Of floor mops, M&M coatings and battery packs [Video]

What do coatings for M&M chocolate candies, O-Cedar floor mops and battery packs for electric trucks have in common?

All three come from German industrial conglomerate Freudenberg Group. The company operates many other seemingly incongruous businesses from filtration to home cleaning products.

Freudenberg’s battery business is an appropriate Truck Tech topic. But not as tasty than M&Ms, for which it makes the hard shell coatings through its Capol business unit. 

The heavy-duty truck and bus battery cell and pack manufacturing plant  in Midland, Michigan, is the survivor of Dow Chemical’s 2013 exit from a joint venture called Dow Kokam.

Dow determined the battery business wasn’t worth pursuing, but it continues making materials for batteries. South Korea-based Kokam Co. became partly owned by private equity and real estate investor Townsend Ventures. Townsend bought 48% of the …