The Automotive and Transportation market is particularly dynamic and constantly evolving. The push towards decarbonization and towards increasingly connected, intelligent and safe vehicles is leading to a significant increase in onboard electronics and transformations in the way vehicles are built.
Abbiamo chiesto a Edoardo Ferrero, Head of Business Development del settore Automotive di Tecno System, che vanta un’esperienza pluridecennale nel settore, di fornirci una sua visione sulle evoluzioni del mercato e sulle principali sfide che si trovano a dover affrontare costruttori OEM e, insieme a loro, sistemisti e fornitori Tier 1.
Which technological trends do you see in the Automotive market and what kind of development do you expect?
In these markets, we see two major areas of development:
1. Connectivity and e-Mobility:
5G technology will play a crucial role in the speed of introducing new technological trends. By 2030, automotive and smart mobility will undergo epochal changes generated by their increasingly strong integration and synergy. All of this will happen in a context where we will witness increasing urbanization, digitalization, and automation, and where vehicles will become increasingly intelligent and equipped with mobile connectivity. This connectivity will support communication between different vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure.
2. Electrification and Automotive:
The European regulations imposing a halt to the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines starting from the year 2035 have sparked a race and an economic-technological competition towards the development of fully electric vehicles, hybrids (with traditional engines also powered by biofuels), hydrogen systems, and retrofit solutions (for older vehicles already in circulation). Non sembra, però, che possa emergere una soluzione vincente. Ritengo che probabilmente si realizzerà un mix di quanto precedentemente elencato con percentuali variabili in funzione delle abitudini dell’utilizzatore (percorrenza media e relativi tempi medi) e del Paese o area geografica di utilizzo (in funzione delle infrastrutture presenti, dei costi energetici e anche dei costi delle materie prime).
What kind of challenges do your clients have to face the most in the face of these changes?
While for decades the choice of a car has been limited to being either ‘PETROL or DIESEL’, in the near future, our OEM and TIER1 clients will need to demonstrate increasing flexibility in identifying ranges of vehicles in line with the continuous upgrades of infrastructure, changing needs and expectations of users, and the ongoing fluctuations in the costs of key raw materials (fuels, lithium, hydrogen, electricity, etc.).
For this reason, OEMs are evaluating numerous scenarios to be ready to choose the directions and technological solutions on which to focus their activities from time to time.
Therefore, the strong need that is emerging from manufacturers is to have flexible electronic systems that can adapt to different application areas and technologies, allowing, moreover, to shorten R&D times.
If we consider that once, when developing a new engine, it took 10-15 years to amortize the costs of research and development, we understand well how complex and time-consuming it is, in terms of both time and resources, to adapt quickly to the changes demanded by the market.
The flexibility and versatility of the solutions proposed by Tecno System are precisely aligned with this direction.
Could you explain more about the solutions you offer to meet the needs of customers in this market?
Tecno System Group offers its customers its expertise and partnership capabilities in the electronics sector in two important areas:
- The provision of more traditional EMS services, which involve the assembly and repair of electronic boards tailored to customer specifications. These services are requested and applicable to all market sectors (transportation, industrial, energy, defense, telecommunications, medical, IoT, etc.), and within this scope, they hold a priority position for applications related to Connectivity, Smart Mobility, and Vehicle System Integration.
- Lo Sviluppo e la Produzione di dispositivi elettronici customizzati (control unit, DC/DC converter e inverter) per le necessità del mercato Transportation (automotive, ferroviario e navale) sia in ottica di elettrificazione che di integrazione di nuovi sistemi su veicoli “tradizionali”.
Una specializzazione sviluppata in Monet – studio di ingegnerizzazione e progettazione elettronica del gruppo Tecno System che è il nostro “competence center” – per servire anche mercati di nicchia in cui vengono richieste soluzioni “tailored made” e una customizzazione molto spinta.
Aware of competing in a market monopolized by major players, we know how to focus on our distinctive features, namely the flexibility of our service and the “tailoring” of our design solutions suitable for being applied to the various technological solutions chosen by our customers.
The ADVANTAGES of Tecno System in the Automotive & Transportation sector
1. Decades of expertise to face complexity:
The automotive sector is evolving rapidly. Tecno System’s market knowledge and specialized skills ensure cutting-edge, compliant, and competitive products and solutions, swiftly adapting to technological innovations and regulatory requirements.
2. Increased Flexibility in Production Capacity:
The company’s 4 productive EMS facilities located across 3 continents (Italy, Tunisia, and India) provide rapid responses to market demands, ensuring advanced flexibility and production capacity. With its current 13 SMD lines, all suitable for assembling electronic boards for Automotive applications, Tecno System meets the challenges of capacity and adaptability, both for large volumes and small batches. Meeting all technical-regulatory requirements and the highest quality standards.
3. Research and Development Expertise and Customized Solutions:
Thanks to the activities carried out in our competence center for the engineering and development of control systems (ECU) and converters, the company develops tailor-made, scalable, and open solutions.
Control Unit on demand
The control units developed and produced by Tecno System Group in Monet have some features that make them unique in the market
- a Open System that can easily be integrated in existing vehicles;
- products Ready to go that don’t need any prototyping and are ready to be used;
- a scalable system that allows reducing development times and costs
- Maximum Flexibility and Versatility to adapt to different application contexts and activate various functionalities.