Clarios Secures First OEM Deal for Supercapacitor Offering
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LAS VEGAS — Battery technology company Clarios secured its first contract with an automotive manufacturer to supply its supercapacitors in 12-volt and 48-volt electrical architectures, the company announced Jan. 5 during CES 2025.
The supercapacitors are designed to store and dispense bursts of high power. The technology supports various vehicle functions such as steer-by-wire and safety features and is capable of providing power in chassis systems. While this initial contract is with a passenger car manufacturer, Clarios said the technology is designed to work across vehicle types, including in the heavy-duty commercial sector.
“A supercapacitor is also super important for commercial vehicles,” said Federico Morales-Zimmermann, general manager of global OEM customers, products and engineering at Clarios. “They are already in place right now. It’s a very niche product right now. But, especially for functions where you need this high burst of power — steer-by-wire also coming to commercial vehicles — you will need such applications there as well.”
Zimmermann noted the company is in talks with heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers, though no deals have been locked down. But with its first passenger car customer signed on, he is optimistic about additional deals.
We have secured an additional contract with a major U.S. automotive manufacturer to supply our advanced hAGM batteries for a 2028 model year full-size SUV series. Read more here: https://t.co/O7HRFMetHU #Clarios #Automotive #Innovation #hAGM pic.twitter.com/5XR15INuWP — Clarios (@ClariosGlobal) January 7, 2025
Clarios isn’t yet ready to reveal this first customer’s identity, but the vehicle it is working on will launch in 2027 or 2028.
“It will have a 48-volt architecture, [and] it will have a 12-volt architecture,” Morales-Zimmermann said. “It will have a 48-volt lithium-ion battery, which we are building on right now. It will have an [absorbent glass mat] battery. It will have a 12-volt supercapacitor and a 48-volt supercapacitor.”
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Clarios is positioning its supercapacitors as part of a larger portfolio for products and services focused on battery applications and management. Those additional offerings include AGM batteries, lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries and complementary software. Zimmermann anticipates that the entire portfolio eventually will penetrate the commercial market.
“All these technologies will eventually evolve into the commercial vehicle,” Morales-Zimmermann said. “Commercial vehicles are becoming more complex [and] also more demanding from the power perspective. If you go into the trucks nowadays, you see how many infotainment features are in there, how much content is in there, where the power consumption of the battery is increasing more and more.”
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