November 4, 2024 • 34 mins
Episode 343: Proper planning can prevent poor performance in your heavy-duty parts business and can also reduce break downs on the side of the road. As winter comes, one of the ways to prepare is to make sure you have good batteries – on the shelf in your parts store, and in your vehicle.
Our guest, Jeremy Cordray from EnerSys, helps us to understand the differences in battery technology. We also discuss why different batteries will be required in electric and autonomous vehicles as more countries head toward reduced emissions objectives.
Show Notes: Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com for complete show notes of this episode and to subscribe to all our content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jamie Irvine (00:00):
You're listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andthis is the place where we have
conversations that empowerheavy-duty people.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Heavy-Duty Parts Report so
glad that you are here.
In this episode, we're going totalk about the importance of
proper planning and how thatprevents poor performance.
(00:23):
We're going to talk about theneed for selecting the right
battery for the correctapplication, especially
considering that we are enteringinto fall and winter is coming.
This definitely impacts peoplein the great white north up here
in Canada, as well as thenorthern United States, and
we're going to round out ourconversation today talking about
(00:43):
how it's important that youdon't look only at purchase
price when looking at thingslike batteries.
Let's get into it.
So when you are planningmaintenance for commercial
equipment, you have to take intoconsideration things like
seasonality, and so right nowwe're entering into fall, we're
going, you know, winter's coming, and so, as I mentioned in our
(01:06):
intro, for people who are in thenorthern climates, batteries is
something that they have toconcern themselves with as the
weather gets colder the morningand turning that key and there's
nothing going on, and so thisdefinitely has a negative impact
on things like downtime and onoverall total cost of operation.
(01:32):
When you're running a heavy-dutyparts business, it's very
similar.
There are seasons that you haveto think about.
There's long wave cycles thataffect us over many, many
decades and years.
That affect us over many, manydecades and years.
There's short cycles that welook at on, let's say, a shorter
time period, like a five-yearcycle when it comes to the
economy, or an annual cycle whenit comes to just the natural
(01:55):
ebb and flow of business in theheavy duty parts industry.
Now, I am a big fan of the fivePs.
Proper planning prevents poorperformance and just like when
you can look ahead and you knowcold weather is coming and you
know that batteries are going tobe an issue, when you're
managing or leading a heavy-dutyparts business, there are
(02:16):
certain things that you can lookahead and you can know this is
coming.
I need to get ready for it Now.
This affects things like whatinventory you have and the way
that you look at your inventoryturns and your sales mix.
We can also look at things likethe trade show seasons.
We can look at the differentseasons from weather and how
(02:36):
that impacts people's buyingbehavior.
We can look at the seasons inrelation to people's holidays,
look at the seasons in relationto people's holidays.
Many of these things we canaccount for and we can plan for,
and what we see missing in alot of companies is a strategic
business plan that really laysout what it is that we're trying
(02:59):
to accomplish at our business,how we plan on accomplishing
that and what are the thingsthat we can account for right
here and now that will help usto build that strategic plan.
Some people do make a plan, butthen they just kind of put it on
the shelf and they don't use it.
With our clients, when we workwith them on a strategic
business plan, this becomes abig part of their daily
(03:23):
conversation with their managers, with their supervisors, with
their managers, with theirsupervisors, with their
employees, with their suppliers,with their financial
institutions, investors,shareholders.
The strategic business planshould help you, as a leader, to
have all the conversations youneed to have.
It should also clearly explainwhere it is you intend on going,
(03:45):
what factors you've accountedfor and what each individual
department, right down toindividual people, are
responsible for to make ithappen.
With this proper planning, youcan accomplish some pretty great
things.
I see a lot of people try toshortcut the system.
They want the result, but theydon't necessarily want to put
the time and effort intodeveloping a plan and then going
(04:09):
out and executing that plan ina disciplined way.
We're going to have an entireepisode dedicated to this
subject of strategic businessplanning coming up in just three
weeks, in episode 346.
And we're going to break thisdown in much more detail.
But if you're leading a heavyduty parts company, it is
essential that you have thistype of plan in place, and so I
(04:30):
really encourage you to tune into our program in that upcoming
episode, episode 346, with ourdirector of consulting services,
scott Boltz, where we talkabout strategic business
planning.
There's a lot of things thatyou can plan for that you know
are coming Now.
Obviously, there are thingsthat you cannot plan for, things
(04:51):
that happen that you just haveto react to.
But really you should minimizethe amount of time you are
reacting to things and try tomaximize the amount of time that
you are proactively approachingthe challenges and the problems
that you are proactivelyapproaching the challenges and
the problems that you cananticipate in your business when
you're running a parts business.
Again, like we said, one suchthing is seasonality of product
(05:14):
and right now, as we approachthe cold weather, batteries is a
subject that we need to thinkabout.
So, from a parts departmentperspective, from an inventory
perspective, we want to look atnot only the high moving, high
volume batteries that we aregoing to sell.
We want to make sure that wehave a wide range of batteries
to meet all the differentvocations that our customers are
(05:38):
involved in and we want to tryto get people off of that old
mentality of just, you know,putting in a group 31 battery
and calling it a day.
Modern equipment requires moresophistication when it comes to
selecting batteries.
That has an implication on youif you're responsible for
procurement of inventory andmaking sure that you have the
(05:58):
right mix of product to takecare of your customers' needs.
It impacts you if you're on thecounter or you're in outside
sales, because you're the onesthat have to be knowledgeable
about this to sell thoseproducts.
We're going to take a quickbreak to hear from our sponsors.
When we get back from our break.
I've got an interview I want toshare with you that we did with
a battery manufacturer thatreally talks about the
(06:19):
importance of what we're talkingabout the wide range of
different types of batteriesthat are now available and what
you need to know about each oneso you can make great
recommendations for people whoare buying parts from you and
get them to have the rightproduct for their vocation.
We're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
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We're back from our break.
Before the break, we weretalking about the importance of
preparation.
As a parts person, one of thethings you have to prepare for
(07:45):
is seasonal products likebatteries.
Our guest this week is JeremyCordray.
He is Enersys head of globaltransportation products, and he
talks to us today about batterytechnology, how it's changing
and how it's so important for usto look at vocation and
application when it comes tomatching up our customers with
(08:07):
the right product.
Enersys also just recentlyannounced the launch of their
Odyssey battery charger.
They've labeled this as theworld's first combined AGM and
lithium battery charger, and sowe're going to put a link
towards the end of the interviewfor you to go over to their
website and check out all oftheir great products, up to and
(08:27):
including this innovativebattery charger.
Here's my interview with Jeremyfrom Enersys Now.
Jeremy has spent 22 yearsworking alongside some of the
brightest people in the batteryindustry the battery industry
and he's had the opportunity topresent and share his ideas and
(08:49):
his knowledge and his uniqueperspective to many conferences
and other events in the NorthAmerican market, so he is the
man who we want to talk to.
He's also got an academicbackground in mathematics,
chemical engineering andbusiness, and the company that
he works for, enersys, is aglobal leader in stored energy
solutions.
