Growing interest in hybrid and electric vehicles is creating new opportunities for suppliers of automotive electronics.
"We started a strategic initiative several years ago to look at what technology we have for hybrid vehicles," David Winter, MD of European components at TT Electronics - an established supplier of car parts - told Electronics Weekly.
One perceived need was for inverters to interface the main battery to the vehicle's drive motor.
"We have now developed inverters for the main motor and are pretty close to being designed-in," said Winters. "We think they will come to market in late 2011 at the latest."
Which car firms have bought the technology, he will not reveal, but BMW, Daimler, VW and Audi are existing TT customers for conventional car components.
Winter said that having a working inverter to interface motor to battery is not enough.
"You have to combine functions," he said. "You have to include other power building blocks, like DC-DC converters to generate other voltages around the car, and the customers ask 'can you make it smaller and lighter?'."
TT's inverter development is shared between two subsidiaries: AB Mikroelektronik in Salzburg and Semelab in Lutterworth
He claims to have inverters on test with automotive firms in the EU, US, and Asia, including one on an electric motorbike - all bespoke items as standardisation yet to appear.
Electronics around the hybrid or electric vehicle battery is another new market.
"There is a huge lithium-ion battery pack with higher voltages and higher currents than are seen in conventional vehicles," said Winter. "You have to thermally manage this and energy manage this, and we have developed sensors to do that."
Power resistors are also necessary - large conventional types to dump power surges, and heating substrates to keep passengers warm. And these resistors need sensors to feedback data for fault control.
The Toyota's Prius leads the market in hybrid vehicles, selling well in Japan and the US.
The world recession put a dent in all vehicle sales, however "in the second half of 2009, sales of hybrids and some electric vehicles started to build", said Winter. "In July 2009 the Prius was the highest selling vehicle of any kind in Japan. Japan and the US are way ahead of Europe."
Japan was first off the block to invest in hybrids, now the US is running harder than Europe to catch up.
"The US is funding more electric vehicle start-ups," said Winter. "There is a lot more government money and venture capital than is happening in Europe."
He explained that the EU has been funding diesel vehicle technology, and the fruits of this are appearing on the road as more efficient diesel vehicles from European car makers.
"BMW, Daimler, VW, Audi and Fiat are spending money on hybrid and electric vehicles now," said Winter. "And the EU is now very much dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles, although still with much less investment than the US and Japan."