As an example, Magna this month highlighted its EtelligentForce battery-electric, four-wheel-drive powertrain system for pickups that it says can be implemented into automakers’ existing gasoline-powered trucks without having to upend their architectures.
“You can actually just drop it into a regular pickup truck,” said Tom Rucker, president of Magna Powertrain. “It uses the same points, the same suspension. You don’t even have to do major changes to your assembly line and manufacturing processes.”
It’s an example of how Magna hopes to provide value to automakers in the electric age, by offering solutions that can easily integrate with automakers’ existing technology, saving their customers precious resources in an era of sky-high R&D budgets.
Kotagiri said the relationship between suppliers and automakers will continue to evolve as EV technology develops.
“It’s important to have the balance to say, ‘I work with these OEMs; here are their strategies and here’s what I’m doing for them today, but here’s the path for the next step,’ ” he said. “It’s not just saying, ‘Tell us what you want and we’ll give it to you.’ ”
The Ontario-based supplier, which ranks fourth globally on the Automotive News list of top suppliers by worldwide annual sales to automakers, already has “significant content” on new battery-electric vehicles being launched worldwide, the company said during its fourth-quarter earnings call this month.
Among vehicles it will supply content for are the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup, the Rivian R1S electric SUV, the Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover and the GMC Hummer electric truck, as well as models by Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. In addition, the supplier’s Magna Steyr contract assembly unit will build Fisker’s Ocean SUV at its factory in Austria.
“Obviously, if electric vehicles do well, we’ll do well,” Kotagiri said.
Kotagiri said the supplier sees the types of products and services evolving as vehicles become more electrified and connected.
“When we say Magna is a mobility company, we don’t constrain ourselves to say we’re only supplying systems and components,” he said. “That means we could play a role in the infrastructure management side, whether it’s data or data storage. As vehicles and subsystems become more connected, there is a play there.”
