Billerica firm has deal with Chinese carmaker
More than a decade after its founding, Billerica-based automotive tech firm ClearMotion has scored a massive deal to supply 3 million of its electronic shock absorbers to Chinese carmaker Nio. The partnership represents the first time the ClearMotion system will be built into mass-produced vehicles. “It’s about a billion-dollar contract for us,” said Zack Anderson (below), ClearMotion’s cofounder and chief technology officer. “They’ve made a decision to come out with this in a pretty big way.” Nio is virtually unknown in the United States. But it has become a major automaker in China, with a reputation for building luxurious cars crammed with advanced technology. It’s also a major investor in ClearMotion, which has raised $350 million in venture money since its launch in 2012. Other investors include JP Morgan, Franklin Templeton, Microsoft, and Qualcomm. (ClearMotion’s predecessor company was called Levant Power.) The suspension systems will be built in a factory in the city of Changshu. ClearMotion began construction of the factory last August and it’s scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2024. Anderson said the company plans a “copy and paste” strategy in which it builds factories in various global locations to service nearby automakers. He said the company expects to land another major deal soon with an automaker in the European Union. ClearMotion was founded by Anderson and Shakeel Avadhany, both graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After getting motion sickness while trying to work on their laptops during a rough ride in an Uber, the two decided to work on a vehicle suspension technology that would do better at counteracting bumps and potholes. Along the way, they acquired technology from Framingham audio equipment maker Bose, which had been working on a similar idea using an electromagnetic system similar to that used in audio speaker systems. ClearMotion’s CM1 system uses software that can instantly detect changes in the state of the road. When the car hits a bump, it sends a command to an electric motor that drives a hydraulic pump. The system uses the hydraulic pressure to raise or lower the vehicle’s wheels, keeping the car level over rough terrain. The company is also developing RoadMotion, a system that enables all vehicles with CM1 shocks to map road conditions and store the information for future use. This will enable the shocks to respond more accurately to bad roads. But so far they’ve been too expensive for mainstream adoption. He said ClearMotion has a good chance of success if it can produce its system at a mass-market price. “If they are significantly able to reduce the cost of the current state of the art,” said Orosz, “then this will certainly have a lot of potential.” — HIAWATHA BRAY