Johnson Controls to invest $138.5M in Toledo battery facility to support start-stop market; projecting 70-92% demand globally for start-stop systems i

JCI is projecting between 70-–92% demand for start-stop systems in new vehicles by 2020 in the Europe, North America and China markets, squeezing out conventional ICE vehicles. Source: JCI. Click to enlarge.

Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) plans to invest $138.5 million to convert its battery plant near Toledo, Ohio into an Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery facility for start-stop and other higher efficiency vehicles. Subject to final state and local incentives, the facility will be the company’s first such plant in the United States.

Alex Molinaroli, president for Johnson Controls Power Solutions, said that the company sees the start-stop vehicle technology market growing to 35 million batteries globally by 2015—including batteries not put into new vehicles—with the United States as an important piece of the market. By 2020, JCI projects, demand for start-stop systems in new vehicles will reach 70–92% in Europe, North American and China—essentially supplanting conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.

Johnson Controls’ Toledo investment will add 6 million in AGM battery capacity to the company’s North American AGM footprint by 2013.

Start-Stop is a technology applied to a standard gasoline-powered vehicle that automatically shuts the engine off during idle, reducing fuel use and emissions by 5–12 percent, and restarts when the driver engages the clutch or releases the brake pedal.

In a presentation at Johnson Controls Power Solutions Analyst Day, Craig Rigby, Vice President Global Product Engineering, noted that key energy storage attributes—cycling, usable energy, and charge acceptance—tend work against each other. Battery charge acceptance allows a system to capture braking energy to replenish the battery after a start-stop event. A commercially viable system must balance improved charge acceptance with cost and complexity, he said, noting that most current vehicles do not fully utilize the charge acceptance of existing technology.

While there are a number of alternative technologies being proposed for start-stop—such as carbon additives to the negative plate; replacing lead negative plates with carbon plates; or coupling an AGM battery with ultracapacitors—all face challenges and have an impact on cost, he said. AGM, on the other hand, provides the best balance of attributes and aligns with most current and future application requirements, he argued.

VARTA AGM battery. Click to enlarge.

Johnson Controls is currently the leading supplier of start-stop batteries in Europe through its VARTA brand. In 2010 the company supplied 3 million VARTA Start-Stop batteries in Europe, and is adding capacity there to reach 11.2 million batteries by 2015.

In addition to Start-Stop, our Original Equipment customers are also turning to our AGM technology to support many of their other new high efficiency vehicles that place similar aggressive demands on the battery. Our Toledo facility will be very important in helping to establish the same leadership here in the United States.

—Jorge Guillen, vice president, Start-Stop, for Johnson Controls Power Solutions

Pending final state and local approvals, Johnson Controls will receive a combination of tax credits and incentives from the state of Ohio totaling $25 million. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer and the first line will launch production in spring 2012.

Source: Green Car Congress