The fast and furious world of automotive
07 October 2008
Which markets are we, in the UK electronics industry, particularly strong? Medical, aerospace, and industrial electronics roll off the tongue, and when it comes to design you can add comms.
In fact we still dabble at the top end of most industries, without, of course, trusting ourselves to turn them into fully fledged manufacturing concerns.
One area we are pretty good at though is automotive. Not so much in terms of producing completed cars as we have done in the past, but certainly in terms of developing and even making many of the assemblies that find their way into most of the leading brands of cars across the world.
Notoriously difficult to work for, automotive companies expect the lowest prices, the tightest delivery, a host of different accreditations and, of course, the failsafe quality. Doesn’t sound a particularly attractive proposition if you are looking to branch out into new markets, but if you are on the inside, the UK automotive industry is a good place to be.
Or at least it was. But, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), new car registrations fell by 21% in September, traditionally the best month for new registrations along with March as the numbers change (has anyone seen, let alone bought, a 58 plate?). Overall the year is 7.5% down on last year with the SUVs being the hardest hit (down 45% across Europe) and large cars (down 30%) also having a hard time.
Unsurprisingly, small cars have weathered the storm best as the economic climate continues to take its toll. Uncertainty about our immediate future as individuals is inclined to make us think about extending the life of our current cars for another year – just in case things get worse – but if a new car is going to be bought then something a bit cheaper and more economical to run has obvious appeal. Running costs are clearly important. Why are they still so high? When oil cost nearly $140 a barrel, a litre of diesel cost me £1.35. Now it has fallen back to under $90 a barrel a litre still costs around £1.23. By my reckoning that is at least 30p too expensive. I have no facts to back this up but I am convinced there have been more people on bicycles this summer than ever before!
So how is the automotive industry fighting back? Firstly with that old favourite, taxpayers money. European car makers have asked for a $40bn ‘aid’ package to help them produce more environmentally friendly cars. The package would essentially be a loan similar to one granted to US car makers, which requires no repayment for the first five years. The objective of this package is to meet environmental obligations concerning emissions – a target of 120g of carbon per km instead of the average 150g at the moment.
More specifically to electronics, the latest step forward by one of the leading car makers is Ford’s ‘parental control’. Possibly this may attract a few parents who are precious about their Focus (the first car that this will be fitted to) but I am not so sure that the practical benefits will be all that great. The system is called MyKey, from which I assume that every driver will have a separate key that will determine certain parameters; top speed and stereo volume for example. The problem with this is simply that teenagers will conveniently lose their key when they urgently need to go out in the car, and therefore just borrow mum’s, and the MyKey philosophy will disappear out of convenience.
More importantly, ‘fast’ is a relative measure and it changes depending on the circumstances. Having the suggested MyKey speed limit of 80mph may stop extreme stupidity on the motorway, but it changes little in an urban environment. I live in a small town in Kent and last week I was in the town centre during the evening. The entertainment for the young people appeared to be driving around in ever faster circles. This was hideously dangerous and, as far as I could see, completely pointless and having an 80mph speed limit on the cars would have changed nothing, although limiting the stereo volume would have been nice. In short, I suspect MyKey, along with equivalent systems that all the main manufacturers will produce, will turn out to be little more than a gimmick. But then people probably said the same of electric windows and remote locking when they came in.
And for the record, I actually quite like young people; they are just difficult to understand sometimes.
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