Automotive News Europe - February 2, 2009 - 12

PAGE 12 · www.autonewseurope.com February 2 , 2009 Spotlight on Technology Tire pressure monitoring systems improve safety, reduce CO2 output Technology will be mandatory in Europe, helping to save lives and lower harmful emissions Wim Oude Weernink Automotive News Europe Correct tire pressure is a vital but often neglected element in ensuring safe and economical driving. Incorrectly inflated tires can be a contributing factor in accidents. They can also generate preventable CO2 emissions through extra fuel consumption caused by increased rolling resistance and can needlessly shorten the life of the tires themselves. Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) help prevent these problems by warning drivers about incorrectly inflated tires. The EU has decided that TPMS will become mandatory throughout Europe in 2012. The details of how such legislation will be implemented will be decided in March of this year. Beru of Germany and Schrader Electronics of the UK are the current market leaders in TPMS, with German tire and auto electronics maker Continental and US-based safety specialist TRW Automotive also major suppliers. Schrader claims to have supplied half of the 20 million TPMS fitted globally in 2008. “It is our job to defend that position,” said Alfonso Di Pasquale, vice president business development at Schrader Electronics. “Global TPMS demand could double when the EU legislation becomes mandatory.” How it works There are two types of tire pressure monitoring systems: direct and indirect. Direct systems have a sensor or chip, fitted inside the wheel or against the inside of the tire, which transmits the tire pressure to a dashboard-mounted warning light or instrument. The system uses the same radio frequency as the remote control central door-locking or keyless entry system. Indirect systems detect a drop in pressure via antilock brake/electronic stability control software, which monitors changes in tire circumference and vibrations. This system is usually fitted in combination with so-called “runflat” tires. Slow adoption TPMS has been around for more than two decades, so why the delay? Early versions of the system were unreliable Motorists have been unwilling to pay for the technology There has been debate over two competing systems Continental is developing the next-generation tire pressure monitoring systems. The Intelligent Tire System (ITS) uses a piezo element to supply the electrical energy. through the rubber or small leaks in the valve. Tire maker Continental quotes an EU study that states that 64 per“Various tire pressure cent of all cars on Eumonitoring systems are ropean roads run on under-inflated tires. still not accurate enough.” Beru, a German Hans Demant, Opel TPMS supplier, Managing Director points to statistics from the ADAC, Germany’s largest auto club, which state that 1,233 accidents 2.5g/km to 6.5g/km of CO2. that resulted in personal injury in The EU wants automakers to reGermany in 2005 were directly relat- duce the CO2 emissions from the new ed to tire defects. cars they sell in Europe to 130g/km In France, road safety association between 2012 and 2015. Securite Routiere claims that 9 percent of all fatal road accidents there Competing systems can be attributed to under-inflated Despite what appears to be a comtires. But safety is not the only issue. A pelling case for its early adoption, study by Spanish research company TPMS is by no means new technoloFundacion Cidaut suggests that the gy. In 1986, Porsche’s innovative 959 new generation of tires with low roll sports car was the first to have TPMS resistance, in combination with as standard equipment. Renault was TPMS, could reduce average CO2 the first volume producer to offer it as standard equipment when the sysemissions. The study says that when tires are tem appeared on the second-generaunder inflated by 0.5 bar, fuel con- tion Laguna introduced in 2000. Today, most European carmakers sumption increases by 2 percent to 5 percent due to increased rolling re- offer TPMS, either as standard equipsistance. For a car that emits 130 ment or as an option, with prices grams per kilometer of CO2, the re- ranging from ¤48 to ¤60 for indirect sult is output of an additional systems, and ¤143 to ¤755 for direct systems, estimates Fundacion Cidaut. Some carmakers, however, remain unconvinced about the reliability of the technology. “Various TPMS are still not accurate enough, we are still looking for the best systems,” said Hans Demant, Managing Director of Opel, at the Detroit auto show. Some industry analysts believe that indirect tire pressure monitoring systems will dominate the market in the future because of the cost advantages they offer automakers. This software-based system uses data from the wheel-speed sensors in the antilock braking and electronic stability control systems, which are already installed as standard. Direct