Frederic B. Lissalde
President and Chief Executive Officer at BorgWarner
Thank you, Pat, and good day, everyone. We're pleased to share our results for 2023 and provide an overall company update, starting on slide five. With approximately $14 billion in sales, we delivered more than 12% organic growth in 2023. Our margin performance was strong, coming at the high end of our guide. During the course of '23, we adjusted our e-products top line guide to reflect what we saw in the marketplace. It resulted in a slightly lower top line for the company, but higher margins. This is a good example of the product portfolio resilience that exists at BorgWarner. We delivered $565 million of free cash flow in 2023.
This free cash flow supported the $177 million of share repurchases that we executed during the fourth quarter as well as the closing of the Eldor acquisition. Our Charging Forward progress continues on multiple fronts. We secured multiple new e-product awards during the fourth quarter, adding to those already announced over the course of the year. These awards were across our portfolio for both BEV and hybrid architectures.
We continue to see a strong sourcing pool for our products based on the strength of our portfolio globally. Lastly, we took steps to enable new business awards by executing several strategic actions to further strengthen our e-product portfolio, like the acquisition of Eldor Electronics business as well as the strategic agreement with BYD, FinDreams Batteries for LFP packs outside of China. Now let's look at some new key product awards on slide six.
First, BorgWarner has been selected by Xiaopeng to supply its e-motor rotor and stator for the X9 MPV as well as for their next electric B-class sedan. Production began in January 2024 for the X9, and we're planning to start producing for the B-class sedan in Q3 '24. Our high-voltage hairpin 220E motor offers high power and torque density and higher efficiency at a competitive cost. We're excited to supply Xiaopeng with our proven stator and rotor as we believe it continues to position us for long-term success in China, where NEV penetration is already more than 35% of the market.
Second, BorgWarner secured in the world with a major global OEM to extend its existing business, supplying 400-volt high-voltage coolant heaters for some of the automakers light vehicle platforms, specifically for its passenger truck and SUV programs. This business win is one of the three awards with North American OEMs incorporating BorgWarner's high-voltage coolant heaters into their vehicles. Third, BorgWarner has secured in the world with a major Chinese OEM to supply its 90-kilowatt dual inverter on a series of the automotive plug-in hybrids and range extended electric vehicles. Production is expected to begin in September this year.
The dual inverter is developed for hybrid vehicles as an integrated solution. The product utilizes BorgWarner's Viper power module platform and leverages our inverter product leadership and scale. Next, on slide seven. In addition to securing new business, we took multiple steps to build additional capabilities within our e-product portfolio, driving product leadership and differentiation. I would like to highlight three of them today. First, BorgWarner completed its acquisition of the electric hybrid systems segment of Eldor.
This provides us with additional capabilities in onboard chargers, DC/DC converters and integrated high-voltage boxes, all of which are expected to complement BorgWarner's existing product portfolio in hybrids and BEV. Next, BorgWarner is continuing to expand its product portfolio for battery electric and hybrid commercial vehicles through our agreement to form a joint venture with Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Group, a Weichai subsidiary.
We're working together to accelerate the product efficiency and growth in the Chinese CV market with the largest CV powertrain supplier in China. BorgWarner will then be able to use these products and technologies for the rest of the world. Finally, BorgWarner signed an international strategic relationship agreement with BYD subsidiary, FinDreams Battery, for LFP sales and packs. Under this agreement, BorgWarner will be the only non-OEM localized manufacturer unaffiliated with FinDreams Batteries with rights to localize LFP battery packs for commercial vehicles, utilizing FinDreams Batteries' blade cells.
These packs are expected to be sold in the CV market in Europe, the Americas and select Asia Pacific regions. The LFP battery chemistry is an exciting technology that is cost competitive in comparison with some other cell chemistries. We're seeing increased demand from our customers for packs with LFP sales. FinDreams battery is right for BorgWarner in this area with over 20 years of experience in batteries with numerous successful product launches.