(09:09):
They have a portfolio ofproducts that include everything
from industrial to commercialto recreational vehicle, and
they also have things likespecialty batteries, chargers,
power equipment, accessories,outdoor equipment for enclosures
and things of that nature.
So we've got the right personand the right company to talk to
(09:30):
about batteries.
Jeremy, welcome to theHeavy-Duty Parts Report.
So glad to have you here.
Jeremy Corday (09:35):
Thank you, jamie, it's great to be here.
Jamie Irvine (09:37):
So, jeremy, technology is changing fast with
batteries.
Could you give us an update onyou know what's the situation
with batteries for commercialtrucks today?
Is there still a good, betterbest, or is there other options
that fleet should be considering?
Jeremy Corday (09:52):
You're absolutely right.
Over the past four decades,we've really focused, in
batteries, on that good, better,best mentality, where we had,
you know, a price sensitive, agood bang for your buck, and
then your premium type batteries.
Today, though, with thetechnology improvements in
batteries, there's not a badbattery built in North America.
(10:14):
It's all about marrying up thetechnology of battery to the
application, and that's what itreally comes into.
And so we're in the 80s and 90sand even the early 2000s.
We had that good, better, best,and you could walk into a store
or a dealership and they couldgive you your three options.
It's no longer that way.
When you walk into a place andlook for a battery now, you're
(10:36):
flooded with different options,because every application is
going to have a good, betterbest.
Just for that applicationapplication issues, there would
be one over the road typeapplication where they were
(10:59):
using a lot of different things.
Jamie Irvine (11:01):
In the cab, they were running the batteries down.
Then you'd have a vocationalapplication where vibration was
an issue and plates werebreaking and they needed a
solution for that, so certainlythat was already trending in
that direction.
Let's talk about some of thosedifferent options.
Like there's lead acid, there'slithium batteries.
Now Give us an indication ofwhat the options are and maybe
(11:21):
some examples of where thosebatteries are used.
Jeremy Corday (11:24):
In the heavy duty marketplace we really see three
or four different predominanttypes of batteries.
We have our starting onlyflooded batteries.
These are those price sensitivebatteries where typically on a
day cab or an environment wherethere's not a whole lot going on
other than trying to start thetruck over and over, where
you're doing runs that are closeto shops, if your battery fails
(11:48):
you can get it replaced andthat's really a price-sensitive
environment, but we do havethose batteries.
Outside of that, we've seen abig push into AGM batteries
since the mid-2000s, late 2000sor really around 2007,.
2008 is really when we saw AGMbatteries get introduced into
trucking.
They had a real rocky start butwith newer models, such as the
(12:11):
new Cascadia coming out andother models, we're seeing a big
push into predominantly AGMbatteries being offered, even
from an OEM level, and so we'reseeing AGM take a big push.
Jamie Irvine (12:25):
Before we go on to the other options, the AGM,
just for those who maybe aren'tfamiliar with what that acronym
stands for.
They've got like that mattinginside and it's something that
protects against vibration, if Iremember.
Just go into a little bit ofthe technology, of what makes an
AGM battery different.
Jeremy Corday (12:43):
I appreciate you stopping me because so many
times, especially in batteries,especially in trucking, we talk
a whole lot of acronyms withoutexplaining what those acronyms
really stand for.
Agm actually stands forabsorbed glass mat stand for NGM
actually stands for absorbedglass mat.
Absorbed glass mat isessentially all.
Batteries are anelectrochemistry, meaning we
take electrical energy and westore it as chemical energy
(13:06):
until we need it again.
So when we're storing thoseelectrons, we're storing them
and passing them through into achemical reaction.
When we do that we use acathode and an anode or a
positive plate and a negativeplate.
Those have to be separated fromeach other to be sure that we
can actually store the electronand not just let it out or
(13:26):
create a constant loop insidethe battery.
So we utilize a separator inthere.
Now, previously, in a floodedbattery and in a lot of previous
technologies of batteries, wewould do that by just flooding
all the plates and keeping avery simple.
It wasn't even a separator, itwas a base separation between
the two plates.
(13:46):
As we got into the 2000s, whenwe could manufacture these
batteries, easier was, ratherthan just flooding the battery
with the electrolyte, thesulfuric acid and water mixture
that allows for the electron topass from cathode to anode.
(14:07):
Instead of doing that, we couldactually get more plates inside
the battery by taking aseparator that had that
electrolyte right next to theplates and utilized a smaller
amount of the electrolyte butput it in a well-positioned area
, and when we do that, we couldput a lot more plates in as well
.
So an AGM battery.
What it brought to themarketplace, especially in
(14:28):
transportation, was the abilityto get more capacity in the same
footprint.
Now, once we were able tofine-t tune that chemical
reaction and really create anefficient path for those
electrons to get stored and comeout, what we were able to do
was create a longer lasting,more capacity in the same
(14:49):
footprint battery, and that'swhat AGM batteries are.
Jamie Irvine (14:52):
Right, and if I remember correctly too, if those
plates break or theydeteriorate, the more that that
occurs, the less the battery'scapacity, and then eventually it
just it's a dead battery.
So especially in high vibrationvocations like logging or oil
field or something like that, Iremember the guys love the AGM
because those plates didn'tbreak, they didn't break down as
(15:13):
often, they lasted longer.
They didn't break down as often, they lasted longer.
And so then the total cost ofthe purchase of that battery
even though it was more thanlike a flooded battery, it
actually cost them less in thelong run.
Jeremy Corday (15:23):
Yeah, batteries are very unique because they're
electrochemical storage devices.
We don't have a lot of those inthe market.
We hear a lot about lithium andyou mentioned all these
different kinds of batteriesnowadays and it seems awfully
foreign to us because we'restoring electricity in a
chemical format and there's somany things that can go wrong
with that.
And if you remember back toyour high school chemistry, or
(15:44):
if you're like me and able to domore in-depth chemistry work,
you realize that while there arelaws in physics that affect
chemistry that always happen, itdoesn't always happen the exact
same way every time, andbatteries are that way, and so
when we analyze why a batteryfails, we do something called
failure mode analysis.
(16:05):
Now, sometimes we have to tearthe battery down, actually cut
the lid off, pull out the plates.
Look at those things.
I was actually doing thatalongside a very large fleet and
an OE just two weeks ago at ourlab in Warrensburg, Missouri,
and we were doing that, and whatwe look for are failure modes.
You can have different failuremodes from dry out meaning you
(16:26):
used up all the water in thebattery, you gassed it off you
can get sulfation, you can getstratification, you can get all
these different things thatfailure that the battery fails
because of, goes dead, so tospeak, and that can tell you
what in the application itwasn't designed to meet.
So to your point, if you're inan off-road vocational
(16:48):
application, whether it's autility truck, fleet or
something like that, that'sreally vibration out there
Mining, we see this a lot in aswell.
That vibration will actuallyshred the plate apart, will
vibrate it to where it just endsup falling apart, or it can
tear the tabs away from the COSon the top of the battery.
