San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL) said today it signed an agreement to supply its ultracapacitors to Hanover, Germany's Continental AG(OTC: CTTAY), an automotive electronics supplier.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Maxwell said its ultracapacitors would be used as the energy storage element of a stabilization system that Continental is developing for a major automaker.

"After many years of design and development work on automotive applications, this design win for a high-volume series production program is a very significant milestone for Maxwell," said David Schramm, president and CEO of Maxwell.

In this application, the company said the ultracapacitors provide a reservoir of standby power to ensure stable functioning of the vehicle's electrical system when there are multiple power demands.

"Over the life of this program, Continental will require very large quantities of ultracapacitor cells to produce these boardnet stabilization modules," said Schramm.

He said Continental advised Maxwell to prepare to begin delivering initial series production volumes in the second half of 2009 for the 2010 automotive model year.