Berlin
WITH so much of a car’s production having moved beyond the walls of the automaker’s final assembly plant, the engine has become one of the few distinguishing items left in a brand’s portfolio. But even this core asset seems to be slipping away, especially among European makers who are rushing to meet stringent carbon dioxide targets and to gain footholds in the electric vehicle market.
Volvo and Daimler are among the European carmakers developing partnerships with outside suppliers for basic powertrain elements — and investing billions to secure a place in a market that today barely exists.
Such ventures go well beyond the arrangements made in recent years — an alliance formed by Daimler, Renault and Nissan, for example — to build fleets of small cars with cleaner diesel and gas engines. Similarly, BMW and PSA Peugeot-Citroën have joined forces to develop hybrid components.
Daimler went a step further, concluding a 50-50 joint venture with Bosch, the giant components supplier, to develop, produce and sell electric motors for a new generation of e-cars.
Volvo reached out to Siemens, the German industrial heavyweight. The two companies agreed to team up on power electronics and technology for electric-drive and charging systems; their work has been integrated into a test fleet of Volvo C30 Electric hatchbacks.
While all automakers typically do business with a host of parts suppliers, the design and construction of the combustion engine has largely been the exclusive — and jealously guarded — responsibility of the carmaker.
This is changing with e-mobility.
“With electric vehicles coming onto the market, carmakers are confronted with the question of whether to make or buy electric motors,” said Christoph Hammerschmidt of Electronic Engineering Times Europe, a print and online automotive publication. “Companies such as Daimler, BMW or Porsche are very reluctant to place this competency into the hands of external partners.
“But it’s this or start from scratch,” he added. “Companies like Siemens and Bosch already have them. So why reinvent the wheel?”
However, these partnerships, and the Daimler-Bosch joint venture in particular, may foretell the advent of another way of doing business, should electric motors actually become the dominant powertrain of the future. It is a future in which the carmaker is just part of the equation and not necessarily the most important part.
For example, Daimler owns half of a new company, EM-motive, and in a significant departure from long-time industry practice, the motors go on the market under this name. Two directors of equal rank, one from each parent company, will run the company. The motors, designed to fit a wide range of vehicles, including cars, vans and delivery vehicles, will be sold primarily in Europe — even to rival automakers.
First in line are Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands. The newest generation of the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, a two-seat city car, is expected to go on sale this spring with the new motor.
The carmakers take pains to put a positive shine on the new alliances; Daimler characterizes the ventures as “pooling competencies and exploiting synergies” rather than a loss of brand identity.
“A company like Bosch has a lot of know-how and problem-solving capacity when it comes to electronics and electric motors,” said Matthias Brock, a spokesman for Daimler in Germany. “But motors for cars are something different, and this is where Daimler’s expertise comes in.”
The partnership will enable the companies to get more motors to market and do it more quickly than either could have on its own. The different forms of partnership also enable manufacturers to share the considerable cost burden and high risk of e-car development.
The goals are ambitious and the timelines are short. Later this year, Volvo will deliver a fleet of C30 Electric test vehicles to Siemens. Those cars will then be evaluated in real-world driving. As for Daimler and Bosch’s EM-motive, the new company plans to produce more than one million electric motors by 2020.
These are grand visions for a market that is still in its infancy. But the new configurations in the industry reflect the seriousness with which carmakers and the electronics branch are taking e-mobility — and the bottom line on carbon emissions.
“Now there’s all kinds of innovation happening,” said Roland Edel, vice president and chief technical officer for innovative mobility solutions at Siemens. “By 2020, either there’ll be a booming mass market for e-mobility or it will have flopped entirely.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/automobiles/at-risk-the-core-of-a-cars-identity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss