Lifetech Energy is gearing up for a major product announcement in April at Autotronics but is keeping the details under wraps.

The company, which was founded in 2002, has concentrated on battery technology for the electric vehicle market and has pushed the technology in recent years with its own voltage management system that it announced in 2006 and a global battery tracking system in 2007.

But late last year it lost its independence when the Panjit Group purchased 60% of the company.

“We sold out to Panjit because we wanted to expand,” said Jimmy Lin, executive assistant to the president. “There will be a major technology announcement in April as a result of the takeover. Panjit is involved in solar and alternative energies and wanted an automotive arm.”

The company’s voltage management system can measure every cell in the battery for overcharge, discharge and abnormal activity. This is used by engineers for diagnosis but the company has now developed a system that will have a dashboard display to show the driver the state of the battery. This works by linking the battery into the car’s Can bus.

The battery tracking system is aimed at fleets and monitors the state of the battery and sends that information via GPRS back to the control centre.

Lin sees the main market potential being in China where government R&D grants are available for car and bus companies to develop electric vehicle technology.

“China is a big market and we are developing a system with a bus company in China but we can’t say who it is at the moment,” he said.