A week after Mercedes-Benz announced details of its first hybrid, battery supplier Continental Automotive has launched production of the battery packs. Mercedes will be the first manufacturer to mass produce a hybrid vehicles with lithium ion batteries. Continental spent €3 million to build the battery manufacturing facility in Nuremberg. The first batteries that being produced weigh 55 lbs and have a volume of just under 0.5 cu. ft. When the Mercedes S400 BlueHybrid launches in mid-2009 with this 120V battery pack it will be installed in the engine compartment in place of the standard 12V lead acid battery.

Since this is the first mass market automotive application of a lithium battery, Mercedes and Continental are being extra careful. The battery is designed to last a minimum of 10 years and 100,000-150,000 miles so Continental has developed a sophisticated monitoring system to make sure that it operates within normal operating parameters. Each individual cell is monitored to keeps loads balanced and ensure even charging and discharging. Continental had to develop special processes to weld the copper bus bars that act as cell interconnects. The whole battery is enclosed inside of a laser-welded stainless steel case. The initial production capacity of the factory is 15,000 units a year and that can easily be doubled.

[Source: Continental]

At a preview of GM's 2009 model year lineup yesterday in Jolliet IL, Bob Lutz revealed that the production supplier for the Chevy Volt battery has been selected. Unfortunately, the GM Vice Chairman would not say which of the development suppliers had been selected. Two partnerships have been supplying prototype batteries to GM for the E-Flex program since late in 2007. LG Chem and its U.S. subsidiary Compact Power Inc have long been considered to be the leaders in the race to supply the most critical component of the Volt.

Continental and A123 have also been providing batteries but they ran behind CPI in initial pack deliveries. Lutz reiterated that a test fleet of production-intent Volts would be on the road being field tested by late 2009 ahead of a November 2010 retail launch.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Video game players are used to force feedback controllers that provide a haptic response to user inputs. German automotive supplier Continental is now introducing an accelerator pedal that provides similar feedback to drivers in cars. The Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal (AFFP) is being initially branded as a safety device with interfaces to stability control and adaptive cruise control systems. The idea is when other active safety systems in the vehicle detect a hazardous situation where the drive should slow down, the pedal vibrates or buzzes to provide a signal to the driver to back off. The system can also be used monitor the driver's acceleration behavior and provide warnings if they are accelerating too hard or too often. Much like the efficiency gauges now being installed in many new cars, the active pedal can help the driver learn the most efficient driving techniques. An electric motor on the underside of the pedal pushes the pedal back against the driver's foot, but the driver can still push through if they decide they really need to accelerate.

[Source: Continental Automotive]

Continental, like its arch rival Bosch, is striving to stay relevant in a changing automotive landscape by expanding into new technology areas for hybrid and electric drive vehicles. One technology both companies are pursuing aggressively is lithium ion batteries. Continental will be supplying packs for Mercedes Benz mild hybrid vehicles beginning in 2009. Continental is also one of the development suppliers for the Chevrolet Volt program. So far Continental has partnered with cell suppliers like A123 Systems and Johnson Controls-Saft while focusing pack integration. But like Bosch, Continental wants to start manufacturing cells as well, either by doing it in-house or buying another supplier like A123. The German supplier has already purchased a stake in Enax, but that company only has capacity for small series production. At the moment lithium ion technology is changing so fast that Continental is keeping its options open but Karl-Thomas Neumann, head of powertrain and chassis operations told Reuters that at some stage the company would likely settle on a single partner or acquisition.

[Source: The Guardian]

German automotive supplier Continental AG commissioned a study of drivers in China, Germany, France, UK, Japan, Austria, Switzerland and the U.S. earlier this year to evaluate their views on more environmentally friendly cars. Nearly half of all the surveyed drivers reported that they have adjusted their driving habits in response to the rapid increase in fuel prices in the past year. Almost 63 percent of Japanese and 55 percent of German drivers have changed while only 42.8 percent of Americans have adjusted. The survey was conducted early this year and if the question was asked again today the numbers would probably be higher, especially in the U.S. where prices have risen by more than 30 percent since the start of the year.

