Watch companies and auto companies have for long worked alongside one another, yet none have taken as bold a step as Swiss watchmaker, Swatch. Following its partnership with Mercedes-Benz to incubate the Smart brand, Swatch is considering building batteries for Electric Vehicles to challenge the likes of Tesla.
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Led by Belenos Clean Power, a company that is 51 percent owned by Swatch, the batteries are to be made from vanadium – an element that is far less harmful than the rare-earth materials used in lithium-ion batteries. In addition to being better for the environment, vanadium is believed to dramatically reduce charge times and weight alike.
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CEO of the Swatch Group, Nick Hayek is quoted as saying, “the battery pack could charge twice as fast and weigh a third less than the Panasonic batteries currently used by Tesla”. If sales expectations are anything to go by, Hayek estimates that by 2020 Swatch could be selling anywhere between $10 – 15 billion worth of batteries.
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Since Swatch has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese auto company Geely, it is likely that China will serve as a test bed for the technology before it is rolled out across the globe.
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