International Supplier Fair 2008

October 29 to 31, Wolfsburg, Germany

Interview Wolfsburg AG CEO, Bernd WilhelmTechnology trends Electric cars, lightweight

technology, low-cost cars India Risks and rewards of the Indian market

October 27, 2008©2008 Crain CommunicationsGmbH. All rights reserved.

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Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 3

An exhibition far removedfrom vehicle introductionsWhen the International Suppliers Fair (IZB), which

runs from October 29 through October 31, opensits doors for the fifth time to a specialized audience, theexhibition will have long earned its place as an industri-al trade fair.

The industry gathering has been well served by its po-sitioning conceptually between the major auto showsand the in-house fairs organized by car manufacturers.

In Wolfsburg, suppliers are finding a fo-rum far away from the dazzling vehicle in-troductions designed to appeal to the pu-blic at auto shows around the world.

The steadily increasing floor space andnumber of exhibitors demonstrate howmuch suppliers like the Wolfsburg gathe-ring. This year’s IZB comes at a particular-ly challenging time for the industry. Withthe global financial crisis eroding consu-mer confidence, car sales have been slum-ping and automakers and suppliers arelooking for ways to jointly lower costs andboost efficiency.

Some of those discussions will undoubt-edly take place in Wolfsburg. Begun as akind of Volkswagen in-house fair, the IZBdoesn’t just offer suppliers an opportunity

Editorial / Contents

Arjen Bongard, Editor-In-Chief

to present their expertise to VW’s various brands. Increasingly, representatives of car manufacturers

outside VW have found their way to the fairgrounds.Indian suppliers are a particular focus this year.

The Indian-German Automotive Congress takes place a day before the fair begins, in the arena atWolfsburg AG’s AutoVision Forum.

The Congress showcases Indian companies andtheir business activities, which extend all along theautomotive value chain.

India is already an attractive market for Germanmanufacturers and their suppliers, as German pro-ducts enjoy a high regard there. But, to some extent,Indian partner companies still need to catch up inthe quality and technology areas.

So it’s no wonder that Indian suppliers are lookingfor suitable German joint-venture partners, alongwith takeover candidates. Expertise in vehicle elec-tronics and safety technology is highly regarded.

It’s possible that the IZB concept could be repeatedelsewhere in the future. Indian executives have in-quired whether an event similar to Wolfsburg’scould be held on the subcontinent.

European suppliers would then have an interes-ting platform that could be used to present them-selves to the Indian auto industry.

Interview Bernd Wilhelm 4/5Floor plan 6/7Top 100 suppliers 8/9Warranty costs 10Emerging market: India 12–16Car insurance 18Bonding techniques 20/21Investment incentives 22Lightweight materials 24Turbochargers _ 26

Future electric cars 28/29Financial services 30Environmentally friendly technologies 32Risk management 34Engineering service providers 36/37Low-cost cars 38/39Standardizing production 40Car-to-car communication 42

IT organization 44Crash-test simulation 46Advertisers’ index 47Seating development 48Roof systems 50Driver assistance 52Women in the industry 54Software re-engineering 56/57Run flat tires 58/60Simulation technology 62

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Interview

4 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

“We want the Premier League”Bernd Wilhelm, the head of Wolfsburg AG, plans to add a

supplier trade fair in India to offer its companies a platform.

The IZB international suppliersfair is an important building

block of Wolfsburg AG’s plan to pro-mote the local area. Bernd Wilhelm,the company’s CEO, wants an evenstronger interlocking of various fu-ture-oriented fields.

Mr. Wilhelm, as the CEO of Wolfsburg AG, what do you put a value on?We want to fulfill our mission of cre-ating jobs in an economically pro-spering region of Wolfsburg and se-cure its economic power by embra-cing innovations and executingthem efficiently. The emphasis is onexecution. We put a special value onthe soundness of the topics, thecompetency and reliability of thepartners, and above all sustaina-bility.

What are your next steps?Transportation, leisure andtourism, along with the healthcare industry, are theleading business fields thatare important to Wolfsburgand that Wolfsburg AG is addressing. Their integrationhas already been highly suc-cessful here. But that’s why weare involved with initiating a newevolutionary step. For that, we wantto combine these topics and projectseven more strongly together andimplement them. This also ap-plies to the future-

oriented topics of energy and the en-vironment. Even here, we are embra-cing ideas and transforming theminto feasible business concepts topromote the formation and locationof more businesses here.

What successes have you achie-ved so far?Since Wolfsburg AG has been inexistence, we have had the forma-tion of more than 380 companies.About two-thirds of them are stillaround. By contrast, the nationalaverage is a survival rate of just onein three. Many of them aren’t disap-

pearing from themarket be-

cause the product isn’t any good, butrather because they lack businessknow-how.

Are other areas interested in whathas been accomplished in Wolfs-burg?Yes. Our leisure business unit is de-veloping entertainment and activityconcepts to create family and cross-generation leisure opportunities forWolfsburg residents and tourists.The goal is to boost the area’s qualityof life and recreation. For example,we had talks with the Russian city ofKaluga, which is planning some-thing like what we have done herein Wolfsburg and is involving us instaff development there.

In our projects, are you aiming forgreater dovetailing with corporateresearch?Yes, since we are always dealingwith automobile functionality.

Where has this already worked ina very concrete way and can youcite an example for us?In the transportation field, for exam-ple. Several years ago, we teamed upwith partners to initiate the Wolfs-burg Region Biomass Center and de-veloped a plan for a new, 2-mega-watt biogas facility with joint bioso-lids drying. The biogas produced inthe facility through fermentation of

renewal raw materials, such asplant waste, was trans-

formed into cur-rent and heat

Bernd Wil-helm, CEOof Wolfs-burg AG:His focus ison seeingprojects become areality.

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with a block heating station andthen fed into the public grid. Assuming further processing, youcan tank up with the biogas as CO2neutral natural gas. The Wolfsburgdrain operations use 100 percent ofthe heat resulting from its combus-tion is for biosolids drying. Thedried biosolids are a valuable fuelfor the Volkswagen power plant inWolfsburg. Since several thousandTourans configured for gas propul-sion are produced each year inWolfsburg, we are checking into aninitial fill-up of vehicles with biogasfrom Wolfsburg.In this way, Volkswagen would bethe first manufacturer to have pro-duction vehicles that are poweredwith a CO2-neutral medium. At le-ast with regard to an initial fill-up.So that’s an example of the linkingof various themes. You see that the slogan, “Business comes from re-search,” isn’t just a speech bubble forus, but a real mission.

What is IZB’s importance toWolfsburg AG?IZB has developed into an internatio-nal marketplace encompassing theentire spectrum of automobile inno-vations. It is important for the au-thentic display of the transportationcompetency of the region while ope-ning a window onto the world. Morethan 600 exhibitors from more than20 nations have a presence, which isremarkable for a pure trade fair. We organize other networkingevents for auto manufacturers andsuppliers that center on informaland cross-industry exchangesamong companies, in addition totechnical information.

And that works? Yes. Here in Wolfsburg, we had acompany founder who developedsurfboards. At first glance, that hadnothing whatsoever to do with carmanufacturing. But he didn’t haveanyone to build the boards for him.We then got him together with anauto supplier that had specific ex-pertise in the plastics sector. It nowmakes surf boards at its facility. So,on one hand, we helped a companyfounder carry out his innovativeproduct idea, and, on the other

hand, we helped a supplier open upa new business field.

Do you see more opportunities forIZB’s growth?This year, we will be larger than wewere at our last appearance in 2006.The exhibition area has been expan-ded to 33,000 square meters, a 10percent increase. Parallel to that, thedemand for space per exhibitor hasgrown. For the exhibitors, qualityand competitiveness are the maincriteria for their ability to have a pre-sence at the IZB. We want the premier league of sup-pliers here. Fourteen of the 25 highest-revenue suppliers globallyare on site. I think that speaks for it-self. And the response from our part-ner country India is gratifying. We al-ready have more than 40 firm com-mitments and still expect some more.

Doesn’t it arouse envy among thelocal suppliers when you offer In-dian companies this kind of fo-rum? Yes, we have received requests fromcompanies asking whether wecouldn’t help them get a foothold inIndia, for example. Specifically, ourexhibitors as well as the Indian supplier association and politicalauthorities have asked us whether

we could put on a supplier exchangein Pune for the Indian market. Thegoal of such an event should be to of-fer European suppliers a platform, aswe do here for Indian companies. In-dian automotive associations are al-ready backing our possible arrival.We naturally check into the ideas ofthis kind very carefully.

Are suppliers based in Wolfsburgafraid that Indian supplies willforce down prices?The situation will certainly be wat-ched attentively. But competition,and I am convinced of this, willstrengthen European suppliers.

Could you conceive of other auto-makers joining VW in such anevent in India?If that were the case, then we wouldmake our appearance as the Germanindustry, since Indians see Germanyas the cradle of the automotive in-dustry.

Have you determined a partnercountry for IZB 2010?We have decided on the US. The se-lection will always be a countrywhere Volkswagen is especiallycommitted. Interview by Bettina Mayer and Klaus-Dieter Flörecke.

Interview

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 5

BIO I Bernd Wilhelm

Associated with VW for 35 yearsBernd Wilhelm,Bernd Wilhelm, 62, has been CEO of Wolfsburg AG since May 2007.After studies in mechanical engineering (production technology),he joined Volkswagen, taking on various technical and managerialroles at the company’s Salzgitter and Wolfsburg facilities. In 1990, he was assigned the job of managing VW’s corporate produc-tion strategy, and became the manager of vehicle assembly at theWolfsburg factory in 1994. In 1996, he moved to Brussels and becametechnical director at the VW factory there, and he became manager ofindustrial engineering for the VW brand as well as manager of brandlogistics for the VW AG. In May 2005, he moved to the company’s Sitech subsidiary, becoming technical managing director and CEO.Wilhelm was awarded his doctorate of engineering in 1979 atBrunswick Technical University. In 2004, he was made an honoraryprofessor for automobile production. A member of the executivecommittee of the German Methods Times Measurement associa-tion, Wilhelm is also chair of the Friends of IWF, the institute formachine tools and manufacturing technology at the BrunswickTechnical University.

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RestaurantCafé

VIP-Parking

Parking

Main Entrance

m

(

Hall 2(Partner country India)

Hall 1

Schulenburg avenue

one-way street

one-way stre

et

one-way street

Schulenburg avenue

VW factory

A39

IZB areaOebisfelder Strasse38448 Wolfsburg

Forum carvisionMajor-Hirst-Strasse 1138448 Wolfsburg

Heinrich-Nordhoff-Strasse

Allerpark

Berliner circleWolfsburg

Floor plan

6 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Top addresses in the supplier indus tryIndia, the event’s partner country, is one of the core themes of the Wolfsburg trade fair.

Klaus-Dieter FlöreckeAutomotive News Euorpe

The fifth edition of the IZB sup-plier fair, running from Oct-

ober 19 to 31, 2008, will be accom-panied by an extensive conferenceprogram. Organized by WolfsburgAG, the trade fair has India as itspartner country this year.

The IZB wants to give this up-and-coming automotive nation aforum to demonstrate its futureand growth potential to the globalautomotive industry.

At the same time, Indian compa-nies in Hall 2 are being given the op-portunity to use the industrial exhi-bition as a communication and net-working platform and present them-selves to German and global automa-kers and suppliers in the process.

The entire Indian value chainwill be shown at the Indian-GermanAutomotive Congress, which takesplace in the arena at the WolfsburgAG’s AutoVision Forum. It will alsodeal with the issues of where the In-dian auto industry is heading andwhat opportunities its vehicle mar-

ket offers German companies.Parallel to the fair activities with

their more than 600 exhibitors dis-playing innovations in six halls, theVDI/VW symposium, “Integrated Sa-fety and Driver Assistance Systems,”is taking place in Kongress Park inWolfsburg on October 29 and 30.

On October 30, “Invest in Germa-ny” is arranging its internationalbusiness breakfast at the Ritz Carl-ton Hotel. In addition, the secondday of the fair will function as a so-called job exchange day.

At this activity, job applicants at

IZB visitorswill be givenan overviewof suppliers’capabilities insix halls.

ANE_IZB_6-7_Hallenplan.qxd 10/8/08 5:05 PM Page 6

estaurant

EntranceEast

Hall 4(Powertrain, research

and development)Hall 4a

(Powertrain, researchand development)

Hall 3(Electronics,

mechatronics)

Hall 5(Plastics, chemicals)

Hall 6(Metal, logistics)

Oebisfelder Strasse• B188

Mittelland-Canal

Allerpark

Parking

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one-way stre

et

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us try on parade at the IZBg trade fair. The industrial exhibition takes place in six halls on 33,000 square meters.

individual stands and the staffs ofpersonnel departments can exchan-ge information.

3 More core themes of IZB2008:Electrical, electronics, mechatro-nics; joining and bonding technolo-gy; metal and lightweight construc-tion/fascination with body; plastics,interiors, modules, chemical pro-ducts; powertrain control, powerplant, chassis; development; IT ser-vices providers, logistics, produc-tion; project financing, automotive.

3 Hours and prices:Hours for professional visitors: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., exhibitors: 9 a.m. to7 p.m. Admission prices: Daily ticket 15 euros, half-day ticket (valid as of 1 p.m.) 8 euros,pupils/students (with identifica-tion) free admission.3 Arriving by car:Visitors can find the direct routefrom their home address to theevent site by using the route plan-ner www.map24.de. The followingaddresses can be submitted as thedestination.

IZB trade fairOebisfelder Straße38448 Wolfsburg

Forum AutoVision:Major-Hirst-Straße 11,38442 Wolfsburg

3Shuttle service:VW factory –> IZB –> VW factoryParking lot –> IZB –> Parking lotRail station –> IZB –> Rail station

Floor plan

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 7

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Top 100 suppliers

8 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Tight race at the top Bosch continues to be the world’s biggest supplier, but others

such as Denso, Magna and Continental are catching up.

There has been a reshuffling in the ranks of the 10 suppliers

with the highest revenues worldwi-de. After its take-over of VDO, Siemens’ automobile division, Continental pushed its way into

fourth position. A year earlier, the Hanover

firm ranked just twelfth in the lis-ting. Meanwhile, bearing manufac-turer Schaeffler has acquired Conti-nental.

That will create more movementin the future. If you were to add upthe revenues of Continental andSchaeffler in the original equip-ment segment, they would have pla-ced third.

