On May 31, it was reported that the small part strap that tied the cables inside the car seemed inconspicuous, and many people didn't even notice it. However, many automotive industry experts predict that this kind of cheap parts may accelerate the decline of diesel locomotives. The conflict in Ukraine has hindered the supply of restraining straps, because the country is a major producer of restraining straps, and the restraining straps produced each year will be installed on hundreds of thousands of new vehicles.
These straps are made of wires, plastic and rubber. They have almost no technical content, and the profit margin is quite low. In addition, they need to employ a large number of manual workers to produce. They have never been praised as microchips and motors. But without them, cars could not be made.
More than a dozen people and experts in the automotive industry believe that the tight supply of straps may accelerate the transformation of some traditional automotive companies, because the straps used in electric vehicles are lighter and easier to use machines for production. Sam fiorani, head of autoforecast solutions, a production forecasting company, said: "this is just another reason for the traditional automobile industry to accelerate its transformation to electric vehicles."
At present, diesel locomotives still account for the absolute majority of global new car sales. According to JATO dynamic, the sales volume of electric vehicles doubled last year to 4million, but still accounted for only 6% of the total sales volume.
Seiji Uchida, CEO of Nissan, said that due to the supply chain interruption caused by factors such as the crisis in Ukraine, the company has discussed with suppliers to give up the mode of using cheap labor to produce straps. However, in the short term, automobile manufacturers and suppliers can only transfer the production of straps to other countries with lower costs.
According to informed sources, Mercedes Benz is airlifting straps from Mexico to fill the short-term supply gap. Many Japanese suppliers are increasing production capacity in Morocco, while other suppliers are seeking to establish new production lines in Tunisia, Poland, Serbia and Romania.
Tesla mode
The strap of the diesel locomotive needs to tie up 5 km long cables, which connect all components from the seat heater to the windows. The production of restraining straps is a labor-intensive operation, and almost every model uses restraining straps with different specifications, so it is difficult to change the specification production quickly.
The supply disruption caused by the conflict in Ukraine has sounded an alarm for the automotive industry. Automobile manufacturers and suppliers said that in the early stage of the conflict, the factory could still operate as usual, thanks to the workers there, who ensured the supply of a small number of straps in the case of power outages, frequent air raid warnings and curfews.
Adrian hallmark, chief executive officer of Bentley, a British luxury car manufacturer, said that the company initially worried that due to the shortage of strap supply, its car production could be reduced by 30-40% in 2022.
Hormak said: "the Ukrainian crisis may lead to the complete closure of our factory for several months, which is much longer than the closure due to epidemic restrictions. In addition, since the traditional strap itself is composed of different parts provided by more than a dozen different suppliers in Ukraine, it is quite complicated to find an alternative production line."
He added that the supply problem has made Bentley more focused on developing simple straps that are controlled and produced by a central computer and can be used in electric vehicles. Bentley is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, which plans to produce only electric vehicles by 2030.
"Tesla models have completely different wiring concepts, and we can't make changes overnight, because this is equivalent to a fundamental change in the way we design cars," hormak explained
The new generation of straps used by electric vehicles such as Tesla can be produced in sections on the automatic production line, and the weight is lighter, which is a very key factor, because reducing the weight of electric vehicles is very important to extend the range.
Many industry executives and experts said that Europe and China have announced plans to ban fuel vehicles. As the deadline approaches, traditional automobile manufacturers and manufacturers may not have time to prove that their redesigned straps are better used.
Sandy Munro, an automotive consultant in Michigan, said, "I'm not going to invest a penny in the development of diesel locomotives right now." He estimated that by 2028, electric vehicles will account for half of global new car sales.
Paradigm change
Walter GL ü CK, head of Leoni strap business, a global supplier of energy data management products, solutions and services for the automotive and other industries, said that the company was working with automobile manufacturers to develop new automation solutions for electric vehicle straps.
Leoni focuses on zoning or modular straps, which will be divided into six to eight parts that are short enough to automate assembly and reduce complexity. "It's a paradigm shift," Gluck said. "If you want to reduce the production time of cars, modular straps will help."
According to people familiar with the matter, among the automobile manufacturers, BMW is also considering the use of modular straps. This strap requires fewer semiconductors and cables, which will save space and make them lighter. The new strap will also make it easier to upgrade the vehicle wirelessly, which is an area currently dominated by Tesla.
Cellink, a California based start-up, has developed a fully automated and easy to assemble "elastic strap" and raised $250million from BMW, car supplier Lear Corp and Robert Bosch earlier this year.
Kevin Coakley, CEO of the company, declined to disclose the identity of the customer, but said that the harness of cellink had been installed on nearly 1million electric vehicles. At present, only Tesla has such a production scale, but the latter declined to comment.
Cockley said that the new plant built by cellink with an investment of US $125million in Texas will have 25 automatic production lines, which will be able to switch between different strap design specifications in about 10 minutes. At the same time, the company is cooperating with several automobile manufacturers to develop electric vehicles and is considering building another factory in Europe.
Although the delivery time for replacing the traditional strap may be as long as 26 weeks, cockley said that his company may ship the redesigned products within two weeks.
Dan Ratliff, head of fontinalis partners, a Detroit venture capital firm, believes that this speed is exactly what traditional automakers seek when turning to electric vehicles. Fontinalis partners was founded by Bill Ford, chairman of Ford, and has invested in cellink.
Ratliff added that for decades, the automotive industry did not need to act quickly to reconsider the design of small components such as straps, but Tesla has changed that. (small)