Hyliion's Strategic Pivot: From EVs to Power Generation with KARNO

Problem

Hyliion, a company founded over a decade ago with a focus on transitioning 18-wheel semi-trucks from diesel to electric, faced significant challenges in the EV market by 2021. The company’s leadership, including CEO Thomas Healy, a mechanical engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon, observed a troubling trend: a slowdown in fleet adoption of new electric vehicles, increasing costs, softening mandates, and a challenging capital-raising environment. Many peers in the EV space were going bankrupt, casting doubt on Hyliion’s future as an EV entity.

Solution

In 2022, Hyliion seized an opportunity to pivot by acquiring GE Aerospace’s KARNO power generation technology for $37 million. This acquisition marked a strategic shift from electric vehicles to power generation. Rather than integrating KARNO as a subsidiary component, Hyliion fully committed to the technology, aiming to commercialize it and adopt an additive manufacturing workflow new to the company.

The KARNO 200 kilowatt power module, a linear heat generator that uses heat as a fuel source to produce electricity, was developed with the goal of enabling on-site power generation. This approach allows users to generate their own electricity, reducing reliance on the grid and offering cost-effective solutions for various applications, from data centers to shopping malls and even unmanned military ships.

Hyliion has also set its sights on developing power generation solutions capable of delivering megawatts of power, leveraging the inherent scalability of the technology. The company’s commitment to additive manufacturing is evident in its use of machines like the Colibrium Additive M2 system, which has a 250 x 250 mm build plate size, and larger M Line and X Line machines.

Results

Hyliion’s strategic pivot has yielded impressive results. Within just a few years, the company has successfully commercialized the KARNO power generation technology, transforming it from a product in development to a market-ready solution. The KARNO 200 kilowatt power module is now a viable option for businesses and organizations seeking reliable, on-site power generation.

The adoption of additive manufacturing has been crucial in overcoming the complexities of heat exchanger design, which would have been difficult to achieve through traditional manufacturing methods. Hyliion’s approach of ‘strung together’ multiple 200kW units to meet significant power generation needs has proven effective, with the capability to produce one unit per build on M2 machines, two on the X Line, and four on the M Line.

“These machines are pretty universal in what they can print,” Healy said. “One of the great things about additive is it doesn’t really care if it’s printing a block of metal or an extremely complex part.”

The integration of GE Aerospace’s KARNO team, including Josh Mook, now Hyliion’s CTO, has been instrumental in the technology’s success. The team, described as a ‘rockstar engineering team’ with ‘the best designers for additive’ in the world, has not only driven the development of KARNO products but also focused on educating new recruits on Hyliion’s additive manufacturing expertise.

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