Rank Rank Company sales 2007** sales 2006** Products (selection)2007 2006 (dollars in mn) (dollars in mn)

1 1 Bosch 36.160 29,687 Gasoline and diesel systems, brake and chassis systems; electrical drives, steering systems2 2 Denso 35,700 28,530 Powertrain control, electric systems; small motors; industrial and environmental systems3 3 Magna International 25,645 23,883 Interiors, exteriors, body and chassis systems, seats, mirrors, transmissions, drivetrains4 12 Continental 25,000 * 11,470 Brakes, tires, telematics, driver assistance systems, powertrain electronics, interior modules5 4 Delphi 22,283 22,737 Mobile electronics and transportation systems, safety, electrical/electronic architecture, 6 6 Aisin Seiki 21,705 * 19,367 * Body systems, brake and chassis systems, electronics, drivetrain and engine components7 5 Johnson Controls 18,500 19,500 Seat systems, interior electronics, door panels, instrument panels, overhead systems8 8 Faurecia 17,400 15,000 Seats, cockpits, doors, acoustic packages, front ends, exhaust systems9 7 Lear 15,995 17,839 Seating, electrical distribution, electronics

10 9 ZF Group 15,100 * 12,800 * Transmissions, steering systems, suspension components, axles, clutches, dampers11 11 TRW Automotive 13,555 12,162 Steering, suspension, braking and engine components; electronic safety and security12 10 Valeo 13,290 * 12,700 * Microhybrid systems, electrical and electronic systems, thermal systems, wiper systems13 20 BASF 11,850 8,188 * Coatings, plastics14 14 Yazaki 11,308 * 10,583 * Wiring harnesses, connectors, clusters, junction blocks, plug cords15 15 ThyssenKrupp Technologies 11,075 * 10,207 * Powertrains, suspensions, steering systems, drivetrains, camshafts, crankshafts16 13 Visteon 10,721 10,706 * Interiors, climate control and electronics/lighting17 16 Sumitomo Electric 10,241 * 9,200 Electrical distribution systems, electronics, connection systems18 18 Toyota Boshoku 9,172 9,043 * Seats, door trim, carpet, headliners, oil and air filters, door panels, fabrics and substrates19 19 Dana 8,721 8,504 Axles, sealing and thermal management products, off-highway vehicle transmissions20 24 JTEKT 8,685 6,166 Bearings, hub units, steering systems, driveshafts21 27 Hitachi Automotive Systems 7,600 * 5,478 Engine management, electric powertrain, drive control and car information systems22 21 Schaeffler-Group 7,364 * 6,337 * Bearings, engine and drivetrains23 22 Calsonic Kansei 7,141 * 6,270 Climate control, engine cooling and exhaust systems; instrument clusters; console boxes24 32 Mahle 6,967 * 4,768 * Piston systems, cylinder components, valvetrain systems, liquid management systems25 23 Autoliv 6,800 6,188 Airbags, seat belts, safety electronics, steering wheels26 26 Benteler Automobiltechnik 6,568 5,610 Chassis and exhaust systems, engine application components, bumper/impact management27 17 ArvinMeritor 6,400 9,195 Axles, brakes, aperture systems, drivelines, wheels, chassis systems28 25 Hyundai Mobis 6,074 5,686 * Chassis and cockpit modules, front-end modules, ABS, MDPS, airbags29 31 Toyoda Gosei 5,526 4,780 * Sealing systems, interior systems, optoelectronics, exterior trim, safety systems, fuel systems30 28 GKN Automotive 5,500 5,100 Side shafts, propshafts, torque management systems and geared components31 34 BorgWarner 5,329 4,585 Engine air management systems, transmission assemblies, all-wheel-drive systems32 36 Inter. Automotive Components 5,307 4,306 Instrument panels/cockpits, door panels, headliner systems, flooring and acoustics33 33 Hella 5,134 4,753 Lighting and electronics systems34 45 Tenneco Automotive 5,080 3,608 Shocks, struts, NVH products, springs, electronic suspension systems, exhaust systems35 30 Magneti Marelli 4,995 * 4,970 * Engine control systems, air/fuel systems, lighting instrumentation, electronic systems36 29 DuPont Automotive 4,980 * 5,029 Coatings; engineering polymers; bio-based, renewably sourced materials; advanced fibers37 37 Bridgestone 4,892 * 4,200 * Tires, tubes, components38 46 Panasonic Automotive Systems 4,715 3,600 * Audio and video equipment, cameras, navigation systems, compressors, batteries, motors39 35 Michelin 4,620 * 4,500 * Tires40 39 Mitsubishi Electric 4,437 * 3,856 Engine management, ignition systems, audio systems, alternators, starter motors41 38 Takata 4,364 4,051 Airbags, seat belts, electronics, steering wheels, interior trim42 41 Federal-Mogul 4,236 3,773 Pistons, rings, cylinder liners, piston pins, bearings, valve seats and guides, gaskets, seals43 44 Behr 4,233 3,667 Engine cooling, air-conditioning components, modules and systems44 43 NSK 4,003 * 3,675 * Bearings, steering columns, electric power steering, automatic transmission products45 42 Goodyear Tire & Rubber 3,900 * 3,750 * Tires, hoses, belts, interior trim, air springs, molded rubber products46 49 Koito Manufacturing 3,833 3,384 Exterior lighting47 53 Getrag 3,797 3,164 Bearings, all wheel drive 48 47 Tokai Rika 3,766 3,434 Switches, steering wheels, airbags, shifters, key cylinders, key set locks49 54 TS Tech 3,634 2,981 Seats, interior trim, roof and door liners50 40 Cummins Engine 3,628 3,780 Diesel engines51 50 NHK Spring 3,626 3,261 Stabilizer bars, coil springs, seats and valve springs

Top global OEM parts suppliers, ranked on 2007 global OEM parts sales

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Top 100 suppliers

German and North Americancompanies dominate the listing.

In all, 23 German companies are among the top suppliers by revenue. The biggest jump camefrom Webasto, based in Stockdorf,Germany.

The specialist in roof systems, sli-ding roofs and auxiliary heatingclimbed from 90 to 81. Mahle execu-ted a similar move. The Stuttgartfirm went up eight spots, risingfrom 32 to 24.

Mahle’s purchases of US supplierDana’s engine parts unit and Sie-mens’ air intake and filtration busi-

ness units contributed to thegrowth of its revenues.

On the other hand, Karmann fellfurther in the listing, dropping froma ranking of 69 to 79. The firm, based in Lower Saxony, was not ableto offset its declining vehicle con-struction business with its nicelydeveloping revenues in soft top roof systems.

The trend is happier for the Cana-dian firm Magna. Ranked No.3among the world’s auto suppliers, ithas just secured a number of con-tracts to manufacture vehicles.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Bosch headquarters: The largestsupplier in the world has itscommand center in Stuttgart.

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 9

Rank Rank Company sales 2007** sales 2006** Products (selection)2007 2006 (dollars in mn) (dollars in mn)

52 55 Brose 3,400 2,939 Window regulators, door modules, seat adjusters, closure systems, power head restraints53 48 Navistar International 3,305 * 3,397 * Diesel truck engines54 52 American Axle 3,248 * 3,192 Driveline and drivetrain systems, axle driveline modules55 51 Honeywell International 3,200 3,200 Turbochargers, brake friction materials and systems, air and oil filters, antifreeze 56 57 PPG Industries 3,090 * 2,759 * Coatings and paint56 58 Kolbenschmidt Pierburg 3,090 * 2,750 * Pistons, emission control products, oil/water pumps, engine blocks, manifolds, bearings58 61 NTN 3,000 * 2,675 Driveshafts, constant-velocity products, hub and clutch units, bearings58 66 KYB 3,000 2,400 Shock absorbers, hydraulic components60 64 Grupo Antolin 2,982 2,425 Overhead systems, door function and seat function products61 59 Freudenberg 2,967 * 2,735 * Seals; precision-molded components for suspension, fuel and electrical systems62 99 Nemak 2,897 1,336 Aluminum cylinder heads, engine blocks, transmission components, suspension components63 62 Stanley Electric 2,868 2,641 Exterior lighting, air-conditioning panels and current sensors, LED devices64 63 Keihin 2,800 2,562 Air and fuel management systems, electronic systems, HVAC systems65 75 Flex-N-Gate 2,720 2,120 Plastic and steel bumpers, stamping, mechanical assemblies, running boards, sheet metal66 71 Eberspächer 2,660 2,200 Heaters, exhaust systems, silencers, catalytic converters, particulate filters67 67 Tyco Electronics 2,640 * 2,390 * Connectors and interconnect systems, switches, circuit protection devices, touch screens68 65 TI Automotive 2,634 * 2,409 * Fluid storage/delivery systems, hydroformed components, air-conditioning applications69 70 Royal Philips Electronics 2,590 * 2,324 Lighting, playback modules, car radio integrated circuits, liquid crystal displays70 73 Showa 2,577 2,178 * Shock absorbers, power steering gearboxes and pumps, propeller shafts, gas springs71 56 Tower Automotive 2,542 * 2,856 * Body structures and assemblies, lower vehicle frames and structures72 74 Cooper-Standard Automotive 2,510 2,160 Sealing and fluid systems, NVH control systems73 60 Alcoa Automotive 2,500 * 2,700 * Electrical and electronic systems, closure panels, hoods and trunks, bumper systems74 68 Bayer MaterialScience 2,440 2,376 Coatings, adhesives, sealants, plastics, polyurethanes75 77 Dräxlmaier 2,372 2,041 Interior components, cockpits, linings for roofs/doors/sides, center consoles76 78 Mando 2,367 1,958 Brake, steering and suspension systems and components77 72 Asahi Glass 2,326 * 2,192 * Glazing systems78 85 Plastic Omnium 2,260 1,748 Fascias, front-end modules, rear-end modules, fenders, body panels79 69 Karmann 2,197 2,345 Convertible roof systems, body manufacturing80 82 Leoni 2,130 * 1,893 Cables, wiring systems81 90 Webasto 2,093 1,647 Sunroofs, large roof systems, convertible systems roof modules82 80 Hutchinson 2,062 * 1,900 * Anti-vibration products, fluid transfer systems, sealing systems, transmission systems83 88 Hayes Lemmerz International 2,047 1,702 Wheels84 84 Mitsuba 1,980 * 1,757 * Sunroof motors, power slide door assemblies, power tailgate systems, wiper systems85 86 Rieter Automotive 1,969 1,739 Acoustic systems, interior trim, carpet, thermal management systems, heat shields86 – Martinrea International 1,964 740 Body, chassis and fluid-handling components, assemblies and modules87 87 Freescale Semiconductor 1,908 1,717 Semiconductors, microcontrollers, sensor products88 79 Plastal 1,900 * 1,930 * Exterior and interior plastics89 76 Dura Automotive Systems 1,895 2,090 Driver control, integrated glass and seating control systems; structural door modules90 83 Metaldyne 1,863 * 1,850 * Powertrain and chassis applications; transmission/transfer cases; axles and drivelines91 94 Georg Fischer 1,859 1,541 Stressable castings92 96 Kostal 1,828 1,510 Steering-column modules, roof modules, body control units, door control units93 80 Inergy Automotive Systems 1,800 1,900 Fuel systems94 89 SKF Automotive 1,780 * 1,652 * Bearings, seals, clutch assemblies, molded rubber products, drive-by-wire systems95 91 Alpine Electronics 1,751 1,640 Navigation, telematics, sound and video systems96 98 Dow Automotive 1,735 1,383 Plastics, adhesives, plastic-enhanced products, body structure adhesives, NVH systems97 92 Modine 1,700 1,600 Thermal management products and systems98 93 Peguform 1,677 * 1,546 Bumpers, rocker panels, instrument panels, door panels, cockpit modules99 95 Pilkington 1,664 * 1,534 * Glass products, glazing systems

100 97 Kautex Textron 1,658 1,487 Fuel tank systems, clear-vision systems, selective catalytic reduction systems

Sources: Automotive News, Automobilwoche, Automotive News Europe *estimate **Automotive, numbers and ranking 2006, partially updated

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Warranty costs

10 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Quality data is warranty keyIT-supported controlling is helping to improve vehicle quality.

Up to 3 percent of warranty costs can be saved in this way.

When automakers talk abouttheir goals for coming years,

one issue is high on the agenda atAmerican, Asian and European he-adquarters: reducing warrantycosts.

Ivo Schwarz, at least, is convincedof that. He is senior manager at theCompetence Center for service andwarranty management at Mieschke,Hofmann and Partners, an IT andprocess consulting firm.

And it is not just because the costsof warranty claims average two tothree percent of revenues.

“The word isgetting aroundthat high war-ranty costs, asan indicator ofbad productquality withcorrespondingeffects on cus-tomer satisfac-tion and corpo-rate image, ha-ve a negative ef-fect on productsales figures,”Schwarz said.

In addition,warranty datais a central source of information onthe failure behavior of products inthe field. Thus, they are importantfor both early problem recognitionand root cause analysis.

Every day gained through the re-cognition of product problems andtheir solution saves ready cash andgenerates more satisfied customers,he said.

Moreover, an intensive study ofthe causes of warranty costs can al-so uncover shortcomings in inter-nal processes.

Using centralized product sup-port, it’s possible to recognize serviceemployees’ inadequate repair know-

how or poor information flow.If a repair shop isn’t informed ab-

out current repair options, for a de-fective convertible roof, for exam-ple, it will keep replacing the vehi-cle module with a new one, the con-sultant said.

Meanwhile, it might have beenenough to exchange a specific partwith a replacement, keeping costsmuch lower.

Not least of all, an understandingof warranty-cost causes and trendsmakes it possible to forecast higherquality levels and hold financial re-

serves commensurate with them.Schwarz considers the implemen-

tation of an appropriate analysistool such as SAP NetWeaver Busi-ness Intelligence to be an importantfoundation for effective warrantycontrolling.

But he believes people underesti-mate the importance of raw datafrom after-sales for drawing mean-ingful conclusions and making pre-dictions in warranty controlling.

For example, huge problems of-ten result from the definition ofuniform and meaningful damagecoding as well as its correct applica-tion in the field.

Schwarz believes the most de-manding phase of warranty con-trolling begins when data analysisyields findings on cost-drivers andthe root of the problem: the effi-cient and effective placement of theinformation in the error-elimina-tion process as well as a rapid exe-cution until the problems on siteare solved.

For one thing, a wide variety offactors affect the onset of warrantycosts. The levers for error elimina-tion are multifaceted and cut acrossorganizations, starting with the

technical res-ponsibility forthe compo-nent, throughafter-sales pro-duct support,all the way tothe service or-ganization.

For another,the success ofthe measures isoften difficultto demonstratedue to delayedand ambiguousc a u s e - a n d -effect relation-

ships, according to Schwarz.In any case, the goal of all efforts

should be to build up a warrantycontrol process that relies on a tes-ted IT platform using high-quality,high-value data.

This, in turn, needs to be suppor-ted by effective and transparent pro-cesses for the avoidance of cost drivers.

When these two pre-conditionsare met, warranty controlling canprovide an important contributionto sustained product quality impro-vement as well as the reduction ofwarranty costs.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

When repairshops lackknowledge about repairoptions,componentscan be un-necessarilyreplacedwith expen-sive newparts.

Phot

o:C

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Emerging market: India

12 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Indian-German contact exchangeThe Indian market is attractive to German firms, just as German clients

are to Indian firms. Both sides are expecting tremendous growth.

India is among the fastest-growingautomobile markets in the world.

In recent years, all the well-knownautomakers have established facili-ties there. That has turned the coun-try into a globally important mar-ket for the future.

Production is due to double fromthe current 2.2 million units a yearto 4.4 million units by 2010. But it isprecisely the strong growth of itscar production that poses a specialchallenge for India.

The Indian government is coun-tering the growing vehicle trafficwith increasingly strict exhauststandards, following Europe’sexample.

India is an attractive market forGerman automakers and supplierssince German products enjoy a highregard there.

That’s one reason why the Ger-

man industry’s investments in India have risen sharply: the num-ber of manufacturing operationsowned by German companies hasclimbed from 34 to 60 in the last 10years.

In 2007, more than 25,000 peoplein India were employed by just 10large German suppliers. But Indiancompanies are likewise increasin-gly extending their feelers towardEurope.

Among other things, the India Fo-rum offers help in this area, assis-ting with joint ventures and acqui-sitions of European and Indian com-panies.

“There is particularly a need tocatch up in the technology, qualityand logistics areas,” said Dirk Mey-er, managing partner for the IndiaForum. Many Indian suppliers are

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Ratan Tatawill usher ina new erain Indiawith theNano car(costing about 1,700euros).

already cultivating partnershipswith international companies,Meyer said.

The India expert believes thatcompanies with annual revenuesof more than $50 million have thefinancial resources to go on a shop-ping trip in Europe. That wouldcurrently apply to 40 of the 52members of the Indian suppliergroup ACMA.

In 2014, India’s auto suppliershope to have about 28 billion eurosin revenues, with two-thirds of itgenerated abroad.

