WOKING, England : The global auto industry has committed $1.2 trillion to developing electric vehicles , providing a golden opportunity for new suppliers to grab contracts providing everything from battery packs to motors and inverters.
"We've gone back to the days of Henry Ford where everyone is asking 'how do you make these things work properly?'," says Nick Fry, CEO of F1 engineering and technology firm McLaren Applied.Bought from McLaren by private equity firm Greybull Capital in 2021, McLaren Applied has adapted an efficient inverter developed for F1 racing for EVs. An inverter helps control the flow of electricity to and from the battery pack.
"We just can't afford to be reliant on third parties making those investments for us," said Tim Slatter, head of Ford in Britain. Croatia's Rimac, an electric hypercar maker part-owned by Germany's Porsche AG that also supplies battery systems and powertrain components to other automakers, says an undisclosed German carmaker will use a Rimac battery system in a high-performance model - with annual production of around 40,000 units - starting this year, with more signed up.
Coakley said CelLink was working with U.S. and European carmakers, and with a European battery maker on battery wiring.