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The Once and Future Electric Car. "Why did we abandon the electric vehicle?" asks Dr. Jean Botti, chief technologist at Delphi Corp.'s Innovation Center. He pauses, then answers his own rhetorical question, "Two reasons: range and battery cost." Find a way to mitigate those two drawbacks, he posits, and there is no good reason why plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) couldn't be back on the road, and this time in much higher volumes. The idea sounds slightly subversive. After all, if there is one path in the automotive industry's recent technological history that most can agree was a dead end it is plug-in electrics. But the problem with those vehicles lay almost entirely in their reliance on heavy, expensive conventional batteries, not in the electric motors used or their control electronics. Replace those batteries with a power source that is durable, lightweight and offers a range analogous to an internal combustion engine, and suddenly plug-in electrics become a viable option. For Botti that power source is a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC). He proposes a powertrain concept unglamorously called "EV range extender" that is similar in layout to the ones that drive hybrid vehicles today, but instead of an internal combustion engine powering the electric motor, there is the SOFC running on diesel fuel. Also unlike a hybrid, this system would bring back the bank of batteries used in EVs, but greatly downsize it to reduce cost and weight and increase usable packaging space. Delphi's modeling suggests that a 100-kg lithium battery array would meet necessary performance criteria and save enough space to turn a two-seater into a four-seater.

Ever since the first Mercedes A-Class flipped over an imaginary moose during testing in the late 1990s, electronic stability control (ESC) systems have moved from a quick fix to a commonplace new vehicle offering. Supplier studies show 61% of car buyers have a strong interest in the system if the option price is no higher than $600. Yet fewer than 25% of 2007 passenger vehicles are expected to offer the technology for the simple reason that new car buyers don't expect to ever find themselves in a situation where ESC is needed.

"It's tough trying to sell a safety system like ESC to the end consumer," says Scott Dahl, marketing director, Chassis System Management at Bosch. "They can see the value of an entertainment system, but can't justify the expense of ESC." Perhaps buyers need to be introduced to Critical Sliding Velocity (CSV), the lateral velocity at which a trip (hitting a curb, sliding onto a soft shoulder) can induce a rollover. For cars, the speed range is 11 mph to 18 mph. For light trucks and SUVs, the speed range is 9 mph to 13 mph. Of course, it takes more work to get a car--which has a higher effective track width--into this situation, thus the real world rollover disparity between cars and light trucks and the reason many OEMs will offer ESC across their SUV lines by the end of the decade.

Another way to entice OEMs and buyers alike is to expand the capabilities of ESC systems through value-added functions that answer specific needs, thereby moving the sales focus away from an extreme condition safety system toward one with more everyday utility. Many are based on adding functionality to the brake units used in the ESC systems. Others add software to existing hardware. Bosch, Continental, and Delphi each have added variations on the ESC theme to their portfolios.

Competition, costs, and time-to-market fuel design and manufacturing initiatives

When you look at manufacturing industries, the automotive business stands apart as a different breed. Automotive manufacturing's sheer size and complexity force constant wrestling with the timeless issues of cutting costs, increasing product quality, meeting ever-stricter governmental safety and environmental regulations, and dealing with the industry's annual model design and tooling changes. Add in the relatively recent phenomenon of mass customization, as the Internet-savvy buyer demands specialized attention. With those variables, automakers are scrambling to find the fastest possible ways to design and build their cars and trucks.

With the latest available CAD/CAM/CAE tools for simulation and visualization in automotive design, the first fully electronic designs have finally caught on. Automakers today seek the ultimate in design tools and techniques in order to speed their designs to market, and most industry observers see this much more tightly intertwined product design and manufacturing as automotive manufacturing's Holy Grail.

"What I consider one of the megatrends emerging here is the more complete integration between the product engineering and manufacturing function," notes David Cole, an automotive analyst and director of the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation (Ann Arbor, MI). "We talk about simultaneous engineering, simultaneous development, it's really now becoming a way of life-making sure that you really do bring manufacturing issues into the earliest stages of design. And our own studies, particularly in the body technology area, show that if you don't do that you lose at least 75% of the potential for cost reduction."

Even with herculean cost-cutting efforts, US automakers still trail foreign competitors on pervehicle cost, and by a substantial margin in some cases. One way that US manufacturers are attempting to be more competitive is through investing in lean manufacturing facilities. "When you're in auto, it's big bucks," adds Cole. "The financial requirements to invest in this business are huge, although I think what we'll see emerge is `low-investment' plants designed lean from the get-go."

DETROIT -- In a move to help it focus on a relatively new and growing customer base involving lightweight component applications for titanium in cars and trucks, Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet) has established a new division known as Timet Automotive.