(17:08):
So there's different types offailure mode that we can look at
, but those failure modes aretypically tied whenever it's
anything other than what we callPAM degradation positive active
material degradation meaningyou used up all the storage of
the chemistry of the battery andit just failed because it got
old and got used up.
Anything other than that meansthat we could have had a better
(17:31):
solution for that application.
Jamie Irvine (17:34):
So, going back to your point earlier about now,
there being different batteriesfor different applications, and
that being the situation wherewe don't really have that good,
better, best anymore.
You said there was three orfour, so what are the other two?
Jeremy Corday (17:46):
Here at InterSys.
We have five plants throughoutthe world three in Missouri, two
over in Europe that build atechnology called thin plate
pure lead.
I'm actually sitting right nowinside the most advanced lead
acid battery plant in the world.
It's in Springfield, Missouri.
It's got the newest high speedrobotic line to build these type
of batteries under highcompression.
(18:07):
What that means is there's nota whole lot of additives,
there's no calcium, there's noantimony, there's none of these
other things that get put intothe battery that cause premature
failures of the chemistry.
So we have that.
So that's a newer technology,AGM battery.
It's pretty predominant in thetrucking marketplace, especially
under the Northstar brand andthe Odyssey brand.
(18:27):
In addition to that, we're alsoseeing some other entries.
I know I have worked with somefleets over the past five to 10
years that have been toyingaround with ultra capacitors.
We've seen a big push into that.
Most of that didn't get out ofthe initial phase of testing 4
(18:52):
plus 1 environment, where theyuse four thin plate pure lead
advanced AGM batteries and anultra cap so that they can
always start the vehicle viathat ultra cap.
But they've separated thecircuit and they've done some
other things.
So there's some technologieslike that Now the biggest
question I get asked anytime I'mspeaking at a conference,
especially in heavy duty, or I'mat a trade show.
(19:14):
I don't think I was asked thequestion no less than 20 times
at TMC in the spring, but it wasabout lithium and specifically,
how do I start testing lithiumin my fleet?
And I start asking more aboutthat, and this is a lithium in
diesel engine question how can Ireplace on a 12-volt side my
(19:35):
lead-acid batteries with lithiumbatteries so I get longer run
times and some of the benefits?
Well, the first thing we needto understand is in lithium
right now we have two ways oflooking at lithium in
transportation.
One in high-voltage packs,whether it's an electric vehicle
or a hybrid vehicle, plug-inhybrid.
We see a lot of that out thereA high-voltage pack and then we
(19:55):
see low lot of that out there ahigh voltage pack and then we
see low voltage batteries.
These are typically right nowin the marketplace.
Lithium iron phosphate it's adifferent chemistry than the
lithium ion, the lithium, nickel, metal, cobalt.
Some of the other technologiesare out there.
Lithium iron phosphate isreally the predominant lithium
(20:16):
chemistry for 12-volt batteries.
We see that right now making apush in mostly marine
environments.
We haven't seen a good,effective use of it in trucking
as of yet.
I never say technology doesn'twork in an industry, because I
always think technology isgrowing and changing, but what
(20:37):
we are seeing right now is thatthin plate, pure lead, advanced
AGM batteries have a lot morepros than lithium iron phosphate
in trucking.
So we're not seeing a big pushinto that Now.
Once we go into lithium ironphosphate there's a whole
different array of challengesfrom BMS and other things that
(21:00):
we would need to do to get it in.
So right now we're not seeinglithium on trucks, but it's a
question that everybody comes upwith, especially on the 12-volt
side.
Jamie Irvine (21:08):
Jeremy, I could listen to you all day.
I feel smarter just having achance to talk to you for 15
minutes.
But we're not done yet.
We want to talk about some ofthe changes in technology that
are impacting the truckingindustry.
So let's talk about APUs, andwe're going to put a little
letter E in front of that.
What's going on in that space?
Jeremy Corday (21:29):
So I'm actually working on a paper right now on
fleet electrification.
Where do I start?
It's a white paper just to helpfleets and not just heavy-duty
fleets, but all kinds of fleetsstart talking about
electrification.
What we see in the media rightnow is a whole lot of when is
every vehicle going to be fullyelectric or zero emissions or
(21:52):
things like that?
By 2030, 2035, 2040,?
Put a date to it.
While that's important to get toa zero emissions goal, that's a
great goal, but one of the keypieces of electrification a lot
of people lose focus isn't aboutelectrifying the propulsion
system.
It's about electrifying theother pieces on the vehicle and
(22:14):
in class eight trucks especially, as well as vocational trucks,
we are seeing a huge push inelectrification of the parts and
pieces outside of propulsion.
And what you mentioned EAPU wehave seen over the past 10 years
a push to electric APU unitsthat is unlike any other.
(22:35):
Now, that presents a wholeother challenge once you go to
an electric APU unit, but whatit does is it allows you to move
towards some of these steps.
I feel that the EAPU isequivalent to in your car of
doing start-stop, where your carpulls up to a stop sign, the
engine shuts off until it'sready to go again.
(22:55):
Your car pulls up to a stopsign, the engine shuts off until
it's ready to go again.
(23:16):
The're using that power.
We are reducing the carbonfootprint dramatically,
increasing the overall MPGs ofthat truck very dramatically.
Now when you do that, youintroduce another set of
batteries on the truck.
Now today's trucks are designedto where that's all one circuit
actually, so it's not isolated,meaning that that secondary set
(23:40):
will also be tied in to helpstart the truck as well.
And so we're seeing them runseparate circuits off of the
alternator, but we're stillseeing them can stay on the same
circuit Now because they're far, far away from the alternator
as opposed to the understepbatteries.
We are seeing some challengeswith how we do it.
(24:02):
New technologies, such asremote sense, better battery
management systems, both on theAPU as well as on the truck, are
really addressing evenlycharging those batteries.
So you're right, this newtechnology we're seeing,
especially with EAPUs and solar,we're seeing a lot of solar
come in with those APUs helpingkeeping them topped off, helping
(24:25):
add additional charge into thesystem when the engine isn't
running.
All those technologies arereally moving us forward.
Jamie Irvine (24:32):
We actually just had Green Road Energy on the
show and they're developingbasically a wind turbine that,
as the vehicle is propelled downthe highway, it's capturing
that wind and providing anelectrical charge to keep those
batteries topped up.
So there's all kinds ofdifferent ways of getting there.
You mentioned how right nowwe've got government mandates
and we're really seeing a pushfrom the political side.
(24:54):
When I was doing a bit ofresearch ahead of our discussion
, I came across this newEuropean battery regulation that
seems to be pretty prolific inthe news not necessarily in our
mainstream media, but it's outthere if you search for it.
Are these kinds of regulationsthat will be seen in Europe?
Are they going to impact theNorth American market?
What do you think the impact isgoing to be on us?
Jeremy Corday (25:17):
It constantly changes.
It doesn't matter whattechnology it is, how it comes
about.
