The Chloride Electrical Storage Syndicate Ltd was incorporated on the 12 December 1891. The company had been established to adopt a provisional agreement dated the 30 November 1891 and made between The Electric Storage Battery Company and The United Gas Improvement Company on one part and John Arnold Einem Hickson to exploit patents belonging to The Electric Storage Battery Co of New Jersey, United States of America. At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Syndicate held on the 6 May 1902 a Special Resolution was passed and amongst the business of the day was the changing of the company name to The Chloride Electrical Storage Co Ltd. The company expanded as a result of the many batteries it developed and the applications they were used for. From 1909 it began developing relationships with other companies producing batteries. In 1922 it gained a controlling interest in Pritchetts and Gold which was just the start of its formidable capacity for acquiring other companies. Between 1929 it acquired or had controlling interests in over 20 companies either involved in the manufacturing of batteries or the manufacturing of electric vehicles. The company remained with this name until a resolution passed on the 18 July 1972 which saw it change to Chloride Group Ltd this came into force on the 1 October 1972.The Group became a plc in 1981 and remained so until September 2010 when it became a private company once again.

The Electric Power Storage Co Ltd, sometimes referred to as the Electrical Power Storage Co, was established in 1882. With a head office in Great Winchester Street, London and a factory in Millwall, the company was the first in the country to manufacture batteries, from 1883. It was the maker of EPS Storage cells. The company took on the patents of an early rival, the Faure Electric Accumulator Co, to develop its battery cells. Faure Electric Accumulator Co and developed an unreliable accumulator and, when they attempted to improve it by using patents issued to Sellon and Volckmar, the Electric Power Storage Co, as holders of the Sellon-Volckmar patent, threatened Faure with legal action. The Electric Power Storage Co employed a number of engineers who went on to other things, including Bernard Drake and John Gorham who set up Drake and Gorham in 1886, which became a major firm of electrical contractors, and Hugo Hirst, who became chairman of GEC in 1910. In 1884, the company demonstrated two boats on the Thames, powered by the Electric Power Storage Co accumulators. The following year saw a successful demonstration of a battery-driven tramcar by South London Tramway Co using accumulators manufactured by the Electric Power Storage Co. From 1886, under the management of William Henry Patchell, the Millwall Works began developing plant for public and private electricity supply. Batteries continued to be an important electricity power source, particularly for public transport, and in 1888 a new Pullman vestibule car running on the London-Brighton railway line had electric lighting supplied via Electric Power Storage Co accumulators linked to a dynamo. The following year, the company demonstrated electric disc brakes powered by their accumulators. In 1889, the Electric Power Storage Co joined a number of other electrical equipment manufacturers to form the Electric Construction Corporation, but continued to trade under its own name. By 1891, the Electric Power Storage Co had taken over a secondary battery manufacturing plant in Millwall from the Electric Construction Corporation, and business grew over the following year. The Electric Construction Corporation was formally wound up in 1893. In 1897, Electric Power Storage Co supplied accumulators to power electric taxi cabs, which were demonstrated in London. The company effectively came to an end in 1915, when it amalgamated with Pritchett and Gold Ltd. In 1920, the amalgamated company was incorporated as Pritchett and Gold and EPS Co Ltd.