With the end of the Spring Festival holiday, a busy new year begins. While we are still immersed in the joy of festivals, the pace of automotive evolution has not slowed down for a moment. In the era of various innovative technologies emerging in the automotive revolution, component companies are also at the forefront of this wave of change. The movements of giants often represent trends, and looking at their various actions may also provide a glimpse into the development trajectory of the automotive industry in 2019.
Due to the fact that many component companies have not released their financial reports for 2018, we refer to the 2018 Global Top 100 Automotive Component Companies List, which is ranked based on the automotive supporting revenue of each automotive component manufacturer in 2017. What are the New Year's plans for the top ten global component giants in the new year?
Bosch: Jointly launching autonomous commuting services with Daimler
Bosch is already the world's largest automotive technology supplier, with a wide range of business operations. In the era of "four modernizations", Bosch is also actively developing towards automation, interconnection, and electrification.
『Bosch and Daimler to Launch Autonomous Driving Commuting Services』
The most representative business is autonomous driving, and Bosch and Daimler have already taken the lead. In the second half of 2019, both parties will build the first autonomous driving city in a major city in California, USA, and provide customers with autonomous driving commuting services on designated roads.
This pilot project will integrate a series of interconnected transportation services, such as shared transportation (such as Car2GO), taxi services (such as Mytaxi), and multimodal transportation platforms (such as Moovel), to shape future intelligent transportation. It is worth mentioning that American technology company Nvidia is also involved, playing the role of an artificial intelligence platform supplier.
Electric equipment: The new technology company for autonomous driving was officially established in April 2019
The Electric Assembly Company originated from a department of Toyota called "Electrical Components" and has now become a subsidiary and supplier of Toyota. In December 2018, Dianzhuang made adjustments to the company's structure. The restructured business structure was officially implemented on January 1, 2019. The main direction is still to focus on the field of automatic driving and Internet driving, as well as to promote the development of electrification.
『Magna fuel cell extended range electric concept vehicle』
Magna also jointly established Magna Weilan New Energy Vehicle Technology Company with BAIC New Energy in January 2019, engaged in the production and manufacturing of high-end intelligent pure electric vehicles. The ARCFOX, a high-end brand of BAIC New Energy that was first put into production, will debut at the Geneva Auto Show in March 2019. This cooperation is also Magna's preparation for long-term development by leveraging the trend of electrification and entering China's new energy vehicle design and manufacturing system, seizing opportunities.
Mainland China: Powertrain Division IPO in mid 2019
In 2018, Continental Group underwent its largest organizational restructuring in decades, evolving from its previous five divisions into three major business areas: Continental Rubber, Continental Automotive, and Powertrains. At the same time, the mainland also plans to transform its powertrain department into an independent legal entity with a new company name and management, with an expected initial public offering (IPO) in mid 2019. Some of the funds generated after the listing of the new company transferred from the powertrain department will be used to invest in future development fields, such as electric vehicles and autonomous vehicle.
In addition, in terms of autonomous driving, the mainland has updated its millimeter wave radar to the fifth generation, launching the ARS510 for long-range detection and the SRR500 series for short-range detection. The fifth generation millimeter wave radar will also achieve mass production in 2019.
ZF: Minibus e GO Mover will be in mass production
What will the next generation of autonomous vehicle look like? In 2018, ZF released a micro autonomous driving bus GO Mover。 ZF is e Go Mover is equipped with an electric drive system, steering system, braking system, as well as ZF central controller ProAI and sensors to achieve autonomous driving function.
『ZF e Go Mover』
e. Go Mover will achieve mass production in 2019, with an initial annual production plan of five digits. ZF expects the demand for e. Go Mover to reach approximately 1 million vehicles in the next five to seven years. This scalable and deployable small bus will be used for the transportation of personnel and goods, meeting the needs of future urban transportation. It provides a new way of thinking for future transportation.
Text excerpted from Autohome website, hacked and deleted!