“In the reverse direction as well,the new collaboration of Indianmanufacturers with European part-ners represents a step forward inquality for the Indian industry,”said VDA managing directorAchim Rauber at the Auto Expo in

New Delhi last January. At the automotivefair, 30 German

suppliers had a

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Emerging market: India

presence at a common stand. During just the first three quar-

ters of 2007, cars worth 25 millioneuros were exported from India toGermany. India’s supplier industrywas able to boost its exports to Ger-many by 20 percent, to 140 millioneuros, in the same period.

“Based on our experience, there ishardly a company that is not loo-king for partners or a take-over can-didate,” Meyer said.

For the most part, the focus is onGerman middle-sized, family-ow-ned operations with highly advan-ced development capacities andwell-known customers within theindustry. They often do not have asuccessor in the company’s ma-nagement.

Companies especially appeal toIndian firms if they have special ex-pertise that is not available in Indiaor is in short supply. Among otherareas, this know-how includes com-petencies in safety technology andvehicle electronics.

The strategy behind the expan-sion plans is that, besides the tech-nology transfer, Indian supplierswould get access to European mar-kets and customers. That’s whyMeyer is sure the commitments, asa rule, are designed to be long-term.

The Indian companies do notsimply want a rapid transfer of production to India or the strip-ping of the assets of the firms theypurchase.

This is rather a matter of buil-ding up synergies to ultimately sur-vive in the home market and itscompetitive environment. After all,global automakers are increasinglymoving onto the subcontinent.

India experts also don’t foreseethe kind of questionable technolo-gy transfer that has sometimes ta-ken place between Europe and Chi-na. The feeling is that India doesn’tdisplay the audacity that China so-metimes shows in its disregard ofintellectual property.

Behr, Bosch, Daimler, Continen-tal and Freudenberg are among thebest known German suppliers onthe subcontinent. Most have bran-ches in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore andChennai, the large automotive cen-ters in the country.

Currently, according to the Indianindustry group ACMA, there arevery few components that can’t beproduced in India just as well as inEurope or America. Indian produc-tion, however, is 30 to 40 percentless expensive.

Bosch is one of the veterans onthe subcontinent and is extremelyconfident as it looks ahead. Inclu-ding all its exports, the revenuesfrom Bosch’s Indian companiesamount to nearly a billion euros.

“India’s growth dynamic is clear-ly reflected in our business develop-ment,” said Bernd Bohr, Bosch’s ma-

naging director. Employment figu-res also show an upward trend: Thisyear, the Bosch Group is employingabout 18,000 workers in India, ab-out 10 percent more than in 2007.

“We are contributing to thestrong economic growth and India’sgrowing car ownership with the expansion of local developmentand manufacturing,” Bohr said. By2010, the company wants to haveinvested at least 495 million eurosin India.

Besides the expansion of its dieselmanufacturing, Bosch has also in-vested in the production of compo-

Daily life inIndia: A family ofsix can onlyafford amotorcycleas a meansof transpor-tation. TheTata Nanomay changethat.

At this time,nearly allOEMs havea manufac-turing pre-sence in India.

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Emerging market: India

nents for gasoline systems.In addition, ABS production is

scheduled for launch late this year,while the manufacture of electroniccontrol units is planned for 2009.

Just last July, Bosch’s rival Conti-nental opened a new research anddevelopment as well as a produc-tion facility for electronic compo-nents near Bangalore.

“Based on projections, nearly oneout of every two cars will be built inAsia starting in 2012, in the so-called ‘affordable car’ segment,” JayKunkel, Continental’s Asia chief,said recently.

Continental is hoping for risingsales in electronic components dueto India’s strict emissions standardsand safety regulations. In addition,the German supplier would like togenerate a quarter of its total reve-nues in Asia by 2015 and is strivingfor an annual rate of 60 percent by 2012.

The VDA, the German auto indus-try association, predicts a good op-portunity for clean-diesel vehiclesin the Indian market. “Germanautomakers and suppliers are theglobal leaders in this field of techno-logy,” said Rauber, VDA’s managingdirector. “With its fuel efficiency,clean diesel has considerable poten-tial for CO2 reduction in new cars inIndia, too.”

The prerequisite for this is thatdiesel fuel be offered at Indian fueling stations with the a qualityof 50 ppm at most.

A survey of VDA member compa-nies early this year revealed thatthey plan to increasingly sourceparts in India from now on. Thegroup says that a free trade agree-ment for India and the EU wouldfurther promote and increase trade.

But it’s likely that Indian sup-pliers will only have opportunitiesif they come up with the technolo-gical and financial resources toadapt to the requirements of auto-makers and mega-suppliers.

India experts warn that the multi-plicity of models and increasinglyshort vehicle life cycles signal highdemands on the delivery capabili-ties and quality level of Indian sup-pliers.

Bettina Mayer ■

Projectedtraffic increa-ses have ledthe Indiangovernmentto imposetough emis-sions stan-dards. EU re-gulations arethe model.

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Car insurance

18 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Premiums made to measure Using a “Pay-As-You-Drive” model, insurance companies intend to consider

individual driving behavior more fully than they have done in the past.

European insurance companiesare tinkering with concepts for

made-to-measure vehicle insurancepolicies. With “Pay As You Drive(PAYD),” the user makes a premiumpayment based on his daily “usage,”much like water or electric bills.

The beneficiaries of this type ofregime would be drivers who don’tuse their vehicles very much anddisproportionately bear the burdenof traditional blanket premium cal-

culations.But it’s not only the total kilome-

ters driven that insurance compa-nies will consider in the calcula-tion.

There’s also an interest in whet-her the driver mainly travels in acci-dent-prone rush-hour periods oruses “more dangerous” surface ro-ads instead of the autobahn. Withthis scheme, the owner saves moreif he avoids these risks.

Drivers choosing this system re-ceive a telematics box that is instal-

led in the vehicle. It contains a mo-dule that records the GPS (globalpositioning system) signal that it re-ceives during the trip. The signalsprovide information on location,driving direction and speed as wellas the date and time.

The telematics box sends the GPSdata to the data processing center ofthe insurance company or a systemprovider.

At that location, the data is lined

up with the street network of a digi-tal map, which permits the recon-struction of the route driven. Final-ly, an individual price for the insu-rance is calculated.

Norwich Union, Britain’s marketleader, was the first to introducePAYD in 2005. Over three years, no-vice drivers in Denmark have testeda system that doesn’t just recordtrips but also contains a speed war-ning device.

When the speed limit is exceeded,a warning tone alerts the driver. The

accident risk for the roughly 300test drivers fell 25 percent. The sche-me is also being tested in countriessuch as Italy, Austria, Switzerland,the Netherlands and Germany.

Insurance companies can also of-fer their customers additional servi-ces with the telematics equipmentthat is needed for PAYD.

They include an automatic emer-gency call after an accident, anti-theft devices or a car finder to locatea stolen vehicle. These telematicsservices already represent a big mar-ket in the US.

PAYD is highly controversialwhen it comes to data protection,however. A satellite-based trackingsystem evokes fears of total surveil-lance.

Peter Schaar, the federal official incharge of data protection, sees thedanger “that greed could be arousedand the collected data could be usedfor other purposes.” One examplewould be the prosecution of minorinfractions.

In a test by the WGV insurancecompany, this problem was solvedwith a separation of data capture onone hand and billing on the other.

The system provider T-Systemsundertakes the compilation andevaluation of the data anonymous-ly. The insurer only receives data inevaluated form, meaning data interms of abstract time periods andkilometers driven on a type of road.

But it doesn’t receive concrete da-ta on dates and times or the exactroute. Only the customers receivethe exact routes so they can checktheir bills.

Despite many insurers’ hesitancy,financial services expert Berger isconfident that the reservations willsuccessively be dispelled and thatPAYD is on its way, “even if it’s morelikely to be in five years and notthree.” Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Data col-lection enroute: A telematicsbox instal-led in thevehicle can gatherroute, timeand evenspeed data.

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Bonding techniques

20 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Joining what belongs together

Automakers are assuring thestructural integrity of modern

vehicle bodies with better steel. Forexample, based on weight, the useof higher and maximum-strengthsteel grew from 52 to 67 percent onthe new Opel Insignia, compared toits predecessor.

But steel’s complexity rises withits quality and raises the question:“How can you join it?,” according toErnst Miklos of equipment makerLinde AG in Unterschleissheim.

Correspondingly, materials rese-archers are trying to get a handle onjoining new materials in their va-rious combinations.

“In a fairly recent evaluation of255 research projects, we determi-ned that only about 65 percent areconcerned with conventional wel-ding,” Miklos said.

One of the great challenges is thegreat sensitivity of modern steel toheat. This means that conventionalarc or flame welding is being displa-

ced to some extent by more recentjoining techniques such as adhesivebonding.

For the most part, however, thevarious procedures are used in pa-rallel. “An automobile is held toget-her by a great many weld and joi-ning techniques,” said Ulrich Dil-they, a professor at the Institute forWelding and Joining Technology atRWTH Aachen.

“A car has about 3,000 to 5,000weld points, 20 to 50 meters of laserweld seams, 1,000 punch rivets andmany meters of adhesive bondingtechnology.”

The material properties of indivi-dual parts are transmitted to theentire final component by means ofbonding, explains Wilko Fluegge ofSalzgitter Mannesman Research, ci-ting the advantages of a combina-tion of adhesive bonding and me-chanical joining.

A key advance is that the impro-ved performance of steel materials

can be carried over to the entirecomponent for the most part, hesaid.

For example, that applies to thecompressability of high-strengthsteels. Adhesive sections do betterthan those with laser-weld, spot orlinear joining, since they compressless.

So the properties of the steel areimproved. Adhesive bonding is fre-quently more economical and redu-ces vehicle weight. Research at De-gussa shows that one out of everytwo weld points can be replacedwith adhesive bonding.

Moreover, the use of 1kg of adhe-sive reduces vehicle weight by 25kg,because sheet metal bonded withadhesives can be thinner.

Yet another trend is the use ofstructural adhesives for metal, sincethey make the body stiffer and im-prove its crash performance.

Detachable adhesive joinings areone of the greatest challenges cur-

New materials require new bonding techniques, including mechanical

processes like punch riveting and adhesive bonding, as well as laser soldering.

Böllhoff sup-ported Audiin the deve-lopment of a new punch-riveting process forjoining alu-minum andsteel in thenew TT.

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rently being explored. While welded steel bodies are simply mel-ted down, vehicles made using bon-ded materials are a problem for re-cycling.

Adhesives that lose their stickingpower “on command,” so to speak,are in demand. Automakers’ deve-lopment departments are workingon new processes for the repair ofparts bonded with adhesives, forexample, after an accident.

Audi is pressing ahead with workon new joining processes becausethe Ingolstadt firm is turning to thecombination of aluminum andsteel. Audi is getting help from theWilhelm Böllhoff firm, a specialistin mechanical joining techniquesbased in Bielefeld.

Punch-rivets, composed of up to80 percent aluminum, are cominginto use on a Böllhoff assembly linefor the Audi TT, especially in the ve-hicle’s front and platform areas.

The punch-rivet joining procedu-re is now being integrated into theforming technology.

As part of a self-punch process without any pre-drilled holes, the ri-vet is inserted into two or moresheet metal plies.

The punch process and the for-ming step of the stamping providethe subsequent firmness in the lo-wer sheet metal ply.

Gerson Meschut, managing direc-tor for technology, research and de-

velopment at Böllhoff, stresses theversatility of the punch rivet tech-nology. “It allows a variety of mate-rials, a variety of steels, and especi-ally hybrid-construction projects tobe realized quite beautifully.”

A total of 1,606 punch rivets wereused in the Audi TT. And punch ri-vet technology is also reliable in fullproduction runs.

According to Meschut, the errorrate for rivet application is below0.25 percent. The rivet technologywas first used in the first Audi A8.

“A punch rivet joint is similar to aweld in its complexity,” he said. “Weare just involved with other para-meters that have an impact on qua-lity of the bond.”

Böllhoff is also working on othermechanical joining processes, suchas stud setting. This process invol-

ves a nail-like bonding part beingaccelerated to a high speed, so thatthe material is strongly heated lo-cally during the penetration.

No pre-drilled hole is needed forstud setting. Access on one side isall the process requires.

In the future, Meschut is expec-ting competition among joiningtechnologies. “In that process, me-chanical bonding will be preferredas an application when thermalprocedures come up against their limits.”

Hans Hornig, manager of joiningtechnology at BMW, advocates an-other technology.

“Laser beam hard soldering offersadvantages for the bonding of fullygalvanized body structures and of-fers great design freedom from thestandpoint of manufacturing tech-nology,” he said.

In the welding of galvanized steelsheet metal, the process engineershave got to contend with zinc coa-tings that have low melting pointsand that can therefore quickly va-porize.

The welding process disturbsthem with explosion-like ejectionsof the molten raw material.

Due to its lower temperaturecompared to welding, laser beamhard soldering reduces the deterio-ration of the focus lens in the wel-ding head.

Jochen Kruse ■

Bonding techniques

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 21

Checking thejoins at theAudi factoryin Neckars-ulm: the new joiningprocess wasdevelopedhere.

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Investment incentives

22 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Government promotes leasingGerman companies have numerous subsidy programs to choose from.

But 40 percent of the allocated funds aren’t being used.

Subsidies and leasing are not mu-tually exclusive. So it’s possible

for suppliers in the German auto in-dustry to combine a non-reimbursa-ble subsidy with an investment inleasing. Using these funds, the les-see can lower his leasing rate.

“The subsidy flows to the lessorand is used to lower the leasing ra-te,” said Peter Philippen of the in-centives consulting/leasing depart-ment at the German Kreissparkasse

Heinsberg savings bank. “Along with tax issues, profitabili-

ty and liquidity play a decisive role,”he said.

That’s because the company’sshareholder equity would have togrow with the expansion of the ba-lance sheet total. “So the smaller thecompany’s equity-to-assets ratio,the less favorable the rating.

As companies woud like to avoidextending their balance sheets, more are opting for leasing.

Companies benefit from a finan-cing structure consisting of an in-

vestment subsidy and leasing in anumber of ways.

The sums are attractive. One cal-culation: A company creates 10 jobsfor women and invests 1 million eu-ros in equipment in the process.

In the case of an incentive rate of15 percent, it receives a 150,000 eu-ro subsidy. For an investment in fi-xed assets of just 800,000 euros, theamount of the incentive would stillcome to 120,000 euros.

You multiply 10 times 100,000 eu-ros per job for women (the figure is75,000 euros for men) to get the ma-ximum cost eligible for incentives.It is capped by the amount of the ac-tual fixed asset investment volume.

“Nevertheless, companies absolu-tely have reason not to decide in fa-vor of a conventional subsidy incen-tive,” Philippen said.

“A subsidy incentive can restrict acompany,” he explained. “Certaincriteria have to be met so that thesubsidies being granted don’t haveto be paid back.”

That also applies to the leasingversion of a subsidy incentive. Forexample, capital goods purchasedhave to remain at the company fiveyears.

Similarly, the positions createdwith the help of an incentive pro-gram have to be maintained and oc-cupied for five years.

“For some companies, dependingon the economic field, this period ofcommitment can become confi-ning,” Philippen said.

And, in the case of leasing, thereis even the pressure to purchase atthe end.

“As part of North Rhine-West-phalia’s regional economic develop-ment program, movable capitalequipment financed with leasingand carried as an asset by the lessorhas to be acquired by the subsidy’srecipient/lessee at the conclusion ofthe leasing contract,” said RainerGlanemann, general manager atNRW Bank’s economic incentivesdepartment.

The reason: Lawmakers have sti-pulated that the subsidized equip-ment has to remain at the subsidi-zed company in the end.

