The state of Michigan finalized its plans to build the University of Michigan Electric Vehicle Center on April 27 after allocating $130 million for the project in the FY 2023 budget. The plan includes $60 million for campus infrastructure; specifically, an updated Battery Lab facility on North Campus. It also allocates $50 million for supporting technology research and development and $20 million for workforce education.
Engineering Dean Alec D. Gallimore appointed Alan Taub, materials science and engineering professor and former vice president of Global Research and Development at General Motors, as director of the new center. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Taub said the center will work with companies in the auto industry as they transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles.
“We are experiencing a transformation in the (automotive) industry from the internal combustion engine to battery electric vehicles,” Taub said. “That involves a wide range of activities that are important not only to the University, but to the state. One is making sure our companies are at the bleeding edge of this technology change. So from the $130 million, we have $50 million … that will go to research (which) will be driven by our industry affiliates.”
Taub said the $20 million allocated to workforce education will help with the retraining of the existing workforce as they transition from working with combustion vehicles to electric vehicles.
“On the workforce side, we’re going to have a big transition in manufacturing and engineering and design jobs as we move from today’s vehicles to battery electric,” Taub said. “We’ll have activities within the University on expanding our curricula for electric vehicles, but also activities to help retrain the existing workforce.”
The $60 million toward infrastructure will facilitate collaboration with the U-M Battery Lab to create Battery Lab 2.0, which will contain state-of-the-art equipment and will be located, for the time being, in a building leased off campus.
Battery Lab Director Greg Less told The Daily in an interview that the Battery Lab and EV Center will work closely together in a mutually beneficial partnership.
“We’re going to be all but indistinguishable from the EVC,” Less said. “We’ll be offering capabilities for people to come in and do research and prototyping and testing, and they’ll be getting us out to a broader audience and helping us to find those teaching opportunities, research opportunities that maybe we haven’t had before.”
According to Taub, Battery Lab 2.0 will have a welder donated by Manz, a company that produces laser welding equipment. This will give the Battery Lab the capability to create battery modules made of multiple battery cells.
“(The welder is) already here in a big crate, and it’s going to be the first piece of equipment we’re setting up in the lease site,” Taub said. “Not only will it be new, advanced state-of-(the)-art equipment to make cells — we’re now expanding our capability to be able to weld them into modules, so we’re really excited about that.”
The current Battery Lab building and equipment will remain in use once Battery Lab 2.0 is operational. Less said this means the lab can utilize the pilot lines — production lines that can produce small quantities of products — at both facilities for research and experiential learning.
“(The new pilot line) will relieve some of the demand strain that we’re seeing, but it will also give us opportunity for classes,” Less said. “Having a second pilot line, we can keep the research going on one while teaching on the other or tinkering on the other… this gives us so many more opportunities.”
Rising engineering junior Chloe Acosta was the powertrain director of MRacing, the U-M Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team, and will be their technical director next year. Since 2022, they have only created and raced electric cars. Acosta said they have previously used the original Battery Lab for research and testing, but are excited by the possibilities of the new facility.
“(Typically) we will take the cells that we plan to use for our upcoming battery pack to that research lab (and) we’ll do some tests on the cells,” Acosta said. “That’s been really useful for us, so it’d be great to have access to that kind of center where they have more equipment to do testing that can help us … have a better characterized and modeled battery pack overall.”
Acosta said she believes the learning opportunities offered by the EV center will help students feel more prepared to enter the electric vehicle industry after graduation.
“Having the opportunity for people to learn about batteries (and) electric vehicles … earlier on in (their) career is absolutely incredible if it could happen,” Acosta said. “I think the EV center could potentially promote that and give that as an opportunity to students who know they want to go in that direction, because if you come in and you’re a freshman, you’re like, ‘I want to work in the electric vehicle industry.’ (If) you don’t learn about battery modeling until you’re a senior, then how prepared are you?”
Emerson Miller, a recent Engineering graduate and former MRacing technical director, is now working for Our Next Energy, a battery company in Novi, Michigan. Miller said he felt the Battery Lab was very useful to MRacing, and that the $130 million investment in electric vehicle research and facilities will place the University at the forefront of this rising industry.
“I’m just really excited to see that the University is leading the way on this issue and is being proactive rather than reactive in the investment side of things,” Miller said. “I think it’s going to make a big difference.”
The EV Center will also collaborate with other U-M departments, including Mcity, the University’s autonomous vehicle testing facility. The EV Center and Mcity are still in the early stages of determining what a collaboration would look like.
In an interview with The Daily, Mcity director Henry Liu said a challenge of combining electric and autonomous vehicles is that computing power competes for the same battery power as the vehicle’s motor, limiting battery life.
“We’re competing to utilize the same battery power and so that need(s) to be coordinated and optimized (in terms of) the usage of the power,” Liu said. “It’s not only just the battery itself, but also we need to look at the vehicle as a whole to see how to distribute the power usage, how to optimize the power usage.”
Taub said the center is important in helping the state of Michigan, home to the “Big Three” automotive companies, hold onto its recognition as a leader in the automotive industry.
“It’s critical that (Michigan retains) that core capability and recognition and brand,” Taub said. “One reason the state made this investment is to make sure not only the University, but the region remains at the forefront of this mobility revolution.”
Miller said he feels a personal connection to Michigan’s automotive industry, having grown up in the state.
“I grew up here, and just down the street from the Ford headquarters actually,” Miller said. “So the automotive industry has kind of always been in the background of what I was doing … There’s just such a rich history of automotive excellence here, and we take a lot of pride in that.”
Acosta said she thinks the EV Center will enhance students’ learning experience and affirm the transition within the industry toward electric vehicles.
“The EV Center is a great thing to add to the University and I have a lot of hope for what it will provide to the students from both a project team perspective and a student curriculum perspective,” Acosta said. “I’m glad the University is doing it and I think it also will solidify the movement … to the electric-vehicle-dominated automotive industry.”
Summer News Editors Astrid Code and Abigail VanderMolen can be reached at astridc@umich.edu and vabigail@umich.edu.