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Eaton spins out electric vehicle power technology unit

Eaton spins out electric vehicle power technology unit

Business news |
By Rich Pell



The company is investing $500m over the next five year in eMobility to target an estimated 15 million pure battery-electric vehicles and another 30 million hybrids, from mild to plug-in, that will be on the roads by 2030. It is expected to have a turnover of $400m in its first year, taking on 1200 staff from the 96,000 at the parent company. The headquarters will be in Michigan clost the US car makers with design centres and manufacturing locations in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The move comes almost 30 years since Eaton demonstrated its first electric car protype in 1989. eMobility has been formed by combining products, expertise and global manufacturing capabilities from Eaton’s Electrical and Vehicle businesses. The investment will be used to develop smart diagnostic technologies, intelligent power electronics and predictive health monitoring, for passenger car, commercial vehicle and off-road vehicles such as construction and earth moving trucks.

Eaton has a turnover of over $20bn from data centre and grid power alongside the mobility business. It has systems in over 15,000 hybrid HEV and plug in hybrid PHEV systems on the road in the US, Europe, China and other Asia-Pacific markets. Eaton also has high-voltage high speed fuses in nearly half of all electrified cars and supplies the power electronics on a leading European battery-electric vehicle platform.

Eaton’s Electrical business has products installed in some of the world’s largest data centres, hospitals, factories and other areas that consume large amounts of electricity and where uninterruptable power flow is critical, and is bringing that institutional knowledge and expertise to the automotive and commercial vehicle markets with eMobility.

“Our understanding of the unique needs of vehicle customers, along with our experience in transmissions and power electronics in the hybrid space, gives us a distinct advantage versus other suppliers,” said Jeff Lowinger, president, eMobility. “Customers using Eaton hybrid systems have collectively accumulated an estimated 2 billion miles of clean, reliable service.”


eMobility will focus on three main areas for both automotive and commercial vehicle customers: intelligent power electronics, power systems, and advanced power distribution and circuit protection. The power distribution and protection category includes fuses, supercapacitors and power distribution units (PDUs), while converters and on-board chargers fall under the power electronics umbrella.

Power systems include electric vehicle (EV) transmissions for a variety of medium- and heavy-duty applications, as well as a 48V regenerative accessory drive system for heavy-duty trucks.

Eaton’s existing line of electrified products – which includes DC-DC converters, PDUs, hybrid and battery-electric transmissions, and high-voltage fuses – will generate $300m in 2018 and the company believes that will grow to $2 to $4 billion by 2030.

www.Eaton.com

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