high-quality, long-life lead-acid batteries. By doing so, Furukawa Battery will support the upgrading of Exide’s batteries and the expansion of its product line-up,” a company statement said.

Ongoing technical assistance contracts were made between the two companies in 2005 for automotive batteries, in 2007 for valve-regulated lead batteries for motorcycles, and in 2012 for stop-start batteries.

The brainchild of Australian scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the UltraBattery is supplied in Japan, Thailand and India by Furukawa.

Elsewhere, East Penn-owned Ecoult supplies the product.