American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. stepped up to the plate when it was challenged by Jaguar Land Rover to create a high-performance electric driveline for the Jaguar I-Pace. 

Chief executive David Dauch led his engineers to achieve industry-leading power density with its I-Pace unit, a 2020 Automotive News PACE award honoree. 

The Detroit supplier of driveline, drivetrain systems, metal forming and casting components created a unit that is significantly more power-dense than its competitors — producing 147 kilowatts of power in a compact package. Introduced in the 2019 I-Pace plug-in crossover, American Axle’s driveline sets new standards for power and torque density. 

American Axle, with global parts sales to automakers of $6.53 billion last year, has faced myriad challenges amid the COVID-19 crisis. But Dauch, 56, has led the company in flexing its variable cost structure and managing controllable expenses to survive the downturn brought on by the pandemic. 

Though sales are still down, the supplier experienced a bit of a rebound in net income and adjusted free cash flow during the third quarter this year, something Dauch attributed in an investor statement to “recovering global production volumes and our cost-saving actions.”