We are seeing things changefaster today than we've ever
seen, and you have to stay upwith those type of things.
Electrification and EVs werethe big push, especially for
fleets and things like that, upuntil a couple of years ago, and
(25:38):
we started seeing a big push tozero emissions.
Let's realize that maybe it'snot electric vehicles Hydrogen
may have a place to play in thiswhich is essentially an
internal combustion engine witha different fuel source other
than diesel, and so the goal iszero emissions, and I think
we're going to continue to see ashift from focusing on
(26:02):
electrification only to zeroemissions, to reducing our
carbon footprint, whether we cando that via solar wind, many
other forms, hydrogen there'ssome great technology out there
utilizing nitrogen forrefrigeration units and on
trailers and things like that.
There's some great technologiesout there.
(26:22):
I don't think any of us know,and I will throw batteries into
this as well.
Right now, we're really focusedon lithium batteries, right,
but Tesla has announced someresearch that they've done on a
nickel-based battery that theyfeel can last upwards of 100
years on electric vehicles, soit may not even be lithium
batteries that comes into playlong-term from an
(26:46):
electrification standpoint.
The biggest key here is to keepour eye on the prize, which is
zero emissions, a reducing ourcarbon footprint.
If we keep our eye on that endgoal, we'll be able to ebb and
flow with these changes.
Whether it's raw materialsbased, whether it's
manufacturing based, whetherit's technology of
(27:08):
electrochemistry based, we'll beable to ebb and flow with those
as long as we keep our eye onthe horizon, which is at zero
emissions.
Jamie Irvine (27:17):
And then the regulations and whatnot.
It's a moving target, so thosethings are going to change
anyway.
So, when we're talking aboutthe long-term future of the
trucking industry, obviouslyautonomous vehicles are going to
play a role to.
To your point and I agree withyou 100% I think we're going to
see an omni-propulsion systemavailable, meaning many
different propulsion systems.
(27:37):
What do you think the long-termimpact on batteries is going to
be, especially if we have,let's say, a fully autonomous
vehicle that, for example, iselectric?
Jeremy Corday (27:46):
So there's a lot of chemistry today, a battery
chemistry today, that couldsolve a lot of our problems that
we struggle with.
You know we need more power.
The more we put more technologywe put on a truck, especially
autonomous, more energyconsumption, more power
generation we're going to needon the truck, and so as we deal
(28:07):
with that, we're looking forlighter weight, more energy
density, all these things.
Today, intersys, we buildbatteries that get used for
aerospace and defense.
So on the James Webb telescope,for instance, we made the
batteries that have gone up intospace and get utilized with
that.
We made the batteries that havegone up into space and get
utilized with that.
That is a technology of lithiumbatteries, which is about half
(28:29):
the weight of most lithiumbatteries.
It's called lithium NMC and youcan read a lot about it.
It's a really predominanttechnology out there.
One of the challenges is it'svery, very expensive and it's
not easy to manufacture.
So we have to ebb and flow andfigure out how those
technologies are going to comein, and I think that autonomy is
going to actually propel usforward a lot faster than some
(28:51):
of the EV work that we're doing.
I think autonomy is going torequire us to do multiple
circuits on the truck.
Ev we're separating.
A diesel engine internalcombustion engine truck has one
circuit.
It's a 12-volt circuit.
All the accessories jump onthat circuit.
You have your circuit on thetruck.
The alternator is 12-volt,everything is 12-volt on the
(29:11):
truck.
An EV truck has two circuitsthat are combined with a
DC-to-DC charger and converterand that unit has a low-voltage
12-volt circuit and then a highvoltage depending on the truck
and the battery pack circuit.
Autonomy we are seeing the firstmajor autonomy trucks, whether
it's Dymo with Waymo or some ofthe other ones that are out
(29:33):
there.
We're seeing up to three ormore circuits on the truck,
typically of the same voltage,and that's from a redundancy
standpoint because of safety.
With autonomy we can get therewith the safety and with the way
the cameras are nowadays Overin Europe it's fascinating to
see the removal of side viewmirrors on trucks as they
(29:56):
replace them with cameras.
I'm sure we've all seen onsocial media the Samsung truck
that actually shows you what isin front of the truck, on the
back doors of the trailer, onthe truck, and so there's some
of those technologies out therewe will start seeing.
But autonomy is definitely hereto stay and it's really it's
such a big consumption thing andif power goes out or if it
(30:18):
drops below a certain voltage,even for a split second, a
fraction, a one hundredth of asecond split second, a fraction,
a one hundredth of a secondit's like putting your hands
over a driver's eyes in aregular driven truck.
So that's not something thatcan be allowed to happen.
So we're going to see a bigpush on autonomy in trucks from
(30:39):
a safety standpoint, to increasethe power that is being stored
on these trucks.
Jamie Irvine (30:44):
You've been listening to the Heavy Duty
Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andwe've been speaking with Jeremy
Cordray, enersys Head of GlobalTransportation Products, to
learn more about their greatproducts, up to and including
that innovative new batterycharger that does both AGM and
lithium batteries.
Head over to odysseybatterycom.
(31:06):
Links are in the show notes.
All right, it's time foranother edition of that's Not
Heavy Duty.
In this edition of that's NotHeavy Duty, I want to just keep
talking about batteries and Iwant to talk about purchase
price versus picking the rightbattery for the right
application.
In my years of selling parts,everybody just wanted the
cheapest battery they could gettheir hands on.
(31:27):
But what happened when theybought that cheap, you know low
quality group 31 battery?
They would burn those batteriesout within 12 months and every
year, like clockwork, they werechanging them.
I want to encourage you to talkto your customers about doing
an actual calculation onreplacement costs over a three
(31:50):
or four year period on batteriesusing those cheap batteries.
I want you to also factor inlabor downtime and try to come
up with an actual total cost forbuying the cheapest battery.
So any of your customers whoare buying the cheapest
batteries, try to find out whatthe total cost is for them, show
it to them and then show them abattery that is better for
(32:14):
their particular vocation, onethat is really suited for them,
that's going to last a lotlonger.
You know, be conservative.
Only push it out two yearsmaybe three at the most,
depending on the battery and askthem to make a better buying
decision.
Don't just buy the cheapeststuff.
Buy the right part for theright application, the right
(32:34):
quality level to lower yourtotal cost of operation.
And use this as a way to startteaching your customers the
heavy duty way, which is to notlook at purchase price but
rather to look at total cost ofoperation.
That's being heavy duty and asa salesperson inside sales,
outside sales that is a way foryou to differentiate yourself
(32:56):
from everybody else.
Thank you so much for listeningto this week's episode of the
heavy duty parts report.
If you haven't already, I wantto encourage you to go over to
heavydutypartsreportcom.
Sign up to our weekly email soyou never miss out on any of our
content.
We only said one email a week,no spam.
We just let you know what thenew episodes are so you don't
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(33:16):
Some people like to listen ontheir podcast player of their
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If that's the case, hit thatfollow button for free and if it
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(33:38):
channel and make sure that youdo that.
