Magna Powertrain’s head of global products Walter Sackl
How future powertrain development will affect all-wheel drive technologies and why China is the largest market for the technology
James Scoltock in Q&A.
- Published in Q&A.
Walter Sackl
Asia is becoming an important market for all-wheel drive systems. Where is the impetus coming from?
“ The majority of growth in Asia is in China. For example, VW and BMW are selling very well in China, especially C-segment SUVs. These provide the majority of the growth. As an example, we provide the drivetrain components for the Volkswagen Tiguan, and their estimation in the beginning was an options tick rate of roughly 20% on the all-wheel drive system for China. The system is only linked to a single engine – a 2-litre turbocharged gasoline unit. But the tick rate is roughly 80%. It’s thought that in the future vehicles localised in China won’t get all-wheel drive as an option – it will be a standard feature.
Legislation is pushing OEMs to reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions. What impact is that having on the development of all-wheel drive systems?
“ Our mission is to provide electronically controlled systems to achieve best fuel consumption. So our mission is to support exactly those activities.
Within the next two or three years the disadvantages of all-wheel drive systems in terms of higher CO2 emissions and fuel consumption will no longer be accepted by customers.
We have to improve a lot. There are several solutions now available in order to support this.
It’s not only the European governments which drive the business, it’s also North America and China. China will introduce a limitation on fuel consumption at 7 litres/100km within the next four years. So in 2015 they will limit fuel consumption, so you can’t sell vehicles that don’t meet the efficiency targets.
How scaleable is the all-wheel drive technology that Magna produces?
“ Today our all-wheel drive system fits the C-segment, and the next step is to fit it to bigger vehicles. The technology is targeted at SUVs up to 2,400kg. There’s no need to scale it up to be compatible with the biggest, east/west layout, D-segment platforms, but it will be scaled down to the B-segment. That is easily achieved because torque levels aren’t an issue.
Why have all-wheel drive systems become more popular in the market?
“ We can clearly see that all-wheel drive is gaining traction in the market. Twenty years ago, all-wheel drive systems were unique to certain types of vehicles. And within certain OEMs all-wheel drive systems have grown in terms of volumes, acting as a differentiating factor in order to better position their vehicles in the market. There are basic vehicles and premium brands using the same platform, which need differentiating factors. Those differentiating factors in the last three or four years were driver-assistance systems but, as those systems became closer to 100% fitment, so the differentiating factor is now seen in the driveline architecture.
All-wheel drive was originally developed for offroad vehicles, before moving to performance vehicles which needed better traction. What are the criteria for current systems?
“ There is a certain demand for traction. To an extent the customer already expects it. What they would like to see is more driving quality. What we have to provide is driveability.
What effect will alternative powertrains, such as range-extended vehicles, hybrids and full-electric cars, have on the types of all-wheel drive systems you develop?
“ Electrification is a growing area. By 2020, 10% of vehicles will be electric. But the remaining portion of the market will remain a growth area too, and there are factors we have to consider.
Hybridisation clearly has a benefit of 15%-20% improved fuel consumption but costs in terms of the powertrain technology are expensive, so we have to consider costs for all-wheel drive systems.
What we will see within platforms is diversification, offering several options and systems – there’ll be no one perfect solution seen in the future.
We’ll need to prepare platforms with high volumes on several architectures, looking to the strategies on an OEM level. Standard diesel and gasoline architectures is the past. Now it’s hybrids and electric drives, which will mean a mix of standard all-wheel drive together with electrified systems.
