European Car Research Articles

Aluminium in Innovative Light-Weight Car Design

The main Aluminium applications as state-of-the-art in European cars are presented. The main established Aluminium alloys and their application in automotive parts are presented together with recent developments. Also new studies and innovative multi-material concepts are discussed where Aluminium light-weight solutions are compared with that of other materials, like new steels, magnesium, plastics and composites. In the “SLC” (Super-Light-Car) project these new concepts were tested in a multi-material body-in-white prototype for a VW Golf V car, reaching a 34% weight reduction within a cost increment of 7,8 €/kg saved, with suitable technologies for high volume assembly cycles. In the final SLC concept Aluminium is the material of choice, proving its leading role in innovative light-weighting of cars. Aluminium achieves weight savings of parts up to 50% while maintaining safety and performance in a cost efficient way, competing efficiently with other light-weight materials.

Study on Chinese and European automotive R&D – comparison of low cost innovation versus system innovation

Chinese carmakers are leapfrogging innovation by levering electric vehicle propulsion technologies and providing low cost solutions. This has become a severe threat for mature global players. On the other hand, European premium carmakers have been able to increase their penetration in emerging markets. Even though premium cars yield higher costs of innovation and offer few possibilities to achieve scale effects, sales have skyrocketed to a record high in 2011. In both cases, manufacturers who can innovate best will emerge as winners in lucrative and expanding markets - regardless of origin or innovation approach. The aim of this paper is to outline disruptive innovation patterns of the Chinese automotive industry and to showcase the system integration capabilities of European carmakers. The paper commences with “the China Price” advantage that plays a vital role for Chinese carmakers to leapfrog technology gaps. It allows offering innovation at low cost. Also, the local electric vehicle supply chain, government supportiveness and behavior of emerging consumer groups drive growth for new technologies such as electric vehicles in China. Next, the European car industry is characterized with the evolution of key innovations coming to a large extend from German premium carmakers. Consequently, the paper shows how their global success and innovation dominance in the premium segment can be linked to their integrated R&D approach. This comprises system development, modularity concepts, in-house R&D value chain, rigorous planning processes and so forth. In summary, the paper analyses key trends in innovation patterns from the Chinese and European car industry. Furthermore, it shows related market drivers such as regulatory development and consumer behavior. At last, a generic model for new product development is used to compare automotive R&D approaches between China and Europe. The authors conclude with their findings on comparing low cost innovation versus system innovation based on Chinese and European automotive R&D.

Reflection on the Experiences of US and European Automobile Industry to Hubei’s Future Development

Surpassing the US in car sales in 2009. China has, since the world financial crisis, been showing big potential while US automobiles industry under complete depression. Green car, which has long been popular in European countries such as Belgium, has therefore become a key for the revival of the world car industry. As one of the three major automobile bases in China, how can Hubei benefit from the current challenge and development opportunity in the pro-crisis era?Key words: Saving and new energy vehicles; US automobile; decay; European “green” plastics; Hubei; development

Cost and CO 2 aspects of future vehicle options in Europe under new energy policy scenarios

New electrified vehicle concepts are about to enter the market in Europe. The expected gains in environmental performance for these new vehicle types are associated with higher technology costs. In parallel, the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engine vehicles and hybrids is continuously improved, which in turn advances their environmental performance but also leads to additional technology costs versus today’s vehicles. The present study compares the well-to-wheel CO 2 emissions, costs and CO 2 abatement costs of generic European cars, including a gasoline vehicle, diesel vehicle, gasoline hybrid, diesel hybrid, plug in hybrid and battery electric vehicle. The predictive comparison is done for the snapshots 2010, 2020 and 2030 under a new energy policy scenario for Europe. The results of the study show clearly that the electrification of vehicles offer significant possibilities to reduce specific CO 2 emissions in road transport, when supported by adequate policies to decarbonise the electricity generation. Additional technology costs for electrified vehicle types are an issue in the beginning, but can go down to enable payback periods of less than 5 years and very competitive CO 2 abatement costs, provided that market barriers can be overcome through targeted policy support that mainly addresses their initial cost penalty.

Variable-valve-actuation-enabled high-efficiency gasoline engine

Owing to their low carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumptions, diesel engines have gained a significant market share of passenger cars in Europe. However, gasoline engines are exclusively used to power passenger cars in the People's Republic of China and many other countries. The introduction of diesel engines to the passenger car market in many countries is unlikely to take place in the near future because of the limited diesel fuel supply, higher cost of diesel cars, and public perception of diesel vehicles. Therefore, development of high-efficiency gasoline engines is of particular importance. As part of a State Key Project of the National Basic Research Program (the 973 Program), the present authors have carried out systematic research and development of a high-efficiency gasoline engine. The engine was equipped in production with devices for mechanically variable valve lift and timing and was operated with controlled autoignition (CAI) (homogeneous charge compression ignition) combustion under part-load conditions and spark-assisted combustion between the transitional region of CAI and the normal spark ignition (SI) combustion. This paper will describe the use of devices for variable valve lift and timing in a single-cylinder engine and their control. The engine performance and emission results in the CAI operational region are presented. The ability of the engine to achieve rapid and smooth transition between CAI and SI will be illustrated. A brief discussion of the implication of the results on the calculated driving-cycle fuel consumption will be given at the end. Finally, the plan for future development of a multi-cylinder engine of variable valve actuation will be given.

