In March 2014 NEC Corp acquired the grid energy storage business of A123 Systems. In October 2012, A123 Systems Inc had filed for chapter 11-bankruptcy reorganization before being acquired by Wanxiang America Corp., the North American subsidiary of Chinese auto parts conglomerate Wanxiang Group, in January 2013. Building out from MIT developed technology, A123 Systems had designed, developed, manufactured, and sold rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and battery systems. The batteries, based on the firm's nanophosphate technology, were offered for application development in the transportation, electric grid services, and consumer markets. The company's energy solutions group offered various packaged systems, as well as sub-module building blocks for battery system development. The firm's development of integrated systems included packaging of its batteries and power electronics, safety systems, thermal management, testing, production, and qualification. The company designed standard systems, as well as custom systems using a modular design based on standard building blocks. It manufactured various battery systems, in which batteries are connected in various configurations to meet the design requirements of specific applications. A123 Systems supplied battery systems to BAE Systems for various applications; to Gillette for use A123 technology in their consumer products (excluding power tools and certain other consumer products); to Black & Decker, which developed various product lines using its batteries. The company also consideried opportunities in emerging applications, including lawn and garden tools and vacuums and is developing and selling products for consumer applications, selling primarily through a network of global distributors. It also sold its batteries and battery systems directly to end-user customers, as well as through reseller and distributor channels.
