EU Commission gives green light for Bosch & Mitsubishi battery swapping joint venture
Robert Bosch GmbH and Mitsubishi Corporation have signed an agreement to form a new company, Bosch MC Battery Service Innovations GmbH, as a 50:50 joint venture under EU merger rules. Each partner will hold half of the shares and exercise joint control. The venture will be headquartered in Germany and focus on developing and supplying Battery-as-a-Service enablement solutions and consultancy offerings to strengthen customers’ Battery-as-a-Service operations.
Target clients include leasing providers, battery swapping operators, fleet managers, energy storage system operators, and insurers. Bosch MC Battery Service Innovations intends to serve customers worldwide, with particular emphasis on the EU, Japan, China, the USA, and India.
The European Commission has now given the green light for the creation of the joint venture, concluding that the deal poses no competition concerns in the European Economic Area due to its limited activities and market share in the region. The decision was taken under the EU Merger Regulation.
In March 2022, Bosch and Mitsubishi announced they were teaming up with Blue Park Smart Energy (BPSE) to offer battery swapping services in China. According to a Memorandum of Understanding signed at the time, BPSE will contribute its battery exchange platform. The company is part of the BAIC Group and in 2021, SK Innovation secured a 13.3% stake in BPSE.
Bosch will monitor and analyse the batteries via its Battery-in-the-Cloud service, using data-based optimisation to improve performance and extend the lifespan of EV batteries and the TCO of EV fleets.
Three years ago, the companies said that they would “conduct a Proof of Concept in China,” adding that the goal was to “provide the solution worldwide.” No timeframe was given at the time.
Neither partner had issued a statement following approval by the EU Commission at the time of writing. It remains thus unclear when the project could kick off, how much the initial investment in this ‘Battery as a Service’ business will be, and which markets could follow China.
As stated above, the EU Commission noted that “the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given that the joint venture has negligible activities in the European Economic Area.” It also emphasised the importance of the EV sector in this decision, saying that the joint venture “aims to support the electric vehicle sector, a pivotal sector for decarbonisation efforts in Europe and beyond.”
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