Hyundai Motor Group and Wärtsilä, a fusion of different expertizes

Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth largest car manufacturer, has signed a partnership with Wärtsilä. The Finnish company, it is good to remember, does not limit itself to the development of propulsion for large commercial ships, they are also specialized in the supply of energy systems. At the center of the agreement, the regeneration of batteries marked HMG for electric vehicles aimed at their re-use. Through the creation of innovative energy storage systems, the partnership aims to create a market that exploits the Wärtsilä customer network spread over 177 countries.

«Energy storage is the next logical step in the re-use of EV batteries». With these words, Yougncho Chi, Executive Vice President of the Strategy and Technology Division and Chief Innovation Officer of HMG, commented on the new partnership. «By reconverting products that require significant resources such as electric car batteries, we can eliminate disposal costs and optimize the value of investment in research and development for the production of technology».

Wärtsilä and Greensmith Energy Management Systems

The technological focus of Wärtsilä is on energy storage, through innovative technologies and thanks to the development of software for energy management. Wärtsilä implemented this latter aspect through the acquisition of Greensmith Energy Management Systems (GEMS). The acquisition aimed at speeding up the development of storage systems. Consider that more than a third of all the energy storage capacity installed in the United States is running on the GEMS platform. In recent months, GEMS has delivered yet another energy storage facility, 1 MW of power, to serve a local microgrid. In addition, the company is ready to start production of a 125 kW integrated storage system with smaller installations.

«Thanks to the capacity and experience of Greensmith Energy, Wärtsilä will develop a cleaner and more potential recycling approach for the Hyundai Motor Group», said Javier Cavada, President of Wärtsilä Energy Solutions. «Our strategic partnership with Hyundai Motor Group fully represents our vision of the life cycle, which we are committed to providing our customers and partners all over the world. The addition of the re-use of EV batteries in our business underlines our great commitment to building sustainable societies with smart technologies».

Applications

The applications that will benefit from the new partnership between HMG and Wärtsilä will be mainly industrial, but also commercial (those that can exploit this type of batteries). Therefore, to achieve the goal, the two companies will work together to create a global and continuous supply chain with the main OEMs. The approach will be holistic, from the production of the batteries themselves to the application on vehicles, to the recycling of materials, to the redistribution of the storage systems.

The partnership aims to maximize the benefits of reusing batteries, which represents a new and rapidly growing economic sector. The company claims that up to 29 GWh will be available by 2025 thanks to the battery re-use process. Hyundai Motor Group is, in fact, carrying out an ESS (Energy Storage System) project that will guarantee up to 1 MWh. To do this, HMG is working, through a proprietary technology, on the batteries of both the IONIQ and the Soul Electric.