Automotive News - Traverse City - August 6, 2019 - 7

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CAR MBS DAILY

Battery decisions will influence vehicle looks
EV power sources will shape design and acceptance

Jack Walsworth

jwalsworth@crain.com

s electric vehicles enter more segments, the batteries that power them
will have to vary accordingly, said
Mark Weier, market growth leader
for Gore Automotive Products.
Already, battery strategy trends are emerging, said Weier, an industry veteran who began
his career at General Motors. Automakers are
searching for the right approach to win customers to EVs, Weier said.
"The growth will be in how automakers pitch
offerings to consumers," said Weier, whose career included stints at Delphi, Magna, Cherry
Electric and Hella before joining the perfor-

mance solutions division of W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., an enterprise best known for its
namesake waterproof material, Gore-Tex.
"They have to make them more appealing to
people."
Weier sees a small number of trends shaping
the development of EV batteries and determining how the vehicles will look.
Z stacking: One trend relates to maximizing
batteries' energy density through a design Weier calls Z stacking. The manufacturer stacks
battery cells on top of one another, allowing
maximum power in a limited space. That will
likely favor vehicle designs that are taller than
usual.
"Z stacking can make it more efficient within

the vehicle's usable space," Weier
ever more heat, creating a chain reacsaid. "But if you think about the North
tion of fire and more heat production
American preference for trucks and
in adjacent cells.
SUVs, with higher seating positions,
 Designing batteries to isolate cells
automakers can embrace that. It's a
so that if a failure occurs in a single
battery in a taller package. But that's
cell or module, the failure doesn't
what an SUV is, isn't it?"
spread to other cells or modules.
Batteries as body structure: AnAnother common issue that will inother trend is using the battery itself Weier: EVs must fluence vehicle design is battery
as part of the EV's structure.
appeal to buyers. charging. That will drive decisions on
"You want to make the vehicle body
how the battery is accessed and how
as stiff as possible," Weier said. "The battery it is positioned in the vehicle.
pack helps with the structure."
"The problem is that the technology hasn't
Other battery issues that will drive vehicle gotten to a point where you can have a quickdesign decisions include:
charging option," Weier said. "That will be an
 Deciding how to manage a battery's cell de- issue for how people understand the car and
sign to lower the risk of thermal runaway, which how they adapt their lives to charging batteroccurs when a short-circuiting battery produces ies." m

Webasto's
roofs basking
in the sun
Published July 15, 2019,
in Automotive News

Drivers' desire for sun and light will
help propel the German roof-maker
Webasto toward its global sales target
of $5.6 billion by 2020, says Chairman
Holger Engelmann, but it will be a big
jump. In 2018, Webasto's global sales
fell 2.2 percent to
$3.8 billion, ending an eight-year
growth streak. The
supplier has been
investing in mobility opportunities - but Engelmann, 54, says
there is growth
ahead in roof systems. He discussed the outHOLGER
look with AutomoENGELMANN tive News Europe
Managing Editor
Douglas A. Bolduc. Edited excerpts:

&
QA

Q: Will Webasto grow faster
than the market?
A: In the midterm, we should grow
faster than the overall global market,
especially in China. This is based on
the growing demand for roofs, which
has resulted in a high backlog of orders for us.
Last year, Webasto added the
Jeep Wrangler softtop, and you
were awarded another SUV
convertible project. Can you
say who the project is with and
update us on the crossover cabriolet niche?
We are investing about €40 million
($44.9 million) in our facility in Plymouth, Mich., to produce the new roof
for the crossover convertible. We
needed additional manufacturing
space for this big project. Production
will start at the end of 2020. Unfortunately, I cannot provide more details.
What is the outlook for convertibles?
It remains a dwindling but decent
market for us. To offset the decline, we
have integrated the convertible division into the sunroof division, so we
now have one roof systems division.
Maybe when the environmental
conditions become better in China,
we will see a huge recovery for the
convertible. m

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