Maxell Ltd., a prominent Japanese battery manufacturer, has announced its withdrawal from the prismatic lithium-ion battery business and the dissolution of its Chinese subsidiary, Wuxi Maxell Energy Co., Ltd.
Established in 1960, Maxell was a pioneer in Japan, developing and producing alkaline batteries and floppy disks. It became a Hitachi Group subsidiary in 1964 and started its lithium-ion battery business in 1996. Its prismatic lithium-ion batteries were widely used in mobile phones, smartphones, and portable game consoles.
However, the market shift to laminated lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics led to a decline in Maxell’s lithium-ion battery sales and profits. Judging it hard to recover performance, the company decided to halt production. Wuxi Maxell Energy Co., Ltd. will stop production in May this year, with the dissolution process to follow according to local laws.
Maxell will record an inventory valuation loss of 1.2 billion yen and an extraordinary loss of 2.8 billion yen this month, mainly for additional retirement fees for departing employees.
This strategic move aims to concentrate the group’s business resources on all-solid-state batteries. Maxell has made progress in this area. In early 2024, it partnered with Kyoto University to establish a joint lab to tackle the stability technology of sulfide electrolytes, targeting a prototype with an energy density over 400Wh/kg by 2026. In January 2024, it developed a cylindrical all-solid-state battery and plans to mass-produce all-solid-state batteries for industrial equipment as early as 2026.
Industry analysts view this as a sign of Japanese companies’ differentiated competition in the lithium-ion battery market. By stepping back from the consumer electronics lithium-ion battery business, Maxell aims to leverage the technical advantages of all-solid-state batteries in the high-margin industrial market.