So, again, you never miss outon our weekly episodes.
Thanks again for following us,listening to us.
However, it is that you arehearing this content today.
Your support is really, reallyappreciated by all of us at the
Heavy Duty Parts Report and, asalways, I want to encourage you
(33:58):
to be heavy duty.
You're listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andthis is the place where we have
conversations that empowerheavy-duty people.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Heavy-Duty Parts Report so
glad that you are here.
In this episode, we're going totalk about the importance of
proper planning and how thatprevents poor performance.
(00:23):
We're going to talk about theneed for selecting the right
battery for the correctapplication, especially
considering that we are enteringinto fall and winter is coming.
This definitely impacts peoplein the great white north up here
in Canada, as well as thenorthern United States, and
we're going to round out ourconversation today talking about
(00:43):
how it's important that youdon't look only at purchase
price when looking at thingslike batteries.
Let's get into it.
So when you are planningmaintenance for commercial
equipment, you have to take intoconsideration things like
seasonality, and so right nowwe're entering into fall, we're
going, you know, winter's coming, and so, as I mentioned in our
(01:06):
intro, for people who are in thenorthern climates, batteries is
something that they have toconcern themselves with as the
weather gets colder the morningand turning that key and there's
nothing going on, and so thisdefinitely has a negative impact
on things like downtime and onoverall total cost of operation.
(01:32):
When you're running a heavy-dutyparts business, it's very
similar.
There are seasons that you haveto think about.
There's long wave cycles thataffect us over many, many
decades and years.
That affect us over many, manydecades and years.
There's short cycles that welook at on, let's say, a shorter
time period, like a five-yearcycle when it comes to the
economy, or an annual cycle whenit comes to just the natural
(01:55):
ebb and flow of business in theheavy duty parts industry.
Now, I am a big fan of the fivePs.
Proper planning prevents poorperformance and just like when
you can look ahead and you knowcold weather is coming and you
know that batteries are going tobe an issue, when you're
managing or leading a heavy-dutyparts business, there are
(02:16):
certain things that you can lookahead and you can know this is
coming.
I need to get ready for it Now.
This affects things like whatinventory you have and the way
that you look at your inventoryturns and your sales mix.
We can also look at things likethe trade show seasons.
We can look at the differentseasons from weather and how
(02:36):
that impacts people's buyingbehavior.
We can look at the seasons inrelation to people's holidays,
look at the seasons in relationto people's holidays.
Many of these things we canaccount for and we can plan for,
and what we see missing in alot of companies is a strategic
business plan that really laysout what it is that we're trying
(02:59):
to accomplish at our business,how we plan on accomplishing
that and what are the thingsthat we can account for right
here and now that will help usto build that strategic plan.
Some people do make a plan, butthen they just kind of put it on
the shelf and they don't use it.
With our clients, when we workwith them on a strategic
business plan, this becomes abig part of their daily
(03:23):
conversation with their managers, with their supervisors, with
their managers, with theirsupervisors, with their
employees, with their suppliers,with their financial
institutions, investors,shareholders.
The strategic business planshould help you, as a leader, to
have all the conversations youneed to have.
It should also clearly explainwhere it is you intend on going,
(03:45):
what factors you've accountedfor and what each individual
department, right down toindividual people, are
responsible for to make ithappen.
With this proper planning, youcan accomplish some pretty great
things.
I see a lot of people try toshortcut the system.
They want the result, but theydon't necessarily want to put
the time and effort intodeveloping a plan and then going
(04:09):
out and executing that plan ina disciplined way.
We're going to have an entireepisode dedicated to this
subject of strategic businessplanning coming up in just three
weeks, in episode 346.
And we're going to break thisdown in much more detail.
But if you're leading a heavyduty parts company, it is
essential that you have thistype of plan in place, and so I
(04:30):
really encourage you to tune into our program in that upcoming
episode, episode 346, with ourdirector of consulting services,
scott Boltz, where we talkabout strategic business
planning.
There's a lot of things thatyou can plan for that you know
are coming Now.
Obviously, there are thingsthat you cannot plan for, things
(04:51):
that happen that you just haveto react to.
But really you should minimizethe amount of time you are
reacting to things and try tomaximize the amount of time that
you are proactively approachingthe challenges and the problems
that you are proactivelyapproaching the challenges and
the problems that you cananticipate in your business when
you're running a parts business.
Again, like we said, one suchthing is seasonality of product
(05:14):
and right now, as we approachthe cold weather, batteries is a
subject that we need to thinkabout.
So, from a parts departmentperspective, from an inventory
perspective, we want to look atnot only the high moving, high
volume batteries that we aregoing to sell.
We want to make sure that wehave a wide range of batteries
to meet all the differentvocations that our customers are
(05:38):
involved in and we want to tryto get people off of that old
mentality of just, you know,putting in a group 31 battery
and calling it a day.
Modern equipment requires moresophistication when it comes to
selecting batteries.
That has an implication on youif you're responsible for
procurement of inventory andmaking sure that you have the
(05:58):
right mix of product to takecare of your customers' needs.
It impacts you if you're on thecounter or you're in outside
sales, because you're the onesthat have to be knowledgeable
about this to sell thoseproducts.
We're going to take a quickbreak to hear from our sponsors.
When we get back from our break.
I've got an interview I want toshare with you that we did with
a battery manufacturer thatreally talks about the
(06:19):
importance of what we're talkingabout the wide range of
different types of batteriesthat are now available and what
you need to know about each oneso you can make great
recommendations for people whoare buying parts from you and
get them to have the rightproduct for their vocation.
We're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
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We're back from our break.
Before the break, we weretalking about the importance of
preparation.
As a parts person, one of thethings you have to prepare for
(07:45):
is seasonal products likebatteries.
Our guest this week is JeremyCordray.
He is Enersys head of globaltransportation products, and he
talks to us today about batterytechnology, how it's changing
and how it's so important for usto look at vocation and
application when it comes tomatching up our customers with
(08:07):
the right product.
Enersys also just recentlyannounced the launch of their
Odyssey battery charger.
They've labeled this as theworld's first combined AGM and
lithium battery charger, and sowe're going to put a link
towards the end of the interviewfor you to go over to their
website and check out all oftheir great products, up to and
(08:27):
including this innovativebattery charger.
Here's my interview with Jeremyfrom Enersys Now.
Jeremy has spent 22 yearsworking alongside some of the
brightest people in the batteryindustry the battery industry
and he's had the opportunity topresent and share his ideas and
(08:49):
his knowledge and his uniqueperspective to many conferences
and other events in the NorthAmerican market, so he is the
man who we want to talk to.
He's also got an academicbackground in mathematics,
chemical engineering andbusiness, and the company that
he works for, enersys, is aglobal leader in stored energy
solutions.
(09:09):
They have a portfolio ofproducts that include everything
from industrial to commercialto recreational vehicle, and
they also have things likespecialty batteries, chargers,
power equipment, accessories,outdoor equipment for enclosures
and things of that nature.
So we've got the right personand the right company to talk to
(09:30):
about batteries.