Next, on slide eight, I would like to summarize the growth we expect in our eProduct sales in 2024. We expect 2024 eProduct sales of $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 25% to 40%. One important driver of our 2024 growth is expected to be our battery system product line. Battery systems demand from our commercial vehicle customers, trucks and buses, continues to outpace our ability to produce. However, we are continuing to increase our capacity to meet this strong customer demand, both in Seneca, North Carolina, and in Europe.
We expect this capacity expansion to help drive a $250 million to $350 million increase in battery systems sales in 2024, which equates to 55% to 75% year-over-year growth with more to come. Then looking at the other parts of our eProduct portfolio, our guidance assume 14% to 27% year-over-year growth, with the midpoint roughly in line with our expected BEV hybrid market growth. Overall, we expect 2024 to be a heavy year related to the number of launches across our light vehicle portfolio from IDM to motors, from power electronics to thermal management globally for both BEVs and hybrids.
While we expect another year of volatility in BEV and hybrids volume for the industry, we believe our capacity expansions and intense launch activities will support our outlook. Finally, on slide 10. I want to take the opportunity to remind you of the intent of Charging Forward 2027. Charging Forward 2027 has three pillars: one, eProducts growth; two, eProduct profitability; and three, maximize the foundational value. The first two pillars center around supporting BorgWarner's long-term profitable growth.
We continue to believe that despite near-term volatility, the mid- to long-term trends towards electrification, BEV and hybrids remain strong. We believe that BorgWarner is clearly positioning itself to be among the leaders in terms of eProduct business awards and to do so profitably. The third pillar of Charging Forward is an enabler of this long-term growth. Our foundational business brings customer relationship, technological capabilities and the ability to internally fund our investments.
As importantly, with this leading market positions and strong margin profile, we believe our foundational business provides near-term earnings resiliency during times of BEV and hybrid market volatility, just as we highlighted at our Investor Day back in June. As Kevin will review, that is evident both in our 2023 results and our 2024 outlook. The key takeaway is that both our e-products and our foundational business lines play important role in Charging Forward 2027. This was true when we revealed our plan in June and it remains true today.
As I look back on 2023, my take is this: BorgWarner successfully managed another challenging environment during 2023. We delivered solid margins and strong free cash flow, which is a sign of the product resiliency that we built. We successfully completed the spin-off of PHINIA. We secured new business awards that are supportive of our long-term revenue objectives in all types of electrification, powertrain architectures. We also secured some critical alliances, especially on the CV side with subsidiaries of Weichai for inverters and BYD for battery packs.
We also continued to return capital to shareholders. BorgWarner has repurchased about 600 million of stock since completing the Delphi acquisition in 2020. And over the last four years, we have also returned about 600 million to shareholders in dividends. So BorgWarner has returned about $1.2 billion to shareholders since 2020 and that's before considering the tax-free spin of PHINIA. Moving into 2024 and beyond. We are balancing near-term margins relative to our long-term objectives. We expect to manage our incremental margin holistically, while continuing to invest in our future growth. As we've always said, the industry growth in BEV and hybrids will not be a straight line.
The near-term volatility is a long-term opportunity for the companies with financial strength, earnings resiliency and the great product leadership focus that BorgWarner possess. Our product portfolio is built for resiliency, such that a longer combustion tail will help margin and cash generation. As a company, we are executing our Charging Forward 2027, which we expect will deliver value to our shareholders here and now and long into the future. This is Kevin's last earnings call with the company, and I wanted to take a moment to personally thank him for his tremendous contribution to our company over the past years.
Kevin has played an instrumental role in all of BorgWarner's recent major strategic initiatives, ranging from the acquisition of Delphi to the creation and execution of Charging Forward as well as the spin-off of PHINIA. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and the management team I thank him for his contribution to our company, for his friendship and wish him a fantastic retirement. I look forward to Craig Aaron stepping into the CFO role next month. I am confident Craig has the right skills, the deep knowledge of BorgWarner and our industry to execute our next chapter of profitable growth.
With that, let me turn the call over to Kevin.