Maxwell signs $100m ultracapacitor deal with Volvo maker
The technology partnership with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent company of Volvo. Lotus and Geely Auto, will see the integration of ultracapacitors and advanced power conversion electronics into Geely’s global automotive vehicle lineup in support of their fleet electrification strategy.
The collaboration will see Maxwell’s ultracapacitor-based peak power subsystem used initially in five mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles for North America and Europe. The production ramp for these vehicles is slated to begin in late 2019 and will be worth $100m over the lifetime of the deal.
The ZGH group has three main businesses: Geely Auto Group, Volvo Car Group and Geely Commercial Vehicles Group. Its brands include Geely Auto, LYNK & CO, Volvo Car, Polestar, London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC), Yuan Cheng Auto, PROTON, Lotus, and Terrafugia. ZGH sold over 1.8 million vehicles in 2017, with Volvo Car sales reaching historic highs of 571,577 cars globally and Geely Auto Group sales growing over 63% to reach 1,247,116 units in total.
The industry originally adopted ultracapacitors for start-stop applications but OEMs are now adopting ultracapacitors to deliver aggregate peak power to functions such as electric active-roll control, electric power steering, electro-turbocharging and energy recuperation in hybrid vehicles. They are also being adopted as an alternative or complementary energy storage source to batteries in power backup solutions for autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
“As we prepared to bring our new, high performance features into the mainstream of our next generation vehicles, it became evident that ultracapacitors would be essential to address the increasing electrification challenges the automotive industry is facing. In our global search for a partner who could develop and supply a sophisticated multi-function energy storage device, it became clear that Maxwell’s deep automotive experience and technical know-how qualified them as the only choice,” said Qingfeng Feng, Vice President and CTO of Geely.
“The Maxwell ultracapacitor subsystem has proven to provide significant support for our hybrid cars and will be able to economically handle the challenging peak power demands in a way that batteries alone cannot. We are confident that through our partnership with Maxwell, we will be able to successfully introduce innovative and differentiated features into our core platform offerings while providing an improved and reliable driving experience to our customers.”
The turnkey multicell subsystem combines ultracapacitors with power conversion electronics in Geely’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) to supply power to a range of onboard applications.
“Today’s announcement of the Geely design win and partnership represents a significant milestone for the team at Maxwell and validates that ultracapacitors are ideally suited to solve many of the challenges faced by the automotive industry as it readies for the coming global megatrend of the electrification of combustion engine vehicles. The team at Geely is at the forefront of incorporating breakthrough energy storage solutions to address these increasing electrification challenges. We are excited to partner with their world class team to further enhance our automotive energy storage portfolio and make it an integral part of their future vehicle lineup,” said Dr. Franz Fink, CEO of Maxwell Technologies.
Over 6m cars uses Maxwell’s utracapacitors through its start-stop designs to Continental in 2010, and has since supplied ultracapacitors to PSA and General Motors for start-stop applications and autonomous driving backup power, and to Lamborghini for regenerative braking. The ultracapacitors are AEC-Q200 and VDA 6.3 certified, and the company passes the rigorous TS16949 industry certification.
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