To receive the funds, companiesneed to have applied for investmentsubsidies before the start of the pro-ject. At the filing of the application,they have to submit a business planand a certificate of registration aswell as provide verification of theinvested capital.

But some suppliers don’t take ad-vantage of these opportunities. Ac-cording to the federal associationfor the promotion of medium-sizedfirms, 76 percent of all small andmedium-sized firms still haven’tused subsidies.

Moreover, about 40 percent of thefunds allocated for subsidies remainunused.

Anke Brillen ■

Jobs forwomen areeligible forincentives.But manyof thefunds avail-able aren’tbeing tapped.

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Lightweight materials

24 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

A lighter burden in the futureLightweight construction is learning from mother nature.

The result is some radical new approaches.

Technology can still learn a gooddeal from nature: Bioenginee-

ring is applying natural construc-tion principles to automotive com-ponents.

One designer chair shows whatdevelopment engineers are wor-king on. This work of Dutch artistJoris Laarman is based on biologicaldesign principles. The chair resul-ted from a joint project with vehicleengineer Lothar Haarzheim of theGM Europe (GME) developmentcenter in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

“Just as trees add material to hea-vily stressed areas and bones sparematerial at less stressed areas, weare optimizing vehicle componentswith the help of a computer pro-gram that simulates the naturalgrowth process of bones and trees,”Harzheim explains.

At the same time, he draws a dis-tinction between computer-aidedoptimization (CAO) and the soft killoption (SKO) processes.

With the CAO process, he takesthe external contour of a compo-nent to be optimized and allows itto grow based on the principle ofbiological growth.

With the SKO option, this ap-proach is also applied to theinternal structure. In thisway, superfluous materialcan be removed from the in-terior, as is the case for bones.The result is an extremedesign for lightweightconstruction.

In the seat pro-ject, the size,height and confi-guration of the seatand the backrest werepre-defined, and thepositioning of thecontact area for thechair legs was pre-set.With a computer,

Harzheim researched the optimalstructure of the chair strutting ba-sed on nine load conditions.

Radical thinking is currently indemand: Toyota presented that kindof extreme approach at the Genevaauto show this year, in the form of aconcept car called the 1/X.

The 1/X’s design was based on theinterior space of a Prius. The goalwas to cut weight and fuel econo-my in half while maintaining thehighest safety standards. And, inci-dentally, to take up considerablyless of a road lane’s surface.

The bionicchair ofDutch artistJoris Laar-man is ondisplay atthe Museumof ModernArt in NewYork.

Lightweightnature: On the computer,Lothar Harzheimoptimizesvehicle componentsmodeled onnature.

The 1/X weighs merely 420 kilos,as its body consists entirely of car-bon fiber composite material.

The especially light passengercompartment doesn’t lag at all be-hind conventional steel construc-tion in collision safety. And it offersother safety advantages.

For example, thanks to its highstrength, the width of the body pil-lars can be reduced. That widensthe driver’s field of vision and im-proves his ability to avoid accidents.

With lightweight construction,the current weight spiral (moreweight requiring stronger engines,in turn requiring bigger brakes, andso on) goes into reverse.

The hybrid drive of the 1/X hasjust a 500cc internal combustionengines for longer distances.

The bottom line is that Toyota is figuring on fuel consumption of2.2 liters per 100km driven. Carbonfiber composites are still expensive,but Toyota expects to learn from a recent move into aerospace construction. In future, carbon fiber could become economicallyfeasible in vehicle manufacturingas well.

Jochen Kruse ■

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Turbochargers

26 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Pressure builds in turbo businessThe market for turbochargers is booming worldwide. German suppliers

are joining Japanese and US companies in developing these systems.

The market for turbochargers ispromising auto suppliers some

good business. Heinz Junker, Mah-le’s CEO, expects worldwide de-mand for these systems to growfrom 15 million in 2006 to about 45million in 2020.

That’s the reason this supplier ofengine components and drive trainsystems sees the turbocharger busi-ness as one of its building blocks forfuture growth. When it went loo-king for a partner, the Stuttgart, Ger-many, firm came up with one in theneighborhood.

Mahle has jo-ined Bosch in a50-50 joint ven-ture for the de-velopment, sa-les and produc-tion of turbo-chargers.

Junker seesturbochargingof advanced en-gines with ex-haust gas tur-bochargers asone of the keytechnologies toreduce fuelconsumptionand CO2 emissions.

While diesels frequently have ex-haust gas turbochargers already, “toa rapidly increasing extent, this willalso be realized in gasoline enginesin combination with direct-fuel injection in coming years.”

Junker expects that the joint ven-ture will produce about 1.5 millionexhaust gas turbochargers in 2015.The expansion of an existing facili-ty in St. Michael, Austria, began thissummer. About 400 employees areexpected to handle production andfinal assembly.

The rationale for the Germancompanies’ commitment: Vehicle

manufacturers would like to createa counterweight to industry giantsHoneywell Technologies, BorgWar-ner Turbo & Emissions Systems(both in the US) as well as Mitsubi-shi Heavy Industries (Japan).

That’s because US supplier Borg-Warner is also continuing to ex-pand its business in turbochargersystems.

In mid-March, the ground-breaking took place for a new facto-ry in Rzeszów, southeast of Krakow.Startng in 2009, 500,000 turbochar-gers will be produced there annual-

ly for European automakers.According to Bernd Matthes, pre-

sident of BorgWarner TransmissionSystems, the company is planningmore expansion at the location.

He is likewise convinced that theturbocharger segment will be dri-ven by diesels with dual turbochar-ging systems as well as by more ga-soline engines with turbochargersdue to downsizing.

Early this year, BorgWarner’s fac-tory at Oroszlány, Hungary, 80kmwest of Budapest, was expanded bynearly 5,000 square meters, to13,500.

BorgWarner not only has its lar-

gest factory in Germany. It also hasits headquarters at Kirchheimbo-landen.

“In turbochargers, we really are aGerman company,” Matthes said.His company’s largest customer isalso German: Volkswagen.

A decade ago, the supplier gene-rated about 70 percent of revenuesin North America. Now only about15 percent comes from that mar-ket. BorgWarner is also seeingstrong growth for its turbochargersin Asia.

The arrival of new competitorsmeanwhile is-not giving Mat-thes any worrylines. “The mar-ket is large, it’sgrowing fast,and it can alsostand morecompetitors.”

Back in Fe-bruary, Heidel-berg-based sup-plier IHI Char-ging SystemsInternational, ajoint venturebetween Daim-ler AG and the

IHI Group in Tokyo said it plannedto build a turbocharger factory inArnstadt.

VDO, the former Siemens subsidi-ary purchased by Continental, is al-so busy with the development ofturbocharger systems.

“It’s not our ambition to becomethe world’s largest manufacturerof turbochargers,” Matthes said.“We want to lead technologically,and we naturally want to makemoney.”

He stressed that he would conti-nue to pay attention to the profita-bility of all new business.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Turbo-chargers onthe teststand. Moreand moresuppliersare parti-cipating inthe growingmarket forturbo-charger systems.

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Future electric cars

28 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

The hype over electric vehiclesA number of manufacturers and suppliers are working at full speed on

solutions for electric cars and the battery technology that they urgently need.

The victory lap of the electric carseems to go on and on. Starting

in 2025, all newly registered cars inEurope will be equipped with hy-brid or electric drives, according tothe Center for Automotive Research(CAR) at the University of AppliedSciences Gelsenkirchen.

In just two years, more affordable,higher-performance batteries areexpected to make electric cars amass phenomenon. According toCAR’s calculations, the total num-ber of hybrid and electric cars soldin the European Union will risefrom 80,000 this year to 16.2 millionin 2025.

It was clear at the Paris auto showin October that the indus-try is betting hea-vily on electriccars. All of thec a r m a k e r spresent sho-wed modelse q u i p p e dwith new fuel-saving techno-logies. Most ofthose models hadmild or full hybrids.

It isn’t clear to Wolf-gang Bernhart, automotive analystat Roland Berger Strategy Consul-tants, “what share of vehicles willbe driven purely electrically andwhat share will have a so-called‘range extender,’ which large vehi-cles will tend to have as equip-ment.”

Competing in all segments

The term ‘range extender’ refersto an auxiliary internal combustionengine that primarily functions as agenerator to recharge the battery.General Motors’ E-Flex conceptworks in this way.

Anjan Hemanth Kumar, research

analyst at the Frost & Sullivan con-sulting firm, expects “vehicle manu-facturers to compete in all the cus-tomer segments, from economy topremium.” Based on his forecast,the price of an electric car will fluc-tuate between 11,000 euros and348,000 euros.

The Tesla Roadster is an early pre-cursor of the future generation ofelectrical vehicles. The sports carfrom California is due out in Europein spring 2009. The vehicle createsits energy from more than 6,800 lap-top batteries.

By spring, produc-tion is expected to ramp

up from 10 cars a week to as manyas 40 units a week.

Tesla is requiring an advance pay-ment of 50,000 euros for “SignatureEdition” cars from the first 250 manufactured. At delivery, another49,000 euros plus tax is due.

Meanwhile, well-known automa-kers are in a race to create the firstelectric car with a range of morethan 100km that can go into regularproduction.

According to CEO Martin Winter-korn, Volkswagen wants to be thefirst company to actually offer a high-volume solution to the electric car.

“We have to be the first to offer an

emissions-free, affordable high-volume solution,” he said.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner had pre-viously announced that the Chevro-let Volt would be out during the au-tumn of 2010.

But this advanced technology hasits costs. Carl-Peter Forster, the pre-sident of GM Europe, points outthat Opel customers will have topay more for an electric car than fora comparable gas or diesel model.

The planned electric cars will in-itially be built in the US and thensupplied to Europe. But GM’s Euro-pean factories could also profitfrom increased demand for these

kinds of vehicles. “Nearlyevery plant could en-

tertain the hopes ofsomeday produ-cing electric vehi-cles, as they use ele-ments of existing

models as their buil-ding blocks.”

But drivers couldthwart the vehicle manufactu-

rers’ plans. “At least in the high-volume segment, the pain thres-hold of a surcharge for a clean powertrain technology averages2,000 euros per vehicle,” DaimlerCEO Dieter Zetsche said.

Mercedes, BMW have plans

Zetsche has announced that anelectric engine would be ready forproduction in 2010. It’s not just forthe Smart car, but also Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Development chiefThomas Weber says the A- or B-Class would be suitable for it.

Due to their sandwich floor con-cept, these vehicles are ideal for alternative drives.

A few weeks ago, Bavarian auto-maker BMW also made the surpri-sing announcement of plans to

Tesla Road-ster: Thesports carfrom the California-based low-volume manufac-turer is due out inEurope inspring 2009.

ANE_IZB_28-29_Thema6.qxd 10/8/08 4:58 PM Page 28

bring a small series of electric carsto market this autumn.

A total of 500 cars from its Minisubsidiary, powered by lithium ionbatteries, are expected to create asensation, especially in urban areas.

Falling lithium-ion prices

But that won’t satisfy the Munich-based firm. The automakerhas a development squad of 100employees in its Project I programwho are looking at the prospectsfor electric propulsion.

Falling prices for lithium ion bat-teries are indispensable for electri-cal vehicles to expand more widely.Experts say power electronics andcooling technology are among thegreatest cost elements.

Consultant Bernhart figures thatcosts of 400 to 500 euros per kilo-watt hour have to be expected in2010. But they won’t stay at that level. “For 2020, however, I expectcosts of 200 to 300 euros per kilo-watt hour.”

In 2020, based on the company’smodel calculations, an electric vehi-cle should be more affordable overits life cycle than a comparable carwith an internal combustion engine.

Renault is even confident thatthe electric car will pay off by 2013.“The costs of the components willfall and the value of emission-freevehicles will rise. That will makeprojects of this type profitable,”said Patrick Pélata, Renault’s brandchief.

Bosch teams with Samsung

Next year, for the first time, Mer-cedes will employ a lithium ion bat-tery in a mild hybrid in its S-Class.Continental is its supplier and deve-lopment partner.

Other suppliers have also discove-red battery technology, seeing it as afield of the future. Stuttgart-basedBosch is even convinced that thekey to the company’s growth in hy-brid systems is tied to these energystorage devices.

For example, the company an-nounced a joint venture with theSouth Korean electronics concernSamsung in August.

Bosch will begin the manufactureof individual battery cells in 2010and start production of battery sys-tems, the so-called power packs, ayear later.

The Swabian firm decided onSamsung as a partner because theJapanese are one of the market lea-ders in lithium ion batteries in theconsumer field.

Bosch also doesn’t want to com-mit to a business connection with asingle vehicle manufacturer, saidBernd Bohr, head of the vehicletechnology unit at the company.

The firm calculates that 2.5 mil-lion to 3 million new cars will beequipped with hybrid drive in 2015.In addition, it expects up to 800,000purely electric vehicles.

Keeping it in-house

Electric drives will especially ha-ve noticeable effects on traditionalsuppliers in the powertrain field.The suppliers will be under pressu-re from two sides. First, engine andtransmission components will beeliminated. Second, industry obser-vers suspect that many automakerswill likely claim the growing busi-ness with batteries and electric mo-tors for themselves.

“We don’t consider batteries and

electric motors to be commoditiesthat we want to outsource,” saidHerbert Kohler, the top powertraindeveloper at Daimler.

“When you source these compo-nents from third parties, you haveto accept compromises, which ahigh-volume manufacturer can afford but not a premium automa-ker like us.”

A functioning infrastructure is al-so key to the success of electric vehi-cles. “The technology is in its startingblocks,” said Zetsche, Daimler’s CEO.It’s now time for the energy suppliersand oil companies to put their com-mitment to the test, he said.

In any case, consultant Bernhartis confident about the infrastructu-re issue.

“There are already a whole rangeof energy suppliers and other com-panies standing in the startingblocks to build up a broad-based in-frastructure to charge up batteries.”

The Dusseldorf energy supplierEON is participating in a fleet testwith Volkswagen, for example.

The new market is already attrac-tive to suppliers because they cancover the energy needs from alreadyavailable nighttime capacity. More-over, investments in charging sta-tions are manageable.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Future electric cars

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 29

ChevroletVolt: GeneralMotors hasannouncedthat regularproduction ofits electric carwill begin inautumn 2010.

ANE_IZB_28-29_Thema6.qxd 10/8/08 4:58 PM Page 29

Financial services

30 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Financing with ABS-Light

Financial services firm Coface hasreported a substantial deteriora-

tion in companies’ payment beha-vior around the world.

Payment delays rose 45 percentduring the first four months of2008, it says. The auto industry wasaffected as well.

But payment delays aren’t an issue for electronics specialist Leoni.

“At Leoni, we have all available financing instruments in use andexploit all the resources,” said Robert F. Steiner, vice president forcorporate finance at the Bavariansupplier. “That way, we are alwaysliquid, even if a financial resourcewere to dry up.”

Factoring is one of these resour-ces. Leoni sells its accounts to Sie-mens Financial Services (SFS) andthus remains independent of thepayment behavior of its customers.

“The money goes into our bankaccount four days after the issuance

of the invoice,” Steiner said. Leonimainly sells accounts with goodcredit. “We don’t want to pay dearlyfor the balance sheet effects.”

That’s because this comfort isn’tfree. SFS provides it under the pro-duct name ABS-Light.

Besides the Euribor prime rate,SFS requires a so-called “all-in-mar-gin.” However, “the costs are indivi-dually negotiable,” Steiner said.

He can influence those costs byputting the portfolio together him-self. As a rule, factoring involves theacquisition of all the accounts. Butat ABS-Light, the structure of theportfolio is flexibly negotiable.

ABS-Light combines the advanta-ges of conventional factoring withthose of asset-backed securities. Inits main departure from the securi-ties approach, SFS doesn’t place theaccounts on the capital markets,but rather holds them on its ownbalance sheet.

