Motherson and Aira announce Strategic Partnership to bring FreePower® Wireless Charging to Automakers

- Aira to supply FreePower® modules for integration into automotive interiors, expanding vehicle design possibilities and providing best-in-class user experiences for wireless charging, free from alignment and movement constraints

- Motherson makes strategic investment in Aira to accelerate the development of advanced wireless charging technologies

News provided by

Aira

Dec 10, 2020, 08:42 ET

CHANDLER, Ariz., Dec. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aira, Inc. today announced a strategic investment by Motherson Innovations Company Limited, the emerging technologies arm of the Motherson Group, a leading Tier 1 global automotive supplier. Motherson's investment in Aira will further accelerate the development of FreePower^®, the company's core technology, for integration in multiple applications including transportation, consumer electronics, and furniture.

Motherson and Aira aim to jointly develop, manufacture, and supply automotive-grade FreePower^® wireless charging modules for seamless integration into vehicle interiors. Combining Motherson's capabilities and Aira's technology will create synergies that will help automakers in exercising more freedom in vehicle interior design by eliminating the precise alignment and static-positioning limitations of standard wireless charging solutions. This will also enable the mobility industry to provide the best-in-class user experience.

"Motherson is one of the world's largest and most forward-thinking automotive suppliers, and we share a common goal of enhancing the wireless charging experience and value proposition for vehicles," said Jake Slatnick, Aira's co-founder and CEO. "Motherson's expertise and relationships will greatly accelerate our efforts to provide validated and certified wireless charging modules for vehicles worldwide."

"Motherson has a long-standing commitment and reputation of delivering innovative technology to automotive customers that enhance the experience for drivers and passengers," said Marc Rosenmayr, CTO of Motherson Innovations, "We're excited to work with the talented team at Aira to make FreePower^® technology available within our industry."

"Our core mission is to find, support, and deploy the best technology solutions to global automakers and Tier 1 suppliers," explained Edward Saenz de Viteri, Global Director of Business Development at Motherson Innovations. "We believe that FreePower^® represents the best-in-class Qi solution for in-vehicle wireless charging. It has already been deployed successfully in consumer devices, and its benefits for automotive are even more compelling. We look forward to making Aira's free-position technology a global standard for in-vehicle wireless charging."

FreePower^® Technology
Aira is setting a new standard for wireless charging with FreePower^®, an elegant hardware and software solution that offers complete freedom of placement across surfaces. Designed and engineered in-house from the ground up, FreePower^® is a flexible platform that can accommodate different surface sizes and any number of devices. As a technology supplier, Aira is partnering with companies that want to integrate free position wireless charging into their products.FreePower^® is a fundamentally new approach to wireless power, equipped with more than 60 patent assets for its groundbreaking hardware, software, and magnetics. Unlike traditional wireless chargers, which require devices to be precisely aligned with a small hot spot, FreePower™ features full surface charging from corner to corner. As Qi-enabled devices are placed across the surface, precise power is delivered and intelligently managed to optimize performance. Aira's FreePower^® technology has already been deployed successfully in consumer devices with Nomad's Base Station Pro.

About Aira
Aira, founded in 2017 by Jake Slatnick and Eric Goodchild, has a focused mission to evolve wireless charging. Its FreePower^® technology is an elegant, adaptable solution that pushes long-standing boundaries to deliver on the fundamental promise of wireless charging – convenience. Built to work with devices operating on the Qi standard, FreePower is compatible with all major Qi devices including those from Apple, Samsung, and Google. Aira is partnering with brands, OEMs, and technology suppliers across several verticals, including consumer electronics, automotive, furniture and hospitality, to make "wireless charging as it was meant to be" available everywhere. To learn more about Aira and FreePower^®, visit www.airapower.com.

About Motherson Innovations
Motherson Innovations is the global team of the Motherson Group, which focuses on the development of advanced technologies across the different divisions. It is bundling the most skilled engineers, researchers and business developers from the Motherson Group subsidiaries to one tightly cooperating organisation, thereby creating multiple synergies. Its experts, who are spread across the globe, are well connected to many of the world's leading technology specialists and also to the global network of the Motherson Group. Motherson Innovations has the objective to accelerate the development of many of the group's latest advanced technologies and to enter new and attractive market segments including automotive, medical, white goods, consumer goods and clean-tech. By providing the Motherson Group with cutting edge solutions and high-value verticals, Motherson Innovations supports the group to continuously adapt to the fast-changing industry. With solutions meeting the future needs of people and customers around the globe, Motherson Innovations is an integral part of the Motherson Group, contributing to the group's growth targets. To learn more about Motherson Innovations, visit www.motherson-innovations.com

About Motherson Group
The Motherson Group is a globally operating supplier providing full system solutions to the automotive industry, from design, simulation and prototyping to tooling, moulding, painting and final assembly of highly integrated modules. The group was founded in 1975 and is today one of the world's fastest-growing automotive component makers. Its business portfolio comprises a broad range of superior quality and aesthetic products for all large car manufacturers worldwide such as cockpits, bumpers covers, rearview mirrors, camera systems, lighting systems, decorative interior and exterior trims, wiring systems, air management systems and off-highway vehicle cabins. Furthermore, Motherson produces refrigeration systems, machined and sintered metal parts, elastomer parts, cutting tools, thin-film coating metals and injection moulding tools and provides comprehensive IT and design engineering services to various industry segments. The Motherson Group is one of the 22 largest automotive suppliers worldwide, employing over 135.000 people in more than 270 locations in 41 countries across five continents. For more information please visit www.motherson.com.

SOURCE Aira