US lead-acid manufacturer Crown Battery Corp is moving its Absorbent Glass Matt battery production from China back to North America.
The company said an increase in demand, and a push to increase automation in the manufacturing process, has led to move at its Fremont, Ohio, headquarters.
“In the past couple of years there’s been a big push for automation with a new AGM line,” American Metals Market reported a company spokesman as saying.
“Our demand was going up for various applications that AGM batteries are used in.
“We brought the production of these batteries into the US and we were able to bring jobs back into the country from China and keep everything in house,” the spokesman said.
A new computerised and automated line will allow for more precision and accuracy throughout the manufacturing process.
The move is the latest in the US AGM lead-acid battery industry after maker Johnson Controls announced plans to increase its North American AGM battery capacity by about 4.4 million units by 2020 as demand for start-stop batteries continued to grow.
Looking longer term, Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx said the industry had come to the view that 48V systems would probably contribute more to emissions reduction in the next 15 years than all EVs – strong hybrids and pure electric – combined.
“This is because 48V systems will greatly outnumber EVs. Indeed, most industry forecasts for 2031 still see more conventional (including 48V) systems sold than EVs in that year,” adding.
“And to take the story full circle, by acquiring nearly all of the benefits of strong hybrids at half the cost, 48V systems will put an even greater squeeze on them than the squeeze already commenced by pure electric.”