xcel
05-23-2006, 10:37 PM
Hybrid-electric vehicles could spur high-volume sales and better returns for suppliers like Johnson Controls. (http://www.sae.org/automag/features/eblast/05-2006/1-114-5-48.pdf)
Kami Buchholz - SAE - May 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Johnson_Controls_Li-Ion_HEV_Pack.jpg
Packaging and performance cues - such as reduced size, weight, and power capacity - underscore Johnson Controls’ lithium-ion battery system.
Hybrid-electric vehicles have found an early adopters audience, but predictions that HEV’s will soon sway the mainstream public could spur high-volume sales and better returns for suppliers like Johnson Controls.
After spending 30 years with Johnson Controls’ seating and interiors group, Alan Mumby is now a key cog in the leadership chain that networks two companies and one joint venture (JV) to the same business-supplying advanced-technology batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) as well as electric vehicles. JCI’s partner, Saft, has been developing advanced-technology batteries for years, while Johnson Controls’ years of development work with advanced battery technology became more entrenched with the opening of a dedicated research laboratory in 2005.
“The joint venture is the hybrid representative for Saft and Johnson Controls, which incidentally is the world’s largest manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for OEMs and the automotive aftermarket,” said Mumby, Vice President and General Manager for JCI’s HEV Battery Business Unit and CEO of Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions, the JV company. “We’ve combined our technical teams so that we focus our energies collectively. The joint venture gets to use all patents of Johnson Controls and Saft, and all the technology has been licensed to the joint venture.”
Every hybrid-electric passenger vehicle sold today uses nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which underscores why the JV company is focused on the development, production, and sale of NiMH batteries. Yet lithium-ion batteries are receiving equal treatment. “We see the future long term as lithium-ion batteries,” said Mumby. “It’s open to debate as to how fast lithium-ion batteries will come to the market.”
While lithium-ion batteries are in the marketplace as a power source for consumer electronics, those batteries have yet to land a passenger vehicle production application.
“We’re working with a number of OEMs today both in nickel-metal hydride and in lithium-ion batteries. We have some development contracts, and we’re in the process of going through the qualification and testing of our products,” said Mumby. The 2008 calendar year/2009 vehicle model year is viewed as the time frame for when advanced batteries from the JV reach the marketplace on passenger vehicles.
Market demand will determine just how quickly the spread of advanced batteries for HEVs will be. Many prognosticators look at the time frame between 2012 and 2015 to be the hot spot for large volumes of HEVs. “We’ve estimated - based on a lot of the research that we’ve done and taking all of the different sound bites we get - that the worldwide hybrid vehicle market could be as big as 6 million by 2015,” said Mumby.
In terms of research, the spotlight is on meeting power and energy requirements. “This is not like the lead-acid battery business, where basically one size - within reason - fits all. A number of vehicle platforms and requirements are being looked at by the OEMs, so there is no simple answer to this business,” said Mumby. Since the targets vary from application to application, emphasis is being projected toward meeting the needs for HEVs, plug-in HEVs, as well as electric vehicles.
“Those three are the major areas of focus, and they essentially use the same chemistry, although the design is a bit different,” said Mumby. Battery chemistry has dominated much of the up-front development work. “We have one primary chemistry for lithium-ion batteries that we feel is the correct chemistry for this application. All of the testing that we’ve done backs up that this chemistry can provide the power and energy requirements safely and with the right kind of life because these batteries have to last a long time,” said Mumby.
The chemistry formulation has a payback beyond fulfilling a battery system’s power and energy needs. “We think the chemistry is a competitive advantage, but at the same time that’s not the only thing we believe that gives us a competitive advantage. In my view, we’re the automotive supplier that’s involved in the hybrid battery business,” Mumby said, noting Johnson Controls’ work with automakers.
Mumby suggests that basic production plans might mean battery cell manufacturing is done from a central location, while battery system assembly (i.e., packaging, electronics, and communications) is done near an automaker’s HEV assembly operations. “We would hopefully use some space within one of our existing
[Johnson Controls] facilities to be able to provide our hybrid vehicle customer with just-in-time delivery of battery systems,” said Mumby. “We think with the synergies that we have with our interiors and our seating group that we can provide that to our customer.”
A Johnson Controls seating or interiors plant could also serve “as a sequencing point so we wouldn’t have to have a separate warehouse. We could share overhead. We could share a lot of things,” said Mumby, noting that depending on the plant-share arrangement, lower-cost manufacturing, and delivery solution might result. “It’s not cast in concrete, but it’s something that we’re looking at, and we think that it might give us a competitive advantage,” he said.
Johnson Controls expects to provide the JV with the necessary metal stampings, and its electronics group will assist with the development of controls for advanced batteries. However, electrical connections and raw materials will be bought from other vendors. “I’m a believer in that you can do a few things very well, but you can’t do a lot of things very well, so we’re going to keep ourselves focused,” Mumby said.
Bottom-line economics are always in the cross hairs. “Because at the end of the day, one of the drivers that will make hybrid vehicles successful will be getting the cost down. And scale is one of the factors that will help bring cost down,” said Mumby. “Even though we are firmly committed to the advanced battery business, there are still a lot of unknowns. We can do all kinds of modeling and what-if scenarios - and a number of them have been done - but it all comes down to: what’s the cost of the battery? What kind of tax benefits to consumers will be available? What will be legislated in terms of CAFE requirements and emissions? And what’s the price of oil going to be?”
