SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Eaton is a long-time automotive supplier. The company has been involved in the auto industry for decades.
Since the mid-2010s, the Ohio-based company concluded it needed to be a player with electric vehicles.
Around 2015 and 2016, the signals on the regulatory front were “becoming particularly strong” that EVs were expected to lead efforts to cut emissions, Scott Adams, president of Eaton’s Southfield, Mich.-based eMobility unit, said in an interview.
“Around 2016, it was becoming obvious,” he said. “This time it’s real.”
There had been previous efforts to develop EVs. General Motors Co., in the early 1990s, came out with the EV1 car. But the EV1 didn’t become a success.
Three decades later, EVs represent the major development effort among automakers. GM, on Oct. 25, reported higher third-quarter earnings. One reason cited by Detroit-based GM was how it had an 8 percent share of the U.S. EV market.
“This time feels different,” said Eaton’s Adams.
Eaton created the eMobility team in 2018. The company concluded it had to become an EV player.
“We started to talk to customers,” Adams said. “It wasn’t going to be a snap of the fingers.”
Eaton had expertise concerning technology to manage energy flows in a vehicle. The company sought business how to apply that expertise to vehicle makers looking to expand their EV offerings.
Since that decision, things have changed for Eaton.
“We have more opportunities than we can manage,” Adams said. “We have to be almost selective. It wasn’t without learnings and bumps.”
At the Detroit Auto Show in September, Eaton emphasized products such as its Breaktor circuit protection technology. Eaton wants to show how its tech can help regulate electric power within vehicles.
At the same time, Eaton executives say they’re aware that the EV market is not stable.
Over the next decade, the market “will be highly volatile,” Adams said.
Overall, he added, “Things driving the volatility will be solved by the demand” for EVs.
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