Mexican Media Brands
A Consequence of Electrification
Although there is a whole lot of talk nowadays in the auto industry about materials including aluminum, ultra-high-strength steel, and composites, there is another material that, Jeff Owens, chief technology officer and executive vice president, Delphi Automotive, told the audience this week at the CAR Group Management Briefing Seminars that is going to have huge growth in automotive: Copper.
#electronics #aluminum
.jpg;width=70;height=70;mode=crop)
Share
Although there is a whole lot of talk nowadays in the auto industry about materials including aluminum, ultra-high-strength steel, and composites, there is another material that, Jeff Owens, chief technology officer and executive vice president, Delphi Automotive, told the audience this week at the CAR Group Management Briefing Seminars that is going to have huge growth in automotive:
Copper.
Speaking to the issue of increased networking and electrification in vehicles, he said that whereas there is currently about 7.5 kg of copper in the average car, that’s going to go to 15 kg.
What’s more, there is going to be an increase in wiring and cabling from 1 mile to 1.5 miles. There will be a need for vehicular voltage to go from 12 volts to 300 to 600 volts. What was once a $2 connector may become a $20 connector.
Just providing the support for an electrified powertrain will mean an additional cost from $500 to $800 per vehicle.
Speaking of cost: Owens says that he is doubtful that there will be fully autonomous cars not only because of the regulatory, legal and technical challenges (sensors, computing platforms, control systems, etc. etc. etc.), but: “Will the consumer pay for it?”
RELATED CONTENT
-
2018 Ford EcoSport: Small Is the New Big
Eric Loeffler, chief program engineer for the 2018 Ford EcoSport, recalls driving home from work one day from the product development center in Brazil where work was underway on developing the vehicle that will be coming to the U.S. in 2018, having been launched in 2003 in South America and is now become available in 140 countries around the world.
-
Ford and Autonomy
Ford’s announcement last week in Silicon Valley came as something of a surprise.
-
Chevy Develops eCOPO Camaro: The Fast and the Electric
The notion that electric vehicles were the sort of thing that well-meaning professors who wear tweed jackets with elbow patches drove in order to help save the environment was pretty much annihilated when Tesla added the Ludicrous+ mode to the Model S which propelled the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds.
