Strategic Opportunities and Barriers for the Automotive Industry
Many of you probably wonder why fully electrical powered cars, which were already invented back in 1900' (this is not the first one), didn’t find its way into mass production only until very lately. Maybe this article will answer that doubt not from the point of view of the regulations or oil influence, but rather from a professional engineering one.
This is a short list of some key issues that are placed onto the automotive industry these days and influence the strategic decision makers in the top leading manufacturers. These can be referred to as either opportunities or barriers, depend how you take it.
ENGINE SIZE REGULATION & CO2 EMISSION
The first and most influential challenge is the regulation for engine size and CO2 emission. This forces car manufacturers to stir away from the full combustion engine, and to produce a hybrid engine power (or full electric). In the 2019 Geneva Motor Show big percentage showed the effects of this revolution, with hybrid powered car and full electric new entrants. Ferrari, for example, has been already limiting its engine size to 4 liters to match the restrictions. One of their last creations, the SF90 Stradale manages to produce 1000 horse power, as well as capable of driving full electric. Just for a comparison, a common family car has 1.6 liters engine and produces around 100–200 horse powers. Formula1 cars reach around 1200 horse powers with an engine in the size of …. 1.6 liters. Yes, you are reading correctly. Formula1 cars have an engine in the same size of a standard road car. They are simply significantly more efficient and the next points explains in what ways.
Note: this table describes the engine size and horse power. It is not shown in order to describe who has a bigger machine, but rather to show the strategic ways different manufacturers chose to deal with the challenges.
AERODYNAMICS ADJUSTMENTS VS STRUCTURAL LIMITATIONS
Not only for super-cars or race cars, aerodynamic updates to the car design improve its performance by great percentages. Solving drag turbulence, adding down-force (better grip), smoother surfaces, front, bottom and back body works — all contribute to the car performance and decrease of CO2 emission.
Formula1 cars are perfect aerodynamically designed. But these cars are not allowed to drive on public roads. The process of preparing a car for the road, Homologation, also limits the aerodynamic design. The position of the gear box, minimum height of the passengers, height of car from the floor, are just a few examples.
The last crucial factor that is in constant conversation with aerodynamic engineers is the visual design of the car. Since both aspects influence the exterior design of the car.
LIGHTER WEIGHT. LIGHTER MATERIALS.
Lighter car means less energy usage and therefore less CO2 emission. This contributes directly to better performance. This is one of the leading factors for the efficiency of race cars. This is the reason why super-cars have 2 seats and no baggage space. Dallara is an Italian expert for building lighter vehicles with a material stronger than steel. Carbon Fiber resists 4500 NM (Newton Meters) while steel fails at 1300 NM, while it weights significantly less (watch the video from 26:50). Today Carbon Fiber is very expensive material, but there is a great business potential in making it cheaper and recyclable. Dallara is a world leader in working with this material and consults car companies, aerospace as well as the space industry.
ELECTRIC POWER EFFECTIVENESS
The car battery is the technology with the most potential of future improvement, since it has huge room for innovation, being the newest. Batteries are still huge in size and heavy — these two factors require the car overall size to be much bigger than before. The majority of the full electric cars in the near future will not be small, or else they will require charging quite often. Other factors the battery tech can improve is the speed of charging and power storage.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the weight of the electric battery and engine system is a huge limitation of the car power and performance. I know what you think about: Tesla, and especially after my other report on them. Well, the electric powered world is under a lot of development, but it is still far from end of R&D. There is huge business potential there.
So if you are in this industry, as a supplier or manufacturer, you already have those issues on your table 10 years ago. Well, now is the time to start execute the plan you needed to have by yesterday. And if you are considering to enter this industry, understand that these are crucial points today, and you can use them to convince key players about your technologies and products. Good luck to all of you.
This article started as a short report I wrote for a course on “ Advanced Technologies for Road Cars, Super Cars and Motorsports” at the Bologna Business School led by a huge team of leaders from Dallara Group. Many thanks to each of you: Andrea Pontremoli, Luca Bergianti, Andrea Toso, Dialma Zinelli, Luca Pignacca, Cesare Stocchi, Davide Seletti, Fabrizio Arbucci, Mireno Rossi, Luca Vescovi.
I write a journal on my adventures in Italy, discovering emergent techs in Europe and my new professional path in the Super-Cars industry. Register to my Newsletter here.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
