Automotive Engineering - June 2021 - 19

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COVER STORY
Stellantis explained. " It would make a lot of sense for us to
standardize on the Munro reports, " said the source, who
asked to remain anonymous. " Their stuff is considered the
'gold standard' in my group, but we don't make the contract
decisions. " Munro noted his team's painstaking analysis of
the huge aluminum " megacasting " Tesla uses in the rear
section of the Model Y body structure. Their work confirmed
that it is a highly unique 386-alloy (Al-NYC-386) - a fact
not previously disclosed.
" The difference between Munro & Assoc. and everybody
else is that we want to find out everything. And so do the
Japanese, Koreans and Chinese. That's why they do business
with us, " Munro said. " We have experts who can decapitate an
inverter and determine how the silicon chips are performing.
Who's buying our inverter studies? Toyota, Honda, Hyundai,
Kia, a flood of Chinese OEMs, plus people who want to get
into that business. "
Munro counts among its many OEM customers a raft of
small startups that are competing in the 3-wheeled EV space,
primarily aimed at commercial delivery and sports/performance.
Those on the roster, including Aptera, Arcimoto,
Indigo and Nobe, have vastly different product-development
approaches compared to the OEM establishment.
" They're moving at the speed of thought, " Munro observed.
" They move fast and they're really dedicated to winning. They
see that the guys who started Tesla wound up as millionaires.
Most of these guys can't get Tier-1 suppliers to work with
them so they design and engineer their own subsystems and
components. The reason Tesla's seat - that I praise in the
videos - is so good is because Tesla did it themselves. Same
with their batteries. "
He recalls a sign that he and Steuben saw in SpaceX's
launch complex in Brownsville, Texas, where they visited at
Musk's invitation in 2019. " It said, 'Nobody Changed the World
in a 40-Hour Work Week.' It speaks to the cultures at SpaceX
and Tesla that are so radically different than the auto-industry
norm. " SpaceX has a major impact on Tesla's approach to design
and engineering, as evidenced by Tesla's unique heat
pump that is " of big interest across the industry, " Munro explained.
After launch, Tesla made a remarkable 15 engineering
changes to that heat pump in six months. " They change constantly,
and they believe speed is everything. "
While the mobility newcomers are a threat to the automotive
incumbents, many of them generally lack a firm grasp on
integration - how to take a design that is probably going to
work and make it work beautifully, while ensuring it can be
manufactured at rate, Munro and Oakes said. Early Tesla
Model 3s suffered here, as Musk admitted to Munro in his
YouTube interview.
" Bringing solutions is what we do for a living, " Munro said,
" and it's why we have so many of these smaller companies
that are willing to pay us to help them get where they want
to go. "
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Automotive Engineering - June 2021

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