Kami Buchholz - SAE - May 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Johnson_Controls_Li-Ion_HEV_Pack.jpg
Packaging and performance cues - such as reduced size, weight, and power capacity - underscore Johnson Controls’ lithium-ion battery system.
Hybrid-electric vehicles have found an early adopters audience, but predictions that HEV’s will soon sway the mainstream public could spur high-volume sales and better returns for suppliers like Johnson Controls.
After spending 30 years with Johnson Controls’ seating and interiors group, Alan Mumby is now a key cog in the leadership chain that networks two companies and one joint venture (JV) to the same business-supplying advanced-technology batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) as well as electric vehicles. JCI’s partner, Saft, has been developing advanced-technology batteries for years, while Johnson Controls’ years of development work with advanced battery technology became more entrenched with the opening of a dedicated research laboratory in 2005.
“The joint venture is the hybrid representative for Saft and Johnson Controls, which incidentally is the world’s largest manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for OEMs and the automotive aftermarket,” said Mumby, Vice President and General Manager for JCI’s HEV Battery Business Unit and CEO of Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions, the JV company. “We’ve combined our technical teams so that we focus our energies collectively. The joint venture gets to use all patents of Johnson Controls and Saft, and all the technology has been licensed to the joint venture.”
Every hybrid-electric passenger vehicle sold today uses nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which underscores why the JV company is focused on the development, production, and sale of NiMH batteries. Yet lithium-ion batteries are receiving equal treatment. “We see the future long term as lithium-ion batteries,” said Mumby. “It’s open to debate as to how fast lithium-ion batteries will come to the market.”
While lithium-ion batteries are in the marketplace as a power source for consumer electronics, those batteries have yet to land a passenger vehicle production application.
“We’re working with a number of OEMs today both in nickel-metal hydride and in lithium-ion batteries. We have some development contracts, and we’re in the process of going through the qualification and testing of our products,” said Mumby. The 2008 calendar year/2009 vehicle model year is viewed as the time frame for when advanced batteries from the JV reach the marketplace on passenger vehicles.
Market demand will determine just how quickly the spread of advanced batteries for HEVs will be. Many prognosticators look at the time frame between 2012 and 2015 to be the hot spot for large volumes of HEVs. “We’ve estimated - based on a lot of the research that we’ve done and taking all of the different sound bites we get - that the worldwide hybrid vehicle market could be as big as 6 million by 2015,” said Mumby.
In terms of research, the spotlight is on meeting power and energy requirements. “This is not like the lead-acid battery business, where basically one size - within reason - fits all. A number of vehicle platforms and requirements are being looked at by the OEMs, so there is no simple answer to this business,” said Mumby. Since the targets vary from application to application, emphasis is being projected toward meeting the needs for HEVs, plug-in HEVs, as well as electric vehicles.
“Those three are the major areas of focus, and they essentially use the same chemistry, although the design is a bit different,” said Mumby. Battery chemistry has dominated much of the up-front development work. “We have one primary chemistry for lithium-ion batteries that we feel is the correct chemistry for this application. All of the testing that we’ve done backs up that this chemistry can provide the power and energy requirements safely and with the right kind of life because these batteries have to last a long time,” said Mumby.
The chemistry formulation has a payback beyond fulfilling a battery system’s power and energy needs. “We think the chemistry is a competitive advantage, but at the same time that’s not the only thing we believe that gives us a competitive advantage. In my view, we’re the automotive supplier that’s involved in the hybrid battery business,” Mumby said, noting Johnson Controls’ work with automakers.
Mumby suggests that basic production plans might mean battery cell manufacturing is done from a central location, while battery system assembly (i.e., packaging, electronics, and communications) is done near an automaker’s HEV assembly operations. “We would hopefully use some space within one of our existing
[Johnson Controls] facilities to be able to provide our hybrid vehicle customer with just-in-time delivery of battery systems,” said Mumby. “We think with the synergies that we have with our interiors and our seating group that we can provide that to our customer.”
A Johnson Controls seating or interiors plant could also serve “as a sequencing point so we wouldn’t have to have a separate warehouse. We could share overhead. We could share a lot of things,” said Mumby, noting that depending on the plant-share arrangement, lower-cost manufacturing, and delivery solution might result. “It’s not cast in concrete, but it’s something that we’re looking at, and we think that it might give us a competitive advantage,” he said.
Johnson Controls expects to provide the JV with the necessary metal stampings, and its electronics group will assist with the development of controls for advanced batteries. However, electrical connections and raw materials will be bought from other vendors. “I’m a believer in that you can do a few things very well, but you can’t do a lot of things very well, so we’re going to keep ourselves focused,” Mumby said.
Bottom-line economics are always in the cross hairs. “Because at the end of the day, one of the drivers that will make hybrid vehicles successful will be getting the cost down. And scale is one of the factors that will help bring cost down,” said Mumby. “Even though we are firmly committed to the advanced battery business, there are still a lot of unknowns. We can do all kinds of modeling and what-if scenarios - and a number of them have been done - but it all comes down to: what’s the cost of the battery? What kind of tax benefits to consumers will be available? What will be legislated in terms of CAFE requirements and emissions? And what’s the price of oil going to be?”