In addition, SFS bears 100 percentof the risk of financial loss.

With factoring, advances amoun-ting to 90 percent of the accountsum are possible as a rule. But ABS-Light advances up to 100 percent.

ABS-Light also offers relativelylong terms. It buys accounts withterms of up to 180 days. The figureis usually just 90 to 120 days for fac-toring.

Companies starting at about 30million euros in revenues, with sa-leable account inventory of 3 mil-lion euros, now have a financial al-ternative to the sale of their com-mercial accounts.

In practice, conventional ABSmostly pays off for an accounts in-ventory of substantially more than25 million euros. As a rule, those arecompanies with significantly morethan 200 million euros in revenues.

And that’s with relative consis-tency in the composition of its port-folio and the use of the lines it hasbeen granted.

The decisive factor for Leoni, ho-wever, was not the relatively lowentry volume, but rather the finan-cial terms. “We don’t accept the hid-den fees that are customary in facto-ring,” a source at the supplier said.

ABS-Light was chosen becausethe terms were comparable to nor-mal loan financing. “The fees mustbe transparent. Our costs can be re-cognized clearly and distinctly inthe interest rate,” the source said.

The balance-sheet advantages arelikewise clearly visible. “With a re-volving sale of accounts, the opera-tional cash-flow figures are impro-ved,” said Martin Hartge, manage-ment member and head of the Wor-king Capital Finance Sales at SFS.

ABS-Light’s one disadvantage:Debtor management stays with theseller of the accounts.

Anke Brillen ■

A special form of factoring is offering mid-sized suppliers the chance

to become more independent of their customers’ payment practices.

Support froma servicesprovider: AtABS-Light,the costs ofthe servicesare individ-ually nego-tiable.

ANE_IZB_30_Thema7.qxd 10/8/08 5:06 PM Page 30

Environmentally friendly technology

32 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Fuel saving under developmentIn the future, driver assistance systems will not only promote safety,

but save fuel as well. Experts are working on new simulation methods.

Numerous studies credit driverassistance systems with enor-

mous potential for the improve-ment of active safety. Their possibleinfluence on the reduction of fuelconsumption, however, is still inthe test phase.

But their positive effect has beco-me obvious: driver assistance sys-tems such as distance regulatorsprovide more comfort and safety be-cause they let drivers anticipate bet-ter. At the same time, they can con-tribute to a noticeable reduction inCO2 emissions.

That is why experts at IPG Auto-motive, a simulations specialist inKarlsruhe, Germany, are workingon assistance systems from thestandpoint of saving fuel, too.

With a PC simulation, they analy-ze the vehicle’s behavior and itsenergy usage, trying to impose ruleson the individual systems that,when they work together, are desi-gned to lower fuel consumption du-ring various driving maneuvers.

“The ECE cycle is standard todayin the measurement of consump-tion,” said Bernhard Schick, mana-

ger of innovation at IPG.But these driving cycles did not

lead to reliable fuel consumption readings, as losses from individualvehicle components as well as theinfluence of driver assistance sys-tems are not captured in these cases.

“The results of concrete con-sumption simulations for vehicleswith ACC (adaptive cruise control)regulator systems made this clear,”Schick said. “In any case, the poten-tial for CO2 reduction was there.”

IPG can conduct a detailed analy-sis of fuel consumption in simulateddriving and traffic situations.

The simulation is based on the

linkage of two current developmenttools: the CarMaker driving dyna-mics software and the AVL Cruisedrive train simulation.

“At the major automakers, AVLCruise is already a component inte-grated into wide-ranging areas ofdevelopment processes,” said Engel-bert Loibner of AVL.

That’s a big advantage for devel-opers, as they can exchange datamore easily using it.

CarMaker simulates all the vehi-cle’s lower components, such as sus-pension, steering, brakes, and tires,along with its mass and aerodyna-mics. A scenario manager makes it

possible to simulate anygiven traffic situation,with both stationary ob-stacles and vehiclesboth oncoming and outin front.

The first findings ofthe simulations: “It hasmade clear just howmassively curves affectCO2 emissions,” Loib-ner said.

Bettina Mayer ■

The impactof driverassistancesystems invarious situationsis studiedin simula-tions.

A distanceregulatorsystem canhelp cutfuel con-sumptionand emis-sions.

ANE_IZB_32_Thema8.qxd 10/8/08 5:14 PM Page 32

Risk management

34 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Suppliers team up to reduce risksAs pressure to control costs and boost innovation increases,

professional risk management is becoming more important to suppliers.

Issues related to the hedging ofraw material risks and the threat

of production stoppages as a resultof supply chain problems are morecurrent than ever in the global sup-plier community.

And risk management isn’t justthe key to confronting firms’ conti-nually increasing cost and innova-tion pressures, says Hendrik F. Loeffler, managing director ofHamburg-based Funk RMCE, whichspecializes in this area.

He believes there are a number ofaspects requiring a good deal of trans-parency and long-term precaution.

On the one hand, there are the so-called strategic partnerships betweensuppliers and automakers. On the other, there are the responses to eco-nomic, legal and political challengessuch as compliance issues, corporategovernance, IT security, raw materi-als crises and cutthroat competition.

A source at Vibracoustic, a specia-list in vibration-control technologies,describes the problem in this way:“When there is a failure in the field,the supplier doesn’t just bear thecosts of delivering the replacementpart, but all the other costs relatedto the incident.”

Parts replacements and recalls become an incalculable life-or-death risk.

Albert Mees, vice president forcorporate development and risk

management at German interiorspecialist Grammer, also believesrisk potential has increased sharply.

“We haven’t run out of materialyet,” he said, describing the mee-tings of a supplier study group,“Risk Management for Companiesin the Auto Supplier Industry.”

Fifteen companies brought thisplatform into being in late 2005.Today it has about 100 members,including Leoni, Draexlmeier,Grammer, and Huf Huelsbeck andFuerst.

The consulting firm Funk RMCE, aco-founder of the study group, sees itsfocus as the formulation of guideli-

nes for the introduction and increa-sed development of a risk manage-ment system in the supplier industry.

When asked publicly about thiskey issue, suppliers respond withgreat hesitation. Experts say that isbecause they fear the term risk ma-nagement could trigger the wrongconnotations among automakers.

In other words, the word “risk”might be seen as a banner announ-cing the supplier’s business pro-blems to the world.

But today risk management is oneof the precautions a company takesto assure its continued existence. Onthis issue, suppliers in Germany areahead of other sectors in the country.

But Funk RMCE’s Loeffler believesrisk management, despite growingawareness of the issues, still doesn’tgo far enough.

To a great extent, the industrylacks systematic and, in particular,integrated risk management thatworks across departments. It is ma-nagement that doesn’t just specifythe risks, but also evaluates themappropriately.

Wolf R. Ussler ■

Assembly at Leoni:The Germansupplier isusing moreadvancedrisk manage-ment systems.

Steel pro-duction:High rawmaterialcosts are abig risk inthe supplychain.

Phot

o:D

PA

ANE_IZB_34_Thema9.qxd 10/8/08 4:58 PM Page 34

Engineering service providers

36 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Higher complexity is good forproviders of engineering servicesMore models and

new limits on CO2

emissions are gene-

rating more business

for engineering

service providers

Alternative drives and growingmarkets in developing coun-

tries are posing new challenges forengineering service providers whileopening up opportunities for addi-tional growth.

The spectrum of businesses ran-ges from companies dealing withthe entire process chain from de-sign to its derivative, all the way tospecialists that focus on engine de-velopment or electronic systems.

Besides service providers, thereare pure engineering companiesthat also produce hardware, alongwith firms that merely lend engi-neers and technology to automotivecompanies for a limited period.

In any case, Dietmar Bichler, CEOof Bertrandt AG, sees good prospectsfor engineering services providers.

“Basically, the outlook is good.Our customers, the vehicle manu-facturers, keep expanding their mo-del lines, occupying more niches inthe process. That brings enginee-ring service providers additionalcontract volume.”

That trend extends to the southGerman firm’s other customergroup, the system suppliers.

“Lawmakers are boosting demandfor engineering services, with theirstandards for CO2 reduction and pe-destrian protection, for example,”Bichler said

Bertrandt says issues such as the

environment and fuel consumption,legislation, safety, and vehicleweight are front and center for theauto industry. They affect all parts ofautomobile manufacturing.

“Further improvement will onlybe possible with the interplay of theindividual systems in the vehicle,”Bichler said. “Today, additional dra-matic steps cannot be achievedwith individual measures.”

Wolfgang Ruecker, CEO of Rue-cker AG, also sees good opportuni-ties for the auto industry’s enginee-ring services sector. He sees signifi-cant potential for his own firm invehicle exteriors and interiors.

The Wiesbaden-based company isin the top ranks of developmentfirms, with more than 2,500 engi-neers worldwide. Ruecker genera-ted about 78 percent of its 168.9 mil-lion euros in revenues last yearfrom the auto industry.

For further growth, Ruecker canalso imagine a strategic partner’sparticipation in his company “to as-sure a basic utilization” of capacity.The CEO, who is Ruecker’s mainshareholder, would be interested in

firms not tied to a single automaker.Automakers’ requirements for en-

gineering companies have changed.Bichler notes that specifications forprojects have become more complex.

They don’t just involve the tech-nical content of the projects, but al-so requirements for the company’sfinancial stability.

But that’s apparently not the endof the road. “In the future, I expectthat the expectations will continueto grow in this regard, especially forthe larger projects,” Bichler said.

Emerging markets such as Indiaand China haven’t just become mo-re important for manufacturers inrecent years. The engineering com-panies are increasing their involve-ment as well.

One example is AVL List, based inGraz, Austria. “China and India arealready among our most importantsales markets,” said Patrick Signar-gout, who is in charge of sales andinternational operations in the po-wertrain area.

In 2006, the Austrian firm alreadyachieved about 15 percent of reve-nues in developing countries. “And

A projectdiscussion atBertrandt:Even in thefuture, de-velopmentwork will be handledfrom Europe.

ANE_IZB_36-37_Thema10.qxd 10/8/08 5:07 PM Page 36

more growth is planned,” Signar-gout said.

The technical centers in Shang-hai, China, and Delhi, India, in par-ticular, are due to expand in the fu-ture, since interest in advanced en-gine concepts is growing in theemerging markets

“Greater importance is especiallyaccorded to the comfort, emissionsand fuel consumption areas,” theAVL powertrain manager said.. “Butat terms the people there can afford.”

Ruecker expresses greater cautionabout China and India.. “We don’tconsider these markets to be ourhighest priority,” he said.

Ruecker believes it will grow asclimate change becomes ever moreimportant.vice providers. The mar-ket for more environmentallyfriendly vehicles is only just star-ting, he said.

Bertrandt’s Bichler is cautious.“We would first like to see to whatextent this will happen in the

future,” he said. But he too sees goodlonger-term prospects “Ultimately,development work for these kindsof cars will bring a further wideningof the market,” he said.

Bertrandt doesn’t plan to build upany special engineering capacity forit, however. “We will continue tooperate our development work outof Germany or Europe,” Bichler said.

The success of engineering servi-ces firms also depends on whetherthey can make themselves attracti-ve to young engineering talent.

That’s a difficult task, since in thisrace for expertise they are compe-ting most of all with their custo-mers and their internationallyknown names

The search for engineers has longceased to be strictly a German phe-nomenon. “In Poland, the Czech Re-public, Slovakia or Romania, engi-neers are in just as short supply ashere,” Ruecker said.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Engineering service providers

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 37

Rank (’06)Company Sales 2007 1) Automotive 1) Employees Focus

1 (1) AVL List (A) 625.0 625.0 4,100 Powertrain, measurement & testing technology

2 (2) Edag Engineering (G) 611.0 550.0 5,200 Full vehicle, modules, plants

3 (4) Bertrandt (G) 339.5 322.5 4,708 Entire process chain

4 (3) IAV (G) 310.0 310.0 3,180 Electronics, powertrain, vehicle development

5 (6) MBtech Group (G) 300.0 about 285.0 2,500 Full vehicle, engine, powertrain, chassis

6 (5) Ferchau (G) 280.0 60.0 3,900 Chassis, suspension, engine, systems

7 (11) Bosch Engineering (G) 190.02) 175.02) 900 Engine modules, transmissions, brake systems.

8 (8) ESG (G) 186.0 59.0 1,150 Software architecture, electronics, driver assistance

9 (9) GermanINTEC (G) 176.0 167.2 1,227 Interiors, exteriors, small-series vehicle production

10 (10) FEV (G) 175.0 k.A. 1,500 Engines, alternative powertrains, measurement, testing

11 (6) Magna Steyr (A) 170.02) 170.02) 1,900 Full vehicle, prototype, alternative powertrains

11 (11) Karmann (G) about 170.0 about 170.0 about 1,200 Full vehicle, roof systems, production systems

13 (13) Rücker (G) 168.9 132.0 2,528 Interiors, exteriors, virtual reality, electrical/electronics

14 (15) ETAS (G) 137.0 137.0 700 Development & diagnostics tools for control systems

15 (16) IABG (G) 136.0 20.5 1,000 Test beds, mechatronics, CAE services

16 (14) Pininfarina (I) 135.02) 135.02) n.a. Full vehicle, project coordination, design, testing

17 (18) Brunel (G) 129.0 31.0 2,000 Electrical/electronics, vehicle testing, powertrain

18 (21) Mahle Powertrain (G) 106.6 106.6 619 Downsizing technology, test and control systems

19 (20) Euro Engineering (G) 104.8 41.9 1,600 Powertrain, interiors, exteriors, suspension

20 (17) Valmet Automotive (FIN) 85.0 85.0 789 Start-up management, roofs, chassis structures

21 (19) IVM Automotive (G) 84.0 84.0 890 Full vehicle, design chassis, interiors

22 (24) RLE (G) 83.0 81.3 950 Full vehicle, electronics, automation, powertrain

23 (22) P+Z Engineering (G) 73.0 66.0 850 Concept realization, simulation, electrical/electronics

24 (–) Applus IDIADA (E) 64.4 64.4 813 Full vehicle, construction, testing

25 (24) IndustrieHansa (G) 61.0 34.2 750 Digital engineering, electronics systems 1) Engineering sales in millions of euros 2) Estimate AutomobilwocheNot included: Porsche Engineering (G), Italdesign (I), Lotus Engineering (GB), Ricardo (GB) and Volke (G), No sales data were provided by these companies. Source: Companies/Automotive News Europe-Automobilwoche research

Overview: The world’s 25 biggest providers of engineering services 2007

WolfgangRuecker: Hesees greatpotential forhis companyin vehicleexteriors as well asinteriors.

ANE_IZB_36-37_Thema10.qxd 10/8/08 5:07 PM Page 37

Low-cost cars

38 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Low-cost cars are on the rise and

Industry experts

consider low-cost

cars one of the

most important new

market segments.

Suppliers are already

profiting.

On Jan. 10, 2008the automoti-

ve world was loo-king toward NewDelhi.

The scene wasthe excessively warm,congested Hall 11 of the AutoExpo in the metropolis on the Indi-an subcontinent.

There the Tata Nano was present-ed to the public for the first time asthough it were a Bollywood star. Itwas billed as “the least expensivecar in the world.”

The mini-car is considered theposter child and great hope of a newauto segment: low-cost cars.

A new generation of vehiclescould turn the auto industry on itshead: cars for the extremely fast-gro-wing markets in developing coun-tries such as India or China. Theseare cars that are very small, techni-cally straightforward and cheap.

In general, vehicles are describedas low-cost cars when they cost lessthan $10,000, or 7,000 euros. TheDacia Logan is considered one of

the first cars of the species. With a price of 5,000 euros in its

original Romanian market, it hasbeen considered Europe’s cheapestcar to this point.

