10 Questions: UQM Technologies' Eric Ridenour Talks Electrification
By John O'Dell November 26, 2010By Ronald Ahrens, Contributor
As a top Chrysler executive, Eric Ridenour frequently introduced the latest production versions of gas guzzlers like Dodge Viper and the Charger, not to mention the Challenger concept car, at international auto shows. He served as the company's chief operating officer from 2005 to 2007, departing when the private equity firm Cerberus bought Chrysler.
Now Ridenour's on the side of the green guys. He started as president of electric-drive systems maker UQM Technologies on Sept.1 and since has assumed the CEO position as well. The Longmont, Colo., company develops and manufacturers electric motors, generators and controllers for automotive, aerospace, military and industrial applications.
We caught up with Ridenour at the just-concluded 2010 L.A. Auto Show. He said that during his three-year hiatus from management he did some consulting "on a range of issues around the auto industry" and also worked on "deficit reduction with my children," finally getting to attend their soccer and hockey games and dance recitals. In addition to catching us up, the 51-year-old executive agreed to answer a few questions about his new career.
Q: Tell us what UQM is doing.
A: We're in the electrification market for both hybrid and full-electric vehicles. We're in cars, buses and trucks. We have two production contracts we've announced. One is for the Coda sedan, so we have the motor and controller for that [a sedan to be launched in the thiird wquarter of 2011]. We have a production line that can build up to 20,000 a year on one shift or 40,000 on two shifts. We have some interest from additional customers, but we can't announce anything yet. We're working on some fleet programs for them. We're also in the Proterra bus, which is a composite [advanced plastics] bus. We make two large motors, an 11-inch and a 16-inch. The 16-inch goes up to 200 kilowatts and will do up to 268 horsepower and power a bus that carries up to 68 people.
Q: Coda recently said it would delay launch of its electric car until the third quarter of 2011. Did that have anything to do with parts UQM supplies?
A: No. They did an analysis, and they've got a number of things that are typical of any company as you get close to launch; there's always a list of critical elements remaining and things that have to be done. When you have a start-up company in a brand-new industry with a whole bunch of partners, it's expected that sometimes they run into other issues, and they decided to re-time their final series of test programs to ensure that they're going to have a high-quality vehicle at launch. But none of those issues are ours from a UQM standpoint. We've already built parts for them off our production line, and they're at the final level of qualification and we're in the testing process. We have a whole raft of PV - what we call production validation testing - vibration, durability and other tests that are required of the final parts off the final production line in order to validate for full production.
Q: Let's go back to the bus for a moment. Is it an electric transit bus or for some other use?
A: It's a full bus, mainly for interurban fixed routes. It has a fast recharge system, so they've done a whole bunch of work with route control and they have five- or ten-minute recharge times.
Q: So not a lot of down time. That's good. You started working with Proterra when it was a neighbor ion Colorado. Will you still be its motor supplier now that it has moved to South Carolina?
A: Absolutely. We've met with their CEO; I've met with them twice already, in fact just as recently as last week. [Local sourcing] is in the broader context versus globally sourcing from other parts of the world.
Q: This will be the bellwether year for electrification in the auto industry because now we will have electric vehicles in consumers' hands. What's your take on that?
A: Well, certainly, you're at the very beginning, the cusp of the thing. Certainly early adopters will be into it, and I think the responses from them will help guide others. I think electric vehicles will be a niche, but that could be a significant niche. The full electrification [of the auto industry] is going to be much bigger piece, with hybrids and full electrics and all the various combinations. So I think we're at an inflection point in the industry, and over the next five years you're going to see a tremendous change. We'll be going from lots of years of interest around the edges but not a serious effort, to now having a number of [electric-drive]vehicles launching. Volumes will start going up and more will come over thenext few years.
Q: And after much deprecation on the part of snide reporters who didn't think this time would ever come and now have to eat their words because there is demand and interest.
A: There definitely is a lot of interest, and like I said, the next few years will bear it out as we see customers actually coming to the front. And we have interest to get us started: GE, for instance, with a big order [for in excessof 20,000 EVs] over the next few years will certainly help all the manufacturers get started.
Q: We know about the Tesla Roadster, are there other high-performance applications for electric propulsion?
A: Oh, absolutely. In fact, we had a superbike that had one of our 145-kilowatt motors. We've been in a lot of very exciting high-performance [applications] because, again, you get instantaneous torque right off the bat. In our big motor, we can go up to 900 Newton meters of torque. It's amazing. We've seen a lot of interest in all different segments. Boats - both in big boats with big diesels, looking to create hybrids, and all-electric drives for sailboats. We're in buses, we're in trucks. We see a lot of interest in trucks with the new EPA [fuel economy] and CO2 regulations that are going to come into force. All of that will add more electrification into that market. We see lots of things going on.
Q: EPA regulations and CO2 restrictions - is that what drives things?
A: It's one of the big drivers. Again, you have two or three drivers. One of them is consumers demanding clean, quiet power. And then, with regulations on top of that, you get a lot of driving force.
Q: Do major manufacturers have a big advantage over small startup independents when it comes to EVs and EV components?
A: Well, what we have is 35 years of experience doing electrification, and we've done a lot of work with the military early on in the life of this company and so we have some very deep technical knowledge and expertise. We have a production system ready to launch. It is the [production] line for Coda, but we have one other major international OEM that we're building a 50-plus unit test fleet for and it'll come off that same line, and we're looking at other people for the same thing. Certainly the OEMs can get there. They have both the resources and the financial might. But we're already there.
Q: What should expect on the electric propulsion front in the next three or four years?
A: Well, I think what you're going to see is a diversity of options. It could go all the way from ultra-efficient to performance, and there willl be all sorts of variants on range with [everything from hybrids to] range-extended electric vehicles and full-electric vehicles. The idea is to ultimamtely replace [the internal combustion engine]. Electric-drive vehicles are going to be seamless.
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