BMW will supply their i3 battery packs to Motiv Power Systems, who will integrate them into their Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) for commercial vehicles. The contract involves the latest BMW i3 batteries, which now have a total capacity of 42.2 kWh following an upgrade with 120 Ah cells from Samsung.
Motiv is a Ford eQVM-approved provider of all-electric chassis for commercial trucks and buses and benefits from engineering insights and support from Ford to ensure safety and reliability.
Motiv Power Systems will make the EPIC chassis equipped with these components available for their entire commercial vehicle range to be unveiled at the Work Truck Show 2019 in Indianapolis in March.
“When Motiv specs a battery for a chassis, we are looking for factors that matter most to our end users. These include initial cost, reliability over time, and end-of-life replacement costs,” says Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of the Californian company. The latest version of the BMW i3 batteries provides a convincing solution. “Our industrial clients welcome the usability of the ready-made technology that BMW i components provide, as well as their durability,” adds Uwe Breitweg, Head of Drive Systems for Industrial Customers at BMW.
In 2018, BMW added a third supplier of batteries to its roster, this time a Chinese company otherwise known as CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology). CATL is currently the world’s biggest supplier of batteries for electric vehicles and has extensive expertise in the field. This expansion in Europe will start with the new plant in East Germany which will see an investment of around 240 million Euros at first. BMW’s head of purchasing said that BMW will buy batteries worth around 4 billion euros over the next decade from CATL with 1.5 billion worth being sourced from the European plant.
