International EV Batteries 2016: Cost-Effective Engineering For Hybrid And Electric Vehicles

Mike Richardson: Chief Technical Specialist Low Carbon Vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover

Mike Richardson is a Chief Engineer with over 30 years’ industrial experience. His experience spans Research, Advanced Engineering and Product Development, with particular emphasis on managing the delivery of high technology features and functions from the R&D environment to mainstream engineering. Since 2006 he has been working in the area of Hybrids, Electrification and Low Carbon Vehicles at Jaguar and Land Rover. Born in 1956, he holds a Doctorate and degrees in Control Engineering and Electronic Engineering, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the IMechE.

Sunoj George: Head of Hybrid Systems, McLaren Automotive

Sunoj George finished his Masters and Doctorate in Advanced Control Systems from Coventry University which was in collaboration with Land Rover from 1996 to 2000. He joined the Advanced Research Electronics group at Ford Motor Co. and moved to Visteon UK in 2001. At Visteon, he worked on a number of projects which ranged from engine downsizing, 42V systems, electric boosting, closed loop combustion control, etc. He has also served as Chief Engineer of Electric Vehicle Applications and Control Systems at Protean Electric. Sunoj joined the McLaren Group in 2012 where he helped in developing the hybrid system in the world renowned McLaren P1.

Uwe Likar: Senior Manager, Advanced Engineering Planning, Mitsubishi Motor R&D Europe GmbH

Uwe Likar studied Economics and Production Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt. After working at an international components supply company he started at Mitsubishi Motor R&D Europe GmbH (MRDE) as a Product Planner. Later he joined the Development Planning Group. Since 2004 he is Manager, Advanced Engineering planning at MRDE.  In 2007 he became responsible for the field of Electric Vehicles- Alternative Power trains. Within MRDE he is the EV (Electric Vehicle) project leader. Since April 2015 he is working as a Senior Manager in this field.

Phil Whiffin: Chief Engineer, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Group and Advanced Research, JCB

Phil Whiffin joined Jaguar in 1990 form University where he spent the next 22 years covering a wide range of subjects (power train control systems, vehicle launch, advanced research, safety critical systems, chassis systems, sustainable mobility and electrification). A strong advocate of using robust systems engineering approaches to deliver the right product well – introducing whole vehicle systems engineering to JLR. After a short spell delivering systems engineering in Rail, Phil joined JCB in 2014 looking after Electrical and Electronic engineering including Research.

Annika  Ahlberg-Tidblad : Senior Engineer, Materials Technology Hybrid and Electronics, Scania

Annika Ahlberg-Tidblad is an electrochemist with more than 16 years experience working with diverse aspects of battery technology and application. She is currently employed by Scania where she is committed to developing propulsion battery solutions for heavy vehicles. Annika represents OICA in UN regulation development for EV Safety and Environmental Factors and is vice chair of ACEA TF-EVS. Previous employments include Technical Director of Battery Expertise at Etteplan, Global Technical Manager for Electrochemical Energy Sources at Intertek and Senior Consultant in Battery Technology at Sagentia Catella. 

Her academic background includes PhDs in Applied Electrochemistry and Corrosions Science from The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011-2013, she was awarded a grant from the Swedish Strategic Research Foundation Program for Strategic Mobility to study safety factors of large-scale Li ion batteries at Uppsala University. Her collaboration with the Advanced Battery Research Team in Uppsala has continued and she is a regular lecturer for overgraduate and doctorate students on topics of battery application and safety.

Andreas Pfrang: Scientist, Battery Energy Storage Testing For Safe Electrification of Transport (BESTEST), European Commission Joint Research Centre

Andreas Pfrang graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, Andreas Pfrang received his PhD in physics at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2004. After providing microscopy services as team leader at Freudenberg Forschungsdienste in Weinheim, Germany, in 2007 he joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Petten, Netherlands. There he performed fuel cell related research and was responsible for the microscopy services of the Institute for Energy and Transport until end of 2012. Since January 2013 he has contributed to a new project on battery energy storage testing for safe electrification of transport (BESTEST) at the Joint Research Centre.

David Brennan: Assistant Director Cargo Safety & Standards, International Air Transport Association (IATA)

David Brennan has been with IATA since 2002 and is currently Assistant Director Cargo Safety & Standards.

