Putting The Delphi Brand On Europe

Automotive Industries,  July, 1999  by Norman Martin

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Capturing business way beyond GM means new products and a link with household brand names. Are you ready for Delphi-Bosch or Delphi-Sony?

J.T. Battenberg has a stretch goal. The Delphi Automotive Systems chairman wants to move business to non-General Motors customers in North America from 35% currently to 50% be the end of 2002. But at least one of his operations, Delphi Europe, is already on that upper mark and claims to be headed upward.

"Over the next five years maybe 60% of our business will be non-GM; maybe even more," says Graham Bell, director of marketing and operations planning at Delphi Automotive in Paris.

Close ties and strategic alliances with Euro automakers like Renault, VW, Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat have significantly broadened Delphi's market base beyond GM's Opel. The question now is how to move forward, faster. The Troy, Mich.-based parts-making giant separated in May from GM to become the nation's 36th-largest independent corporation with $28.5 billion in annual revenue. Europe accounts for $4.7 billion of that.

A key to moving that number up is branding Delphi in the European market. There are at least two ways of dealing with the issue. One is to take millions of dollars -- a la Visteon -- and advertise, be it on Formula 1 cars, TV or whatever. "But to take the Delphi brand to where the Bosch, Nike or Coke brands are would be a lot of money," Bell asserts. "Do I think we're going to get that money?" He shakes his head no. The other way is to make an acquisition of a better known brand. "We're not going to buy Bosch," he concedes, "but if you did have a Bosch-Delphi, then you would start to get recognition. That's the strategy we are going to follow. All I can say is, "Watch this space."

One of the things Delphi has done in Europe, and started in Brazil and Argentina, is base dedicated customer teams very close to their customer's engineering departments. It's a practice that's been in place for five years. Looking ahead, though, a hitch in this practice could well be a dearth of engineering talent in some areas, specifically electronics and electronic control systems.

"Look around," Bell says. "Every system on these vehicles has some electronic intelligence. And it's not only us who're short of engineers; it's our competitors out there too, whether it be Valeo, Siemens or Motorola. Everybody's looking for experienced electronic engineers -- those 35-year-olds with 10 years of experience and a double-E degree, and they aren't there."

Another potential problem (or opportunity) is competition in mobile multimedia from non-traditional automotive suppliers such as IBM, Sony, Microsoft, Netscape, Nokia, Ericsson, Nintendo, Sega and others. "These are people who are sure to look at a 40-million vehicle market around the world," he says.

RELATED ARTICLE: Paris Report

Delphi is readying an ocean of new technologies to help boost its brand. A review of their latest products, shown to Al last month at the Morte Fontaine Proving Ground, 30 miles north of Paris, suggests heavy reliance on high-end software and electronics. Here's what's hot:

WOLF: Short for Wide-Open List of Functions, the software algorithm is designed for integrating steering, suspension, brakes and powertrain. The system is designed to work With drive-by-wire technologies, including Delphi's vehicle stability units, Galileo brakes, throttle-by-wire, damper-by-wire, roll-by-wire and front/rear steer-by-wire. Scheduled for a North American program in 2000MY.

42-Volt: Delphi demonstrated 42-volt and dual 14/42-volt architectures on a Renault Scenic minivan featuring 42-volt electric power steering, alternator and lithium polymer battery. "Progressively we'll shift all components to 42-volts," says Delphi's Pillippe-Siad Farah. Start of production is 2003-2004,

DBC9: The electro-hydraulic braking system is a brake-by-wire design. It provides brake power assist, ABS, traction control, vehicle stability enhancement, automated braking and a tunable brake pedal feel. The unit has a hydraulic back-up and operates on a single battery. No specific contracts as yet.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC): The Forewarn ACC unit uses either a microwave radar or infrared laser sensor to measure distance. It's coupled with an automatic throttle control and limited braking. Will arrive on selected models in some markets this year.

Fiber Optic Lighting: By using a distributed fiber optic lighting system, a single 20-watt halogen bulb provides the equivalent of some 30 incandescents using over 60 watts. The DELight unit is a sealed light source. Ventilation fans are no longer needed, says Charles Vink, communications manager at Delphi in Wuppertal, Germany.

Keyless Car: Door-mounted antennas perform an electronic handshake with a badge, fob or card customer identification device (CID)--it can go any number of ways, and unlocks the door. To start the car, just press a button. CID and vehicle codes are matched and the car starts. Introduction should come in Europe first in early 2001.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group