TE Connectivity’s MCON 1.2 NextGen and NextGen Plus

In today’s automotive environment, vehicle manufacturers are looking for high-performance connectivity solutions that are smaller, robust, and more sustainable. However, given the challenging and harsh environments of passenger vehicles, solutions must meet stringent criteria for robustness, sealing, overall performance and packaging. At the same time, products must exhibit ease-of-use in terms of handling and installation. They must also adhere to strict standardised specifications concerning shape, usage, and interface, all while providing a degree of customisation, such as for coding, turned variants, CPA and more to cater to diverse automotive applications.

To address these challenges and demands, TE has designed the MCON 1.2 NextGen and NextGen Plus 1-row sealed locking lance connector series with a standardised 2 – 8 position interface that is a superior and more sustainable product, offering a highly versatile wire-to-module and wire-to-wire inline power connectivity solution for harsh automotive environments.

The MCON 1.2 NextGen and NextGen Plus sealed locking lance connector provides a significant reduction in carbon footprint by approximately 20% by design with a further approximate 40% carbon footprint reduction with bio-massed balanced resigns at no cost to functionality. The NextGen MCON sealed locking lance series features improved CPA design and vibration performance and is backward compatible with the standard MCON connector series and Gen2 series and is validated to LV214 and USCAR2 standards.

“TE’s commitment to enable sustainable innovation and help reduce carbon emissions in the automotive industry is reflected in the launch of two variations of this product. The MCON NextGen connector enables a reduced carbon footprint by design and the MCON NextGen Plus connector provides a further optimised carbon footprint by material choice,” said Dr. Hendrik Kolbe, Product Manager at TE.

The MCON NextGen sealed locking lance connector series enables customers to cover a wide range of applications using the same proven connector family. Beside any kind of sensing, such as the bumper of the car, temperature sensors in e-drives or low power transmission lights, applications are covered in traditional internal combustion engine architectures with the highest requirements for robustness and reliability. Additionally, the product works equally as well in new e-Mobility architectures with applications such as sensing in e-axle drives and supporting functionality in charging inlets. It is universal, easy-to-use, and fully compatible with all previous generations of the MCON connector product portfolio making it available for use as a drop-in replacement.