YVERDON, Switzerland & KONGSBERG, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Leading global maritime technology company Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanché, one of the world’s leading storage solutions companies, as its battery partner and supplier of customised marine energy storage solutions. The partnership contributes to KONGSBERG’s new generation of hybrid power solutions, which are set to deliver game-changing efficiencies and reduce the environmental impact of transportation with cutting-edge autonomous and crewed vessel newbuilds.

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Leclanché’s batteries will be an integral part of KONGBSERG’s hybrid solutions. Through the partnership, Leclanché will deliver one of the largest single marine battery system order to date for 9 vessels totalling 45MWh batteries. The systems will be built at Leclanché’s facility in Switzerland with the cells manufactured at Leclanché’s Willstätt facility in Germany.

• The first project to be jointly executed will be Yara Birkeland, the world’s first autonomous and electric container vessel with zero emissions ordered by YARA, one of the world’s leading fertilizer companies and a provider of environmental solutions. Replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, Yara Birkeland will eliminate NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, whilst also reducing noise and dust emissions currently caused by trucks in a densely populated urban area.
• The second project relates to vessels known as Grimaldi Green 5^th Generation (GG5G). Grimaldi is one of the world’s largest operators of Roll-on/ Roll-off (Ro-Ro) and Roll-on/ Roll-off Passenger (Ro-Pax) vessels. The hybrid propulsion system delivered by Kongsberg includes supply and integration of shaft generators, frequency drives, energy management systems together with Leclanché battery systems. The GG5Gs will be the first in a new series of hybrid Ro-Ro vessels using fossil fuel during navigation, with batteries providing a peak-shaving function and electricity in port.

The new partnership with KONGSBERG underscores Leclanché’s strategy of being a vertically integrated system supplier to growth markets such as merchant marine and fleet transportation, moving beyond being a ‘pure play’ cell producer. Leclanché made an early investment in developing a DNV GL certified battery system for marine applications, and is the first battery supplier to fully comply with the stringent 2015 regulations that are currently in force. DNV GL is an international accredited registrar and classification society for maritime vessels headquartered in Høvik, Norway.

Frode Kaland, EVP Supply Chain for Kongsberg Maritime said: “Leclanché’s ability to cover the complete value chain from design and production of lithium cells in Europe, to full battery systems certified for marine applications together with our proprietary hybrid power technology positions us together as a single, unified supplier of electrification solutions that will deliver lower operational expenditure and enable environmental sustainability for all vessel types”.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché said: "The partnership between Kongsberg Maritime, one of the world’s leading providers of electrification solutions to the maritime industry and Leclanché has the potential to be game changing as it brings low and zero-emission solutions to the sizeable and fast growing electric and hybrid marine market. Leclanché’s focus on maritime is an essential component of our focus on the electrification of fleets and maritime is ideally suited to both our superior battery systems and our partnership approach to deliver emissions busting solutions. We are seeing a paradigm shift in the maritime industry towards electric power and partnerships with world class industry leaders such as KONGSBERG further demonstrate that Leclanché’s opportunity is now."

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About Kongsberg

KONGSBERG (OSE-ticker: KOG) is an international, knowledge-based group delivering high technology systems and solutions to clients within the oil and gas industry, merchant marine, defence and aerospace. KONGSBERG has 7 000 employees located in more than 25 countries and total revenues of NOK 14.5 billion in 2017. Follow us on Twitter: @kongsbergasa.

Kongsberg Maritime (KM) is the largest division of KONGSBERG and a world-leader in the development and delivery of integrated vessel concepts for traditional merchant vessels and fishing vessels, as well as offshore and research vessels and offshore installations.

The maritime industry is entering a new era, and Kongsberg Maritime is at the forefront of these changes.

About Leclanché

Headquartered in Switzerland, Leclanché SA is a leading provider of high quality energy storage solutions designed to accelerate our progress towards a clean energy future. Leclanché’s history and heritage is rooted in over 100 years of battery and energy storage innovation and the Company is a trusted provider of energy storage solutions globally. This coupled with the Company’s culture of German engineering and Swiss precision and quality, continues to make Leclanché the partner of choice for both disruptors, established companies and governments who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. The energy transition is being driven primarily by changes in the management of our electricity networks and the electrification of transport, and these two end markets form the backbone of our strategy and business model. Leclanché is at the heart of the convergence of the electrification of transport and the changes in the distribution network. Leclanché is the only listed pure play energy storage company in the world, organised along three business units: stationary storage solutions, etransport solutions and specialty batteries systems. Leclanché is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: LECN).

SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker symbol LECN | ISIN CH 011 030 311 9

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Leclanché's business, which can be identified by terminology such as "strategic", "proposes", "to introduce", "will", "planned", "expected", "commitment", "expects", "set", "preparing", "plans", "estimates", "aims", "would", "potential", "awaiting", "estimated", "proposal", or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding the ramp up of Leclanché's production capacity, potential applications for existing products, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products, or potential future sales or earnings of Leclanché or any of its business units.

You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Leclanché regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that Leclanché's products will achieve any particular revenue levels. Nor can there be any guarantee that Leclanché, or any of the business units, will achieve any particular financial results.

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