Automotive News Europe - November 2019 - 18

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

Q&A

Supplier TALK FROM THE TOP

Partnering up
Deal-making Faurecia chief boosts supplier through future-focused alliances

atrick Koller, CEO of Faurecia since
2016, has led the French supplier
of seating, interiors and clean mobility
through a period of growth -- most notably adding Japanese electronics company Clarion this year -- and collaborations,
including those with Michelin, Microsoft
and ZF Friedrichshafen. He talked to Automotive News Europe Correspondent
Peter Sigal about how Faurecia is staying ahead of the technology curve.
Faurecia recently signed a collaboration agreement with Microsoft to
provide digital services for the socalled "cockpit of the future." What
are some of those services?
We want to propose new consumer
experiences inside the cockpit. So far,
we have selected two areas: immersive
gaming and the mobile office. We are
also working on being able to upgrade
functionalities over the air. I have spent
a significant amount of time with Microsoft executives to make sure our vision
is aligned and to see how to create mutual value through a flexible, agile cooperation and developing innovations with
a short time to market.
Will you sell to automakers or directly to consumers?
Both. In the future we will need to have
not only innovative products, but also innovative business models.
In what way?
Today, automakers are selling, for example, sound systems that have an acceptable level of sound for different types
of music. But for someone focused on
a certain type of music, such as opera,
they won't get the best sound quality for
this particular music type. Our proposal
is to upgrade the sound system with
settings for the kind of music you like,
and we also have the option to increase
the number of surfaces we activate for
sound. It's the same thing for the seats,
we can install functionalities -- massage
for example -- that can be activated over
the air. Today, all of these functionalities
are frozen when a consumer orders the
vehicle for the entire life cycle of the car.
But people are now used to getting upgrades over the air because that's how
their smartphones work. Fewer and

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Meet the boss
❚ NAME: Patrick Koller

fewer people will accept such "frozen"
functionalities. We will have to adapt
to this. As well as over-the-air upgrades
that activate hardware, you could also
add functionalities in the dealership after purchase such as a smart headrest.
Clarion is a very well-known consumer
name. What does it bring to Faurecia?
Our vision for the cockpit of the future is
that it will be connected, personalized and
immersive. So far, interior functionalities
are related to modules and systems. For
example, you have to independently adjust the position of your seat, the air conditioning or the position of the air vents.
If you want to provide new individualized
experiences, you have to think differently
and combine those functionalities. To
do this, you need to have capabilities in
algorithms, AI [artificial intelligence] and
electronics. Our new business group,
Faurecia Clarion Electronics, brings us
those skills.
What areas will this business cover?
We have defined five product lines that
will enable us to develop these experiences: the cockpit domain controller;
immersive sound systems; interior monitoring systems; displays and HMI [hu-

❚ TITLE: Faurecia CEO
❚ AGE: 60
❚ MAIN CHALLENGE:

Bringing future technologies to
the vehicle cockpit and interior.

man-machine interface] technologies;
and advanced driver assistance systems
(ADAS). Today we are the only company
working on all the modules and systems
you have inside the car.
Faurecia is working on a joint venture
with Michelin on hydrogen fuel cells.
How will that business develop?
Our joint venture is a company called
Symbio, which can equip cars with a complete fuel cell system: the fuel cell stacks,
the interfaces and the electronics to manage performance. Symbio will immediately offer a unique range of hydrogen fuel
cell systems for all use cases. Faurecia is
also developing high-pressure hydrogen
storage tanks. While we are very complementary to Michelin, they have also developed different business models, such
as selling tires by the kilometer. We could
propose something similar, selling "hydrogen hours" for the whole system.

NOVEMBER 2019

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Automotive News Europe - November 2019

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