Działalność japońskich koncernów motoryzacyjnych na terenie Unii Europejskiej jako wyraz atrakcyjności układów regionalnych

Automobile industry is one of the key factors contributing to the global economy as it has an impact on both the economic situation in other sectors of economy which produce for the demands of the automotive market and also on other business areas such as services and trade. The subject of this article is to analyse the evolution of the Japanese car industry as an important element of the global economy. The activities and dynamics of Japanese automotive companies are presented as well as their impact on the current shape of the European car industry. When starting the production of cars, especially in the early stages of the automative industry development, the Japanese largely exploited modern technology acquired through the purchase of licenses in Western Europe and the USA. As a result of strenghtening global process of concentration of capital, new corporations are formed in the Japanese automotive market. These corporations are characterised by constantly increasing economic potential. In the next part of the article it has been noted that global corporations, including automobile corporations, seek new effective locations for their factories but also various regions create different conditions to attract new investments to their territory. The article then goes on to present the spatial structure of production of Japanese automotive companies in the world according to different continents in years 1985–2008 and then examines the dynamic changes in the scale of production for individual continents. The next part of the article concetrates on the spatial structure of passenger cars and components factories, as well as on research and development centers belonging to Japanese automotive companies located in the European Union. The analysis of the structure and size of employment in factories based in the European Union has also been made.

Work models in the Central Eastern European car industry: towards the high road?

ABSTRACTThe integration of the Central Eastern European (CEE) countries into the European Union (EU) has provoked debates about the danger of a ‘race to the bottom’ in Europe caused by the low wages and weak labour regulation and labour standards in CEE. This article examines the evolution of work models in the CEE automotive industry. It argues that the work models in CEE did not take the low‐road trajectory. Rather, a limited high‐road model emerged in the 1990s, which combined skilled labour and secure employment for the core workforce with a broad margin of precarious employment, low wages and limited employee voice. In the context of labour shortages after the accession to the EU of the CEEs, companies faced recruitment problems and labour conflicts, which threatened to destabilise this model. The first reactions of firms pointed towards the strengthening of the high‐road orientation, but the development remains unstable, not least of all because of the economic crisis beginning in 2009.

Value Creation Architectures and Competitive Advantage: Lessons from the European Automobile Industry

In many industries, disintegration processes have drastically changed the overall industry structure as well as the organization of value creation processes and actors. Highly integrated production and distribution systems have been replaced by devolved organization architectures. This article introduces the concept of value creation architectures, a term that describes the structure and relationships of all the valueadding activities that are carried out by various actors and companies to bring a particular product or service to market. Analyses of business firms tend to overlook the relationship between competitive advantage and the architecture of value creation. This article investigates how different architectures of value creation affect the competitiveness of individual firms. The new concept is illustrated by an in-depth case study of the European automobile industry.

Geographical and Multi-Product Linkages of Markets: Impact on Firm Equilibrium Interactions (Some Evidence from the European Car Market)

This paper aims to study geographical and multi-product linkages of markets (multiple market presence) and firm behaviour interdependence as a result of such linkages existence. In particular, it attempts to answer whether the multimarket linkages lead to more cooperative behaviour among the firms, which results in higher prices and profits, and whether the degree of collusive/cooperative behaviour varies across markets. These issues are investigated within a structural oligopoly model for differentiated products for the European automobile market on the basis of the aggregate product-level data for 1970-1999. The results of the study reveal weak (quantitative) effect of multimarket contact on market conduct/pricing in the European car market as well as provide some evidence on the redistribution of the market power from the more collusive to the more competitive markets due to multimarket contact.

Driver assistance systems aim to halve traffic accidents

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal how technology is being applied to augment drivers' skills and improve road safety throughout Europe.Design/methodology/approachThe paper begins with a description of the European Commission's car safety initiatives, and why they are necessary. Then three driver‐assistance systems are examined in detail: adaptive cruise control, lane departure and lane‐changing systems, and driver vigilance monitoring.FindingsRadar, lidar, and imaging sensors are being used and sometimes fused to build highly intelligent driver assistance equipment. The response of the system is crucial to its acceptance and success: false alarms or over‐violent actuation would lead to rejection. Neither must the system encourage over‐confidence. It is estimated that drowsiness detection could prevent 30 per cent of fatal motorway crashes.Originality/valueThe paper alerts engineers and drivers to a long‐term Europe‐wide project to develop and deploy driver assistance technologies.

