The New Age of Lubricants for EVs

Q: What role do lubricants play in a vehicle’s energy efficiency?

A: Lubricants help to maximize conductivity in switches, microchips or electric currents. They also facilitate efficient hydraulic forces or energy transmission.

Our products help to avoid wear and energy loss, making electric and mechanical processes more efficient and optimizing resources. Lubricants can be oils, greases or diverse advanced technologies, such as dispersions or coatings.

Q: What makes Bechem the best automotive solution?

A: Bechem prioritizes tribology, the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. We focus energy where it is needed the most. Bechem operates mainly through consulting services rather than mass advertising. When we have a lead, we approach and study the real needs of potential clients. Bechem has the necessary technology for every application and client. We work with clients to find an optimal solution and save them from the extra expense of over-designed products that do not comply with their specifications, or products under designed for their real needs of lubrication.

Q: What role does R&D play in Bechem’s global strategy?

A: We take two different approaches to R&D. It is important to find and develop new technologies but it is equally important to implement them correctly and develop an optimal supply chain to prove that they work.

Selling lubricants can be complicated because, we need to explain in mechanical terms how a certain chemistry will chemically perform, to fulfill their mechanic needs. The best way to prove that our products work is by simulation. Our test teams simulate how our technology would work in our clients’ specific applications.

Q: How important has sustainability become in Bechem’s operations?

A: Supply chain disruptions have put sustainability to the test because every player across the supply chain has had to look for alternatives. In the lubricants business, a major trend is to use certain raw materials but Bechem is always looking for innovative materials or processes to optimize operations through the use of more sustainable resources.

Q: What is Bechem’s contribution to industry megatrends, such as electrification and lightweighting?

A: Through our technology, we can increase performance efficiency and promote lightweighting. Future in car interiors for instance, is about clean and lean designs with access to features you wouldn’t imagine inside a car; the use of knobs and buttons is going extinct but all of this translates into more actuators, push-pull cables, micro switches, connectors, gears and bearings that need our technology to support energy consumption, cosmetic finish, better haptics, a silent cabin and, of course, lack wear and energy loss.

For new E-power units, heat dissipation and energy efficiency can be achieved throughout the use of our in-house developed technologies.  

Q: How is the company working to expand its offer?

A: Our core remains the automotive industry, which pushes Bechem to its development and innovation limits. Our technology is increasingly used across the entire automotive supply chain. But the company is present in many other industries and our diversification plan is thriving. Despite the pandemic and two difficult years, Bechem registered record sales in 2020 and 2021.

Q: In the past few years, several Asian OEMs have landed in Mexico. What strategies has Bechem implemented to expand its client portfolio?

A: Asian OEMs have brought a big change to the automotive supply chain. One decade ago, the focus was only on “the big three” US automakers and the EU players, with a few Asian OEMs. Now, there is a big wave of Asian companies. Bechem has an engineering office and plant operations in Shanghai. Regardless of our direct work to enter that supply chain, the industry itself has helped us throughout all the mergers and acquisitions over the past years, creating an opening for Bechem being the strategic partner and approved supplier of our customers.

Q: What are Bechem’s priorities for 2022?

A: We are focused on everything regarding EVs, autonomous vehicles and the transition from mechanical to electric. We will continue strengthening our global communication strategy, which allows us to discuss with clients anything from approvals to new developments. This effective communication has allowed us to be flexible and efficient to react quickly to the complex situations that the automotive sector faces every year.

Bechem Lubrication Technology, founded in Germany in 1834, supplies and produces specialty lubricants and metal working fluids for the automotive sector.