BWI Group Chief Engineer Philippe Germain tells us why it isn’t just battery prices giving China the edge with EVs
 The common passenger automobile has grown heavier by greater than 25% within the final decade, pushed largely by the rise of battery-electric powertrains. It’s not unusual for EVs to tip the scales at over 2.5 tonnes now. This extra mass isn’t only a packaging or vary drawback; it has vital implications for car dynamics.
Heavier automobiles are tougher to manage, and the added weight amplifies physique motions, making journey high quality tougher to handle. In parallel, buyer expectations for consolation are rising. The near-silent nature of electrical drivetrains has made journey harshness and noise extra obvious than ever.
To fulfill these challenges, many OEMs are turning to semi-active suspension techniques. These techniques constantly alter damping in actual time, enabling a lot finer management of physique and wheel motions. Not like passive dampers, which provide a hard and fast behaviour, semi-active techniques adapt to altering highway circumstances and driving calls for on the fly.
The worldwide semi-active suspension market is predicted to develop from $5 billion in 2025 to $9 billion by 2033. It’s being fuelled by the larger suspension calls for of heavier EV platforms, whose numbers proceed to rise, and growing security laws and ADAS integration. Nonetheless, most of this development is predicted to happen within the Asia-Pacific area.
In China, this strategy is already being adopted at scale. Manufacturers similar to BYD, NIO, Zeekr and Chery are deploying semi-active suspensions not simply on high-end automobiles, however more and more on mid-range EVs as properly. Their capability to ship each a easy journey and assured dealing with is changing into a aggressive differentiator. And it’s not only a short-term benefit; this digitisation of chassis subsystems additionally positions these producers properly for the trade’s shift towards software-defined automobiles.
Against this, the European market is lagging. Whereas some premium marques are embracing semi-active techniques, the push to carry inexpensive EVs to market has usually meant sticking with cheaper passive suspension applied sciences.
Is there a hidden price to remaining passive? The unit price of a passive system will all the time stay cheaper than semi-active options however there are different prices and alternatives to be thought of. For instance, the event of passive dampers usually requires quite a few design iterations to be engineered and manufactured to obtain the specified efficiency, which might be price and useful resource intensive. Whereas a digitally managed semi-active system might be tuned by way of software program by way of a laptop computer. This shortens growth timelines and reduces prototyping prices, one thing that’s significantly worthwhile as OEMs race to carry new EVs to market.
There is additionally the extra alternatives that semi-active techniques allow that have to be thought of. A digital system might be cost-effectively optimised to go well with regional preferences, over-the-air updates cut back the chance of guarantee points and recollects and premium functionalities, similar to driving modes, might be provided to customers. A extra holistic view needs to be taken when contemplating the price of adopting semi-active suspension techniques.
That is what is going on in China and now European producers can profit from the know-how being adopted at scale. BWI Group’s semi-active know-how, MagneRide, has been applied throughout a variety of car segments and this has contributed to driving down system prices and growing provide chain effectivity. Consequently, European producers can benefit from a mature, confirmed know-how that has already been validated in arguably essentially the most aggressive EV market on this planet.
Wanting forward, semi-active suspension will grow to be more and more important throughout the complete spectrum of EVs. Because the Chinese language trade has demonstrated, that is each technically possible and commercially viable. The query for Europe is whether or not it’s going to capitalise on this confirmed know-how to remain aggressive within the world EV race, or threat falling behind.