Jeremy, welcome to theHeavy-Duty Parts Report.
So glad to have you here.
Jeremy Corday (09:35):
Thank you, jamie, it's great to be here.
Jamie Irvine (09:37):
So, jeremy, technology is changing fast with
batteries.
Could you give us an update onyou know what's the situation
with batteries for commercialtrucks today?
Is there still a good, betterbest, or is there other options
that fleet should be considering?
Jeremy Corday (09:52):
You're absolutely right.
Over the past four decades,we've really focused, in
batteries, on that good, better,best mentality, where we had,
you know, a price sensitive, agood bang for your buck, and
then your premium type batteries.
Today, though, with thetechnology improvements in
batteries, there's not a badbattery built in North America.
(10:14):
It's all about marrying up thetechnology of battery to the
application, and that's what itreally comes into.
And so we're in the 80s and 90sand even the early 2000s.
We had that good, better, best,and you could walk into a store
or a dealership and they couldgive you your three options.
It's no longer that way.
When you walk into a place andlook for a battery now, you're
(10:36):
flooded with different options,because every application is
going to have a good, betterbest.
Just for that applicationapplication issues, there would
be one over the road typeapplication where they were
(10:59):
using a lot of different things.
Jamie Irvine (11:01):
In the cab, they were running the batteries down.
Then you'd have a vocationalapplication where vibration was
an issue and plates werebreaking and they needed a
solution for that, so certainlythat was already trending in
that direction.
Let's talk about some of thosedifferent options.
Like there's lead acid, there'slithium batteries.
Now Give us an indication ofwhat the options are and maybe
(11:21):
some examples of where thosebatteries are used.
Jeremy Corday (11:24):
In the heavy duty marketplace we really see three
or four different predominanttypes of batteries.
We have our starting onlyflooded batteries.
These are those price sensitivebatteries where typically on a
day cab or an environment wherethere's not a whole lot going on
other than trying to start thetruck over and over, where
you're doing runs that are closeto shops, if your battery fails
(11:48):
you can get it replaced andthat's really a price-sensitive
environment, but we do havethose batteries.
Outside of that, we've seen abig push into AGM batteries
since the mid-2000s, late 2000sor really around 2007,.
2008 is really when we saw AGMbatteries get introduced into
trucking.
They had a real rocky start butwith newer models, such as the
(12:11):
new Cascadia coming out andother models, we're seeing a big
push into predominantly AGMbatteries being offered, even
from an OEM level, and so we'reseeing AGM take a big push.
Jamie Irvine (12:25):
Before we go on to the other options, the AGM,
just for those who maybe aren'tfamiliar with what that acronym
stands for.
They've got like that mattinginside and it's something that
protects against vibration, if Iremember.
Just go into a little bit ofthe technology, of what makes an
AGM battery different.
Jeremy Corday (12:43):
I appreciate you stopping me because so many
times, especially in batteries,especially in trucking, we talk
a whole lot of acronyms withoutexplaining what those acronyms
really stand for.
Agm actually stands forabsorbed glass mat stand for NGM
actually stands for absorbedglass mat.
Absorbed glass mat isessentially all.
Batteries are anelectrochemistry, meaning we
take electrical energy and westore it as chemical energy
(13:06):
until we need it again.
So when we're storing thoseelectrons, we're storing them
and passing them through into achemical reaction.
When we do that we use acathode and an anode or a
positive plate and a negativeplate.
Those have to be separated fromeach other to be sure that we
can actually store the electronand not just let it out or
(13:26):
create a constant loop insidethe battery.
So we utilize a separator inthere.
Now, previously, in a floodedbattery and in a lot of previous
technologies of batteries, wewould do that by just flooding
all the plates and keeping avery simple.
It wasn't even a separator, itwas a base separation between
the two plates.
(13:46):
As we got into the 2000s, whenwe could manufacture these
batteries, easier was, ratherthan just flooding the battery
with the electrolyte, thesulfuric acid and water mixture
that allows for the electron topass from cathode to anode.
(14:07):
Instead of doing that, we couldactually get more plates inside
the battery by taking aseparator that had that
electrolyte right next to theplates and utilized a smaller
amount of the electrolyte butput it in a well-positioned area
, and when we do that, we couldput a lot more plates in as well
.
So an AGM battery.
What it brought to themarketplace, especially in
(14:28):
transportation, was the abilityto get more capacity in the same
footprint.
Now, once we were able tofine-t tune that chemical
reaction and really create anefficient path for those
electrons to get stored and comeout, what we were able to do
was create a longer lasting,more capacity in the same
(14:49):
footprint battery, and that'swhat AGM batteries are.
Jamie Irvine (14:52):
Right, and if I remember correctly too, if those
plates break or theydeteriorate, the more that that
occurs, the less the battery'scapacity, and then eventually it
just it's a dead battery.
So especially in high vibrationvocations like logging or oil
field or something like that, Iremember the guys love the AGM
because those plates didn'tbreak, they didn't break down as
(15:13):
often, they lasted longer.
They didn't break down as often, they lasted longer.
And so then the total cost ofthe purchase of that battery
even though it was more thanlike a flooded battery, it
actually cost them less in thelong run.
Jeremy Corday (15:23):
Yeah, batteries are very unique because they're
electrochemical storage devices.
We don't have a lot of those inthe market.
We hear a lot about lithium andyou mentioned all these
different kinds of batteriesnowadays and it seems awfully
foreign to us because we'restoring electricity in a
chemical format and there's somany things that can go wrong
with that.
And if you remember back toyour high school chemistry, or
(15:44):
if you're like me and able to domore in-depth chemistry work,
you realize that while there arelaws in physics that affect
chemistry that always happen, itdoesn't always happen the exact
same way every time, andbatteries are that way, and so
when we analyze why a batteryfails, we do something called
failure mode analysis.
(16:05):
Now, sometimes we have to tearthe battery down, actually cut
the lid off, pull out the plates.
Look at those things.
I was actually doing thatalongside a very large fleet and
an OE just two weeks ago at ourlab in Warrensburg, Missouri,
and we were doing that, and whatwe look for are failure modes.
You can have different failuremodes from dry out meaning you
(16:26):
used up all the water in thebattery, you gassed it off you
can get sulfation, you can getstratification, you can get all
these different things thatfailure that the battery fails
because of, goes dead, so tospeak, and that can tell you
what in the application itwasn't designed to meet.
So to your point, if you're inan off-road vocational
(16:48):
application, whether it's autility truck, fleet or
something like that, that'sreally vibration out there
Mining, we see this a lot in aswell.
That vibration will actuallyshred the plate apart, will
vibrate it to where it just endsup falling apart, or it can
tear the tabs away from the COSon the top of the battery.
(17:08):
So there's different types offailure mode that we can look at
, but those failure modes aretypically tied whenever it's
anything other than what we callPAM degradation positive active
material degradation meaningyou used up all the storage of
the chemistry of the battery andit just failed because it got
old and got used up.
