C.A.R. Management Briefing Seminars 2013 - Day Two

Dr. McAlinden

CENTER FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH
MANAGEMENT BRIEFING SEMINARS - DAY TWO

By Steve Purdy
Photos By Bob Benko
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau

Just when we think our work day is done and we’re relaxing over dinner we find ourselves drawn in to another demonstration of automotive technology. The smart folks at Continental Automotive, one the world’s premier tier-one auto suppliers, traditionally host a beach party and dinner on Monday evening at a lovely spot on East Traverse Bay. In spite of threatening weather they wisely did not move it inside. A musical duo playing Jimmy Buffet-style music and a few lawn games entertained the families as we dedicated journalists spent some time with Continental and Cisco, a world leader in IT and networking. The engineers and marketers showed us the future of connected vehicle security and integrated connection with the Web.

Those two major companies are combining their deep expertise to think through and plan for the future of what is becoming commonly known as the “connected car,” that is, a car that is connected in a variety of ways to the internet, or to “the cloud.” What if, they ask, hackers decide to interfere with that connection to steal information, to control your vehicle, or for other reasons to be determined. The system they have devised and are now honing uses encryption and other methods to keep that connectivity safe. They’ve also devised ways for the car’s interactions with outside networks to transition seamlessly to minimize disruptions of service. Though these are in the “proof of concept” phase it is apparent that they have dug deeply into the problems to come up with these solutions and intend them to be marketed in the near future – probably nearer than we could envision.

As promised in yesterday’s report we dug out the story of the Volkswagen Passat on display out front of the resort. The white car with blue signage is a TDI Clean Diesel that set the Guinness World Record for lowest fuel consumption for a non-hybrid car at 77.99 mpg covering 8,122 miles on just 104.94 gallons of fuel. That even beats substantially the record for hybrids that stands at 64.6 mpg. The route covered all 48 contiguous United States.

We always expect to hear more discussion of diesel propulsion systems here at MBS. The amazing performance and efficiency of turbo-diesels, we think, are often overlooked. Certainly, a diesel powertrain is more expensive to produce and diesel fuel prices are a bit higher, though usually more stable, than gasoline, but the payoff period is often better than hybrids. Our colleague, Drew Winter of Wards Auto, drove a Chevy Cruise diesel the 200-plus miles to Traverse City from Detroit to see if it’s highway fuel economy claims are justified. His conclusion was in the affirmative as he managed over 46 mpg without resorting to any hyper-miling techniques.

One of this morning’s discussions was all about demographics of new car buyers, and how that effects annual auto sales estimates. Some unbelievable numbers emerged like, younger buyers net worth taking a huge drop of 24%, and 26% are back home after college, and there has been a 94% increase in student debt and on and on. (I missed the time frame, but the trend is scary.) The over-30 age group is groaning under the weight of mortgage debt. In spite of all that dismal news auto sales continue to rise with returning confidence in the economy, but these experts expect it to level off by 2018.

Behind the resort, on the lawn overlooking one of the golf courses, we found a couple of intriguing vehicles. One is the University of Michigan’s solar-powered racer that is preparing for an upcoming international competition in Australia this fall. They experienced some electronic problems in a three-state practice run last month but they guarantee to have it sorted out time. These solar car races have been going on for decades now and they continue to increase efficiency of capturing the sun’s rays and making electricity to power their racers. I recall photographing an early race that came through our area stopping for the night at our fair grounds. As they left one-by-one in the morning they looked like a herd of giant cockroaches with their broad solar arrays. I titled the photos “cucarachas del sol.” The U of M team is usually at or near the front of the pack.

Next to the solar racer, under a small tent the NuVinci folks offered rides on their CVT-equipped bicycle. They have a continuously variable transmission of a design I’ve not seen before. They fit a series of tilted balls between to rings and as the rings move they rotate at different speeds to each other. That’s entirely different from a conventional CVT with fewer moving parts and it is considerably lighter. That is just an example of the variety of vehicular innovation we always find at the Management Briefing Seminars. They sold a hundred thousand of these for bicycle application in Europe last year and now they’ve licensed the design to Dana Corporation for development for everything from automobiles to mining trucks, from water pumps to superchargers.

In the corner by the big conference room the all-aluminum substructure of the next Range Rover is on display. Novelis is the manufacturer and they claim this will be the world’s first all-aluminum SUV. We’re struck by the complexity of the light-weight underpinnings of the vehicle and wanted to ask how many individual pieces of aluminum had to be welded, riveted or glued to make this unit. Maybe we’ll get that answer tomorrow.

This evening we’ll have dinner hosted by one of the PR agencies that represents auto suppliers aboard a three-mast schooner. (Is that redundant? Does the design with three masts automatically make it a schooner?) We will cruise around West Traverse Bay for a couple hours while indulging in a wonderful catered meal. This evening we’ll probably not have a tech presentation or PR pitch since they won’t be able to fit anything on the boat except us, the food and drink.

Yes, yes . . . this is really tough work. But, someone has to do it.