our story
  • Empowering industrial users to transition to clean, renewable energy through innovation and precision engineering.
We are engineers, out-of-the box thinkers, creators, inventors, manufacturers and above-all passionate believers in a better, greener future. Our dynamic 70-person team is filled with industry-leading experts with a track-record of innovation and industry experience in a wide variety of specialised disciplines:
materials science, energy modelling, telematics, mechanical modelling, power electronics and more.

We saw the problem:

The need to transition industry to cleaner, greener energy. Engines for industrial equipment today are largely driven by diesel, and to a lesser degree gas or lead-acid electric. Diesel and gas create challenges for owners (noise in indoor and urban areas, emissions attracting regulatory pressure, maintenance cost, constant diesel re-supply, rising diesel cost), and lead acid solves these poorly (long charging time, dangerous charging, low energy density, short life, poor performance in extreme conditions).

We engineered a solution:

  • Battery systems that help electrify industrial mobility in supply chain logistics and that deliver higher technical performance for the toughest applications at a far lower lifetime cost.
  • Battery systems that deliver exceptional environmental solutions for the reduction of carbon emissions and sustainability challenges (such as noise and emissions) in operations.

In short: Cool Tech. Cooler World.

Timeline of success

The team’s achievements, prior to the founding of maxwell+spark, include their innovation in solar cars which have raced across some of the world’s harshest environments including the Karoo desert and the Australian Outback.

Ground-up design and manufacture of full-chassis carbon-composite electric sports cars; around-the-world airships; hybrid trucks; and li-ion powered rocket motors are just some of the projects that have given the team the experience to engineer cutting-edge technology.

2012/2013

2012 SA SOLAR CHALLENGE. More than doubled the distance of the next local team [custom Li-ion battery 200+Wh/kg]

2014/2015

Sold high energy density Li-ion airship batteries [Norway]

2014 SA Solar Challenge – Won as top SA team [custom Li-ion battery ~250Wh/kg]

2015 WSC – 13th in the World Solar Car Challenge beating teams such as Cambridge, Oxford and MIT

2016

Mamba Electric vehicle: a carbon fibre & Kevlar true monocoque, customisable body-chassis

WIPO patent related to solar PV on vehicles

2017

Maxwell + Spark INCORPORATED.
Development of Fridge.Li and then Forklift.Li

2018

First Fridge.Li sold to SPAR Group.
First major product sales (Fridge.Li and Forklift.Li)

2019

Fridge.Li custom designed for Scania delivered in Feb 2019

GOSCOR partnership kicks off early 2019.
Olico investment in Maxwell+Spark

2020

Major growth, with large SA sales.
Push into USA and EU markets.
Substantial increase in engineering and production capacity.

2021

maxwell+spark’s users now span the globe: from Australia to the USA, and Coca-Cola to Spar

Fairtree Elevant Ventures invests in maxwell+spark

2022

maxwell+spark warehouse, offices and early production opens in Rotterdam

2023

Rabobank Netherlands extends a significant credit line.
Second investment round from Fairtree Elevant Ventures.
New production premises and offices (~3000 Sqm) acquired in Westmead, South Africa