Could You Run an Automaker? Zetsche, Benz Brace for Change

If running a major automaker is a stressful business, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche certainly doesn’t show it. He’s nearing the end of a string of interviews in a temporary office complex tucked away on one side of the giant Mercedes-Benz stand at the 2011 Frankfurt  auto show. It’s been a hot and sticky day, the air conditioning in the old Festhalle fighting a losing battle against the heat of the lights and the crush of the bodies on the show floor. Dieter’s white shirt’s a little rumpled, but he’s the same ebullient man I met almost 20 years ago at the launch of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Maybe that’s because business is pretty good for Mercedes-Benz these days. There’s solid sales growth in emerging markets like China, and even though BMW and Audi have now firmly muscled in on the premium vehicle market segment the three-pointed star effectively created and owned for decades, the explosion in global wealth over the same period means there seems to be more than enough customers to go around. The ill-starred Chrysler adventure is a fast-fading memory, and there’s a renewed focus on making sure Mercedes vehicles delivers the quality and technology that made the brand famous in the first place — R&D spending will be 20 billion euros in 2011-12, up five billion on 2009-10.

But Dieter Zetsche takes nothing for granted. “We’re seeing some clouds on the horizon,” he says. The European sovereign debt crisis, sparked by the shaky economies in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, and weakness in the French banking system, is threatening the stability of the euro as an increasing number of Germans complain about having to pay for the bailouts. And the U.S. economy is still very sluggish, with unemployment stubbornly high, and the housing market still a smoldering wreck.

It’s unusual for a car company CEO to take aim at politicians  –  you never know when you might need their help  –  so the fact Zetsche takes a mild potshot at Washington early in our conversation perhaps betrays deeper frustrations. “The long discussion about the debt ceiling was not helpful,” he says of the partisan bickering that brought the U.S. economy to a virtual standstill. “There is a need for clear leadership from politicians. Hopefully we will see some of that soon.”

Yeah, right… The problem with politicians is they only think in terms of the next election. Dieter Zetsche, by contrast, is overseeing decisions today that will materially affect his company 20 years from now. It’s 125 years since Karl Benz invented the automobile, and for the first time in more than a century, Daimler is putting a timeline on the internal combustion engine. And the implications of that are profound.

“We see another one or two decades of dominance for the internal combustion engine,” says Zetsche bluntly. Think about that: What were you driving 10 or 20 years ago? More importantly, though, 10 or 20 years barely two model cycles away from the stuff Daimler engineers are working on right now. The problem is that as a business, alternatives to the internal combustion engine are a bust: “Nobody will make money in the next five years with alternative powertrains,” Zetsche says.

China, now the world’s largest auto market, is widely regarded as critically important to the development of alternative powertrains. The Chinese realize they cannot afford  –  economically or militarily  –  all the oil they need if their country continues its explosive growth, and have begun to put in place strategies to encourage automakers to develop hybrids and electric vehicles. China wants to cut energy consumption by 50 percent and make electricity the main substitute for gasoline by 2020.

“It is no surprise China has made the ‘new energy car’ one of the seven priorities of its development plan,” Zetsche acknowledges. “But we’re hearing the [market] transformation might be slower than anticipated. We still believe China has the capability to execute its plans quicker than anyone, but the technical constraints of electric vehicles apply in China as well.” In other words, even the Chinese are having trouble figuring out how to make electric vehicles work.

So put yourself in Dieter Zetsche’s shoes: You’re running one of the world’s most successful automakers; one with a reputation for developing industry-leading technologies and highly profitable products. You know the lifeblood of your company’s products  –  oil  –  is only going to get scarcer and more expensive over the next 20 years. And you also know that even though as of right now there doesn’t seem to be any commercially viable alternative, you have to invest in finding one.

The move to large-scale production of electric, hybrid, and fuel cell powertrains “is a question of timing, not direction”, Zetsche says. But get the timing wrong, and Daimler may not be around to celebrate its 150th anniversary. So when would you roll the dice?

