Johnson Controls plans to nearly triple its planned investment in its two German sites producing start-stop batteries over the next two years, a senior manager has said.
“We will invest … EUR275m in our battery plants in Hanover and Zwickau,” Alex Molinaroli, head of the company’s auto battery business, told Reuters in an interview.
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Originally JCI planned to spend EUR100m expanding the two plants but increased that after good demand for the battery.
Molinaroli expects eight out of 10 cars sold in Europe to be equipped with stop-start by 2016.
“Start-stop is considerably cheaper than electric cars and customers notice the fuel savings [JCI reckons 12%] immediately,” he said.
Molinaroli said electric cars would likely become a mass market product after 2025, since the infrastructure is not yet in place and the batteries still too costly.
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