New automotive engineering practices

Issue #130, Feb 8th, 2022

Decisions taken during the conceptualization, design and engineering phases in the lifecycle of an automobile have a lasting impact at later stages. Given the focus on sustainability today, most car makers have a 'circular car' in mind, reusing as much material as possible. In the Electric Vehicle (EV) wave, Ford's plan is to carry out reengineering on-the-fly. Elon Musk has a different plan to depend on existing, proven models for sale and not introduce new models in 2022. Electrification and automation are an opportunity for Hyundai to make another entry into the Japanese market which it missed. The push for 'right to repair' is forcing some states in the U.S. to propose an open platform for automobiles. But it would not be easy to implement. Nissan will stop its development for engine driven vehicles in all markets but US. A line is drawn in autonomous driving between a driver's responsibility and that of the car. Here are some recent updates from the engineering and design stages of a car.

A circular car

McKinsey estimates that 60 per cent of auto industry emissions by 2040 will come from the materials used in production — unless there is further action to improve sustainability in manufacturing. Right now, roughly half the cost of a vehicle is spent on materials that will not be recycled, according to calculations by the Circular Cars Initiative, a grouping of businesses set up by the World Economic Forum to increase the use of renewable materials. So, while carmakers continue to seek ways to cut emissions during driving, a simultaneous push is under way to cut them in the supply chain, and then to increase the material that is recycled at the end of a car’s life. The ultimate goal is a “circular car” - Financial Times

Reengineering Mustang on the fly

Ford is reengineering its electric Mustang Mach-E on the fly to make it more profitable, an approach that portends big changes in how the automaker designs and builds vehicles. CEO Jim Farley told analysts that Ford will no longer wait for the next model change to rework a vehicle. With software updates and hardware reengineering, the company is lowering the cost to build the Mach-E at its factory in Mexico in real time. This on-the-fly engineering to boost the bottom line will become a new way of doing business at Ford, Farley said.?As an example, engineers are reworking the Mach-E’s cooling system to reduce the number of hoses by one-third and the number of motors in half. Fewer parts mean lower costs and higher profit. - Bloomberg

EV sale with a handful of models

Elon Musk is betting that he can turn Tesla into one of the world’s largest car makers while selling just a handful of models, challenging a long-held auto-industry belief that it takes a diverse stable of updated models to attract buyers. It is another example of his defiance of industry orthodoxy—at a time when EV competition has never been fiercer. - WSJ

Hyundai's all electric, online plan

The last time Hyundai sold a car in Japan was in 2009, when it pulled out after years of dismal sales. Now, the automaker is back, but with a twist: it’s only going to sell electric vehicles, and only online. Hyundai is betting it can succeed a second time around, after retreating more than a decade ago. For incumbents?and new entrants, the twin forces of electrification and automation are fueling bolder moves into fresh?markets that, up until now, might have seemed?impenetrable. - Bloomberg

Car telematics - opensource or proprietary?

Subaru disabled the telematics system and associated features on new cars registered in Massachusetts state last year as part of a spat over a right-to-repair ballot measure approved, overwhelmingly, by the state’s voters in 2020. The measure, which has been held up in the courts, required automakers to give car owners and mechanics more access to data about the car’s internal systems. But the “open data platform” envisioned by the law doesn’t exist yet, and automakers have filed suit to prevent the initiative from taking effect. - Wired

Autonomous driving and driver's responsibility

Someone behind the wheel of a self-driving car should not be legally responsible if it is involved in a crash, according to new proposals. A joint report by legal review bodies recommended that a clear distinction is made between features which just assist drivers, such as adaptive cruise control, and those that are self-driving. - Bloomberg

Nissan and ICE development

Nissan Motor will end development of new internal combustion engines in all its major markets except the U.S. and focus its resources on EVs, becoming the first major Japanese automaker to make such a break. - Nikkei Asia