TPMS systems are more expensive and, say some analysts, would likely be offered only in premium cars. The experts predict that indirect systems will become widely used in volume models. Because of product liability issues, most indirect systems are illegal in the US. One exception is a system used by Audi. (See story, below) Continental believes that direct TPMS will become the standard in the long-term. “The embedded chip sensor is more accurate, more reliable and has The case for TPMS The warnings provided by tire pressure monitoring systems can: Enhance road safety Potentially help cut CO2 emissions by up to 6.5g/km per car Prevent unnecessary tire wear scope to be developed further,” said Continental spokesman Enno Pflug. He feels that wheel-mounted sensor valves will disappear in favor of the embedded chip. Schrader uses a sensor valve that is added to the wheel rim. Early applications suffered from corrosion and could be damaged when tires were replaced, but the company says it has now overcome these issues. “We now have other materials which are less prone to corrosion or breakage,” said Schrader’s Di Pasquale. Schrader sensor valves are fitted to Renault, Citroen, Peugeot vehicles, and most American cars. Schrader officials said that, together with tire maker Pirelli, the company plans to introduce a tire-embedded TPMS chip. The cost to automakers of tire-embedded chips or sensor valves is not high. “It will be in the range of ¤23 to ¤30 per car,” Di Pasquale said. But carmakers must factor in extra instrument hardware and the assembly of the system into the car before adding their profit margin on top. Said Hans-Peter Vater, head of marketing communication at Beru: “Total costs for the end customer are now between ¤300 and ¤600, depending on the carmaker’s price and marketing policy.” As the decision of whether or not to specify TPMS when buying a new car will eventually be taken out of car buyers’ hands, it seems the only real question now is which system will dominate the market. Price and reliability will ultimately determine that. ANE Higher speeds, tougher rules According to Yole Developpement, a French market research and business development consulting company, 99 percent of the TPMS sold in 2007 were direct systems in a market worth $168 million (about ¤130 million) during that year. Yole Developpement predicts the market will grow to become worth about $300 million in 2012. In the US, TPMS have been required by law since January 2008. The legislation there allows for a maximum drop in tire pressure of 25 percent. In Europe, this figure is considered too high because of higher speeds allowed on roads such as Germany’s autobahns. The new EU legislation is expected to allow for a drop in pressure of 0.2 to 0.3 bar, or 13 percent to 14 percent. The ability to detect these changes is considered important because on average a car tire loses about 0.2 bar of pressure every three months simply through diffusion of air molecules Audi and Nira Dynamics join forces as systems battle rages Indirect tire pressure monitoring systems work via the antilock braking and electronic stability control (ESC) systems. As a result they are less costly, but currently not as accurate as direct TPMS. To improve the precision of indirect systems, Audi and NIRA Dynamics, a Swedish company with expertise in signal processing and control systems, have jointly developed second-generation indirect TPMS. This system signals the tire pressure loss for each individual tire and is able to detect both a puncture and diffusion. For these reasons it is the only indirect TPMS that meets the US FMVSS138 regulations. “The advantage of indirect TPMS is that you do not need costly and complicated wheel-mounted electronics and separate hardware,” Victor Underberg, responsible for ESC and tire pressure monitoring systems at Audi said. “Moreover this indirect system ensures the functionality of TPMS over the entire life of the car.” Audi concedes that direct TPMS can have certain advantages like showing the tire pressure and temperature in the infotainment screen, but says that it can be significantly more expensive for the customer. “It is our experience that customers are not ready to pay extra for such a system, especially when they also have to buy it for winter tires, causing the risk that drivers will not take notice of the warning system any more,” Underberg said. The risk could be that in countries where separate winter tires and rims are used, drivers will simply avoid the expense of paying twice for a direct system and physically block out the warning light with tape. According to Underberg, in the EU where TPMS are set to become mandatory, the outcome of ongoing discussions about the competing systems is expected in March. ANE

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Automotive News Europe - February 2, 2009

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