Magna is the largest contract assembler for full vehicles in the world. It has assembly plants in Austria and China, and there could be another one on the way. That’s because all kinds of EV startups are calling the company to see if it could build their cars. But Magna Steyr does a lot more than just bolt a bunch of components together for its customers. It can offer them full project management. Frank Klein, the president of Complete Vehicles at Magna Steyr, gets into the details.

Magna can design, engineer and manufacture everything needed for an electric vehicle, including entire vehicles. And it’s joining forces with LG to do even more with motors and inverters. Tom Rucker, the president of Magna Powertrains talks about the advantages of that partnership. And he also explains how Magna can help automakers quickly convert existing vehicles to electric drive with its eBeam axle. It’s literally a bolt-in solution. Rucker explains the opportunities that this opens up.

Magna sees big opportunities in L2 and L2.5 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. But it hasn’t taken its eye off the future of autonomy. It’s adding hundreds of engineers and working with its tech partners to continue to develop this technology. And for CES it’s unveiling a self-contained autonomous parking system, as Uwe Geissinger, the President of Magna Electronics explains.

For CES, Magna is showing off all its capabilities with electric vehicles. But rather than just display a bunch of different components, it’s demonstrating how it can develop an entire vehicle, in this case with an electric pickup. Sherif Marakby, the EVP of R&D at Magna, tells us about this truck, as well as the company’s latest developments in aerodynamics, light weighting, ADAS and full autonomy.

The Management Briefing Seminars put on by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), like so many other events, has gone virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so has our coverage of the conference. Our recap of the afternoon features Carla Bailo and Edgar Faler from CAR who talk about autonomy and how it might be better suited for use in the trucking industry before we start seeing self-driving cars in the showroom. That’s followed up by CAR’s Kristin Dziczek and Bernard Swiecki who provide an outlook for the industry. Is it good? Is it bad? Find out now…

The Management Briefing Seminars put on by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), like so many other events, has gone virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so has our coverage of the conference. We first highlight a session moderated by Sean Kelley from Mannik Smith Group that focuses on mobility as a service (MAS) and how things like coronavirus and electrification are having an impact on that sector. Then we talk with Brett Smith from CAR who looked at the issues facing automakers and suppliers making the switch from ICE to BEV.

The Management Briefing Seminars put on by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), like so many other events, has gone virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so has our coverage of the conference. In this recap of the Day 1 afternoon session, Carla Bailo and Bernard Swiecki from CAR, talk about the societal issues and impact of the coronavirus on automakers and suppliers. And then Jonathan Fay from the University of Michigan backs that up with talk about autonomy and how that space is growing.

The Management Briefing Seminars put on by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), like so many other events, has gone virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so has our coverage of the conference. In this recap of the Day 1 morning session, Kristin Dziczek of CAR talks about trade and the automotive industry. What impact has the USMCA had on automakers and suppliers and what opportunities does it present? And Brett Smith, also of CAR, talks electrification. Now that the industry has started to make the switch from ICE to EV, how do automakers make that transition? Take a look.

SPECIAL GUEST: Carsten Breitfeld, CEO, Faraday Future

After wrapping up our scheduled interviews with Faraday Future CEO, Carsten Breitfeld, he asked us if we’d like to go for a ride in the all-electric FF91. With no other obligations at the time, we took him up on the offer. The crew slapped some microphones on and set the camera to record. We ask him all kinds of questions and at some point we think Mr. Breitfeld forgot the camera was on. It turned into a pretty candid conversation, including what it was like moving from a traditional OEM (BMW) to a startup (Faraday Future).

SPECIAL GUEST: Dennis Clark, Managing Director of Strategic Venture Partnerships, Honda Innovations

Honda, like other automakers, really wants to connect with high-tech startups. So it established a division in Silicon Valley called Honda Innovations. And as part of that it launched Honda Xcelerator. It provides workspace, mentors, and prototyping and testing capabilities to people who have ideas but don’t have the means to develop them. Dennis Clark, the managing director of strategic partnerships, takes us on a tour of several of the products that are coming out of Honda Xcelerator.