A growing number of high-volu-me automakers are now involved inone low-cost project or another.

“Anyone wanting to assert his posi-tion in the world market needs an offe-ring in the low-cost-car segment,” said

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer,director of the Cen-

ter for Auto-motive

Rese-arch at

the Univer-sity of Applied

Sciences Gelsen-kirchen.

“Whoever doesn’t get in now on areasonable basis will soon be cha-sing the trend.”

Industry observers assume that aminimum of 10 million low-costcars worldwide will be sold in 2015.

It’s suppliers who profit from thisbusiness most of all. Many major in-dustry firms are already well posi-tioned in the new markets.

The Tata Nano is both global and aproduct of German industry. RobertBosch, for example, delivered the en-gine control system and parts for thebrake assembly, starter and genera-

tor. The gasoline pump and fill levelsensor come from Continental.

The low-cost segment is growingat about 5 percent a year, twice asfast as the overall car market. As aresult, Bosch wants to see revenuesof 1 billion euros from products forlow-cost cars by 2010.

“It is very important for us to havean early presence in emerging mar-kets,” said Wolf-Henning Scheider,who is in charge of Bosch’s gasolineinjection systems business.

The Tata Nano has initially cometo represent a class by itself, due toits uniquely low price of 100,000 ru-pees, or 1,700 euros.

Large volumes are planned. RatanTata, the Tata Group’s chairman,wants to manufacture 250,000 unitsa year of the people’s car. In the me-dium term, at least 1 million TataNanos are expected to come off pro-duction lines.

This Indian case of self-drivengrowth is just one of many low-costexamples. More and more high-vo-lume manufacturers are turning toinexpensive vehicles.

Under the code-name ULC, Re-nault is planning its own cheap carfor the Indian market. It will be builtin cooperation with Indian automa-ker Bajaj Auto and is expected tocost the equivalent of no more than1,600 euros.

Starting in 2011, the subcompactis expected to give the Nano somecompetition, with an annual pro-duction of 400,000 units initially.

Toyota plans to build a low-cost carin a new factory in St. Petersburg. TheRussian market is already more im-portant for Toyota than the German

the industry is taking note

Basic func-tion control-ler: Geely, aChineseautomaker, is scheduledto use theContinentalinnovationthis year.

ANE_IZB_38-39_Thema11.qxd 10/8/08 5:15 PM Page 38

market. Hyundai also plans a cheapcar for about 2,200 euros for the Chi-nese and later the Indian markets.

The price pressure in the emer-ging countries is so enormous thateven western automakers aren’t justrelying on low-cost products of wes-tern suppliers. They are also sour-cing parts and systems locally fromthe nation’s own companies.

For example, Volkswagen has justannounced its collaboration with theIndian supplier Minda Industries(MIL). The company, based in NewDelhi, is scheduled to supply head-lights and rear lighting units for futu-re VW models in the Indian market.

According to India’s Economic Ti-mes, a financial newspaper, the ven-ture transcends borders. MIL willprovide rear lights for a VW modeldue to be built in Russia.

The emerging markets are huge,and so is the competition. In Chinaalone, there are more than 100 carmanufacturers, and there are do-zens in India.

To keep up with domestic compa-nies in the cost area, suppliers likeBosch and Continental are develo-ping and producing special, inexpen-sive variants of their products locally.

Continental has just developed abody control device, a basic func-tion controller that is due to be usedin a car from the Chinese automa-ker Geely this year.

This device was “designed newfrom scratch and isn’t just a slim-med-down version of an availableproduct,” said Markus Gentzsch, aContinental systems engineer inShanghai.

Companies can’t arrive in newmarkets with tried and true pro-ducts off the shelf. The needs of lo-cal manufacturers and especiallytheir price expectations differ sub-stantially from those of West Euro-pean automakers.

“You have to be able to addresscustomer desires quickly and flexi-bly,” Gentzsch said.

For most companies, image pro-

blems resulting from the low-costbusiness are not an issue.

But “some of our customers don’talways apply the same quality de-mands that we do,” said Hans Hiebl, aContinental executive in Yokohama,Japan. He is responsible for Asian cus-tomers in the interior division’s bodyand security business unit.

“But we see an extremely fast lear-ning curve on the part of the manu-facturers.” And if a manufacturerasks for a lower price that “neglectsquality, we are ready to wait for thelearning curve.

Hiebl says Continental makes sureits products everywhere adhere tothe same corporate quality standards.

Executives at Bosch tell the samestory. “You have to have local exper-tise on site,” said Scheider, of thecompany’s unit for gasoline injec-tion systems. “Early entry into thesemarkets is enormously importantfor later success.”

Bosch was able to build additio-nal development centers in Banga-lore, India, and Shanghai, China.

Jointly with the firm’s Stuttgartdevelopment center, they have now

designed a completely new enginecontrol system for Tata’s Nano pro-ject at an unbeatable price.

It’s not just Indian customers whoare benefiting, Scheider said. Newdevelopments for low-cost cars ha-ve been so well conceived that theymake savings possible in the manu-facture of systems for luxurybrands.

A new study by the business con-sultancy Roland Berger also conclu-des that low-cost development andproduction methods have spilledover into the middle and luxuryclass segments, “changing the enti-re auto industry.”

The increasingly tough price batt-les and the growing competitionfrom developing countries are for-cing manufactures to adapt.

Said Wolfgang Bernhart, an auto-motive analyst at Roland Berger:“The established manufacturers arecoming under ever- increasing pres-sure because their rivals in the deve-loping countries are no longer limi-ting themselves to the lowest seg-ments.”

Philip Wesselhöft ■

Low-cost cars

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 39

Productionfor the Dacia Logan:This modelgave manyautomakersreason tocontemplatesimilar cars.

ANE_IZB_38-39_Thema11.qxd 10/8/08 5:15 PM Page 39

Standardizing production

40 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

A system off the rackVolkswagen and Mercedes are working on standardizing production

systems. Their goal: less complexity, more control and lower costs.

As competition increases andraw materials prices rise, auto-

makers around the world are chan-ging processes in their factories.

Innovative concepts have beendesigned to boost efficiency and rai-se competitiveness.

Volkswagen is a case in point. As ahigh-volume manufacturer right inthe midst of Western Europe’s satura-ted market, the Wolfsburg-based car-maker sees itself facing the task of on-ce again boosting the efficiency of itsfactories under difficult conditions.

“Our goal is to mold the companyinto a synchronous enterprise orien-ted toward value,” said Jochem Heiz-mann, VW’s production chief. Headded that he aims to do this by fo-cusing intensely on processes.

That requires an advanced pro-duction system, Heizmann said.Standardization of processes is key.

Each of VW’s production systems

was developed independently. Theapproach taken, the processes con-ceived and the documentation writ-ten was specific to each process.

This is a form of wastefulness,Heizmann now says. In the future,the company wants to start out witha unified concept. “We only needone system, one kit of methods, onecourse of action, and one approach,”the production chief said.

Groups of experts from the VW,Audi, Seat, Skoda and Bentleybrands have been working on a newapproach since the end of 2007.

Three main issues are being takeninto consideration: the creation ofcompany-wide implementation sys-tems; the definition of standards inprocesses, equipment, infrastructu-re and logistics; and the organiza-tion and execution of a continuousimprovement process.

“The brands’ best and most suc-

cessful approaches are being inte-grated as standard, Heizmann said.

For example, Bentley is the com-pany’s benchmark on the issue ofemployee training. So this know-how will be rolled out across theentire VW group.

The goal: synchronized produc-tion systems that significantly in-crease productivity.

Mercedes also has productivityhigh on its agenda. Based on its owndata, the company has increasedproductivity in its car factories by20 percent since 2006.

But that’s not enough. In comingyears, the Stuttgart-based carmakerstill would like to achieve another10 to 15 percent, depending on themodel line.

An important step is the estab-lishment of hours-per-vehicle (HPV)metrics for its factories.

This will let Mercedes directlycompare the performance of facto-ries and model lines, which willmake it easier to manage efficiency.

Mercedes looks at five areas: workstructures, just-in-time solutions,continuous improvement, qualityand robust processes, along with ef-ficient standardization.

In the process, individual issuescan’t be considered separate fromeach other, but are inter-dependent.

Uniform standards in productionand logistics are becoming increasin-gly important for the reduction ofcomplexity, the safeguarding of pro-cesses, and the reduction of costs.

Whoever masters this early holdsall the cards.

That’s because a targeted standar-dization increases flexibility on asustained basis. Factories can beconstructed more quickly. Also, pro-duction can be started faster andworkers can switch more easilyfrom one job to another. right.

Hilmar Dunker ■

Bildunterzei-len sldkfjsldfdasldf. Fruti-ger Bold9,5pt lskdfjdöaslkjfalöskdjf alskjfdaslfj adsldf.

Standar-dization isthe key tostarting upplants fasterand rampingup product-ion quickly.

ANE_IZB_40_Thema12.qxd 10/8/08 5:07 PM Page 40

Car-to-car communication

42 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Transportation beyond tomorrowA German field test is expected to determine whether cars can be

made to communicate with each other and with intelligent road signs.

To make driving safer, a field testis underway this summer that

permits cars to communicate witheach other and even with trafficsigns and construction cones.

If the large-scale test works out,future drivers will be informed about hazards such as accidents,traffic jams or one-way streets in real time. The test involves every-day conditions, outside of fixed laboratory settings.

In the test, a car already in a traf-fic jam is to immediately warn ap-proaching vehicles, for example. Ora sign on the roadside informs pas-sing cars that there is road workaround the next curve.

The trials are scheduled to lastfour years. About 500 vehicles fromthe greater Frankfurt area are beingequipped with sensors and trans-mission technology.

The 53-million-euro project hasbeen dubbed “Safe Intelligent Trans-portation – Test Market Germany, orSIM-TD for short. The partners inthe project include automakers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Opel and Volks-wagen, along with auto suppliersContinental, Bosch and Siemens.

Support is also coming from theGerman research, economy andtransport ministries, as well asDeutsche Telekom, the state of Hes-se, and the city of Frankfurt.

SIM-TD is expected to lay “thecornerstone for the introduction ofinnovative technologies and makefuture transportation safer, more ef-ficient and more com-fortable,” said MatthiasWissmann, the presi-dent of the VDA, theGerman auto industryassociation.

Continental CEOKarl-Thomas Neumann,hopes that SIM-TD willproduce as many in-

sights as possible. He said vehicles need to perceive

their environment far into the dis-tance and with the greatest possibledetail. That way they can avoid acci-dents involving fatalities and se-rious injuries.

That’s why Continental has deve-loped a radar sensor with a largerangle of aperture and a greater range. Similarly, it has improved theclose-range sensors of the proximityregulating radar for its adaptive cru-ise control (ACC) system.

New sensors have to simultane-ously recognize driving lanes andother vehicles, so that emergencybraking can be introduced later.

“Object classification is extremelyimportant for the management ofpedestrian protection systems,”Neumann said. His long-range goalis a “car that sees.”

The vehicle becomes a mobilesensor that receives and processessignals from other cars directly orindirectly through a traffic manage-ment center.

The radio network of the future hasto be flexible and speak and under-stand a number of radio languages.

Since the range of these systemsis a maximum of 500 meters, vehi-cles, traffic lights and guardrails areto pass the warning from car to car.

Bettina Mayer ■

Phot

o:Vi

sum

Cars are expected to exchange data with other road users and traffic signs.

ANE_IZB_42_Thema13.qxd 10/8/08 4:57 PM Page 42

IT organization

Millions in savings Bavaria-based Webasto, a specialist in auxiliary heating and roof systems,

is restructuring and working on the centralization of its IT structure.

Webasto has been forced to batt-le the same problem facing

many other suppliers on the globalstage. Their IT structures are often ge-ared to local business, with a corres-ponding impact on the organization.

The company, which is based inStockdorf , just outside Munich, is ac-tive in 50 locations worldwide. Manywere established as part of joint ven-tures that were acquired successive-ly in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The company structure and thusthe IT structure was organized onan extremely decentralized basis asa result,” said Bernd Goellnitz, chiefinformation officer at Webasto.

Stand-alone solutions resultedfrom an early initiative toward aunified enterprise resource plan-ning (ERP) system designed to boostthe efficiency of internal processes,according to Goellnitz.

The cause: The installations andadjustments were carried out inde-

pendently from one another on adecentralized basis.

And the systems kept diverging. Noadjustments were made for processstandards or master data, such as arti-cle, supplier or customer master data.Versions of the ERP system that werespecific to a country came into use.That ultimately caused data and pro-cess models to drift apart.

“There was a high risk in thisheterogeneity that IT and processcosts would dramatically rise,”Goellnitz said. In addition, this non-uniform and splintered processlandscape complicated work flowson a continuing basis.

In response, Webasto realignedits strategic objectives in its IT area.In the foreground was the reductionof complexity through the standar-dization of internal process, leadingto lower costs. For that, the maker ofauxiliary heating and roof systemscarried out a complete redesign ofits processes.

A pilot project was launched inPortugal in 2004. Project name: Ge-nesis. It was led by a global projectmanagement group and a joint

team from Webasto’s IT area and itsdepartments. That team has beenresponsible for and has controlledthe central process. Local projectmanagers in turn secure activities atcompany locations.

Webasto is now pushing throughthe harmonization and realignmentof its data architecture for 7,000 em-ployees.

Other European Webasto loca-tions have followed suit. Asia andthe US are key markets scheduled forthis year. The benefits are clear fromthe details: The total number of sys-tems is being continuously reduced.The same is true for the support forinterfaces. Webasto is turning exten-sively to SAP for its solutions.

Goellnitz expects to save millionsof euros a year. “Beyond that, we aresignificantly accelerating the inte-gration of new firms and locationsworldwide by means of this stan-dardization,” he said.

Eventually process improve-ments and innovations will be avai-lable to all users. The realignment isdue to be completed by 2011.

Hilmar Dunker ■

Webastoroof produc-tion in Portu-gal: The pilotproject waslaunched here.

44 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

ANE_IZB_44_Thema14.qxd 10/8/08 5:08 PM Page 44

Crash-test simulation

46 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Colliding with teraflop accuracyAudi runs one of the 150 fastest computers in the world. It simulates

accidents, spots weaknesses and helps negotiate a jungle of test standards.

It’s quiet when Christopher Rhodylaunches a crash test. No loud noise,

no broken glass or twisted metal.The Audi employee, who is in

charge of side and head protectiondevelopment, simulates accidentson the computer.

A 29 teraflop high-performancecomputer has supported him in thiswork since April.

With the help of increasingly fastcomputers, these crash simulationscan be configured ever more preci-sely and realistically.

A computer cluster, an assemblyof 320 computers, creates morethan 15 teraflops of computing out-put. This corresponds to about 15trillion computations per second.

“The cluster is the fastest compu-ter in the auto industry and evenone of the 150 fastest computersworldwide,” explains Eric Felber, anAudi spokesman.

“The new high-speed computeraccelerates the simulation work-flow several times over.”

Due to the steadily increasingrange of models, it’s essential “tosubject every model to every concei-vable accident situation during thedevelopment period,” said UlrichWidmann, manager of vehicle safe-ty development at Audi.

The faster the computer, the moresurely and unambiguously the acci-dent can be simulated.

Development engineers underta-ke about 5,000 simulations a week,ranging from frontal crashes to spe-cial component tests. As a result,they can already recognize and fixpossible weaknesses before the con-struction of the first prototype.

With crash simulations, it’s possi-ble to do development work close tocurrent market conditions, to reactquickly to customer requirementsor findings of Audi’s own accidentresearches.

Audi’s new acquisition works ex-tremely efficiently: the 608 compu-ters are mounted on eight, two-me-ter-high racks and take up about 30percent less space than regularcrash simulation computers.

