Renault ready for satellite radio

The french car maker decided to partner with Ondas, a Madrid-based company, to prepare the arrival of satellite radio in Europe. Like in the US, where the technology appeared in 2000, Europeans will have in their car more than 100 channels, including advertising free channels, with a digital quality and available on a continent scale. The partnership with Ondas covers satellite radio, but also streaming video, telematics and vehicle related information. The service will be starting in 2012 in Renault vehicles sold in Europe.

 PSA on time for European E Call

Pioneer of the E call with its own solution and over 700 000 cars equipped in Europe since 2003, PSA Peugeot Citroën wants to comply with the EC, that has invited car makers to provide an emergency call starting from September 2010, based on the unique emergency number in the Union, the 112. The French manufacturer will partner with a Luxemburg based company, P&T Luxembourg, to install a SIM card in its cars in 2010. The E call will be separated from other telematics functions (navigation, hands free communications), thanks to a new device, offering a Bluetooth module for private communications. Road assistance and emergency calls will be free of charge for the customer.

BMW and Mini champions for CO² reduction

According to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, Mini is on top of the list of the most efficient car makers for the reduction of CO² emissions. The brands scores a decline a 19,65 %, just ahead of BMW (15,6 %), Smart (10,5 %), Audi (7,1 %) and Alfa Roméo (4,6 %) between 2006 and 2008. In France, the energy agency has acknowledged that BMW has reduced CO² emissions of 21 g per km in 2008, to reach an average level of 145 g per km. These results are due to Efficient Dynamics strategy.

Green Powertrain from Delphi

At two prestigious conferences (London Engineering Conference and Vienna Motor Symposium), Delphi has presented its solutions to lower fuel consumption and to cut down emissions. The first solution is the direct acting diesel common rail : a technology used in the new E Class from Mercedes. Thanks to a piezo stack, that actuates directly the needle of the nozzle, the car is more powerful than the previous version, has a better torque and is consuming less with only 5,3L/100 km in NEDC cycle. Delphi has also presented fast solenoid injectors for gasoline direct injection (stratified GDI) and a ultra high pressure diesel common rail (up to 3000 bars) for heavy duty applications.

Japan ready for the zero emission vehicle

Better Place company unveiled the first automated battery switch for electric vehicles. The demo took place in Yokohama, Japan, where the Ministry of Environment is testing EVs and car charging spots. On a Nissan car, Better Place showed how, in only one minute, a depleted battery can be replaced by a new one, in an automated process. The battery switch is the core strategy of the company, that wants to supply electric cars with switch stations around the world. For its part, Nissan announced that its first electric car will be produced in Japan, starting from autumn 2010.


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Stefan Steyerl, Director Automotive Sales Europe, Analog Devices

The expert of the month

Stefan Steyerl, Director Automotive Sales Europe, Analog Devices

Many OEMs are working on EV and HEVs. How is involved Analog Devices in those projects and what is your added value ?

“In close cooperation with many automotive OEMs and Tier 1s, ADI developed a Li-ion battery monitoring IC solution that contains all the functions required for fast accurate monitoring and safe control of stacked Lithium-ion batteries, as they will be used in future hybrid and full electric vehicles. Unlike competitive IC solutions, this new battery monitor IC provides accurate and fast multi channel voltage and temperature measurements, cell balancing and has superior EMI robustness. This saves system costs by allowing devices to be stacked in large voltage environments without the use of multiple isolators.

Additionally Analog Devices offers a wide range of automotive proven products for HEV and EV, from amplifiers to converters to iCoupler® digital isolators. ADI digital isolators effectively remove the limitations of automotive-grade optocouplers and do so while consuming 90% less power. Our iCoupler Products are widely used in automotive HEV and EV projects worldwide.

ADI resolver-to-digital converters are used for smooth control in dual-mode hybrid vehicles as power shifts between electric and internal combustion systems. Unlike hall based solutions they allow accurate measurements also a slow rotation speeds”.

With the crisis, there is a strong pressure on costs. How to deal with the OEMs requirement to cut down prices and on the other hand to deliver innovation to customers ? How does it impact your business and your organisation ?

“ADI’s product portfolio helps our customers differentiate their systems from the competition and improve the overall system cost. Of course there is always cost pressure in the marketplace, but even in the current economy ADI is maintaining its R&D budget to develop and offer innovative products to our customers”.

In the field of advanced safety, you’re working on many topics, including next generation airbags. Can you please tell us more about what you’re doing with Infineon ?

“The first step of the cooperation with Infineon was to develop a hardware reference platform combining ADI’s MEMS accelerator sensor with the chipset from Infineon and to provide Tier1 customers with a proof of concept. This allows them to focus on the airbag algorithm and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This platform is probably more helpful for Tier1 customers in emerging regions like China than for more experienced Tier1 customers in Europe and the US. However customers in all regions will benefit from the cooperation between ADI and Infineon as we align our roadmaps to ensure the best interoperability and offer what is in our opinion the most complete chipset in the market for Airbag systems. Both companies will also still continue to sell their own respective products”.

Analog Devices is also involved in infotainment. We’re living an exciting period with multimedia connectivity, hi-quality sound experience and new features such as satellite radio… But, how to deal once again with costs ? What is your approach for the connected car ?

“Infotainment products are often a way for manufacturers to differentiate themselves, and to bring the user experience from the home mobile devices into a car. However new standards in multimedia and connectivity are in conflict with the development and qualification times in automotive. One solution that can help is taking a software programmable approach to add new features via software upgrades or late software fixes in the development process. ADIs processor architectures Blackfin, SHARC and SigmaDSP help our customers to follow this approach. Within ADI’s products and processor families we have pin-compatible versions which allow our customers to build scalable systems. All this helps to save costs in development, qualification and the components themselves. On top of this a platform approach can be used with different features for various OEMs and car models to help the Tier1 from a total cost of ownership point of view”.