Nidec, which has a goal of generating revenues worth $6.7–9.6bn from the automotive sector, is already planning to start producing EV motors in existing plants in France and Poland in 2022. It has a roadmap to produce a series of EV drivetrains with ratings from 50kW/1.6kNm to 200kW/4.2kNm.
Nidec predicts that electric drivetrains will become less expensive than traditional internal combustion engines by 2025, by which time it expects to be shipping around two million of its “e-axle” traction motors globally. The number will increase to about 10 million a year by 2030.
Nidec, whose subsidiaries include the Welsh drives-maker Control Techniques and the French motor manufacturer Leroy-Somer, also has four operational and planned EV drive production sites in China, with a combined capacity to produce up to 2.4 million motors a year. It recently opened a 12,000m2 r&d site with 36 motor-testing systems in China, and this will be joined next year by another r&d facility in Dalian, which will employ around 1,000 people and be similar in size to Nidec’s main r&d facility in Japan.
The changing shape of Nidec’s activities is shown by the fact that in 2010, small precision motors – such as those use in computer hard drives – were its biggest business, contributing $3.35bn of revenues to the company’s total of $6.52bn. This year, Nidec expects small motors to generate revenues of around $5.8bn and its total sales to be about $19.3bn. The automotive sector now represents up to half of its business, while products aimed at the industrial, domestic appliance and commercial markets, account for another $5.8bn.