And these poweful virtual brainsare only available to Audi develop-ment engineers for digital experi-ments.

Due to efficient cooling, the clus-ter cuts energy uses by 25 percentand consumes just 86 kilowatts in-stead of the usual 115.

There are good reasons for Audito expand its stock of computers to cope with the technological challenges of its growing range ofmodels.

Vehicle development today wo-uld no longer be possible withoutthese comprehensive crash simula-tions, due to the automobile’s incre-asing complexity as well as compul-sory testing requirements.

There are 50 different configura-tions just for one front crash. Beforethe first physical crash, a model

goes through about 100,000 virtualcrashes on the computer.

“Depending on the kind of test,the ratio of physical to virtual crashtests is between 1:24 and 1:40,” saidFelber, the Audi spokesman. “Thatmeans there is one ‘true test run’ forevery 25 to 40 virtual tests.

“For specific crashes, such as pe-destrian protection, the ratio is bet-ween 1:75 and 1:100.”

A model goes through about1,000 simulations a week in its 48-month development phase.

Before the first prototype is evenbuilt, the virtual cars has alreadycompleted more than 100,000 simu-lations.

It can take from 30 minutes to aweek to have the simulation com-puted, depending on the complexi-ty of the accident.

So when the developers really puttheir theories to the test with a realcrash for the first time, the vehicleshave already achieved a very highsafety standard.

Bettina Mayer ■

ChristopherRhody pro-vides sup-port to Audi’s engi-neers withcrash simu-lations.

ANE_IZB_46_Thema15.qxd 10/8/08 5:15 PM Page 46

AutoVision ______________________________ 33Bertrandt ______________________________ 59ContiTech _____________________________ 27Dekra __________________________________ 21Deltec _________________________________ 41Diehl ___________________________________ 35Dräxlmaier _____________________________ 33Fehrer _________________________________ 45Gebauer & Griller _______________________ 17Getrag ________________________________ 25Hirschmann ______________________________ 31Hirschvogel ______________________________ 11Imag ___________________________________ 55Invest in Germany ______________________ 63Lanxess _______________________________ 41Leoni __________________________________ 45Lohmann ______________________________ 51M Plan _________________________________ 55Messe Düsseldorf ______________________ 59Messe Leipzig __________________________ 53ProLogis _________________________________ 51Recaro ________________________________ 49Schaeffler Gruppe ______________________ 15Scheideler ______________________________ 47Siemens _______________________________ 64State of Georgia ________________________ 43Sumitomo ______________________________ 35Suspa __________________________________ 17Valeo __________________________________ 2Voith ___________________________________ 23Wahler _________________________________ 19Witzenmann ____________________________ 13WKW __________________________________ 47

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48 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Seating development

More comfort, less weight Back problems and customers’ increasing demands for comfort are driving

the development of car seats. They are becoming high-tech components.

The seat represents the main linkbetween the vehicle and its oc-

cupants. “About three quarters of abody’s surface is in continuous con-tact with the seat,” said AndrewLeuchtmann, manager, seat deve-lopment, at General Motors Europe.

“Accordingly, safety and comfortissues are decisively influenced bythe seat,” said the executive, who isresponsible for the design of thesekey components at GM worldwide.

Two seating trends – comfort andergonomics – are not at all new. Butwith back problems increasing inWestern Europe, they are becomingmore important.

The new generation of seats inthe Opel Insignia meets the new re-quirements with extraordinarilylong adjustment tracks for heightand length, orthopedically correctdesign, and a backrest that is 2cmthicker than that of its predecessor,the Vectra.

Concept cars like the Rinspeed eXa-sis show that new materials as well asbionics-inspired designs are on theway in the middle- and long-term.

The concept car, presented for thefirst time at the Geneva auto showin 2007, has seats with a spinal-co-lumn-style skeleton made from Ma-krolon, a fiber composite material.It was developed in cooperationwith Recaro.

Each of the twelve transparent ribsis spanned with material. There is al-so headrest upholstery made fromtransparent gel material. Thanks tothe floating upholstery, the seat ad-justs automatically to the occupants.

With its “space up! Blue” conceptvehicle, Volkswagen has also turnedto a seat that automatically adjuststo individual anatomy. The arm-rests of the four seats in this mini-bus concept consist of so-calledAirflow foam. The “space up! Blue”concept was introduced in Los An-

geles in 2007. Johnson Controls presented anot-

her materials solution, the “Slim Seat” seating concept, at the lastFrankfurt auto show. Among otherthings, it offers packaging advanta-ges for the interior.

Instead of conventional upholstery,this seat has a so-called “comfortshell,” which is manufactured withan injection molding procedure.

It requires less foam strength forthe same level of comfort, thus making a leaner, space-saving de-sign possible.

Car seats have already becomehigh-tech components that may account for up to 12 percent of a vehicle’s manufacturing costs.

Active ventilation is an example:Audi has integrated two small venti-lators in each backrest and cushionthat can be adjusted at six levels inthe climate-comfort seats of its newQ5 SUV. To handle any excessivecooling, the Ingolstadt firm incorpo-rated an auxiliary heater that auto-matically turns on when needed.

Mercedes has furt-her developed itsAirscarf headroomheating systemthat it present-

ed for the first time in the SLK in 2004.

It’s also been an option on the SLsince its model upgrade last spring.While a ventilation line goes throughthe seat up to the headrest in the SLK,the blower and heating is entirelyhoused in the headrest in the SL.

Two small ventilators take in airbehind the headrest and direct itthrough an electric heating element.

The air flows out of the headrestand warms the head, neck and thro-at of the occupants. Driver and pas-senger individually control thethree levels of temperature.

The higher needs for comfort andsafety, however, lead to a vexing sea-ting issue: weight.

If fuel consumption and CO2emissions are to be reduced, seatswill also need to be slimmed down.

This worked for the Opel Insig-nia: High-strength steel is used forthe structure of the seat.

At the same time, a new produc-tion technology was introduced inwhich the individual tube-shaped

pipes of the framework arepressed flat during as-

sembly, making themmore stable. That madeit possible to reduce the

weight by 10 to 15 per-cent. The bottom line:

This brought a savings ofup to 3kg per seat.

Alexandra Haack ■

A seat in the Opel Insignia isroughly 3kglighter thana seat in itspredecessor,the Vectra.

ANE_IZB_48_Thema16.qxd 10/8/08 4:56 PM Page 48

50 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Roof systems

Raising the roof while drivingThe roof system of the future will be lighter, more comfortable and safer.

Germany is Western Europe’s big-gest convertible market. A total

of 138,071 new convertibles and ro-adsters were registered betweenFlensburg and Füssen. And droptopsales continue to grow, according tonew figures from Germany’s federaltransport agency.

To make sure the trend continues,German roof specialists Edscha,Karmann and Webasto are workingon solutions for the next and subse-quent model generations.

“Based on our estimates, foldawayhard and softtops for various targetgroups will continue to define themarket,” said Holger Schramm,chief developer for roof systems atOsnabrück-based Karmann.

Buyers of models with retractablehardtops use the car mostly as theirfirst vehicle and frequently do nothave a garage. Looks are decisive.

“In the future, retractable hard-tops will become less complex andthus less susceptible to malfunc-tions,” said Schramm, describing animportant trend for both roof types.

“For cloth tops, we are mainlyworking on multicolor textiles aswell as on textiles with a structure,so that a visually interesting high-low effect results.”

All roof specialists are tacklingthe issue of saving weight. The firstpre-development work with carbonfiber composite materials is under-way at Karmann.

At the Geneva Motor Show inMarch, Webasto introduced itsLigHT convertible concept: a roofsystem made from paper honey-comb with a heatable rear windowmade from polycarbonate.

The reactions to the innovativelightweight roof were “surprisinglypositive,” a Webasto official said.

“The system weighs less than 20kilos as a mechanically operabletop,” said Ralph-Peter Baule, globalvice president for convertibles atthe Stockdorf company in Bavaria.

Webasto is also developing carbon

fiber components for the mechani-cal operations of roofs, Baule said.

A main concern is slimming roofsdown, he said. After all, vehicle ma-nufacturers are granting so-called“kilo bonuses.”

Baule sees great prospects for roofsthat open during driving as well asfor combinations of folding and sli-ding roofs, as can be seen on the Mi-ni convertible and the VW Eos .

Comfort issues are in the fore-ground at Remscheid-based Edscha.For example, the 2.2-meter fabrictop on the new Audi A3 convertibleopens in just nine seconds.

“The world record is this order ofmagnitude,” said Michael Altmeyer,the company’s sales chief for con-vertible systems.

The folding mechanism mixeselegance and convenience. Whenthe top is down, the roof is coveredby the front roof element itself. The-refore, neither a cover nor a cove-ring lid is needed.

In addition, Edscha is workingwith Ident Technology to developcontact-less anti-pinch protectionfor folding tops. It could go into pro-duction as early as 2010. Edscha ar-gues that this would especially ma-ke four-seat convertibles apprecia-bly safer, in particular when chil-dren are occupying the backseats.

Component manufacturers areshowing that movable roof szstemsno longer suffer from lack of tight-ness, bad heat insulation, and highnoise levels.

Multi-layered softtops have alrea-dy been developed that surpass fi-xed roofs in heat insulation.

There is hardly any difference inacoustics as well. For example, thenoise level in the interior of the newAudi A3 convertible at 140kph isjust one decibel louder than in theclosed A3 compact car.

In the future, it is generally belie-ved that softtops will primarily beequipped with relatively large rearwindows, mostly made from plas-tics like polycarbonate. That wouldimprove the rear view.

Jürgen Pander ■

The develop-ment of roofsystems atKarmann: Future vehicle tops will be lighter.

Roof assem-bly: Both retractablehardtopsand soft-tops will beoffered to the market inthe future.

ANE_IZB_50_Thema17.qxd 10/8/08 4:56 PM Page 50

Cars are learning to think ahead With greater safety and more comfort, electronic aides are helping drivers. By

2010, a device could even be able to take over in an emergency at a junction.

About 76 percent of all traffic ac-cidents can be traced back to

driver error.That was one finding of the

“2010 Intelligent Car Initiative” pro-ject group of the European Com-mission’s research center.

As a result, assistance systems,which take the burden off drivers,warn about dangers or even interve-ne when necessary, contribute togreater vehicle safety.

Thanks to ABS and ESP sensors,cars recognize potential driving er-rors today.

With the help of radarand camera systems, they have theability to see. Soon, they will even beable to communicate with one anot-her using wireless LAN technology.

By mid 2010, a research initiative,Adaptive and Cooperative Techno-logies for Intelligent Transporta-tion, or Aktiv, plans to develop mo-re advanced assistance systems tomarket readiness.

Among other innovations, anintersection assistant should be de-veloped over four years of research.It is designed to aid drivers as theynegotiate intersections and is evensupposed to intervene if necessary.

“In this way, we hope to reducethe number of traffic accidents, and,despite increased traffic growth, tomaintain traffic flow,” said Eber-hard Hipp, Aktiv’s coordinator. Atotal of 29 organisations are takingpart in the project, which the Ger-man economics ministry is suppor-ting with 15 million euros.

Automatic emergency braking isalready set for regular production.For example, the Lexus LS 460 isequipped with it.

And supplier TRW is currentlyworking on an affordable radarwith a range of up to 150 meters.

The radar’s reach is long-rangebut narrow. So a video camera with

wide coverage gathers additionalimage data. The information is syn-chronized every 40 milliseconds.

When the system calculationspredict a critical situation, it has tobe independently verified by all thedata records. Only then, and after awarning, will the system trigger theautomatic emergency braking.

Traffic sign recognition is optio-nal on the Opel Insig-

nia and the newBMW 7 Se-

ries. Opel

calls its system the “Opel Eye.” Itwas developed in cooperation withHella.

Not only does it read speed limitand no-passing signs, but it can alsorecognize when the prohibitionsare lifted.

A high resolution, wide-angle ca-mera on the front windshieldshoots 30 pictures per second. Theyare evaluated with two signal pro-cessors and with software.

Depending on the light situation,the system starts recognizing signsand reading them multiple times ata distance of 100 meters.

Round structures are sought initi-ally, and the numbers inside areidentified by comparing contours.

A warning signal lights up on theinstrument panel when a picturecorresponds to a stored traffic sign.

“In our work with Opel Eye, wehave been able to further developthe system’s capabilities,” saidChristoph Schmidt, manager ofelectronics development for the In-signia.

“For example, autobahn lanes inGermany have different speed li-mits, and the camera system is capa-ble of reliably recognizing the cor-rect one in each case.”

Besides the assistance systems de-voted to driving safety, there areothers such as windshield wiperswith rain sensors, automatically ac-tivated low beams, and parkingaids.

The latter automatically recogni-ze right-sized spaces on the roadsi-de. In some systems, the driver re-ceives information on the displayon how hard he has to turn thewheel.

French supplier Valeo developeda half-automatic “Park4U” parkingaid. Starting in 2009, it will find itsway into still smaller spaces thancurrent systems do (40cm fore andaft are required) and soon will pullout by itself. Alexandra Haack ■

Lane depar-ture aideswarn driversabout inad-vertent lanechanges.

Driver assistance

52 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

ANE_IZB_52_Thema18.qxd 10/8/08 5:08 PM Page 52

54 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Women in the industry

Women tackling technologyWomen engineers are very much in demand in the auto industry, but are still

a minority. Stefanie Ulrich would find a female quota of 20 percent helpful.

For years, numerous campaignshave tried to attract young wo-

men to male-dominated profes-sions. “The success has been mo-dest,” said sociology professor BeateKrais of Germany’s Darmstadt Uni-versity of Technology.

As part of a study in late 2006,Krais surveyed nearly 9,000 maleand female graduates in enginee-ring as well as the chemistry, phy-sics and information technology.

The results: Women are less suc-cessful than men in technology andnatural science professions, in-dependent of age, economicsector, university degreeand qualifications.

Women’s careers de-velop more slowly andstagnate earlier, Kraisfound. And womenaren’t integrated aswell as men in the bu-siness or promoted tothe same extent.

Stefanie Ulrich, ma-naging director for per-sonnel at Audi’s Brussels factory, con-siders quota for women to be a toolthat could prove effective.

“We are aiming for a share of 20percent in our hiring of trainees,”Ulrich said. Studies show that sucha share of women can have a highlypositive effect on a group. That’s notan insignificant factor, says Ulrich,as building cars invariably involvesteamwork.

In mid-2008, the share of womenwas just 12.1 percent. But thanks toappropriate measures, it has risen30.5 percent in the last 10 years.

Audi sponsors nurseries and spotsin kindergartens specifically forchildren of Audi employees. Thecarmaker also facilitates re-entry into the workforce up to sevenyears after a child’s birth.

Audi offers various kinds of work

schedules, including telecommuting,part-time work or sabbatical leaves.

Women aiming for a career in theauto industry absolutely need astrong technical background, per-sonnel executives say. And eventhen, for most female engineers,that just means struggling through.

“Even in 2008, a female engineerremains an exception in a man’s

world,” said Rita Forst,executive direc-

tor for producte n g i n e e r -

ing at GM

Powertrain Europe. “It will take years

to change that, if weever are going to actual-

ly have an equally highshare of women.”

Cristina Siletto, a Fiat engineer,can only agree. “Mostly, society andthe women’s families motivatethem to pursue studies in the artsmore often than they inspire themto study technical subjects.”

There are still too few womenventuring into engineering studies,said Ulrich, the Audi personnel exe-cutive. In the meantime, womenwith the right expertise have extre-mely good opportunities in the auto

industry, she said.“The number of our female custo-

mers in the Mercedes-Benz andSmart area continues to grow, saidDaimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. ”Weare grooming women with technicaland scientific training,” he added.