Kurt Faller, who previously served as Timet's director of automotive development, will head the new business unit as president. The unit will be based in Morgantown, Pa.

The move by Denver-based Timet would appear to run counter to recent feedback from Detroit regarding the potential for expanded near-term use of titanium components in automotive platforms (AMM, Oct. 3). Detroit engineers and designers interviewed during the second half of 2001, while acknowledging that titanium remained a promising material option given its light weight and corrosion-resistance properties, remained parked in a wait-and-see mode regarding their commitment to specify titanium for future automotive applications.

In addition, recent zero financing deals, extended warranties and cash-back incentives from Detroit, all designed to attract cautious consumers in a sluggish market, have chipped away at overall vehicle profitability. The lower profits that result from these incentives mean that the use of premium-cost materials, such as titanium, typically is put on the back burner.

Despite all the prevailing wisdom, however, Timet's more optimistic assessment is that the formation of the new division would allow it respond to the emerging market for titanium in vehicles in North America, Europe and Japan. The new division will focus on providing "the best-value titanium mill. products to the automotive industry's quality standards," said J. Landis Martin, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Timet.

"The need to meet the conflicting goals of higher mileage; lower emissions and improved safety has caused auto manufacturers to increase their applications of lightweight materials," Martin said. "And titanium provides performance characteristics in the automotive environment that are unmatched by other metals."

High material cost compared with steel and aluminum remains the principal disadvantage for titanium in the automotive sector. However, Timet spokesmen countered that the average price of titanium industrial mill products, adjusted for inflation, was less than half the 1981 level, and that industrial grades cost less than half of aerospace grades.

Ford's cash cow adds another portal, and gains lost of now end torque.

Depending on how you view it, Ford Motor Co. is either one step behind in the emerging 4-door extended cab pickup market, or a quantum leap ahead of everybody else. The 1999 SuperCab adds a second rear door, on the driver's side, to the current 3-door F-Series cab, but it comes a full year after Dodge unleashed its Quad Cab Ram. The new SuperCab, however, completes Ford's strategy to become the first automaker to offer four doors on all of its pickups -- from the compact Ranger (launched last spring) to the big F-250, the first over-8,500-pound GVW trucks to have four portals.

What may count most is that the new F-Series cab is still a year ahead of arch-rival GM, which won't have 4-door versions of its new GMT800 trucks for sale until the 2000 model year.

Ford chose to make the 4-door cab standard on all SuperCab F-150/250 models (program code PN96/102), rather than make it an option, as Chrysler did on the Quad Cab ($750 extra) Ram. That move will help simplify customer ordering, production scheduling, and body assembly in the three F-Series plants in Kansas City, Mo., Norfolk, Va., and Ontario Truck in Canada, notes Susan Pacheco, F-150/250 chief program engineer.

If Dodge's first year of experience is an indication, the 4-door trend will dominate the pickup market. Fifty-three percent of Ram sales are now Quad Cabs, according to Chrysler. Ford expects the new SuperCab to grab 66% or more of F-Series sales -- over 500,000 units per year. That's more SuperCab trucks in a year than Dodge Division's total 1997 car sales.

While the two automakers are bullish, some industry observers are hesitant to declare total victory for the 4-door pickup just yet.

"It's a very profitable part of the truck market, and it will grow. But the danger in the pickup segment is rising prices, due to the spread of extra features -- like 4-door cabs," says Michael Schmall, managing partner of The Planning Edge, a Troy, Mich.-based auto industry consultancy. "Pickups don't have the seemingly endless price ceiling of the SUV segment."

Analyst Schmall says given their dependency on truck profits, Ford, Chrysler and GM can't risk getting caught outside a niche. Thus the rush to four doors.

More and more fleet maintenance managers are steamed up over the fact they can get little or no electronic data needed to service or change ECM (electronic control modules) settings on their engines. Almost anything requiring a change or recalibration to diesel engine settings now requires a trip to an authorized truck or engine dealer--or sometimes both.

In a flurry of e-mail exchanges I've been part of lately between unhappy fleet managers and OE service personnel, the pot is definitely building up pressure and may pop during the September meeting of TMC (Technology and Maintenance Council of ATA). I now see why this is happening. What I don't yet see is an easy solution.

A couple of my e-mail excerpts illustrate the points.

"Our new trucks are becoming more and more complex and we are finding it very difficult for us and ANY service dealer to repair them in a timely fashion and/or correctly the first time. This is increasing our costs substantially and is also forcing us to keep more 'spare' vehicles."

Here's another: "I received your e-mail the very same day when I had a small problem ... speedometer calibration. My truck dealer couldn't repair it and I then had to take the tractor to my engine dealer to have the ECM reburned, the only way to fix it. If we're forced into truck dealers for repairs like this, they better have the tools and knowledge to do it."