Sustainable development through innovative design: lessons from the KCP method experimented with an automotive firm

All automotive firms are struggling to develop cars that are both environmentally friendly and profitable. As the field becomes more competitive, manufacturers need to find creative solutions and innovative ways to address environmental issues and provide enhanced value for customers. Eco-innovation involves the challenge of complementing classical Research and Development (RD it must also revisit the value and performances encompassed in the offering. This change in 'design regime' calls for new managerial techniques. This paper is based on a collaborative research study with a European car manufacturer, examining the application of the Concept-Knowledge (C-K) design theory to explore how cars could be both environmental and economical. The case improves the understanding of the challenges of eco-innovation and provides an example of how the automotive industry can foster innovative capabilities in established R&D processes.

How much do incentives affect car purchase? Agent-based microsimulation of consumer choice of new cars—Part II: Forecasting effects of feebates based on energy-efficiency

In this paper, we simulate the car market in order to forecast the effects of feebate systems based on an energy-labeling scheme using categories A to G. Very fuel-efficient (A) cars receive a cash incentive, highly inefficient (G) cars pay additional fees. Consumers have different price elasticities and behavioral options to react to feebates. They can switch to a smaller sized car, but as energy-efficiency varies widely within size segments, they can also stick to the preferred size class and choose a more efficient (smaller) engine. In addition, previously owned cars influence the next car to be chosen. We use an agent-based microsimulation approach particularly suited to predict environmental and market effects of feebates. Heteorogenous agents choose from a choice set drawn from a detailed fleet of new cars. Incentives of €2000 for A-labeled cars induce an additional rated CO 2 emission decrease of new car registrations between 3.4% and 4.3%, with CO 2 abatement costs between €6 and €13 per ton, and otherwise little undesired market disturbance. The risk of rebound effects is estimated to be low. After adopting the frequencies of consumer segments to a given country, the model presented is applicable to all European car markets.

Wearable Activity Tracking in Car Manufacturing

In an industrial scenario, a context-aware wearable computing system could support a production or maintenance worker. The system could recognize the worker's actions and deliver just-in-time information about activities the worker is to perform. This article reports on an ongoing effort to develop and test such real-life industrial activity-tracking systems within the European Union wearIT@work project. Two case studies conducted in cooperation with the European car manufacturer Skoda demonstrate how the system supports the training of assembly workers and quality assurance in the assembly line. The lessons learned from these studies are applicable in other areas. This article is part of a special issue on activity-based computing.

Analysis and modelling of the pollutant emissions from European cars regarding the driving characteristics and test cycles

Within the European research project ARTEMIS, significant works have been conducted to analyse the hot emissions of pollutant from the passenger cars regarding the driving cycles and to propose modelling approaches taking into account large but heterogeneous datasets recorded in Europe. The review and analysis of a large range of test cycles enabled first the building-up of a set of contrasted cycles specifically designed for characterizing the influence of the driving conditions. These cycles were used for the measurement of the pollutants emission rates from nine passenger cars on a chassis dynamometer. Emissions measured on 30 vehicles tested on cycles adapted to their motorization (i.e., cycles for high- or low-powered cars, inducing thus a significant difference in the dynamic) were also considered for analysing the influence of the cycles and of the kinematic parameters on the hot emission rates of the regulated pollutants (CO, HC, NO x , CO 2, PM). An analyses of variance demonstrated the preponderance of the driving type (urban, rural road, motorway), of the vehicle category (fuel, emission standard) and emitting status (high/normal emitter) and thus the pertinence of analysing and modelling separately the corresponding emissions. It also demonstrated that Urban driving led systematically to high diesel emission rates and to high CO 2, HC and NO x emissions from petrol cars. Congested driving implied high CO 2 (diesel and petrol) and high diesel NO x emission. On motorway, the very high speeds generated high CO 2, while unsteady speeds induced diesel NO x and petrol CO over-emissions. A search for pertinent kinematic parameters showed that urban diesel emissions were mostly sensitive to stops and speed parameters, while petrol emissions were rather sensitive to acceleration parameters. On the motorway, diesel NO x and CO 2 emissions rates increased with the speed variability and occurrence of high speeds, while CO 2 and CO over-emission from petrol cars were linked to the occurrence of strong acceleration at high speeds. A modelling approach based on partial least square regression was tested, which demonstrates its ability to discriminate satisfactorily the emissions according to dynamic related parameters and in particular when considering the two-dimensionnal distribution of instantaneous speed and acceleration. Finally, a strategy was proposed to analyse the large but heterogeneous set of hot emission data collected within the ARTEMIS project. The approach consisted in analysing the similarity of the numerous cycles as regards their kinematic, grouping them into reference test patterns through an automatic clustering, and then computing reference emissions for these patterns. These principles enabled the development of a method to compute the emissions at a low spatial scale, i.e. the so-called traffic situation approach, which was implemented in the European Artemis model for estimating the cars’ pollutant emissions.

Pregnant woman and road safety: experimental crash test with post mortem human subject

Trauma affect between 3 and 7% of all pregnancies in industrialized countries, and the leading cause of these traumas is car crashes. The difficulty to appreciate physiologic and anatomic changes occurring during pregnancy explain that majority of studies were not based on anatomical data. We present a protocol to create a realistic anatomical model of pregnant woman using a post mortem human subject (PMHS). We inserted a physical model of the gravid uterus into the pelvis of a PMHS. 3D acceleration sensors were placed on the subject to measure the acceleration on different body segments. We simulated three frontal impact situations at 20 km/h between two average European cars. Two main kinematics events were identified as possible causes of injuries: lap belt loading and backrest impact. Cadaver experiments provide one interesting complementary approach to study injury mechanisms related to road accidents involving pregnant women. This anatomical accuracy makes it possible to progress in the field of safety devices.

Modelling of links in a numerical simulation to improve occupant safety during side impact

During side impact, door panels must be designed according to the original equipment manufacturer's passive safety requirements to reach good European New Car Assessment Programme scores. The energy produced during the shock must be absorbed and no fracture of contactable parts should appear. To design the best solution, numerical finite element codes are used and predictability of the calculations is necessary to converge directly to the safest concept. This paper shows a great improvement in the calculation accuracy by modelling the behaviour of links between parts. Polymer rivet and snap behaviours are discussed and a methodology for samples is described. It is now possible to detect and to reinforce design in risk areas with crash simulations to avoid any breakage of the door panel assembly. Finally, a validation of the door panel is highlighted by comparing experimental results and numerical simulation predictions.

The effect of improved safety on fuel economy of European cars

This paper considers whether increased safety in modern cars has been an obstacle for automakers to fulfil voluntary CO 2 emission reduction commitment in Europe. It examines two basic questions: how much safety affects vehicle mass in modern cars, and whether a safer car consumes more fuel than its less safe counterparts. Results from safety tests performed by EuroNCAP on 192 car models were examined looking at vehicle mass, engine size, fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions. The results seem to confirm findings from the US and international studies: the enhanced safety of modern cars has a very small effect on vehicle mass and does not significantly affect fuel consumption.

The perceived fairness and efficiency of used car markets

Two totally different sets of efficiency scores are obtained under two different consumer decision-making processes. It is found that distortions in the used car market are lower than previously thought. Cars with higher prices are perceived efficient when consumers set 'price range' as the first criterion in their purchase decision process. Lower priced cars are considered efficient if 'model year' is the first factor entering into purchase decision process. It is also found that the 'price range' decision-makers perceive a much more efficient used car market than 'model year' decision-makers. If a decision has to be made among car models within a certain price range, European and Korean car models are better choices compared to US ones. However, when making choices among cars of the same model year, US car models are better choices than European and Japanese car models. The segment of the secondary market with the older version car models tends to have a higher average efficiency, compared to the segments with newer versions. Furthermore, the high-efficiency car models are not getting the high overall ratings from customers. However, car models that are better rated by consumers are indeed charged with a higher price.

Introduction and Affirmation of Car Trains in the European Union

We live in a time of continuous technical and technologicaldevelopment. It is the time of globalization which is the maindriver of the technological procedures in the process of executingtransport services. Railway transport in Europe requiresspecial attention, since it has a number of attributes which arenot being effectively used. Measures to reduce the use of roadnetwork have been prepared, which would consequently increaserailway transport. Individuals in personal vehicles couldreduce transport costs with the increasing use of railway transport.The introduction of car trains in Europe is also supportedby the European Union, but there has been very little done inthe European car train system. The first goal of the Europeanunion seems to be understandable : using piggyback transportto redirect as much road freight transport as possible to the Europeanrailway system. Car trains in the integrated Europeanrail system are one of numerous possibilities of how to offer auser of personal vehicle and his fellow passengers a safe, comfortable,economical and ecologically acceptable way of travelon a specific distance in the local or global sense of combinedtransport of vehicles and passengers.

Emergent integration: the creation of an enlarged European Automobile Space under institutional uncertainty

The 2004 enlargement of the European Union with ten new member states represents a problem of 'emergent integration' – the creation of new institutions under sizable degrees of uncertainty. This paper specifies three types of uncertainty (entry, institutional and strategic uncertainty) and assesses to what extent these uncertainties have influenced the position of the new member states in a particular regional division of labour. The paper documents and illustrates the dynamic interaction of firm and government strategies and their outcome for a sector that contains important 'agents of change' and the largest foreign direct investors in most Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries – the car industry.