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Johnson Controls - Saft Joint Venture

Johnson Controls - Saft Johnson Controls-Saft is a leading global provider of hybrid battery systems. The company opened the world’s first lithium-ion manufacturing facility for hybrid electric vehicles in 2008 in Nersac, France, where it is currently in production for the Mercedes S-Class hybrid, which will be available to consumers later this year. Additionally, Johnson Controls-Saft will supply the lithium-ion hybrid battery system for the BMW 7 Series ActiveHybrid available in 2010, Azure Dynamic’s BalanceTM Hybrid Electric for commercial vehicles available in 2010, and Ford’s first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle available in 2012.
The company has also announced plans to build its first U.S. cell manufacturing facility for lithium-ion hybrid batteries. Subject to final state and local incentives, the company will use an existing Johnson Controls facility at its Meadowbrook 48th Street site in Holland, Michigan. The facility, which will bring 500 new jobs to the state of Michigan, will have an initial capacity of 15 million lithium-ion cells, and is slated to start production in late 2010.

The Johnson Controls-Saft 58,000-square-foot Battery Technology Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the largest and most sophisticated automotive battery research and development, engineering and validation facility in the United States, including cell design, system engineering, manufacturing, prototype assembly, testing and integration.

Through decades of advanced R&D not only at our Milwaukee Battery Technology Center, but in our facilities in Germany, France and China, we were the first in the world to mass produce automotive quality lithium-ion batteries for vehicles. We have production and development contracts with global automakers and we are partnered with the government to further research and develop advanced energy storage technologies.

Johnson Controls-Saft presently has the following announced production and development contracts for vehicles using hybrid technologies. We also have projects in the works with almost every major original equipment manufacturer (OEM), which have not yet been announced.
 

Production Contracts

  • Daimler Mild Hybrid: Mercedes S-Class SOP 2009 with Li-ion technology.
  • BMW Mild Hybrid: 7-Series Li-ion SOP 2010.
  • Chery Mild Hybrid: Small sedan Ni-MH SOP 2009.
  • Azure BalanceTM Hybrid Electric: Commercial delivery trucks
  • Ford PHEV: Introduced in 2012
PHEV

Ford and the Electric Power Research Institute are collaborating to test the plug-in hybrid and its connectivity and impact on the electric grid with eight utility partners around the country. Johnson Controls-Saft is supplying the battery for this demonstration fleet of Escape Hybrids, and will also supply Ford's first series production plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), which will be introduced in 2012.

Development Contracts

  • Ford: Partnership with Southern California Edison and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for a fleet of demonstration plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
  • GM: PHEV Saturn Vue using lithium-ion technology.
  • SAIC: PHEV fuel cell vehicle demonstration fleet.
  • Daimler: PHEV Sprinter delivery van fleet using Li-ion battery systems.
  • USABC: The United States Advanced Battery Consortium, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, has awarded Johnson Controls-Saft a contract valued at $8.2 million. The contract will focus on the development of lithium-ion battery systems for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
Nersac, France Li-ion production facility

Operators at the Johnson Controls-Saft production facility in Nersac, France -- the first of its kind in the world -- complete a quality check at the end of the coating line, where the positive and negative ink is applied to the foils.