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Pillars of Salt: Inflatable Roof Pillars Could Aid Future Design

It’s a pity the retro design craze seems to be petering out, because an enabler is just now emerging that would allow designers of the next generation of Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, T-Bird, Beetle, and others (a latter-day Citroen DS, please!) to recreate a key detail that has been impossible to achieve while meeting today’s roof-crush and offset frontal-collision standards: those delicate, easy-to-see-around roof pillars. Fat pillars lend a cartoonish, brutish mien to every retromobile out there.

The solution comes from an unlikely source — Swedish airbag supplier Autoliv — and, in fact, it leverages airbag technology. But instead of inflating a cloth bag, it inflates a folded steel tube that is integral to the vehicle’s body structure. Up until now, the only way to make a car capable of supporting one and a half times its weight on the roof (as required in 2012) was by giving all the pillars a thick, beefy section, and/or incorporating ultra-high-strength steel or carbon-fiber tubes in the pillars. But until you threaten to turn turtle, holding the roof up doesn’t require any more strength now than it did in the 1950s and ’60s.

Autoliv’s idea is to provide a slim, minimalist pillar until an accident is detected, then inflate a pleated steel tube so it expands to a large, strong section. This expansion pops the interior trim off, but should leave the outer surface and windshield undisturbed. The inflator uses a nitrogen-rich salt or chemical like those used to fill airbags, but generates an order of magnitude more force — 300 to 450 psi. The tube is made of 0.06-inch-thick steel that’s typical automotive-grade strength (58 kilos/square inch yield–high-strength steel is too brittle for this type of application). It’s welded closed on each end and weighs 3.5 ounces, representing a 10-percent weight savings. Cost is little more than the price of the inflators. Within 10 milliseconds of crash detection, the A-pillar expands from within its dainty 0.9-inch-wide pillar (a third the size of a typical modern pillar) to a stocky 2.9 inches wide. This increases the pillar’s stiffness by 45 percent. The unit will be replaceable after a crash.

Before inflation, visibility is said to be 25 percent better than in the average car. According to Dr. Bengt Pipkorn, project leader in Autoliv’s active body structures department, this research has been conducted in conjunction with Saab. He reckons the technology could be in production by 2020, but notes that (naturally) it has to be designed into the body structure from the outset–there’s no retrofitting such a gizmo into an existing design.

Body pillars are not the only potential applications for this technology. Mercedes-Benz displayed an inflatable side-impact door beam concept at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show that expanded into the space the door glass ordinarily drops into to increase door strength during a side impact. Another intriguing use Dr. Pipkorn described is a tunable front-end crush structure that would provide softer crash-rail performance in low-speed collisions, but inflate to become stiffer in high-speed collisions. This could be a boon for the coming wave of short-nose electric vehicles.

Here’s hoping this promising new technology helps usher out the hunkered-bunker era in favor of retro Futuramic visibility.

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Could BMW take aim at Miata with AWD Z2?

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Report: In Small Cars And EVs, Smaller Tires Could Save Fuel

With signs that minicars might finally be taking off in the U.S.—signaled by the arrival of models like the Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta, Scion iQ, and a host of potential ones—it could be time to give smaller wheels a new chance.

Why? Because, Motor Trend reports, a new generation of higher-quality ten-inch tires are here. Michelin has produced a new 175/70R10 tire, specifically for city cars, that weighs about three pounds less than a 175/65R14 tire.

Twelve pounds and some rolling resistance might not sound so significant, but it is. According to Michelin, MT reports, the new smaller tires might be especially of use on new urban electric vehicles, where the use of tires designed for larger vehicles with internal combustion engines could account for 30 to 40 percent of overall energy consumption. Reducing that means greater range—which is especially important right now, on the cusp of EV adoption.