Other e-mails said "right on," this is a serious issue.

"How do we get the OEMs to release us the information we need to repair our own equipment? Specifically, we need the ability to download data from the factory for ECM reprogramming; we need to be able to acquire all the necessary equipment/programming to handle repairs as needed."

3M Co.'s Wausau quarry in Wisconsin provides the Midwest with materials for colored roofing granules. While some things haven't changed much at the quarry over the years, one thing that has changed is the advanced capabilities at the quarry to manufacture the materials quickly and efficiently, This is done by using reliable equipment in every step of the manufacturing process.

With a large area of useable rock to blast, excavate, load, haul, crush and color, employees and equipment are under the usual pressures of company expectations, customer demands and the requirement to produce product in a safe, productive and cost effective manner, while meeting the customer's expectations of both service and quality.

The process of getting rock from the quarry face processed into a crushed, granular material is fairly simple, although it requires the right equipment to do it effectively.

After the rock is blasted, it is loaded and hauled to an on-site crushing plant. Once the rock has entered the crushers, it goes through a series of phases to crush and dry the materials. When this is complete, the granular material is trucked to the 3M coloring plant (also located in Wausau, Wis.) where it enters its final stages of crushing and coloring.

First time buyer, seller

3M depends on its fleet of wheel loaders and haul trucks to move thousands of tons of rock from deep in the quarry to the crushing plant every day. Since the loaders and trucks are the real workhorses of 3M's operation, this requires that the company employ only productive, reliable equipment.

When the company found it was in need of a new haul truck, it followed suit in 3M tradition and tried something it hadn't before. In June 2003, 3M purchased a new Komatsu HD465-7 truck, making it the first piece of Komatsu equipment ever used at the 3M Wausau quarry.

The decision to buy a Komatsu machine, rather than another model, was the result of the HD465-7's features, competitive pricing and a sturdy relationship with distributor Roland Machinery and Roland representative Tim Sharkey.

It was the first machine ever sold by the Schofield, Wis., equipment distributor under the flag of Roland Machinery. The distributorship was previously operated under the name Bark River.

The strengthening dollar is making the U.S. less attractive as a low-cost manufacturing site, but you'd never get that impression looking at the expansion plans launched by most foreign-based automakers in the U.S. and Canada.

Honda, Toyota and Nissan all are planning to build more vehicles and components in North America during the next several years, and more aggressive expansions - possibly even new assembly plants - are rumored at several Japanese and German sites, although official spokesmen discount those reports.

Even smaller operations, such as Subaru-Izuzu Automotive in Lafayette, IN - which barely survived the early 1990s - now are expected to add another product and significantly increase production capacity, thanks to the skyrocketing U.S. sport/utility (SUV) market. Isuzu Motors Ltd. reportedly is making plans to build a small SUV similar in size to its compact Amigo at the site, in the m model year. Adding the Amigo to the already popular Honda Passport, Isuzu Rodeo and Subaru Outback could force a capacity increase from 180,000 to 240,000 annually, officials say.

The only transplant not benefiting from the SUV craze is CAMI in Ingersoll, Ont.. It builds General Motors Corp.'s and Suzuki's slow-selling Geo Tracker and Suzuki Sidekick: unrefined small sportutes that haven't managed to catch the public's fancy and now face stiff competition from the likes of Toyota's RAV4. Production at the Canadian plant has plummeted in the past year, forcing layoffs and buyouts.

There are reports that exports to Japan may be scaled back somewhat, but even though the Japanese yen and German mark have plummeted against the dollar in the past year, foreign manufacturing operations are continuing to grow, particularly those for engines and light trucks.

The universal explanation from Japanese and German automakers: currency rates fluctuate too much to impact long-term strategic manufacturing plans.

Despite reports to the contrary, for instance, a spokesman says Honda North America Inc. still plans to export 150,000 vehicles yearly from North America by 1998 or 1999, up from about 90,000 now.

Dofasco de Mexico SA de CV has launched commercial production of its $40-million steel tube mill for automotive hydroformed applications. Virtually all the production at the new facility in the Escobedo section of Monterrey will target frames for light- and heavy-duty trucks sold in North America.

William T. Chisholm, director-general of the facility, said production and shipments began during the first week of January. The 256,000-square-foot tube mill with a work force of 135 has a fully rated annual production capacity of 150,000 tons, but actual production during its first year most likely will be about 60,000 tons.

The facility thus far has two primary customers: Metalsa SA de CV, a unit of Grupo Proeza, Apodaca, Mexico, which builds Chrysler and Dodge trucks; and the Saltillo, Mexico,-based Formex Automotive Industries SA de CV, a unit of Canadian manufacturer Magna International, which produces parts and systems for General Motors Corp. trucks. Dofasco de Mexico supplies cut-to-length steel tubes to its customers, which then hydroform the tubes to fabricate a complete truck frame.