David is responsible for coordinating the activities of the Cargo team who are jointly responsible for the IATA standards publications and products that address dangerous goods transported by air.  

David is the Secretary of the IATA Dangerous Goods Board and the Panel member nominated by IATA to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel. David also participates, on behalf of IATA, in the meetings of the United Nations Subcommittee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods.

Prior to joining IATA David worked for Ansett Australia for a period of 26 years holding a number of supervisory and management positions within the Operations Division, the last being Corporate Advisor Dangerous Goods Compliance.  

James Greenberger : Executive Director, NAATBatt International

James Greenberger is the Executive Director of NAATBatt International, a trade association of advanced battery manufacturers and their supply chain partners.  NAATBatt was founded in 2008 as part of a national effort to ensure that large format lithium-ion batteries would be manufactured in the United States.  NAATBatt’s mission today is to promote the development and commercialization of advanced electrochemical energy storage technology worldwide.  NAATBatt’s activities focus on advanced battery applications in vehicle traction and fuel efficiency, grid-connected energy storage, thin film consumer electronics, high energy defense systems, maritime hybrid power technology, advanced robotics and other technologies.  

David Howey: Associate Professor in Engineering Science, University of Oxford

David Howey PhD MA MEng MIEEE is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford with interests in modelling, measuring and managing electrochemical energy storage systems. His team have recently pioneered battery management research including new approaches to degradation diagnostics, non-invasive temperature estimation, decentralised BMS, and electrochemical model based state estimation. He has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and 3 patents filed and is the recipient of grant funding from industry, the UK government (via EPSRC and InnovateUK), the EC, and the Korean government (via KETEP).

Dr. Billy Wu: Lecturer, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London

Dr. Billy Wu is a lecturer in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. In the department he leads the Robotics and Manufacturing research theme, as well as co-leading the Electrochemical Science and Engineering group. His research focuses on the interface between fundamental science and engineering applications of electrochemical devices such as hydrogen fuel cells, batteries and supercapacitors. Prior to starting his lectureship in 2015, Billy worked on grid scale energy storage, having completed his PhD in 2014 on fuel cell hybrid vehicles, and MEng in Mechanical Engineering (2010) all at Imperial.

Dr James Marco: Reader, International Digital Laboratory, University of Warwick WMG

Dr James Marco is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET). After graduating with an Engineering Doctorate from Warwick in 2000, James worked for several years within the automotive industry leading engineering research teams for Ford (North America and Europe), Jaguar Cars, Land Rover and Daimlerchrysler (Germany). In his early career, James was responsible for the design of the energy management control software for Ford's first fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle. In 2006, James returned to academia, taking a research position at Cranfield University. At Cranfield, he undertook a number of collaborative research projects in the related of areas of vehicle system control, system modelling and powertrain electrification. These include: LIFECar and Hyrban - both fuel cell electric vehicle prototypes and ADDZEV - a low cost hybrid electric commercial vehicle. James joined WMG in 2013 and is currently employed as a Reader in Vehicle Electrification and Energy Storage.

Dhammika Widanalage: Assistant Professor, Energy and Electrical Systems, University of Warwick WMG

Dhammika Widanage was awarded a Ph.D. in 2008 for research done at the Stochastic and Complex Systems Laboratory Group from the University of Warwick and graduated with a First-Class BEng Honours in Electronic and Communication Engineering in 2004 from the University of Warwick, U.K. Prior to joining WMG he was a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Department of Electric Engineering and Energy Technology and the Department of Fundamental Electricity and Instrumentation at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, where he worked on several Belgian national funded projects and a European FP7 project. He then joined WMG as a Senior Research Fellow within the WMG High Value Manufacturing Catapult team at the University of Warwick before being appointed as a faculty member of the department.

Dirk Spiers: President, Spiers New Technologies

Dirk Spiers is the founder and President of Spiers New Technologies. He is a pioneer and leader in the repair, remanufacturing and refurbishment of advanced battery packs as well as the manufacturing of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) with new or second life battery modules and cells. His experience in reman, battery, solar and wind technologies puts him at the forefront of developing programs to manage the life cycle battery packs and using battery storage systems with renewable energy sources. He has developed and established Advanced Battery Pack programs with some of the leading EV OEM’s. Spiers New Technologies specialises in the manufacturing, refurbishment and repair of high voltage powertrain systems and Energy Storage Systems. Their state-of-the-art, energy neutral, battery center is based in Oklahoma City where they work on the battery packs of all the leading OEM’s.

