Famous safety lab with 130-year history opens Michigan office to test EV batteries
Mark PhelanA new $100-million lab in Auburn Hills will test electric vehicle batteries against a host of stresses, helping automakers ensure safety and get new EVs on the market faster.
The effort is the “biggest single lab investment” in the 130-year history of UL Solutions, formerly famous as Underwriters Laboratories, company CEO Jennifer Scanlon said at the 90,000-square-foot facility’s opening Wednesday.
“North America’s most extensive battery-testing lab,” the facility is the latest step in a 110-year association between the testing operation and Detroit automakers, Scanlon said.
Underwriters Laboratories was created in 1894 to assure people about a new technology — electric power.
Consumers didn’t know if electricity was safe or reliable — sound familiar, EV skeptics? — so an insurance company association founded Underwriters Labs to reassure them about new-fangled devices like incandescent light bulbs. The UL “safety Mark” became ubiquitous. In a few years you couldn’t sell a toaster without it.
By 1920, UL had had certified the reliability of millions of auto parts. It certified its first seat belt in 1963. The UL seal became less common as federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) that every vehicle had to meet came into effect. Today, UL Solutions tests parts and systems to meet FMVSS as well as those of other countries, automakers’ internal rules, and industry standards.
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Neither heat nor cold …
The new lab will test batteries for everything from fires to water, stone chips, external temperature and years of use.
“UL is an enabler of electrical solutions and the auto industry’s EV transition,” said Jeff Smidt, UL chief of industrial testing, inspection and certification. "EV growth remains robust; 14 million (vehicles) were registered globally in 2023 and there are more than 40 million on the road around the world.”
The lab will also test storage batteries of the type utilities and industry increasingly use to use renewable sources and buffer demand spikes.
“We’re evaluating batteries for a host of challenges,” Smidt said.
UL began testing batteries 40 years ago, “before lithium-ion batteries existed,” company chief scientist Robert Slone said with a grin. The organization changed its name when it re-branded into three operating units in 2022. UL Solutions retains testing responsibility.
No more flaming Hoverboards
“In order to make something work, you must know what doesn’t,” Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist — himself a degreed engineer — said at the opening ceremony.
“We’re here to protect manufacturers on their new-product journey,” Scanlon said, with a nod to the rash of laptop and hoverboard fires that briefly made lithium-ion batteries seem untrustworthy.
Manufacturers hire UL to test finished products and components. Their engineers are expected to be regular visitors to the lab.
“We have to be close to where our customers’ innovation is happening,” Scanlon said.
“Opening this facility is a strategic commitment to the U.S. auto industry. Innovation without safety is a failure. We’re here to help.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.