French components supplier Valeo was at last week’s Challenge Bibendum sustainable mobility event in Berlin and outlined some of its energy thinking as well as the continuing impact of March’s devastating Japanese earthquake, whose effects continue to reverberate around the supply chain world. Valeo Group research & development director Guillaume Devauchelle talked to Simon Warburton in the German capital.
j-a: Has anything even approaching the size of the Japanese earthquake happened before in your experience?
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GD: It is the first of a kind, [an] earthquake of this magnitude. It is about globalisation, now everything is really interconnected.
Yes and no, we have been affected by the Japanese situation – our own factories – we have no effects in France. We have not really been affected so that is already good news.
We are managing it very carefully. The CEO [Jacques Aschenbroich] has a specific meeting about it every week.
The devil is in the detail – we are looking to see if mass production is under control – for the moment no major impact.
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By GlobalDataj-a: How long do you estimate the after-effects of the earthquake to continue?
GD: We have to master this crisis, not for a week, but for months. There are suppliers of suppliers, but for the moment this is under control.
j-a: Back in France, what is Valeo’s thinking about how to lower emissions and squeeze more efficiency from conventional power plants?
GD: We are looking at up to 40% fewer C02 emissions within five years. We can achieve this and it is affordable, Valeo is involved with this technology.
The future of the gasoline engine is a huge margin of improvement. Whatever the success of EVs will be, it still means 80% will remain with the gasoline or diesel engine.
For sure, the ratio of hybrid and electric vehicles will increase but after 2020 it is very difficult to give accurate forecasts. We estimate 5% of the market will be pure EV and depending on what you call hybrid, it could be roughly 20%-40% of the market by 2020.
It means for the bulk of the market, the thermal engine will remain.
j-a: Can engine efficiency and fuel consumption be improved by relatively simple steps?
GD: [With] the air inside a car, there is fresh air every five seconds, you don’t need it, you can recycle this through a heat exchanger. You can also use LED lighting.
Technology improvements are accelerating – progress has consequences on every product such as stop start.
Valeo recently announced the successful placement of EUR500m of new bonds with maturity in 2018 and the final result of its offer to repurchase notes with maturity in 2013 for a principal amount of EUR200m.
The components supplier is involved among other operations, with powertrain solutions from microhybrids to all-electric vehicles. It is also active in EV thermal management, including powertrain cooling, cabin heating and air-conditioning, as well as battery thermal management.
