Bosch and CATL join forces to slash mild-hybrid costs
Mild-hybrid tech giants team up to clean up combustion enginesAn alliance between two of the world’s biggest automotive suppliers could help to drive down the costs of mild-hybrid hybrid cars.
Germany’s Robert Bosch and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) have confirmed a long-term co-operation on high-performance lithium-ion battery cells to pair up with petrol and diesel engines.
In a potentially huge deal, it pairs the world’s largest car industry supplier with China’s dominant electric-car battery supplier to make a 48-volt system for mild-hybrids
CATL’s sales have quadrupled over the last two years to 23.4 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion cells last year and it’s opening a plant in Germany.
The loose alliance will see Bosch developing the 48V battery for the mild-hybrid systems, with CATL developing, designing and making the battery cells at its core.
Mild-hybrid powertrains are smaller, cheaper and lighter than conventional hybrid cars, like Toyota’s Prius, or plug-in hybrids.
Instead of using electric motors in the transmissions, mild-hybrids use smaller motors, like integrated starter-generators, to provide electrical boosting to the combustion engine at low engine speeds.
Most major European car-makers will rely on mild-hybrid technology to pull the CO2 emissions of their entry-level cars down to meet next year’s EU7 emissions standards.
Volkswagen, which will electrify the next Golf with mild-hybrid technology, believes the systems can cut about 15 per cent from their consumption figures.
“We have to understand battery cells, but we do not have to make them ourselves,” Bosch board member Dr Stefan Hartung said.
“With CATL, we have brought an established cell specialist for lithium-ion batteries on board as a partner.”
CATL is already building a battery cell factory in the German city of Erfurt, partly to be close to Bosch, whose 48V automotive systems are already used by many of Europe’s car-makers.
“If we want to improve efficiency, we can no longer afford to let brake energy dissipate unused,” Dr Hartung says.
“This 48-volt hybridisation is sure to be the minimum standard in tomorrow’s automotive market.”
Bosch predicts at least 20 per cent of all new combustion cars will have 48-volt mild-hybrids by 2025, with Europe and China both climbing rapidly.
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