USA: BorgWarner launches JV with Romeo Power

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The U.S. American powertrain supplier BorgWarner announced the founding of a joint venture with Romeo Power Technology, a Californian supplier of battery modules and battery packs founded in 2015 by former SpaceX, Tesla and Samsung engineers.

BorgWarner will hold a 60 per cent majority stake in the joint venture, a 20% stake in Romeo Power Technology and two seats on their supervisory board. The arrangements for the projects are expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. “This joint venture will not only complement our strong existing propulsion portfolio, but we expect it to fill a gap in the marketplace between battery cell manufacturers and hybrid and electric vehicle customers,” said Joel Wiegert of BorgWarner. Michael Patterson, founder and CEO of Romeo Technology, added that “This joint venture will help Romeo take a big step in the battery mobility sector by adding BorgWarner’s scale and resources.”

The battery modules and battery packs, which will be jointly produced in the future, are expected to have intelligent control with their own algorithms and their own heat management for active and passive cooling. According to BorgWarner, the joint venture will initially focus on sports cars and passenger cars with hybrid and electric drives, complementing the supplier’s existing product portfolio in this area. To date, this has included electric motors, power electronics, battery heaters, the electric axle motor iDM and onboard chargers.

BorgWarner has been making a name for itself in the electric and hybrid car supplier market since 2015, not least thanks to a series of strategic takeovers. The expansion course began when the BorgWarner Group acquired the component manufacturer Remy International. This was followed in 2017 by the acquisition of the electrification expert Sevcon, and in February of this year, the founding of the new subsidiary CascadiaMotion, in which the two newly acquired companies AM Racing and Rinehart Motion Systems from the U.S. state of Oregon were merged.

In September last year, BorgWarner announced that it will be supplying its electric and hybrid powertrains to three Chinese automotive players, among them Great Wall and its EV brand ORA.

reuters.com, borgwarner.com

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