Leclanché SA Named ‘Marine Industry Supplier of the Year’ by Electric and Hybrid Marine Technology International Magazine

• Judges charged with selecting the marine supplier working to enable, facilitate, promote and champion decarbonisation across the marine industry

YVERDON-LES-BAINS, Switzerland and AMSTERDAM, 26 June 2023 – Leclanché SA (SIX: LECN) has been named the “Marine Industry Supplier of the Year” by Electric & Hybrid Marine Technology International magazine.

The award was presented to Guillaume Clément, vice president, eMarine, Leclanché, at a ceremony held at the annual Electric & Hybrid Marine Expo Europe Conference 2023, in Amsterdam. The awards program recognises the world’s finest engineers, innovations and products in the electric and hybrid marine arena.

The 2023 Electric & Hybrid Marine awards, now in their eighth year, were expanded from five to nine categories to better reflect the scope of innovation across the maritime sector. The entries were judged by an independent jury of journalists and marine consultants – none of whom were paid to take part and were not allowed to vote in categories in which they may have had a conflict of interest. Furthermore, they did not share their results with anyone apart from the chairman of the competition, so there was no collaboration, and were an independent reflection of the best in the industry.

“When judging the Marine Industry Supplier of the Year category, we asked jurors to consider a wide range of criteria – from specific technological breakthroughs and industry initiatives to relationships with manufacturers and commitments to sustainability. This was a tightly contested category, but the jurors were impressed by Leclanché's individual breakthroughs, its collaborative approach to development and its profile within the industry,” said Matt Ross, chairman, Electric & Hybrid Marine Awards and editor-in-chief of Electric & Hybrid Marine Technology International magazine.

Among the comments shared by the judges regarding Leclanché were these:

• “Reduction of the usage of cobalt and reducing the energy footprint of cell production.  This is a great step in the right direction.”
• “Leclanché continues to produce solutions for our industry, and their commitment is noted.”
• “A company that everyone knows, and everyone trusts.”
• “Broad scope of reasons - making battery cell production more environmentally friendly is a key one, I'd say, plus a wide range of expertise across most areas of marine propulsion system design.”

“We are humbled and thankful to be recognised by this influential panel of judges for this top honour. Leclanché has been an active participant in the marine industry for many years and we have developed a strong and consistent track record of innovations,” said Guillaume Clément. “For instance, we manufacture our cells in-house, specifically for marine applications, and they are produced using a water-based binding process in a highly sustainable manner.

“Our latest generation, liquid-cooled Navius MRS-3 marine rack system is being specified, repeatedly, for the largest marine battery projects including Scandlines and Brittany Ferries and will soon be powering a broad range of vessels around the world. Finally, integrators and manufacturers appreciate our focus on safety and built-in active safety system.”

A Year of Marketplace Growth and Technology Upgrades

Several of the factors contributing to Leclanché’s selection as Marine Industry Supplier of the Year include the launch of its Navius MRS-3^TM system, designed to support the needs of fully electric and hybrid marine vessel builders. It features significant improvements in battery energy density, modularity and active safety system over its prior generation MRS-2, making it the maritime industry’s most flexible and powerful vessel electrification system ever created with the lowest carbon footprint. The Navius MRS-3, including its space-saving and popular liquid cooling system, provides a distinct size and weight advantage versus competitive systems and is especially cost-effective for large-scale systems.

In the past ten months, the company has gained numerous wins for a broad range of projects including Scandlines’ PR24 zero-emission ferry; Stena RoRo and Brittany Ferries, for next generation hybrid ferries; Scotland’s Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), CEMRE shipyard and elkon, for twin hybrid ferries; Grimaldi Group, for two of its latest hybrid Ro-Ro vessels.

On the technology and sustainability fronts, Leclanché announced a significant breakthrough in the environmentally friendly production of its high-performance lithium-ion batteries. The company, which is one of the few vertically integrated suppliers in the marine industry to manufacture its own modern G/NMCA cells, was able to reduce the cobalt content of its cathode material from 20 to 5 percent.

Also, Leclanché’s ability to manufacture its electrodes using an environmentally friendly water-based process, demonstrates to the industry that we can completely dispense with the use of highly toxic organic solvents (NMP) that are otherwise common in the production process. The new G/NMCA cells from Leclanché have a 20 percent higher energy density - with the same size and weight all while offering a similar performance level. Thanks to the high-volume energy density and high cycle stability, the new cells are particularly well suited for marine vessels and other heavy-duty applications.

The company also introduced its news circular economy 6R concept in line with EU regulations. The 6R stands for Reliability, Repowering, Reuse, Recycling and Recycled content as well as Record throughout the life cycle of its lithium-ion batteries and reflect the company’s commitment to the EU directive with Leclanché at the forefront of this development.

# # #

Navius MRS-3 is a trademark of Leclanché SA. All other tradenames are the property of their respective owners.

About Leclanché

Leclanché is a world leading provider of low-carbon footprint energy storage solutions based on lithium-ion cell technology. Established in 1909 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, Leclanché’s history and heritage is rooted in battery and energy storage innovation. The company’s Swiss culture for precision and quality, together with its production facilities in Germany, make Leclanché the partner of choice for companies seeking the very best in battery performance and who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. Leclanché is organised into three business units: energy storage solutions, e-Mobility solutions and specialty battery systems. The company currently employs over 350 people with representative offices in eight countries around the world. Leclanché is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: LECN). 

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.