Opinion - Electrified vehicles

Personal Experiences

Before 2015, the trend of automotive was effective fuel economy. We focused on Downsizing, light-weighting, and reducing resistance. I still remember these because I was a freshman in the powertrain department, my first project was involved in light-weighting and downsizing. I was suffered from these requirements. Finding new material, and analyzing thousands of experiments, benchmarked others, etc. 

But suddenly, everything has been changed. I think 2015 is one of the important points of Automotive history.

I show you automotive companies stock price.
Pay attention to 2015~2016 period.

Middle of 2015, VW got shocked

Middle of 2015, Audi also got shocked

Until the fall of 2015, BMW's price was steadily decreased 

BYD's price was like a buck. but their value was increasing

After 2015, the demand for electrified vehicle has been growing and growing. I guess VW's diesel scandal triggered this movement. Governments are moving to make laws that prohibit the sale of conventional cars and to reinforce emission regulations(e.g. Euro 6) these movements are forcing Carmakers to make electrified vehicles. my job position was changed too. I became in charge of the powertrain control unit, realized that E/E system is different from the mechanical system. I needed to learn the motor system, hybrid system, and overall control unit system.

and now, we are living in 2019.

Electric Vehicle, "EV"

EV companies: you can see unfamiliar brands.  

We saw many concept EV in CES and Motor shows for 2 years. We will meet EV soon on road. we may realize that EV is not a future concept, will become true. we are audiences of a historical event that make a choice who will be a winner between challengers(EV startup) and champions(traditional Automotive companies).

Many EV startup companies are researching and developing. Especially, Tesla and Byton will show their performance at Greentech exhibition in Berlin. you can learn more about this as joining that conference.

China invests tons of cash, they try to overtake traditional automotive companies. Byton and NIO are Chinese startup companies. I think China choose EV as a breakthrough that upcoming economic crisis.

What should we prepare for?

"The Electrified" is currently a necessary and the important topic for automotive engineers. Every automotive industry is following this. The vehicle is becoming "perfect" E/E system. It means, we can't avoid Functional safety. We just know functional safety is about the process but it contains technical contents. You may expect the Functional safety engineer will give you functional safety concepts and requirements, I bet quite many functional safety engineers only focus on Process like HARA, and they will force you design and implement without detail functional safety requirements.

Next time, Let's talk about autonomous driving.  

Whiteberry