Tires, even on the smallest, entry-market vehicles, have become larger in recent years. In the 1980s, the mainstream tire size was the 14-incher; then in the 1990s, 15- and 16-inch sizes became increasingly common on affordable vehicles. Sidewalls continued to get even shorter and this past decade gave way to low-profile, large-diameter chromed insanity in the way of 20-inch wheels and beyond.

Designers have for well over a decade now penned vehicles with increasingly large wheels and wheel wells, so eventually, smaller, less exaggerated wheels might come back in style. It could certainly bring some packaging advantages, as huge wheels require large wheel wells that eat up trunk or cabin space.

The downside of these big rollers—aside from their sometimes harsh ride quality—is that they add weight and raw materials, and sometimes actually increase rolling resistance. And that definitely factors into gas mileage.

At the same time, on bigger, heavier vehicles it might not pay to downsize if you don't change the compound, as smaller-diameter wheels and tires typically do have more rolling resistance. One Michelin design, a 205/55R19 wheel, is measurably more efficient than existing 205/55R16 designs.

What's the message to take away? Don't take the impractical 22s you might be rolling on as the look of the future, and be prepared to see some smaller (or skinnier) wheels on next-generation fuel-savers.

[Motor Trend]

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Hyundai, Kia warn parts shortage could disrupt production

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 @ 11:09 a.m.

Hyundai announced this week that a recent labor dispute at a key supplier will disrupt some of its vehicle production in the coming month. Hyundai says the parts shortage will also affect its affiliate Kia Motors.

Hyundai announced on Sunday that a strike at supplier Yoosung Enterprise Co. has caused a parts shortage that will impact vehicle production over the next several weeks. The strike began on May 18th as workers clashed with management over new wage and shift systems.

Yoosung Enterprise produces about 70 percent of the piston rings used in Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The parts shortage has already affected production at some of Hyundai’s global plants, but it remains to be seen how the situation will impact Hyundai’s U.S. operations.

“Hyundai Motor America is in close contact with Hyundai Motor Company concerning the supplier strike in Korea,” the company said in a statement. “At this time it is not clear what impact this may have on production of cars being built for the U.S. market in Korea. We will continue to closely monitor the situation.”

So far this year more than 75 percent of Hyundai’s U.S. sales have come from U.S. built vehicles. Still, the parts shortage could have an impact on popular vehicles like the Sonata sedan and Santa Fe SUV. The timing couldn’t be worse for Hyundai as its Japanese rivals are cranking up production to make up for lost sales following Japan’s March 11 earthquake.

References
1.’Hyundai, Kia…’ view

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Bosch CEO: U.S. diesel sales could hit 10 percent by 2015

Friday, May 13th, 2011 @ 12:04 p.m.

Diesel-powered vehicles only make up about 3 percent of the United States market, but Bosch CEO Peter Marks expects that figure to increase by more than threefold over the next four years.

Speaking at an event in Detroit, Marks said he expects diesels to account for as much as 10 percent of all U.S. vehicle sales by 2015. Marks believes U.S. diesel sales will be spurred by fuel economy ratings in excess of 50mpg, as well as their relatively low cost of entry. Diesel engines typically add $1,200-$2,800 to the cost of a vehicle, undercutting more complex hybrid technology.

“Clean diesel allows drivers to have improved fuel economy, reduced emissions, while still having a car with power and performance,” Marks said.

There are currently 20 vehicle in the United States offered with diesel engines, but Marks sees that figure doubling to 40 in the coming years. Even brands like Chrysler’s Jeep have confirmed they are at least considering diesel powertrains for their mainstream U.S. vehicles.

References
1.’Diesel use to…’ view

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Bosch: Diesels Could Be 10 Percent Of U.S. Sales By 2015

If Peter Marks, Bosch’s chairman, president and CEO of North and South American operations, is correct, you’ll soon begin to see a lot more diesel vehicle options in the United States market.

