From iPhones to e-axles: how one tech firm is pushing into electric vehicles

FILE PHOTO: Nidec Corp's logo is pictured at an earnings results news conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

“Laptops and aircons from different makers might look different outside, but you look inside, the parts are all more or less the same. The gut technologies of EVs are going to become as commoditized or standardized” as these items, Nagamori told an earnings news conference earlier this year. E-axles and batteries will come from a few competitive suppliers, he predicted.

In other words, a well-designed e-axle maximizes a vehicle’s power efficiency and acceleration and helps extend its driving range and its smoothness.The technology has emerged as a competitive front in part because automakers are under pressure to cut electric vehicles’ manufacturing costs to make them as affordable as mainstream gasoline cars. E-axle systems and batteries present the industry with the biggest margins for efficiency gains and cost savings.

GM, Nissan and some other carmakers believe e-axles offer such a large margin for cost efficiencies and product differentiation that they want to design and manufacture their own systems. GM believes it can better integrate the e-axle with the battery and the rest of the vehicle, making for a quieter, smoother and more economical drive, said Adam Kwiatkowski, GM’s executive chief engineer for global electrical propulsion systems.

To close out the e-axle technical loop, Nidec has set its sights on JATCO, an automotive transmission producer in Fuji city at the foot of Mt. Fuji, 75% owned by Nissan. Shortly thereafter, Seki traveled to Kyoto to meet Nagamori, intending to rebuff the approach, the source said. Instead, Nagamori talked Seki into considering helping Nidec ride the wave of electrification sweeping the auto industry and turn Nidec into a 10-trillion-yen company by 2035.

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