Henniges' Tesla partnership gives it a boost in EV space

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.—In the beginning, there was Tesla.

Well, more or less.

There were traditional OEMs with limited, though relatively successful, electric vehicle offerings. But they were niche vehicles, small passenger cars that lacked the form and function that most drivers—especially American drivers—sought.

Tesla changed that. And, as a result, it may have supercharged the entire industry.

"Tesla was really important," said Kevin Riddell, LMC Automotive senior manager of powertrain forecasting. That's because Tesla did a relatively simple thing: It thought big. And in doing so it broadened the expectations of EVs beyond the tiny, passenger car niche.

"To be able to come into the market and say, 'we can sell an expensive EV, we just have to make it desirable,' opened a lot of eyes," Riddell said.

Tesla's success in the EV space has given others—traditional OEMs and newcomers alike—the courage to take their own leaps of faith, investing in technology and design developments for electrified powertrains across all segments.

Those investments are driving quick change. According to the Center for Automotive Research, North American drivers had 67 EV model options in 2020. But by 2024, more than 200 electric vehicle models will be available across the continent.

And each of those vehicles are developed with Tesla's successes in mind.

"When you look at the whole of manufacturing and think about where the benchmarks are," Riddell said, "everyone is focusing on Tesla."

Anyone who is benchmarking Tesla is benchmarking Henniges Automotive, and that's not a coincidence. The auto supplier sensed change on the horizon as technology pushed the industry closer to new mobility. It saw trends emerge in the electrified and autonomous spaces and knew it needed to take action.

In Tesla, Henniges saw the perfect partner with the perfect timing. The auto maker's ideas were ambitious, but they weren't unrealistic.

"We have been—going back six or seven years—incorporating EV market trends into our corporate strategy. And that led us to really pursue Tesla, which was, at the time, the emerging EV player," said Fred Jamieson, global vice president of Henniges sales, marketing and program management.

When Henniges partnered with Tesla, supplying sealing solutions such as weatherstripping, the auto maker's success wasn't a sure thing. But Henniges also knew that if Tesla was to succeed, it would set the tone for the industry. If that happened, being part of that development process would be invaluable.

So Henniges took what Jamieson called "a leap of faith."

"We knew that if Tesla is going to take off, there were going to be other platforms on the EV technology side, and they were going to be benchmarking Tesla," he said. "They are going to be looking at how is Tesla appealing to that marketplace, and we wanted to be there when the competitors started to benchmark Tesla."

Since Tesla was a new player to the market, it came to the design and production process with few baked-in expectations, according to Jamieson. For Henniges, this became an advantage, allowing the supplier to lean into its expertise and provide the then-fledgling auto maker with insights that helped to shape the business model.

"We know them inside and out now because we helped to form how they are doing business, at least around their commodities," Jamieson said.

From a product perspective, Henniges' sealing solutions—such as weatherstripping for door frames—required few changes from those it had developed for internal combustion engines. The biggest differences were driven by vehicle design, rather than powertrain.

Tesla aimed to create the kind of EV that drivers craved, but also sought to employ the best AV and EV technology. For this, the auto maker opted to go bold with its design, choosing a frameless architecture for windows, a move that gives the vehicles a signature look.

This is the area where Henniges needed to adapt, just to ensure that its products functioned at their optimal levels within vehicle's unique design.

"Tesla had adopted that (frameless architecture), mostly for styling reasons, but it seems like a lot of the newcomers are adopting this frameless design, just through their benchmarking phase," Jamieson said. "Tesla is more than just an EV now. It is the styling behind it—it's the appeal, it's that look. This frameless design is (popular), and I think we got ourselves a bit of a head start on the competition."