While diesel vehicles currently account for just 3 percent of new vehicle sales, changing market conditions in the U.S. and Europe could see that number climb to 10 percent over the next four years. By then, Marks projects that clean-diesel passenger cars could see fuel efficiency as high as 54 mpg, at an added cost of between $1,200 and $2,800 compared to gasoline-fueled vehicles.

Marks expects that automakers will double the amount of diesel-equipped models offered in the United States from 20 today to 40 by 2015. Helping diesel’s growth in the U.S. are stricter EU regulations for diesel emissions that go into effect over the next few years. Today, the United States has the strictest emission standards for diesel passenger vehicles in the world, which makes it expensive for manufacturers to certify diesel engines for sale in the United States. As emission regulations in the U.S., and the EU become more similar, the cost of offering diesel options for U.S. customers will go down. 

Today, only VW, BMW, Audi and Mercedes offer diesel passenger cars for sale in the United States. Audi has previously committed to add a diesel version of all cars sold in the United States by 2015, so there’s good reason to believe that Marks’ vision of the future is accurate. It's unlikely that small diesels will dominate the automotive landscape any time soon, but even a 10 percent share of sales is a step in the right direction.

[Detroit Free Press]

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Rolling Chassis Concept Could Kick-Start American Coachbuilding

Chris Theodore remembers the very frame in the 1966 Frankenheimer epic “Grand Prix” that inspired this project. “I saw the Lotus 33 in a front-three-quarter view and thought:  That’s the car where Colin Chapman attached the suspension directly to the powertrain and used a monocoque tub.  Too bad he had to ruin the torsional rigidity by cutting a hole in the tub for the driver’s head.” Soon after, the lifelong engineer/inventor (he’s innovated at Ford, GM, AMC, Chrysler, Saleen, ASC, and others) started sketching a design for his Uni-Chassis – a unitized powertrain, chassis, and suspension.

Theodore is known as the father of the Ford GT supercar, and hence his initial noodling and doodling incorporated the GT’s front and rear extruded-aluminum bolt-on crash structures and its suspension hardware, tied together with bespoke castings to which the GT’s engine and transmission would mount (engine in front, transaxle in back), connected by a structural aluminum tube.

He’s a savvy engineer, and all his initial calculations suggested this concept could work, but just to be sure he bounced it off trusted colleagues like former Chrysler engineering veep Francois Castaing and ex-Ford and Porsche chassis guru Manfred Rumpel. Nobody could find any fatal flaws in the Uni-Chassis design, so he patented it and sweet-talked Ford into selling him a ratty, crusher-bound GT prototype along with the CAD data that helped create it.

After several computer design iterations of bulkhead and bell-housing castings and backbone tubes, the optimal design turned out to be an 8-inch-diameter, quarter-inch-thick extruded aluminum backbone tube that, when all bonded together, results in torsional rigidity of 13,000 pound-feet per degree and bending stiffness of 47,000 pounds per inch of deflection (both numbers exceed those of the GT).

Front and rear crash protection is provided by the Uni-Chassis, while the bodywork must bear the roof-crush, side-impact, and seatbelt loading. The driveshaft runs down the center of the tube, supported by three bearings (it needs no U-joints). The engine and transaxle are stressed members bolted directly to the chassis, so all sound and vibration isolation must come from the body mounts.

Want a longer or shorter wheelbase? Just trim the extruded tube to length. Want it lighter? Mandrel-wound carbon fiber trims some 30 pounds. Cheaper or smaller? A steel tube optimizes at about 6 inches in diameter. Looking to build an optimized EV not based on conventional architecture? Square off and enlarge the central tube and it’s a battery box. Weld hemispherical end caps to it and it’s a compressed natural gas tank (for a front-drive or rear-engine rear-drive setup).

