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Automotive Industry

Breadth is key for technology - The Inside Line - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, Oct, 2002

There are many ways of evaluating the market strength of a new technology. One is to simply look at the number of units (pieces of the technology) that are installed as a total percentage of vehicle production. Another is to determine the number of nameplates offering the feature (as standard or optional) versus the total number of nameplates produced in a market. While the former is a good way to determine the overall value of the current market, the after may be a better way to determine the technology's future.

For example, two technologies that have had starts and stops over the last few years are HID headlamps and navigation systems. For 2002, about 200,000 units of each technology will be installed on North American-produced vehicles. The difference, however, is the breadth of coverage of navigation versus HID. Navigation systems are installed on 22 different nameplates while HID headlamps are on only 13. While nameplate coverage isn't the only indicator of a technology's future, it does pay to look at more than just volume.

Source: CSM Worldwide

www.csmauto.com

INSIDE LINE CHART OCTOBER 2002

                    ESTIMATED 2002  NAMEPLATE
TECHNOLOGY           UNIT VOLUME      USAGE

HID HEADLAMPS          200,000         13
NAVIGATION SYSTEMS     210,000         22

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Automotive Industry

Breadth is key for technology - The Inside Line - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, Oct, 2002

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