Not surprisingly the increase in fuel prices has increased interest in alternative drivetrains such as hybrids and pure electric systems. Thirty-six percent of drivers are interested in and likely to buy a hybrid vehicles. One fifth of all drivers were aware of hybrid drives with one third of Austrian and French drivers knowing about them. Electric cars came in second in alternative recognition at 16.8 percent. More than 58 percent of international drivers also correctly assumed that hybrids cost more to buy although they also expect operating cost savings to offset the extra purchase price. As has been shown in other studies two thirds of drivers reported driving shorter routes that would be good applications for hybrid and electric cars. As a supplier interested in providing more components for hybrid and electric vehicles such as motors, electronics and batteries, the study is good news for Continental.

[Source: The Auto Channel]

Every time an automaker announces a green signature label, one of the factory-installed features to reduce fuel consumption is probably low-rolling resistance tires. French magazine Autoplus did a test drive on a regular car, to see how much fuel these tires save. The magazine wanted to run the test because France is considering adopting a bonus/malus system on these tires for 2010, whereby tires that save fuel would get a tax exemption.

For the challenge, Autoplus got two Peugeot 308s, one fueled by gasoline and the other fueled by diesel, and they kept on changing their tires. They tested fuel consumption with regular tires and with "CO₂ reducing tires." Their verdict? Keep security in mind. Only low-rolling resistance tires that came from well-known brands (Michelin, Goodyear, Continental and Pirelli) performed correctly and kept braking distances and other security features almost intact. Their winner was Michelin (which are made in France) which stayed safe while offering fuel savings of 1 percent with gasoline and 3.8 with diesel fuel. Of course, it doesn't matter if your tires are lrr type or not - keep them properly inflated.

[Source: Autoplus]

The automotive li-ion battery world got a little cozier today, with the news that Continental has purchased a 16 percent stake in the Japanese "battery specialist" (Automotive News Europe's words) Enax. ANE says that the two companies will together develop "high storage batteries for automotive use." The company's official announcement on the new partnership says those batteries will be "lithium-ion cells especially for future hybrid and electric drives in automobiles" that will be safer, have a longer service life and provide better performance than today's li-ion batteries.

Based in Tokyo, Enax was founded twelve years ago and is an independent think tank that has been working on li-ion automotive batteries for over ten years. The company has over 80 employees and had sales of $10.5m U.S. in 2006. Conti also works with A123 Systems on batteries for the Chevy Volt and with Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions.

[Source: Automotive News Europe (subs req'd)]

Even though GM has said it will wait until late 2008 to name the battery supplier for the Chevy Volt, Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer told Reuters on Thursday that he believes his company has a "good chance" of winning the fight with LG Chem / CPI. Of course, it's no surprise that a CEO would talk up his company's chances, but winning the Volt contract will be a huge coup to whoever wins it. Wennemer said that not winning won't kill the company, but "it would be very, very important for us to be the one," he said. Winning the Volt deal would see Conti build a production plant in the U.S., Wennemer said. Since both Continental and CPI packs seem to be doing fine in the testing lab, there is probably a lot of number crunching and haggling going on behind closed doors to figure out which supplier can deliver the right packs to GM for the right cost.

[Source: Reuters]

One of the keys to making the latest generation of diesel engines as clean and efficient as they are has been common rail injection systems and, more recently, piezo electric injectors. Continental Automotive Systems has just introduced a new type of piezo injector that may take diesels to the next level. Earlier injectors used electro-magnetic solenoids to move the injector needles allowing fuel to flow into the combustion chamber. Piezo injectors use a stack of piezo crystal plates that expand when an electric current is applied. That expansion causes the needle to move. The expansion of the piezo crystals is more precise and repeatable than the electro-magnetic solenoids allowing for more precise fuel metering for lower consumption and emissions.

Continental's new injector design takes advantage of the precision and reproducibility of the piezo crystals by adding position sensing to the needle itself. Because the position of the needle in time now correlates so well to the fuel flow rate, the potential exists to be able to eliminate other sensors that are being used to control diesel fuel systems. High pressure common rail injection systems typically use 5 -7 individual injection pulses per combustion cycle. Because the fuel flow can be measured in real time with the new injectors, the size of individual pulses within the sequence can be varied for even lower fuel consumption and emissions. Continental is claiming the new injectors help achieve a 35 percent reduction in particulate and NOx emissions. An engine optimized for these injectors could potentially meet the Euro VI (and equivalent US Tier 2 Bin 5) standards without the need for any costly NOx aftertreatment. This would help cut the cost premium between gas and diesel engines.