Ford and Volkswagen are also in-vesting in their female staff. Theautomakers have introduced men-toring programs where women canregularly share information.

In addition, regular meetings offemale executives take place, some-times on a global level.

Global supplier Bosch also isusing company quota of technologi-cally-oriented women to achieve its

goals of getting more wome-ne into its work force. .

“In leadership posi-tions as well, our sha-re of women is to beincreased on a sus-tained basis,” saidSabine Zahnert, per-sonnel consultant atBosch in Stuttgart.

About 80 percent of Bo-sch’s newly hired university

graduates are engineers and scien-tists.

In any case, the share of women isto rise, Zahnert said. “At Bosch, groo-ming women isn’t a program. It’s amindset.”

A large number of women me-anwhile have started to become in-volved in networks to counter themale-dominated corporate andwork culture.

One German network is Femtecin Berlin, where women in enginee-ring and scientific professions haveorganized. Bosch, Daimler and Por-sche support Femtec. But there is al-so a global women’s network, theInternational Network of WomenEngineers and Scientists (INWES).

Bettina Mayer ■

Personnel expert Stefanie Ulrich is responsiblefor 6,000workers atAudi’s Brus-sels factory.

ANE_IZB_54_Thema19.qxd 10/8/08 4:56 PM Page 52

Mercedestrucks: Theelectronicsvary greatlyfrom modelto model.

Software re-engineering

56 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Rapid response in the data floodAs years pass, software packages can become extremely confused.

Daimler’s software specialists are re-engineering the source.

Electronics and software are es-sential to the modern vehicle.

As a result, Software specialists inDaimler’s research area go into ac-tion with their teams if there is anunexpected problem with softwarein electronic control units in the de-velopment of a new vehicle model.

The origins of the electronic “fire”to which these experts from the advanced development area res-pond can be innocuous disturban-ces in the control unit of a telema-tics system.

The screen might only form lineby line in a time loop in the naviga-tion mode. Or it might suddenly failwhen the telephone is activated.

But more serious failures can alsoemerge. In certain circumstances,they can affect engine controls ortransmission management.

If you were to express the require-ments profile of all the control units

in a car, you would end up with aspecifications document filling upto 500 packed binders.

Once you consider that nearly allcontrol units or controllers in wha-tever form communicate with oneanother, it becomes clear that in-consistencies can occur again andagain during a vehicle’s develop-ment phase.

“Most control units are developedand produced along with their soft-ware by specialized suppliers basedon guidelines from the automaker,”a source at Daimler said.

For software that is especially cri-tical from a competitive standpoint,however, Daimler develops the ap-propriate source code itself. Oneexample would be software for a po-wertrain.

Code or software analysis is oneapproach to detect possible weakpoints in the control unit. In this

process, the source code is investi-gated with special analysis pro-grams to uncover errors and incon-sistencies.

This procedure can be comparedto a formal text analysis. A text,such as a cooking recipe, can bewritten in various ways and withvarious words. But for all the des-criptions, there are applicable gram-mar and spelling rules.

In today’s word processing pro-grams, such functions are alreadyintegrated for the most part. Theyindicate spelling and syntax errorsto the user or even correct them.

Code analysis programs functionsimilarly, although the details areconsiderably more complicated.

The software checkers have thesource code run through various co-de analysis programs.

These programs recognize unam-biguous errors, such as division byzero, as well as program compo-nents that have not been executed,or incorrect storage access.

At the conclusion of code analy-sis, a list of all the errors and incon-sistencies that were discovered isavailable.

With its help, the specialists nextbegin to correct the errors. As a rule,the automaker does not do this onits own. It gives the supplier’s soft-ware developers direction for fixingthe mistakes.

In practice, that seems to be thecase so frequently that the Daimlercode analysts go on site at the res-pective supplier for a few days. The-re they investigate source codeswith their so-called fire-fightingsoftware and announce their re-commendations.

In the process, the code itself al-ways stays with the supplier, sincethe particular software for the con-trol unit is its intellectual property.

With code analysis, the program,

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Software re-engineering

meaning the source code, is merelyexamined and not run through atext procedure.

Since functionality tests cannotdetect every possible error combi-nation, the code analysis is also exe-cuted to localize the source of theerror.

In any case, the software has to beerror-free. With code analysis, theexperts therefore only have latitudeon the issue of how precisely theformal rules have to be adhered to.

This question was posed in the ca-se of a common powertrain control-ler (CPC). This is a control unit thatis used in light and heavy trucksand buses.

Since commercial vehicles rarelyresemble one another and thus theelectronics vary greatly, a CPC hasto be able to picture numerous vari-ations. Nonetheless, it has to com-municate reliably with the approxi-mately 30 other commercial vehiclecontrol units.

“Runtime errors kept occurring,and in these cases we did not knowwhere and when the errors werecaused,” one of the software specia-lists at Daimler recalled.

Since the errors could not be re-

produced, a code analysis of this ex-tremely extensive software was nee-ded. The causes were found and fixed in the course of running it.

If the software keeps being re-de-veloped over the years, this organicgrowth often has the result of gra-dually making it confusing, Daim-ler experts say.

The software does still functionto a great degree, but no-longer-nee-ded algorithms are dragged alongand inexplicable errors come up.New employees find the originalsource code barely comprehensible.

The result: at some point, newfunctions can no longer be integra-ted without errors occurring.

In cases like this, code analysisalong no longer is much help, andDaimler’s researchers get busy withso-called software reengineering,meaning the reorganization of theentire program.

One example of this is the electro-nic differential slip controller (DSR)found on buses and Mercedes-Benztrucks, including Atego, Axor andActros. With the help of the DSR,the axle burden distribution is cal-culated and the braking power isoptimally distributed, based on

wheel revolutions.Eventually the experts decided

there was reason enough to unlacethe software package and restruc-ture it.

For one thing, the DSR softwareintroduced in the Actros in 1987had grown over the years and nee-ded to be reorganized so it could bemaintained and expanded more ef-fectively

The goals were a greater, cost-ef-fective internal re-use of the soft-ware, the reduction of failure riskand faster expansion into new, addi-tional functions.

Another concern was that thecommercial vehicle developerswanted another supplier, and theywanted to make the expertise avai-lable to the firm in a clearly structu-red way.

“With this kind of software res-tructuring, we really don’t want tore-invent the wheel, but rather car-ry over proven algorithms in a sus-tainable form and document themin a way that is understandable fornew employees,” a software specia-list said.

The differential slip controllershows that the researchers’ workhas fallen on fertile ground amongtheir colleagues.

According to Daimler, the help ofsoftware experts in the researcharea has made it possible to separatecurrent production software intosmall, clearly comprehensible parts.

That in turn makes it possible forthe software specialists to concen-trate on the core of the application,namely function development, irrespective of the hardware.

The goal of the researchers is tocreate cleaner software architectu-res through re-engineering. So far,such program restructuring hasmostly occurred at a late stage, whe-re the structures are already veryconfused and take a heavy toll of time and on staff.

As a result, the software teams oc-cupied with software structures arealso working on ways of automa-ting the re-engineering at least tosome degree. To the experts, the ide-al would be software restructuringat the push of a button.

Klaus-Dieter Flörecke ■

Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008 | 57

Specialistsduring analysis:Productionsoftware isseparatedinto small,compre-hensibleparts.

ANE_IZB_56-57_Q_Daimler.qxd 10/8/08 4:55 PM Page 57

▲Run-flat tires

58 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

Air goes out of run-flat tiresThe hopes of the tire industry were high, and now the disappointment is

that much greater. Run-flat tires simply haven’t made the breakthrough.

When they reached the marketearlier this decade, the pre-

dictions were that run-flats wouldmake a phenomenal, triumphalmarch through the industry.

BMW was the first automaker tointroduce them on regular produc-tion models, putting them on its Z8in 2000.

Roland Berger’s consultants wereso enthusiastic about the technolo-gy that they forecast that tires withrun-flat characteristics would havea car market share of 80 percent by2013. J.D. Power was even more eu-phoric: its experts likwise projectedan 80 percent market share, but intheir case by 2010.

These forecasts look like they will turn out to be nothing morethan hot air. Run-flat tires haven’tcaught on, either in Germany orworldwide.

Although they are offered by ne-arly all manufacturers, run-flats area sideshow eight years after their in-troduction. Today consultants nolonger give them any chance of ma-king a breakthrough.

In a wide-ranging market evalua-tion, the Notch Consulting Grouphas come to the conclusion thatrun-flat tires will remain “a nichespecialty with small market volu-mes within a large tire industry.”

The enthusiasm is increasinglygiving way to disillusionment.Worldwide, run-flats had a marketshare of less than 0.5 percent in2006. The figure for passenger vehi-cles was 0.7 percent.

Actually, forecasts still see growthfor run-flats, but at a very low level.Their market share could be 1 per-cent in 2010 and a little more than 2percent in 2025, according to NotchConsulting’s tire analysts.

The arguments that were suppo-sed to win customers over to run-flats sounded good to security-

conscious drivers.They would not have to leave

their car in case of a flat if they hadthe new tires. This is especially anadvantage when the puncture oc-curs on a dark night in a remotearea, and rain is pattering againsttheir car’s windshield.

And they can drive their car 150km on a run-flat even after a fullloss of tire pressure. That should beenough to reach a tire dealer or re-pair shop.

The argument has a small flaw,however: the average driver on Ger-man roads has a flat tire every100,000 to 150,000 miles, or rough-ly every 10 years.

It’s rather unlikely that this would occur at exactly the momentwhen circumstances were the leastfavorable.

The breakthrough continues toelude run-flat technology becauseautomakers haven’t been inclinedto use it in large volumes. The futu-re of run-flat tires could only be se-cured with their use as originalequipment across the board.

So far, with the exception ofBMW, all automakers are doing wi-thout run-flats as standard equip-ment. Instead, they offer tires withrun-flat characteristics as an optionon individual models, for a steepsurcharge.

Even BMW, the strongest advoca-te for run-flat technology amongautomakers, is not consistent in itsusage of the technology.

According to a BMW spokesman,run-flats are in fact “an importantaspect of customer safety.” But thecompany’s large 5 and 7 Series don’toffer the supplementary safety feature as standard equipment. In addition, the Mini One and theMini Cooper only offer run-flats atextra cost.

The extra charge for run-flats onPhot

o:D

DP

ANE_IZB_58-60_Reifen.qxd 10/8/08 5:09 PM Page 58

Run-flat tires

60 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

a BMW 520i is between 510 and2,550 euros. This leads to a curioussituation: on the one hand, a 1 Seriesowner is able to keep driving on aflat tire. On the other, if he choosesnot to pay the extra charge, a busi-nessman in a 5 Series has to headout into the rain and get his jack.

BMW has a reason for not offe-ring run-flats on the 5 Series and 7 Series: with their reinforced sides,they make the vehicle’s ride lesscomfortable than conventional tires do.

A study from the Eindhoven Uni-versity of Technology confirms this:“On uneven road surfaces the ridecomfort will get worse and in parti-cular the dynamic loads on suspen-sion components and vehicle bodywill increase significantly,” says IgoBesselink, a researcher at the uni-versity.

But high prices and inadequatecomfort are not the biggest pro-blems with the new technology.

The mounting of the reinforcedtires is complicated and repletewith potential problems. When amotor vehicle expert examinedmounted run-flat tires for damage,his conclusions were frightening:just three out of the 50 tires that we-re investigated were undamaged.

The damage was apparently cau-sed during mounting and removal.It can lead to dramatic results. Aftera mounting error, one safety tire ex-ploded at 240kmh.

If the tires aren’t mounted proper-ly, the gain in safety quickly givesway to increased risk.

To get this dangerous problemunder control, representatives of ti-re producers, retailers and automa-kers teamed up and drafted a guidefor mounting run-flats and ultrahigh performance tires. It is 59 pa-ges long, and contains a 31-pagesupplement.

Due to the mounting problem,BMW has already thought aboutpulling run-flats from its regular se-

ries, said Peter Drust of ASA, the national association of manufactu-rers and importers of automotiveservice equipment.

But so far, BMW is staying withthem. Michelin, on the other hand,doesn’t see a future for this design oftires.

For years, the French firm hasbeen touting its PAX system as an al-ternative to run-flats.

That has come to an end. Miche-lin has announced it is no longercontinuing to develop PAX. “Themarket demand is insufficient tojustify the costs,” said Philippe Denimal, Michelin’s developmentdirector.

Matthias Karpstein ■

Global sales of run-flat tires

. . .. .

. . . . .

Estimate

Market share of run-flat tires in %

Unit sales of run-flat tiresTotal tire sales

International market growth

Passenger car tire replacements in Germany(in millions)

41%

24%

13%

10%

8%4%

$575,000,000Goodyear/Sumitomo Industries

$180,000,000Continental

$340,000,000Bridgestone

$140,000,000Pirelli

$110,000,000Michelin group

Source: Notch

$55,000,000other suppliers

$4 billion worth of run-flat tires were sold globally in 2006.

Sales of run-flat tires are slow in the German market as well as globally.

Fightingflats: Thanksto reinforcedtire walls,the driverreaches thenext repairshop.

ANE_IZB_58-60_Reifen.qxd 10/8/08 5:09 PM Page 60

Simulation technology

62 | Automotive News Europe | IZB Supplement 2008

New facility is engineers’ dreamA 350-ton test bed that is unique in Europe has been delivering precise

error analysis since September, allowing vehicle developers to sleep better.

It is a situation that has reducedthousands of engineers around

the world to despair. Every compo-nent of the prototype satisfies thedemands and requirements of thespecifications document, yet its dri-ving behavior doesn’t meet their lof-ty expectations.

The individual components causeoperating problems apparently forthe first time when integrated intothe system, or more precisely, in-stalled into a vehicle.

The examples might be creakingsounds from the anti-roll bar moun-ting or unsatisfactory handling orcomfort. However, a new test bedmay come to the aid of long-suffe-ring engineers.

At TÜV SÜD Automotive in Gar-ching, the Dynamic Chassis Simula-tor (DCS) has been operating sinceSeptember.

For the first time, quick, preciseconclusions about the street-chas-sis-body causation chain are possi-ble at one facility. The test bed isunique in Europe.

“It involves a characteristics andanalysis test bed that permits theexact breakdown of individual dri-ving maneuvers. It’s therefore not adurability test bed,” explains StefanResch, the DCS project manager atTÜV SÜD Automotive.

Developers can now tackle com-plicated, detailed problems throughthe abatement of specific dimen-sions: in the case of driving arounda curve, engineers can isolate indivi-dual directions of force or even eli-minate them.

The chassis simulator also makesindividual tests of various compo-nents obsolete, and, in contrast withwork on test tracks, all tests are reproducible at any time on the test bed.

The time savings are likely to bejust as important: a car is ready forthe test in three days, and the first

results of the analysis can comeback within a day.

“The time factor plays an enor-mous role in increasingly short de-velopment times,” Resch said.

The DCS is as impressive for itsscale as it is for its capabilities. Thefacility is mounted upon a pneuma-tically raised mass damper weigh-ting 350 tons.

About 1,800 liters of oil are keptcirculating with a pump output of350 kilowatts.

Previously, vehicle developersand automakers had to carry out theappropriate tests to some extent onvarious full, half or quarter-vehicletest beds.

In one case, the DCS quicklyfound the source of a prototype’s ill-omened creaking. “In its installedcondition, a shock absorber makes agrating sound because the pistonrod in the upper starts to swing,”Resch said.

Previously, the developers hadtested the shock absorber only arti-ficially, meaning as an individualcomponent in a dismantled state.

Bettina Mayer ■

The simulatorreproducesforces individ-ually or together:vertical, horizontaland corner-ing, forexample.

The DCS canisolate eachof the manyfactors thataffect chassiscomponentperformance.

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