EV innovation brings new priority for suppliers: Cut cost

Automotive customers want what they want from suppliers. At one time or another over the years, automakers have made the delivery of lightweighting solutions, technology advances and the construction of global sourcing footprints their top supplier priority.

Ralf Göttel, CEO of Benteler Group, an Austrian global supplier of metal automotive parts, spoke with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs about solutions automakers expect from suppliers in this era of electric vehicles. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: The autonomous pod that Benteler subsidiary Holon showed at CES this year appears a long way from your core business. How does the Holon Mover fit within Benteler?

A: Part of our mission is to make mobility lighter, safer and more sustainable. We don't perceive ourselves as a maker of, say, knuckles for axles. We are in the mobility sector, and we see a tremendous need for these vehicles, which are quite complex.

What are customers' top concerns as they move to electric? Is lightweighting most important, or is it simplicity?

Lightweighting is not a dominant concern anymore because of energy recuperation and other techniques. What is most important now is scalability, which is a direct cost. They look for standard applications that we can spread around to multiple customers. That way, they have the economies of scale through us. Automakers transitioning to EVs want to benefit from our serial production experience. For example, we were the first in production with battery trays for the BMW i3 and Renault Zoe.

Why is lightweighting no longer a leading concern?

It's still a concern. But the money you are willing to invest to lightweight is not as high as before because the total vehicle cost is currently the biggest challenge, in particular with smaller cars. These cars [EVs] are still not affordable in the A- and B-segments.

Does that mean you would share a suspension part across multiple automakers?

Exactly. The Mover illustrates this. It's designed to be able to customize the interior, but the core component will be always the same. So we can provide a lower price point because we shared the base components over multiple applications. That's the overall concept.