BY DEREK KAUFMAN

The Las Vegas CES show in January is now the auto industry’s first new product introduction opportunity of the year since Detroit’s North American International Auto Show has been moved to June. The move made sense – it avoids January weather in Detroit and also acknowledges a lot of the technology rolled out at CES is automotive in nature. In this article, we highlight some of the more interesting automotive announcements made in Las Vegas this year.

Rivian R1T

If you have been following Rivian you know the electric drive pickup company raised $2.85 billion in 2019. Amazon invested $700 million and Ford invested $500 million in separate investments then joined T. Rowe Price at the end of the year in a $1.3 billion round. Rivian might just be the turning point for BEV sales growth because it moves electric drive into the pickup world. Word in the industry is that the exterior design might not be too exciting, but the EV powertrain is one of the best in the business. At CES, Rivian proved they are as focused on driver interface as they are on vehicle performance. Their demonstration at CES showed Amazon’s Alexa platform acting as the primary controller of the vehicle’s interior functions. Voice commands can now control cabin temperature, play music or get directions to a point of interest. We look forward to the day when Rivian drivers can simply say “set car wash mode” as their pickup approaches the wash tunnel.

Sony Vision S

We all know that Apple formed its Titan project a few years ago and built a technical team somewhere between 500 and 1,000 engineers by raiding every Bay Area company doing anything in electric drive – and then ended the project in 2019. So it came as quite a surprise to see Sony introduce its Vision-S BEV car. We understand from industry sources that the prototype was actually built by Magna and may never be put into production, but it is a great platform to showcase Sony’s ability to offer 33 different types of sensors, widescreen dash displays, 360 audio functions, safety vision systems and complete vehicle connectivity. With this vehicle, Sony is telling the automotive community that it is a player in the future of vehicle technology.

Bosch’s Virtual Visor

One of the coolest introductions at CES was the Virtual Visor from Bosch – cool enough to win the CES Innovation Award for 2020. The Virtual Visor monitors a driver’s face to move hexagonal LCD panels that can transition from transparent to opaque to block sunlight to shield the driver’s eyes. A forward vision system tracks the sun’s angle to change of the position of the panels as a vehicle travels. This is one of those innovations that combines highly sophisticated engineering with simple, pragmatic application. We like its potential to be both an OE and aftermarket product in the future.

Byton M-Byte

Chinese BEV producer Byton used CES to launch its electric drive M-Byte SUV. Byton worked with a large list of supplier/partners to tune the vehicle to the North American market. ViacomCBS supplies streaming content to the 48-inch touch screen that stretches across the entire dashboard of the Byton. The SUV also includes AccuWeather forecasting, road trip planning, voice commands of vehicle functions and 5G connectivity capability. Byton claims its M-Byte battery can be fast-charged to 80% capacity in 35 minutes.
Look for Byton to be one of the first Chinese companies to successfully enter the U.S. market. They are ramping up production and running through the regulation requirements now to launch the M-Byte in 2020 and right behind that they have the K-Byte that includes Level 4 autonomous controls. Byton was cofounded by two industry stalwarts. Carston Breitfeld spent 20 years at BMW and headed its i8 plug-in hybrid development. Daniel Kirchert is considered an “old China hand” with experience as Managing Director of Infiniti China and President of Dongfeng Infiniti Motor Company. He also has a BMW background acting as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for BMW Brilliance, BMW’s China-based production company.

Volkswagen announced the formation of its new Volkswagen Autonomy division at CES. The new subsidiary of Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH will be headquartered in Belmont, Calif., about 25 miles south of San Francisco, which puts it squarely in the heart of Silicon Valley’s AV activity. It was interesting to note that VW is targeting commercial vehicles as its first AV entry market. The ID Buzz is a very cool reimagining of the original VW commercial vans and could be a good platform for AV technology.

Hyundai introduced its High-Precision Positioning mapping system at CES. The system combines map information from Amsterdam-based Here with Hyundai’s vehicle vision systems and GPS correction technology developed in a Hexagon, Valeo and Hyundai partnership. The platform’s TerraStar X technology corrects or augments a GPS signal by referencing a network of stationary receivers to greatly increase the accuracy of a vehicle’s position. We see this type of approach enabling a vehicle to pinpoint that it is entering a car wash by simply using the wash’s address coupled with other networked GPS signals indicting the car’s exact position.

Derek Kaufman is a Managing Partner at Schwartz Advisors (SA). SA is a team of highly experienced auto aftermarket experts working with clients in corporate growth projects and both buy-side and sell-side merger and acquisition activities. As part of its growth consulting work, SA keeps current with the emerging technologies and business models that will drive the future supply of automotive parts and service. The reference to any specific commercial products, processes, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by ICA or Schwartz Advisors. The views and opinions of the author do not necessarily state or reflect those of the ICA staff.