For example, Magna this month highlighted its EtelligentForce battery-electric, four-wheel-drive powertrain system for pickups that it says may be applied into automakers’ present gasoline-powered vehicles with out having to upend their architectures.
“You possibly can really simply drop it into a daily pickup truck,” stated Tom Rucker, president of Magna Powertrain. “It makes use of the identical factors, the identical suspension. You do not even should do main modifications to your meeting line and manufacturing processes.”
It is an instance of how Magna hopes to supply worth to automakers within the electrical age, by providing options that may simply combine with automakers’ present expertise, saving their prospects treasured sources in an period of sky-high R&D budgets.
Kotagiri stated the connection between suppliers and automakers will proceed to evolve as EV expertise develops.
“It is vital to have the steadiness to say, ‘I work with these OEMs; listed here are their methods and here is what I am doing for them right this moment, however here is the trail for the following step,’ ” he stated. “It is not simply saying, ‘Inform us what you need and we’ll give it to you.’ ”
The Ontario-based provider, which ranks fourth globally on the Automotive News list of top suppliers by worldwide annual gross sales to automakers, already has “vital content material” on new battery-electric automobiles being launched worldwide, the corporate stated throughout its fourth-quarter earnings call this month.
Amongst automobiles it is going to provide content material for are the Ford F-150 Lightning electrical pickup, the Rivian R1S electrical SUV, the Cadillac Lyriq electrical crossover and the GMC Hummer electrical truck, in addition to fashions by Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. As well as, the provider’s Magna Steyr contract meeting unit will construct Fisker’s Ocean SUV at its manufacturing unit in Austria.
“Clearly, if electrical automobiles do effectively, we’ll do effectively,” Kotagiri stated.
Kotagiri stated the provider sees the varieties of services evolving as automobiles grow to be extra electrified and related.
“Once we say Magna is a mobility firm, we do not constrain ourselves to say we’re solely supplying methods and parts,” he stated. “Which means we may play a task within the infrastructure administration facet, whether or not it is information or information storage. As automobiles and subsystems grow to be extra related, there’s a play there.”