Mega-supplier Continental Sees Bucks in Burgeoning Electrification

Mega-supplier Continental Sees Bucks in Burgeoning Electrification

By Bill Visnic June 21, 2010

In an interview during last week's Automotive News Green Car Conference, the executive directing Continental Corp.'s hybrid and electric vehicle business told AutoObserver he doesn't see components such as electric motors and other hardware specific to the increasing electrification of passenger vehicles as being in danger of becoming low-profit "commodity" business anytime soon.

Michael Crane, Continental's managing director of hybrid and electric vehicles, called the market for components in the EV and hybrid sector "huge," saying his company predicts EV- and hybrid-specific hardware alone will be a $700-million business in a half-dozen years or less.

Crane also said companies like his will be able to profit from improving the efficiencies of key components like traction motors and battery modules, because improved efficiencies are directly translatable to increased customer value. An automaker that can continually offer improvement in driving range for an EV, for example, presumably will be able to generate more profitable sales.

At the conference, Continental showed off an externally-excited, synchronous brushed motor that Crane says can be more efficient in a wider load range compared with permanent-magnet tractor motors typical of the EV and hybrid sector, while also being considerably less expensive. Crane also pointed out that almost all of the rare-earth elements needed for the magnets in permanent-magnet motors currently are derived from China, which suggests the industry's press to move away from fossil fuels simply could lead to a different kind of dependence on a foreign source for other materials.

"We're still so early in the learning curve," for alternative-propulsion development, Crane said, that suppliers and automakers have an almost unlimited opportunity. The market for hybrid and EV components and development is "still pretty wide open," he said.

For another example, Crane said Continental is supplying an automaker that he cannot yet name with a belt-driven starter generator that will enable fuel-saving and low-cost "start-stop" functionality for a U.S.-market vehicle starting around this time next year. The start-stop systems, already widespread in Europe, shut down the engine whenever the vehicle comes to rest in traffic or at a stop light, then instantly refire the engine when the driver presses the accelerator pedal. 

Photo courtesy Continental

1. Synchronous motor replaces expensive and rare materials-intensive magnets with an "excitation winding" that creates a magentic field when current flows.

Bill Visnic:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter