🚟Autowist Report 91

EU Spare part, GM Battery venture, Dangerous touchscreens, Immersive displays, OTA rankings

Author

Harikrishnan Radhakrishnan
October 18, 2024

IN TODAY’S REPORT

💼BRIEFING

Top insights and analysis that is moving the needle in the automotive industry

EU opens up spare car parts market to competition (Link)

The European Union has introduced a "Right to Repair" clause, allowing competition in the vehicle bodywork repair industry by permitting third-party suppliers for visible parts like body panels and headlights. This aims to reduce consumer costs and limit OEM monopolies. While some member states will implement the clause quickly, others have up to eight years due to a transition period. ECAR, a supporter of the reform, estimates annual savings of €450–720 million for consumers and predicts job growth in the automotive aftermarket sector. Independent part suppliers must ensure transparency but face fewer legal challenges.

  1. Some obvious effects of this is that OEMs will not be able to monetize their aftermarket part sales businesses as much anymore if there are cheaper alternatives available to the consumer

  2. This could also mean that OEMs might more spin off it’s various aftermarket related subsidiaries, so they are not “technically” part of the OEM but still can offer both OEM parts as well as 3rd party parts.

  3. OEMs can choose different strategies here.

    1. They can make their products more reliable. So needing less repair to start with

    2. Design the product to make it more easier to repair

    3. Design the product to make it harder to repair

Here are some facts and figures(Source)

GM Ventures invests $10M in Forge Nano’s game-changing EV battery technology (Link)

GM Ventures has invested $10 million in materials science company Forge Nano, joining shareholders like Volkswagen and LG. This raises Forge Nano’s total capital investment to over $100 million. GM and Forge Nano have also entered a strategic partnership to use Forge Nano’s Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology, called Atomic Armor, to improve the performance and lifespan of GM's EV batteries by enhancing cathode materials.

Atomic Armor, a surface coating, prevents battery corrosion, strengthens durability, and boosts performance, increasing EV range by 20% and enabling 10-minute fast charging. Forge Nano plans to use the investment to expand its battery material coating business and enter the semiconductor market.

Forge Nano’s manufacturing arm, Forge Battery, is developing a 277,000-square-foot facility in Morrisville, North Carolina, to produce ALD-enabled lithium-ion cells. The site will have a production capacity of 1 GWh by 2026, with plans to reach 3 GWh by 2029, supported by a $100 million grant from the US Department of Energy. Forge Battery's target markets include heavy trucking, offroad vehicles, motorcycles, and defense, with a goal of a 100% US-based supply chain.

Touch screens are dangerous in cars, says European Safety Agency (Link)

The European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) has raised concerns about the increasing use of touchscreens in vehicle dashboards, citing them as significant distractions for drivers. They recommend a return to physical buttons for essential controls like turn signals and hazard lights, as touchscreens can divert attention from the road during critical moments.

Matthew Avery, Euro NCAP’s director of strategic development, emphasized that touchscreens force drivers to take their eyes off the road, increasing the risk of distraction-related crashes. Although Euro NCAP cannot enforce regulations, its influence on safety ratings could encourage manufacturers to reconsider touchscreen reliance.

Key Takeaways (excerpts from article)

  1. Chinese auto market is innovating at a much quicker pace than the European and American markets.

  2. Geely OEMs were facilitated by Zeekr Technology Europe, its automotive research and development center.

  3. This center provided the Geely Group with the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), a modular EV platform that represents one of its most notable technologies. While the platform was introduced in the 001, its modular capabilities have since allowed it to be used as the base for many Geely-brand models launched across many segments and at different price points. Since 2021, the use of SEA across Geely’s brand portfolio has grown in tandem with the Group’s auto-related acquisitions and investments.

  4. In Europe, these benefits have been recognized by the Volkswagen Group, whose new modular electric drive matrix (MEB) is primarily being used to develop new EVs for the ID. family. While this range is set to occupy different segments, the Volkswagen Group is beginning to incorporate MEB into vehicles further along its brand portfolio

⚡ROUNDUP

Key headlines shaping the auto industry this week

  • GM's New Strategy for Batteries Shows NMC Cells Are Not an Asset. They're a Liability (Link)

  • BlackBerry: QNX embedded technology powers 255 million vehicles on the road today (Link)

  • MAN is entering a new electric era (Link)

  • EU opens up spare car parts market to competition (Link)

  • EV chipmaker Wolfspeed set to receive $750 million US chips grant (Link)

  • Is Tesla Ignoring Fundamentals? (Link)

  • Tavares says Stellantis review of brands will take place in 2-3 years (Link)

  • BWI Group, Geely-backed KINGWAY Technology team up in intelligent chassis field (Link)

  • Skoda Kylaq: what to expect from the Tata Nexon rival (Link)

  • Mercedes to continue investing in separate ICE, EV platforms (Link)

  • Apple secretly tapped BYD for long-range EV battery tech, report says (Link)

  • Audi’s Brussels Plant Appears Doomed As No Suitable Buyer Found (Link)

  • Toyota and Hyundai's Boston Dynamics team up on humanoid robot (Link)

  • GM Ventures invests $10M in Forge Nano’s game-changing EV battery technology (Link)

  • Mercedes-Benz EQE And EQS Will Come With Larger Batteries In 2025 (Link)

  • Tesla Gigafactory Expansion Approved In Germany (Link)

  • Next-gen EV battery promises 186 miles with a 5-minute charge (Link)

  • Jaguar Land Rover hires chief strategist as it prepares for electric era (Link)

  • GAC eyes Europe as its China sales fall (Link)

  • KTM Unveils Two "Super-Advanced” Electric Bikes Young Riders Won't Be Able to Resist (Link)

  • Apple Makes CarPlay 2 Look Like a Flop (Link)

  • GM looks to suppliers to help grow virtual vehicle development (Link)

  • Nio gets creative to help offset EV sales slump (Link)

  • BMW boss calls for delay to ‘no longer realistic’ 2035 ban on new ICE vehicles (Link)

  • Renault’s international strategy comes to life (Link)

  • New Geely Galaxy L7 powered by Geely’s next-gen Thor PHEV system revealed (Link)

  • Chinese Model Y rival debuts feature to help you escape a sinking car (Link)

💡STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

Emerging startups disrupting the automotive and mobility industry

Brelyon and Immersive Displays

In vehicle entertainment systems could really get a boost with immersive displays. Providing an experience and field of view that is comparable to 122” within the form factor of a vehicle interior is definitely something to think about.

With the current “2D” tech, OEMs more or less have 2 options> increase the number of display or make the display’s bigger. But with immersive displays they can get both.

The real question is what use cases could this fulfill where the customer is ready to pay for the premium experience. One bet is that as more VR and Apple Vision Pro content becomes popular immersive displays would be the “automotive” hybrid solution that allows you to watch regular and VR content on the same hardware.

Based on the patents and the marketing material on their website, I gather that most of their innovations are in the “Physics” realm. So it begs the question, whether we can use immersive displays not only for entertainment purposes, but also for the driver cluster. In addition to that question is how are immersive displays in terms of readability and overall legibility when compared to regular displays.

Brelyon has been named a winner of the U.S. Army’s xTechSearch 8 competition, which identifies and supports disruptive dual-use technologies for the Army. Brelyon's winning entry, the "Ultra Reality Mini Dual-Layer for Enhanced Situational Awareness via Amplified Indirect Vision," addresses limitations in current military displays, offering improved situational awareness and warfighter wellness. This does give some indication that their technology could be used for mission critical purposes as well.

List of patents by Brelyon

#1 | Methods and systems for interactive displays with intelligent generative content and tandem computing

#2 | Methods and Systems for Interactive Displays with Intelligent Generative Content and Tandem Computing

#3 | System and Method for Aperture Extension and Programmable Optical Depth Modulation via Field Evolving Cavities

#4 | Methods and Systems for Programming Momentum and Increasing Light Efficiency Above 25% in Folded Optics and Field Evolving Cavities Using Non-reciprocal, Anisotropic, and Asymmetric Responses

#5 | Methods and Systems for Computational Precision Three-dimensional Forming Via Localized Stress Remapping

#6 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, APPARATUSES, AND DEVICES FOR FACILITATING STRESS-ADAPTIVE VIRTUAL EXERIENCE STATIONS

#7 | System and method for aperture extension and programmable optical depth modulation via a field evolving cavity

#8 | Display system providing concentric light field and monocular-to-binocular hybridization

#9 | Display system providing concentric light field and monocular-to-binocular hybridization

#10 | Display system providing concentric light field and monocular-to-binocular hybridization

#11 | System and method for generating compact light-field displays through varying optical depths

🐦AUTO BUZZ

Top posts, tweets, and videos from the automotive industry

📈MARKET SNAPSHOT

This week’s key movers in the automotive stock market

📆CALENDAR

Upcoming auto industry events and and earnings calls