Extrusions are inexpensive and sand-castings are affordable in low volumes, making this modular design cost effective for niche products—initial studies peg the investment cost at half that of the GT, with the tooling payoff at 1500 cars priced at $100,000. Using Corvette suspension components could lower the price even further. The Uni-Chassis has the makings of an ideal plug-’n’-play rolling platform for high-end niche products like the Cobra body shown hovering here. Then Theodore mentions that an Indian concern wondered aloud whether a bare-bones steel version could help put the Third World on wheels. Why not?

Frank Markus on May 13 2011 8:00 AM

Tags : amc, asc, chris theodore, Chrysler, Ford, Ford GT, ford gt supercar, ford supercar, general motors, gm, gt supercar, lotus 33, sallen, technologue, uni-chassis, unichassis, unichassis powertrain, unichassis suspension

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Video: Chevy Builds Field Of Dreams In California -- Your Community Could Be Next

Chevy's 'Diamonds and Dreams' makeover in Granite, CA

Enlarge Photo

About a year ago, Chevrolet launched an online contest for communities across the U.S. The five grand prize winners of the "Building Diamonds and Dreams" competition would receive makeovers for their youth baseball fields, courtesy of Chevrolet and Scotts Company.

The contest ended around July 30 of last year, and since then, Chevy and Scotts have been hard at work refurbishing diamonds and dugouts at sites throughout the country. Earlier this month, the two companies unveiled their latest completed project in Granite Bay, California. And now, there's video:

We admit, we had some initial concerns about the "Diamonds and Dreams" contest, which seemed weighted to favor folks in well-educated communities with plenty of web access and ample time to submit regular entries. (Participants could submit up to one entry per day throughout the run of the contest.)

That said, the results of the makeover are impressive, and the folks in Granite Bay look very appreciative. Add to that the long-standing tie-in between Chevy and baseball, and we'd say this project was a big win for all involved. (We would've said "home run", but even we know when to cut a metaphor short.)

Even better: Chevy is relaunching the contest in 2011, and this time around, the company will offer a total of 20 field makeovers, among other prizes. The competition hasn't officially begun yet, but if you visit the Diamonds and Dreams website, you can sign up to receive an email when things go live on March 31. Good luck!

For more details about the Granite Bay unveiling, feel free to check the press release below.

* * * * *

Chevrolet Hits Home Run with 'Dream' Baseball Diamond at Ronald Feist Park in Granite Bay

Local leaders to host community event, March 16 at 4:00 PM to dedicate renovated field

GRANITE BAY, Calif., March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- What started as a simple online ZIP code nomination by area-residentMarie Kennedy became a boon for local baseball teams when a Lakeside Little League field was chosen as one of five winners of Chevrolet's Building Diamonds and Dreams program.  

Local winner Kennedy selected the Lakeside Little League to be the beneficiary of the field renovation.  Lakeside Little League uses Ronald Feist Park, a multi-field baseball/softball complex owned and maintained by Placer County.

"I was so thrilled because it was for the kids," said local resident Kennedy, who nominated Granite Bay for a field makeover.  "These Little Leagues, no matter what the town, depend on donations and help from the community. I'm very happy that I entered the Building Diamonds and Dreams program and ended up a finalist."

Now that spring is here and the baseball season is about to start, the entire community is invited to the field dedication ceremony on Wednesday, March 16 at 4:00 PM at the Coker-Ewing Field at Ronald Feist Park, 9177 Twin Schools Road,Granite Bay, CA 95746.

The 2010 Building Diamonds and Dreams program, sponsored by Chevrolet and The Scotts Company, was an online promotion where fans of local youth baseball teams nominated their community for a chance to win a field makeover.  Five winners were drawn from all entries and the winners chose the youth league of their choice to receive the professional field renovation.  

The refurbishments focused on the aesthetics and playability of the field by providing Major League quality materials for the renovation. For the Coker-Ewing field at Feist Park, the makeover included a reconstructed pitcher's mound, new infield skin, re-cut base paths, new home plate and bases, drainage installation, new coaches' boxes, and other upgrades.  Renovations were completed in November of 2010 by Ripken Design, the sports design and consulting firm owned by National Baseball Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken, Jr. and 12-year Major League Baseball veteran, Bill Ripken.