Anything other than that meansthat we could have had a better
(17:31):
solution for that application.
Jamie Irvine (17:34):
So, going back to your point earlier about now,
there being different batteriesfor different applications, and
that being the situation wherewe don't really have that good,
better, best anymore.
You said there was three orfour, so what are the other two?
Jeremy Corday (17:46):
Here at InterSys.
We have five plants throughoutthe world three in Missouri, two
over in Europe that build atechnology called thin plate
pure lead.
I'm actually sitting right nowinside the most advanced lead
acid battery plant in the world.
It's in Springfield, Missouri.
It's got the newest high speedrobotic line to build these type
of batteries under highcompression.
(18:07):
What that means is there's nota whole lot of additives,
there's no calcium, there's noantimony, there's none of these
other things that get put intothe battery that cause premature
failures of the chemistry.
So we have that.
So that's a newer technology,AGM battery.
It's pretty predominant in thetrucking marketplace, especially
under the Northstar brand andthe Odyssey brand.
(18:27):
In addition to that, we're alsoseeing some other entries.
I know I have worked with somefleets over the past five to 10
years that have been toyingaround with ultra capacitors.
We've seen a big push into that.
Most of that didn't get out ofthe initial phase of testing 4
(18:52):
plus 1 environment, where theyuse four thin plate pure lead
advanced AGM batteries and anultra cap so that they can
always start the vehicle viathat ultra cap.
But they've separated thecircuit and they've done some
other things.
So there's some technologieslike that Now the biggest
question I get asked anytime I'mspeaking at a conference,
especially in heavy duty, or I'mat a trade show.
(19:14):
I don't think I was asked thequestion no less than 20 times
at TMC in the spring, but it wasabout lithium and specifically,
how do I start testing lithiumin my fleet?
And I start asking more aboutthat, and this is a lithium in
diesel engine question how can Ireplace on a 12-volt side my
(19:35):
lead-acid batteries with lithiumbatteries so I get longer run
times and some of the benefits?
Well, the first thing we needto understand is in lithium
right now we have two ways oflooking at lithium in
transportation.
One in high-voltage packs,whether it's an electric vehicle
or a hybrid vehicle, plug-inhybrid.
We see a lot of that out thereA high-voltage pack and then we
(19:55):
see low lot of that out there ahigh voltage pack and then we
see low voltage batteries.
These are typically right nowin the marketplace.
Lithium iron phosphate it's adifferent chemistry than the
lithium ion, the lithium, nickel, metal, cobalt.
Some of the other technologiesare out there.
Lithium iron phosphate isreally the predominant lithium
(20:16):
chemistry for 12-volt batteries.
We see that right now making apush in mostly marine
environments.
We haven't seen a good,effective use of it in trucking
as of yet.
I never say technology doesn'twork in an industry, because I
always think technology isgrowing and changing, but what
(20:37):
we are seeing right now is thatthin plate, pure lead, advanced
AGM batteries have a lot morepros than lithium iron phosphate
in trucking.
So we're not seeing a big pushinto that Now.
Once we go into lithium ironphosphate there's a whole
different array of challengesfrom BMS and other things that
(21:00):
we would need to do to get it in.
So right now we're not seeinglithium on trucks, but it's a
question that everybody comes upwith, especially on the 12-volt
side.
Jamie Irvine (21:08):
Jeremy, I could listen to you all day.
I feel smarter just having achance to talk to you for 15
minutes.
But we're not done yet.
We want to talk about some ofthe changes in technology that
are impacting the truckingindustry.
So let's talk about APUs, andwe're going to put a little
letter E in front of that.
What's going on in that space?
Jeremy Corday (21:29):
So I'm actually working on a paper right now on
fleet electrification.
Where do I start?
It's a white paper just to helpfleets and not just heavy-duty
fleets, but all kinds of fleetsstart talking about
electrification.
What we see in the media rightnow is a whole lot of when is
every vehicle going to be fullyelectric or zero emissions or
(21:52):
things like that?
By 2030, 2035, 2040,?
Put a date to it.
While that's important to get toa zero emissions goal, that's a
great goal, but one of the keypieces of electrification a lot
of people lose focus isn't aboutelectrifying the propulsion
system.
It's about electrifying theother pieces on the vehicle and
(22:14):
in class eight trucks especially, as well as vocational trucks,
we are seeing a huge push inelectrification of the parts and
pieces outside of propulsion.
And what you mentioned EAPU wehave seen over the past 10 years
a push to electric APU unitsthat is unlike any other.
(22:35):
Now, that presents a wholeother challenge once you go to
an electric APU unit, but whatit does is it allows you to move
towards some of these steps.
I feel that the EAPU isequivalent to in your car of
doing start-stop, where your carpulls up to a stop sign, the
engine shuts off until it'sready to go again.
(22:55):
Your car pulls up to a stopsign, the engine shuts off until
it's ready to go again.
(23:16):
The're using that power.
We are reducing the carbonfootprint dramatically,
increasing the overall MPGs ofthat truck very dramatically.
Now when you do that, youintroduce another set of
batteries on the truck.
Now today's trucks are designedto where that's all one circuit
actually, so it's not isolated,meaning that that secondary set
(23:40):
will also be tied in to helpstart the truck as well.
And so we're seeing them runseparate circuits off of the
alternator, but we're stillseeing them can stay on the same
circuit Now because they're far, far away from the alternator
as opposed to the understepbatteries.
We are seeing some challengeswith how we do it.
(24:02):
New technologies, such asremote sense, better battery
management systems, both on theAPU as well as on the truck, are
really addressing evenlycharging those batteries.
So you're right, this newtechnology we're seeing,
especially with EAPUs and solar,we're seeing a lot of solar
come in with those APUs helpingkeeping them topped off, helping
(24:25):
add additional charge into thesystem when the engine isn't
running.
All those technologies arereally moving us forward.
Jamie Irvine (24:32):
We actually just had Green Road Energy on the
show and they're developingbasically a wind turbine that,
as the vehicle is propelled downthe highway, it's capturing
that wind and providing anelectrical charge to keep those
batteries topped up.
So there's all kinds ofdifferent ways of getting there.
You mentioned how right nowwe've got government mandates
and we're really seeing a pushfrom the political side.
(24:54):
When I was doing a bit ofresearch ahead of our discussion
, I came across this newEuropean battery regulation that
seems to be pretty prolific inthe news not necessarily in our
mainstream media, but it's outthere if you search for it.
Are these kinds of regulationsthat will be seen in Europe?
Are they going to impact theNorth American market?
What do you think the impact isgoing to be on us?
Jeremy Corday (25:17):
It constantly changes.
It doesn't matter whattechnology it is, how it comes
about.
We are seeing things changefaster today than we've ever
seen, and you have to stay upwith those type of things.
Electrification and EVs werethe big push, especially for
fleets and things like that, upuntil a couple of years ago, and
(25:38):
we started seeing a big push tozero emissions.
Let's realize that maybe it'snot electric vehicles Hydrogen
may have a place to play in thiswhich is essentially an
internal combustion engine witha different fuel source other
than diesel, and so the goal iszero emissions, and I think
we're going to continue to see ashift from focusing on
(26:02):
electrification only to zeroemissions, to reducing our
carbon footprint, whether we cando that via solar wind, many
other forms, hydrogen there'ssome great technology out there
utilizing nitrogen forrefrigeration units and on
trailers and things like that.
There's some great technologiesout there.
(26:22):
I don't think any of us know,and I will throw batteries into
this as well.
Right now, we're really focusedon lithium batteries, right,
but Tesla has announced someresearch that they've done on a
nickel-based battery that theyfeel can last upwards of 100
years on electric vehicles, soit may not even be lithium
batteries that comes into playlong-term from an
(26:46):
electrification standpoint.
The biggest key here is to keepour eye on the prize, which is
zero emissions, a reducing ourcarbon footprint.
If we keep our eye on that endgoal, we'll be able to ebb and
flow with these changes.
Whether it's raw materialsbased, whether it's
manufacturing based, whetherit's technology of
(27:08):
electrochemistry based, we'll beable to ebb and flow with those
as long as we keep our eye onthe horizon, which is at zero
emissions.
Jamie Irvine (27:17):
And then the regulations and whatnot.
It's a moving target, so thosethings are going to change
anyway.
So, when we're talking aboutthe long-term future of the
trucking industry, obviouslyautonomous vehicles are going to
play a role to.
To your point and I agree withyou 100% I think we're going to
see an omni-propulsion systemavailable, meaning many
different propulsion systems.
(27:37):
What do you think the long-termimpact on batteries is going to
be, especially if we have,let's say, a fully autonomous
vehicle that, for example, iselectric?
Jeremy Corday (27:46):
So there's a lot of chemistry today, a battery
chemistry today, that couldsolve a lot of our problems that
we struggle with.
You know we need more power.
The more we put more technologywe put on a truck, especially
autonomous, more energyconsumption, more power
generation we're going to needon the truck, and so as we deal
(28:07):
with that, we're looking forlighter weight, more energy
density, all these things.
Today, intersys, we buildbatteries that get used for
aerospace and defense.
So on the James Webb telescope,for instance, we made the
batteries that have gone up intospace and get utilized with
that.
We made the batteries that havegone up into space and get
utilized with that.
That is a technology of lithiumbatteries, which is about half
(28:29):
the weight of most lithiumbatteries.
It's called lithium NMC and youcan read a lot about it.
It's a really predominanttechnology out there.
One of the challenges is it'svery, very expensive and it's
not easy to manufacture.
So we have to ebb and flow andfigure out how those
technologies are going to comein, and I think that autonomy is
going to actually propel usforward a lot faster than some
(28:51):
of the EV work that we're doing.
I think autonomy is going torequire us to do multiple
circuits on the truck.
Ev we're separating.
A diesel engine internalcombustion engine truck has one
circuit.
It's a 12-volt circuit.
All the accessories jump onthat circuit.
You have your circuit on thetruck.
The alternator is 12-volt,everything is 12-volt on the
(29:11):
truck.
An EV truck has two circuitsthat are combined with a
DC-to-DC charger and converterand that unit has a low-voltage
12-volt circuit and then a highvoltage depending on the truck
and the battery pack circuit.
Autonomy we are seeing the firstmajor autonomy trucks, whether
it's Dymo with Waymo or some ofthe other ones that are out
(29:33):
there.
We're seeing up to three ormore circuits on the truck,
typically of the same voltage,and that's from a redundancy
standpoint because of safety.
With autonomy we can get therewith the safety and with the way
the cameras are nowadays Overin Europe it's fascinating to
see the removal of side viewmirrors on trucks as they
(29:56):
replace them with cameras.
I'm sure we've all seen onsocial media the Samsung truck
that actually shows you what isin front of the truck, on the
back doors of the trailer, onthe truck, and so there's some
of those technologies out therewe will start seeing.
But autonomy is definitely hereto stay and it's really it's
such a big consumption thing andif power goes out or if it
(30:18):
drops below a certain voltage,even for a split second, a
fraction, a one hundredth of asecond split second, a fraction,
a one hundredth of a secondit's like putting your hands
over a driver's eyes in aregular driven truck.
So that's not something thatcan be allowed to happen.
So we're going to see a bigpush on autonomy in trucks from
(30:39):
a safety standpoint, to increasethe power that is being stored
on these trucks.
Jamie Irvine (30:44):
You've been listening to the Heavy Duty
Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andwe've been speaking with Jeremy
Cordray, enersys Head of GlobalTransportation Products, to
learn more about their greatproducts, up to and including
that innovative new batterycharger that does both AGM and
lithium batteries.
Head over to odysseybatterycom.
(31:06):
Links are in the show notes.
All right, it's time foranother edition of that's Not
Heavy Duty.
In this edition of that's NotHeavy Duty, I want to just keep
talking about batteries and Iwant to talk about purchase
price versus picking the rightbattery for the right
application.
In my years of selling parts,everybody just wanted the
cheapest battery they could gettheir hands on.
(31:27):
But what happened when theybought that cheap, you know low
quality group 31 battery?
They would burn those batteriesout within 12 months and every
year, like clockwork, they werechanging them.
I want to encourage you to talkto your customers about doing
an actual calculation onreplacement costs over a three
(31:50):
or four year period on batteriesusing those cheap batteries.
I want you to also factor inlabor downtime and try to come
up with an actual total cost forbuying the cheapest battery.
So any of your customers whoare buying the cheapest
batteries, try to find out whatthe total cost is for them, show
it to them and then show them abattery that is better for
(32:14):
their particular vocation, onethat is really suited for them,
that's going to last a lotlonger.
You know, be conservative.
Only push it out two yearsmaybe three at the most,
depending on the battery and askthem to make a better buying
decision.
Don't just buy the cheapeststuff.
Buy the right part for theright application, the right
(32:34):
quality level to lower yourtotal cost of operation.
And use this as a way to startteaching your customers the
heavy duty way, which is to notlook at purchase price but
rather to look at total cost ofoperation.
That's being heavy duty and asa salesperson inside sales,
outside sales that is a way foryou to differentiate yourself
(32:56):
from everybody else.
Thank you so much for listeningto this week's episode of the
heavy duty parts report.
If you haven't already, I wantto encourage you to go over to
heavydutypartsreportcom.
Sign up to our weekly email soyou never miss out on any of our
content.
We only said one email a week,no spam.
We just let you know what thenew episodes are so you don't
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(33:16):
Some people like to listen ontheir podcast player of their
choice.
If that's the case, hit thatfollow button for free and if it
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I've heard that that helps withreach and I'd really appreciate
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(33:38):
channel and make sure that youdo that.
So, again, you never miss outon our weekly episodes.
Thanks again for following us,listening to us.
However, it is that you arehearing this content today.
Your support is really, reallyappreciated by all of us at the
Heavy Duty Parts Report and, asalways, I want to encourage you
(33:58):
to be heavy duty.
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