Foreword

Infotainment

Keeping pace with consumer demand

Management

Tata Nano

Sweeping change

Tata Nano is a marvel of a product, yet audaciously economical and mechanically simple. But does owning and operating a Nano yield significant savings and benefits in the long run?

Indian Auto Industry

Facing the challenges of new age

With the rapid changes in the industry since last decade, the Indian automotive industry has been facing some new challenges. This article discusses those challenges and new initiatives taken by the government to overcome them.

Information Technology

Operations Execution System

Taking Automotive Manufacturing to the Next Level

An OES is enhanced over MES as it synchronises production and logistics with ERP and plant automation systems, thereby providing a completely integrated system with real time visibility at all plants irrespective of their location.

Consumer Demands

Challenges for Automakers and Suppliers

Consumers' demand for more interactive services has increased the percentage of software used in cars. This presents a challenges as well as an opportunity to automakers and their Tier 1 suppliers.

Materials

Design for Recycling

The Renault way

Rising raw material cost and regulatory pressure are forcing automotive manufacturers to design vehicles that can be easily recycled.

Reinventing Automotive Steel

For more environmental friendlier vehicles

Steel is reinventing itself to lower the Green House Gas (GHG) output of cars and trucks at little or no additional cost to automotive manufacturers or consumers.

Engine and Chassis

Diesel Engines

Potentials, possibilities and challenges

Alternative fuels from regenerative sources (e.g. BTL) will especially gain importance in the same proportion as the shortage of fossil fuels increases due to the global trend of increasingly mobility.

Renewable Methane

Meeting the Fuel Challenge

Renewable methane offers a solution to fuel security and to the problem of waste disposal.

Powertrain

Duel of the eco-champions

Diesel engines which have long been neglected, are back in the reckoning in North America.

Numerical Simulation of Exhaust System Noise

Modern computer methods are integrated into a simulation scheme to predict the sound attenuation in complicated exhaust systems.

Electric Drive Vehicles in Future Transportation

Potential for fuel cell vehicles

Changing climate, rising oil prices and geographical distribution of oil resources requires us to reduce our dependence on petroleum.

Design and Testing

Driver-centred Design

Automation in cars is evolving so fast that it threatens to outpace the human's ability to keep up. As the driving task changes, it is more crucial than ever to consider the most important component in the automobile-the driver.

Automotive Design Process

The Consuming Culture

Using semiotic and cultural analysis techniques to anticipate future trends and align automotive design can help serve deep consumer needs.

Improving Automotive Design Process

A new perspective

Our current vehicle design practice is increasingly refined to speed up the project execution and, as a result, many vehicles on our roads today lack in identity and character.

Infotainment Systems

The role of open platform architecture

An open platform provides quick and cost-effective integration of the latest in-vehicle infotainment capability, allowing scalability for upgrades and dynamic flexibility as new consumer electronic products come to market.

Infotainment Applications

Need for dynamic data integrity

F-RAM memory protects data / system integrity against glitches such as sudden power loss, and records and stores dynamic data continuously, as required by today's advanced car infotainment systems such as navigation and radio systems.

Electrical and Electronics

Car Key

Today and in the Future

The Connected Key is the future. It allows the implementation of several new features and applications, and stores all the car information, tour programmes, and importantly offers connectivity.

Driver Assist Systems

The road ahead

Driver assist or intelligent vehicle safety systems are emerging as a crucial technology for improving auto safety and to lower society's cost of auto accidents.

Electricity Fuel

Driving new utility-automaker collaboration

Electricity as an alternative fuel provides significant benefits while offering opportunities for new auto and utility industry collaboration and business models that can change the historical transportation and energy paradigm.

Global Trends in Dynamic Traffic Services

Focus on Asia-Pacific

Increasing urban traffic in Asia Pacific calls for the implementation of dynamic traffic information services. But it is not easy.

Components and Ancillaries

India

Gearing up for new challenges

James Tobin talks about the auto components industry in India and the Tier 1s like Magna operating in India.

Engineering Services

ESO

The India Story

Stiff competition in domestic automotive market is forcing OEMs and automotive component manufacturers in North America and Western Europe to outsource and offshore their engineering requirements to low-cost countries.

Production and Manufacturing

Capturing CO₂

The need for innovative technologies

There is an urgent need to develop an innovative technology for combined power generation and carbon dioxide sequestration from hydrocarbon fuels to address the increasing CO2 emissions coming from the transportation sector.

Nanotechnology

Nanomaterials for energy storage and conversion

Nanomaterials are increasingly playing an active role by either increasing the efficiency of the energy storage and conversion processes or by improving device design and performance.

Remote Scanner Welding

Using Latest Laser Technologies

High-power solid-state laser (YAG lasers) took a quantum leap during the last few years providing higher available laser powers, better beam quality, improved electrical efficiency and reductions in price leading to a new, highly productive welding technique called "Remote Welding".