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Analysts: Gas Prices Could Bring Economic Recovery To A Halt

Just when it looked like people were more willing to spend money again on non-essential items—and on more essential (but deferrable) purchases like new cars—rising prices at the pump could grind some aspects of economic recovery to a halt.

After a major price spike in summer 2008, when prices topped $4 a gallon on a national average, gasoline prices plummeted at the end of 2008 to well under $2 then after a quick rise to about $2.50 have risen only gradually until about a month ago. Prices have risen about 40 cents a gallon over the past month.

Although prices this time aren't expected to spike with the volatility they did in 2008, many analysts haven't ruled out $4 gas this year—especially after political events in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to Nielsen Wire, a 50-cent increase in gas prices would cost the typical U.S. household about $52.50 per month, and if prices were to rise two dollars, that would mean $210 a month, or more than $2,500 a year.

Compounding the situation, Nielsen says, is that commodity prices are also on the rise, pushing profits down and leaving manufacturers and retailers afraid that if prices rise, they'll alienate shoppers. And with wages not keeping pace with inflation either, they will.

Ultimately, this stint of higher gas prices, however long it might last, will result in less eating out, more value-conscious shopping, and the increased use of coupons—along with trip compression.

Will this affect new-car purchases, too? It might be too early to tell, but as we've already reported that it appears to be creating a run on small, fuel-efficient cars, it likely will to some degree. As to whether it will damp an already depressed auto market even further...let's hope not.

[Nielsen Wire]

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Researchers: Hackers Could Break Into Vehicles From A Distance

If you drive a new or nearly new car, you could be packing just as much computing power in your vehicle as you have on your desk or in your briefcase.

Plus, vehicles are more connected than ever before. And that connectivity, while it can make our vehicles better and our experience more convenient and secure in most cases, can also be exploited by hackers.

Last week, researchers presented findings to the National Academies Committee on Electronic Vehicle Controls and Unintended Acceleration, which included an examination of electronic throttle controls as well as other electronic vehicle functions, looking at their design, reliability, software, environmental factors and, notably, their cybersecurity.

In the research, a team of ten computer-security experts looked at vehicle security over the course of two years—following up on a paper we reported on last year—and looked for vulnerabilities through which they might gain control of the vehicle or some of its subsystems.

Could they hack into a vehicle's Bluetooth hands-free system? Check. Its emergency-services cellular-network connection? Check. Could they access central vehicle controls through those entry points, without any physical access to the vehicle? Check.

The researchers didn't single out any brands or models, but they looked at a number of vehicles that include an embedded cellular connection to provide an automated emergency response, as well as call-center concierge services. Examples include OnStar (GM), Safety Connect (Toyota), Enform (Lexus ), Sync (Ford), and Mbrace (Mercedes-Benz).

Although they point to no specific or dire vulnerabilities, the exercise essentially demonstrates to automakers and suppliers that if an attacker is determined (and knowledgeable) enough, he or she can gain access.

The hackers even managed to hack into vehicles using vulnerabilities in cellular-connection-based safety features—such as those that automatically allow concierge services when the airbags inflate (or trigger the systems to call 911).

In one attack scenario, the team looking for these vulnerabilities showed that thieves or mischief-makers could target particular models of vehicles remotely, find their location, and unlock them without forcing any physical entry. Worse yet, the team showed that they could disable a vehicle's brakes electronically.

The research team's findings will be assembled in a report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in hopes of new standards for security in vehicle systems.

Is this all too alarmist? Perhaps. A professor overseeing the research told Technology Review that the primary researchers both feel comfortable driving their vehicles.

That said, it's probably time for automakers to think a little more seriously about security.

Are you concerned about the security of certain vehicle options or components? Let us know which ones and why.

[Center for Automotive Embedded Security, via New York Times and Technology Review]

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