It was no surprise today when Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) announced that it lost $608 million in its first fiscal quarter. It was also no surprise that the company warned of even more losses for Q2, due to the struggling automotive industry.

But it's Friday, and honestly, I'm tired of all this depressing news. So while I have little doubt that Johnson Controls will continue to struggle alongside the automakers this year, we should not lose sight of the fact that Johnson Controls is still one of the financially strongest companies operating in the automotive industry. As well, the company is ahead of the game when it comes to high-performance lithium-ion development for hybrid, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

In 2005, in an effort to accelerate their participation in the hybrid vehicle market, Johnson Controls formed a joint venture with Saft (a high-performance battery designer and manufacturer) to advance high performance battery technology.

Since then, Johnson Controls-Saft has been at the forefront of development, production, and marketing of high-performance battery technology for hybrid, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. And in 2008, they opened a new lithium-ion automotive battery manufacturing facility in France. The facility is scalable too, so as demand increases, it can increase production capacity to meet demand.

Of course, Johnson Controls will still have to face an uphill battle this year. But as the auto industry begins to move forward with more hybrid and plug-in hybrid development - Johnson Controls will certainly benefit.

Jeff