Dr. Istaq Ahmed: Research and Development Engineer, Advanced Research & Technology, Volvo Group Trucks Technology

Dr. Istaq Ahmed obtained PhD in Material Science in 2008 from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He worked as visiting researcher at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK prior to joining Volvo in 2010. At Volvo he was working with lithium Ion battery cell benchmarking, prototype sourcing for heavy-duty xEVs and project leader for many European battery related projects. His field of expertise includes electrochemistry, chemical engineering, material science and lithium ion cell testing.

Brian Lawrence: Principal Engineer – Hybrid Regulatory Affairs, Jaguar Land Rover

Brian Lawrence is a Chartered Engineer and graduate from Brunel University in Production Engineering. 
His diverse career, in and around the motor industry spans 30+ years.  He has worked for 
Castrol and Shell as OEM Liaison Manager. As a Shell expatriate based in Texas, he was 
actively involved in test and specification development with ASTM. He has even spent 6 
years as an engine oil formulator.

Following periods as a consultant and Programme Manager for SMMT, Brian has managed 
EV Regulatory Affairs for JLR for c.5 years, including 4 years working on the UN Working 
Group for EV Safety Global Technical Regulation.

Paul McNamara: Technical Director, Williams Advanced Engineering

Paul is responsible for overseeing the overall technical management and delivery of the company’s expanding range of projects in the automotive, motorsport, energy, defence and civil aerospace sectors.

Before joining Williams, Paul worked as an Executive Director at Shanghai Automotive Industries, based at their Technical Centre in the UK, but working for much of the time in the Chinese operation as part of the global team to set future product direction and deliver current programmes to market. Prior to SAIC he worked for more than 20 years at Ricardo during which time he was the UK Engineering Director for five years and Managing Director of the UK divisions for a further five years. During his time at Ricardo he directed major projects for key customers such as Ford, Volvo, Hyundai and McLaren.

Since Paul’s appointment to the role of Technical Director he continues to apply his extensive experience of high level strategic planning across Williams Advanced Engineering’s range of industry sectors, as well as first-hand knowledge of operating in emerging new markets across the world. Paul is key to ensuring that the business continues to build a reputation for delivering projects in an agile and innovative way.

Dr Volker D. Hennige: Head of the Global Battery Competence Team, AVL

Volker Hennige studied chemistry at the Technical University in Karlsruhe. He worked as a PhD student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (formerly known as Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe) and received his PhD from the University of Freiburg in 1998. In 2000 he joined Evonik Degussa GmbH in Germany where he held several positions in the development of materials and components for Lithium batteries. Having worked 2 years in Shanghai/China as the Senior Director of the Lithium Battery Team and 1 year as Manager for Li-Tec’s industrial business segment he joined AVL in Graz/Austria in 2010 as head of AVL’s Global Battery Competence Team.

M. Saif Siddiqui: Bolt EV Battery Pack Engineering Group Manager, General Motors

Saif Siddiqui is a British-born and American-raised car fanatic, Saif Siddiqui spent 7 years leading the development of GM's 1st and 2nd generation Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) batteries, the heart of the propulsion system in the Volt, Ampera and ELR.  He has also led the Hybrid mid-size car and truck battery team, and now leads the Chevy Bolt BEV and Cadillac CT6 PHEV Battery Team.  Previously, Saif held roles in Fuels and Steering Systems at GM, and has worked for General Dynamics and Saturn.  He has a Bachelor's in ME from the University of Michigan, and an Engineering Master's from Purdue University.

Nigel Taylor: Senior Manager Electric Propulsion System Research, Jaguar Land Rover

Nigel Taylor has worked at Jaguar Land rover for 25 years primarily in the Vehicle Noise, vibration and Harshness department specialising in signal processing and acoustics. During the last 10 years he has worked in research where he has won technology awards for time domain route tracking, a Range Extended Electric Vehicle and a High Power Battery Pack design. Nigel has been the technical lead for Jaguar Land Rover, WMG and TMETC on the HVM Catapult Energy Storage project, and is now leading electric propulsion system research with energy storage a key part of that team.