Thermatool Mill Systems, Perry, Ohio, supplied the plant's 2-inch- to 6 5/8-inch-diameter tube mill, and also built Dofasco's two other tube mills in Hamilton, Ontario, where parent company Dofasco Inc. is headquartered. Chisholm said the mill could produce tubes of one-half ASTM standards on cold-rolled and galvanized steel.

Dofasco de Mexico produces a range of round outer-diameter and inner-diameter scarfed products. Customers later bend the round tubes into ovals and squares, depending on the part design. The production incorporates on-line, non-destructive-testing equipment, including eddy current testing, phased array ultrasound and laser outer-diameter gauging.

The mill manufactures tubes in a continuous process that automatically feeds three different processing lines that cut, deburr, wash, dry and then package into storage bins. In addition to the production area, the Monterrey site includes a 65,000-square-foot climate-controlled warehouse with four shipping docks.

As the rivalry continues between the American-favored hybrid electric vehicles and European-favored diesels, Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler brought prototypes that combine both technologies to the 2005 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). These are the Mercury Meta One, Opel Astra Diesel Hybrid and Mercedes-Benz S-Class Hybrid. Diesels are already the most common power source in hybrid electric trucks and buses, driven partly by military interest in hybrids running on a single battlefield fuel, JP-8, that can be used in both ground and air vehicles.

Mercury Meta One

The Mercury Meta One, a showcase for many advanced technologies, features a 2.7L V6 diesel mated to a Modular Hybrid Transmission (MHT). The twin-turbocharged, intercooled, DOHC, 24-valve, 60-degree V-6 has a compacted graphite iron block and aluminum heads.

This engine is used in the new Jaguar S-Type Diesel sold outside North America. With the MHT, the torque converter of the 6-speed automatic transmission is replaced by a high-voltage electric motor and two hydraulic clutches so the motor can operate independently of, or with, the diesel engine. The 35-kW, three-phase motor also serves as the flywheel, starter, alternator and traction motor to drive the front wheels. The layout required minimal change to the base transmission, thus reducing the complexity and cost compared to other hybrid systems.

The MHT can operate in an assist mode to supplement the engine's output for additional power for acceleration and under conditions where a diesel pollutes most. For example, them is a short burst in soot emissions as a typical diesel's turbocharger speeds up when accelerating. Tuning a diesel engine to minimize this spike usually compromises throttle response The MHT provides a momentary burst of power for a quick takeoff with very low emissions. Electrical energy is stored in a 325-Volt, 6-Amp-hour nickel metal hybrid (NiMH) battery. Working together, the diesel and electric motor, the 2.7L- V-6 makes 248hp at 4,000 rpm and 431 ft. lb. of torque at 1,900 rpm--almost as much as the Ford's 6.8L Triton V-10--but sips rather than guzzles fuel.

It's a fact that motorists are still driving in the wake of high gas prices, but a downside may exist for the aftermarket. Consumers are cutting corners in other areas as gas prices rise, so they may let automotive maintenance fall by the wayside, according to industry research.

Despite fluctuations in fuel prices, about 15 million new cars and trucks hit the roads each year, and this year is no exception, according to the American Automobile Association.

Production of U.S. vehicles is down this year, but U.S. light vehicle sales are up about 1 percent over last year, notes Ward's Communications, indicating the majority of motorists are unfazed over what they're paying at the pumps. While fuel prices rose to record highs in 2004, they are expected to decline during the holiday season due to lower crude oil prices and the recovery of refineries that were battered during this year's hurricanes.

At press time, gas prices hovered around $2 a gallon; Gaspricewatch.com reported $2.79 a gallon in San Francisco and $1.66 a gallon in St. Louis.

In what a motorist pays for a typical gallon of gas, about 52 percent goes toward crude oil, 22 percent goes toward taxes, 14 percent is paid for refining and 12 percent is for distribution and marketing, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The main reason people continue to drive regardless of price at the pump is they don't really have a choice, says Frank Hampshire, AASA/MEMA director of research.

"On average, in the U.S., there's a 26-mile commute," he says, pointing out society's proclivity for living in the suburbs, which leads to a dependence on four wheels.

He adds families are still more likely to take vacations regardless of pump prices and will drive to their destinations instead of using other modes of transportation.

As motorists continue to drive and the cost of living increases, "your money does not go as far anymore," Hampshire states. "If you're [logging] the same amount of miles, you're going to have to find that money somewhere." And that "somewhere" will most likely be the automobile's maintenance. For example, a vehicle's tires may be a little bald, but the driver will probably put off replacing them in favor of uninterrupted driving, concedes Hampshire.