The story
The history of E-One Moli Energy goes back to Moli Energy Ltd., the Canadian pioneer of rechargeable lithium battery technology, founded in 1977 in the Greater Vancouver suburb of Burnaby by the University of British Columbia and Teck Mining Corp., with Teck's then-chairman Dr. Norman Keevil Sr. as the lead investor. Moli Energy went into receivership after a cell-phone battery produced by the company caught fire in 1989, resulting in its sales being halted and tens of thousands of phones getting recalled. The failure of Moli's battery technology caused a shift towards safer intercalation electrode materials.
The company was then acquired by "a consortium of Japanese tech companies" for CA$5 million in a deal with the British Columbia government. The deal was criticized for being far below the value of Moli's patents. In 1994, the company became Nippon Moli Energy Corp., and in 1997, it became NEC Moli Energy Corp. In 1998, it merged with Taiwanese E-One Technology, forming the current E-One Moli Energy Corp.
On July 14, 2025, a fire broke out at a Molicel manufacturing plant in Kaohsiung, originating in a warehouse containing semi-complete batteries. 12 workers and 3 firefighters were injured. The incident costed Molicel an estimate of NT$5 billion ($154.5 million USD) in damages.
From Wikipedia’s article on Molicel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3