[Source: Continental]

Car makers the world over are looking for the most cost effective ways to increase fuel economy as fuel prices continue to climb and CO₂ limits and fuel economy standards come into force. One approach that seems to be appealing to most is adding direct fuel injection and turbocharging to smaller displacement engines. Continental Automotive Systems sees the trend and is jumping on the bandwagon. Continental has announced their intention to build their first turbocharger plant for production begining in 2011. The initial production run will be for 2.0L four cylinder engines at the rate of 100,000 per year. No location has been announced for the plant, but somewhere in Eastern Europe seems probable. Volkswagen is also rumored to be the first customer for Conti's turbos.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Continuing demand for diesel engines has prompted Continental's Powertrain division to invest in the expansion of a Czech factory that produces diesel components. The plant in Trutnov, Czech Republic will add production of 900,000 pump cylinders and 2 million high pressure diesel injection pumps annually starting this summer. An investment of €18 million will also expand other parts of the facility between now and 2010.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

A little over ten days ago, GM's Bob Lutz told us that the Chevy Volt would not be ready for media drives until July. While that announcement was slightly newsworthy because it signaled a small delay/shifting of the timeline. Whatever. The news that the lithium-ion-powered mules would still be on track to be driven at all was a good sign. Lutz has now confirmed to Reuters that those rides are still scheduled for July but then announced a delay of a different kind.

Two companies, Continental Automotive Systems and Compact Power Inc., are supplying test batteries for the Volt. GM had been hoping to name a supplier for the production Volt's batteries in the first half of 2008, but that announcement will now come later in the year. Lutz told Reuters that, "We need a better handle on who has the technological capability we need and who is going to have the production capability." And all the Volt fans held their breath a bit longer.

[Source: Reuters]

In commenting on the battle royal taking place on the testing benches at GM between two contending battery suppliers, "Maximum" Bob Lutz said Tuesday it was a "horse race. An apt analogy in a sense because the two teams, Continental Automotive Systems, using cells from A123 Systems Inc., and Compact Power Inc. who are using cells developed by its parent, LG Chem seem to be neck and neck in performance. No one has stumbled as the two sprint down the final stretch to the, oh, what's that? The finish line has been moved? O rly?

Apparently, GM feels the need to hold off on making the final battery supplier decision, that had been announced for April, as it continues to weigh the pros and cons of each product and conduct more testing. In light of the postponement of mule day, I suspect there is something they aren't telling us. Regardless of the exact timing of the conclusion of this contest, we are now taking bets in the comments section.

[Source: CNN Money]

Last spring Lotus and Siemens VDO announced a plan to collaborate on integrating a variety of technologies from the two companies with the goal of producing a high performance powertrain with reduced CO₂ emissions. Since then, Siemens VDO has been subsumed into Continental and the companies have now revealed the results of their work. The partnership took an Opel Astra and through a series of cost-effective technologies achieved a 15% reduction in CO₂ emissions. At the same time, torque was increased by 36% and power by 14% relative to the standard 140hp 1.8L Astra.

The four-cylinder engine was replaced by a 1.5L three-cylinder designed by Lotus. The engine has a unique cylinder head with an integrated exhaust manifold. This design leads to easier assembly and reduced manufacturing cost while also improving reliability and performance. Continental's direct fuel injection, variable valve lift and turbocharging have been used to provide the performance levels of a larger engine with reduced fuel consumption and emissions. The new engine is paired up with a mild hybrid system developed by Continental that includes a water-cooled 12kW motor and 60V supercapacitors. The system meets current Euro 5 emissions requirements and has CO₂ emissions of just 149g/km.

[Source: Lotus]

While it has looked like Peugeot would be the first company to market a mainstream passenger vehicle with a diesel hybrid powertrain, it now looks like it won't come as quickly as previously thought. PSA (parent company of Peugeot and Citroen) has been developing a diesel hybrid system in cooperation with suppliers Bosch, Continental, Valeo and Thyssen-Krupp. The system was originally supposed to debut in the compact Peugeot 308 in 2010. The cost of developing the system was to have been partially subsidized by the French government. With the European Commission putting the screws to that plan, PSA and its partners will move forward without the handout. As a result, the company has decided that in order to recover those development costs, they need to apply the system on a more expensive model first, which of course means the volumes will be lower. The change in plans also means the new powertrain won't appear until at least 2011. At the current rate, Peugeot may still be first to market, unless Mahindra's plans for a diesel hybrid version of their pickup come to fruition in 2010.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]