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No wonder car makers are linking arms
as they walk towards the unknown
a
Huge expense of EV
tech is causing car
m a ke r s to te a m u p
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A successful experiment?
20 May 1966
TE STE R ’ S N OTE S
Matt Prior
Toyota et al in the
new hypercar classis good for Le Mans
X
ESTABLISHED 1895
90 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 14 AUGUST 2 019
ne of t he f i r s t t h i n gs I
w r ot e i n t h i s ga me w a s
a feature linking all carmanufacturers to each
other through their joint ventures
or commercial ties. A sort of ‘six
degrees of Kevin Bacon’ but for
auto makers, taking in all major car
manufacturers until it looped back to
where it started.
I know. They were simpler times. We
had to make our own entertainment.
Anyway, it wasn’t straightforward.
‘Using Bosch engine management
like everybody else’ didn’t count as
a link. Something like ‘Ford sells
engines to Caterham, which also
uses engines from MG Rover, which
is owned by BMW...’ was tenuous yet
acceptable. Convoluted but possible.
To d ay, it w ou ld n’t b e ne a rl y s o
time-consuming or complex, as our
recent feature (Nick Gibbs’ analysis:
‘Why car makers are casting aside
old rivalries, 17 July’) makes clear.
New tech is driving car makers
together. “They’re having to get
serious about electric vehicles, but
EVs are a difficult business case,” ananalyst from HIS Markit told us.
The problem linking them all
would be the outliers, the dozens of
EV start-ups and tech companies that
all have vast electronic, if not vehicle,
engineering expertise.
S o t h i s out w a rd l y g l i b fe at u r e
might be quite telling: vehicle
engineering, a century’s experience
of m a k i n g t he mo s t c ompl ic at e d ,
expensive and durable consumer
product on earth, is what joins car
makers together, and is what they’ll
rely on now more than ever.
■ I u s e d t o b e a L e Ma n s r e g u l a r but
fell out of the habit of going about a
decade ago. Not sure why. Elements
of L e Ma n s c a n b e a bit Br it s a br oa d
and a predictable winner removes
some of the excitement, but for me
w at c h i n g r a c i n g at n i g ht i s s e c ond on l y
to watching motorcycle road racing.
I f a ny t h i n g w i l l ge t me ba c k t o L e
Mans, it’s the 2021 hypercar categoryb e i n g t a r ge t e d b y A s t on , Toy ot a a nd
perhaps Lamborghini. I’m already
p e nc i l l i n g i n a pl a n t o go, b e c au s e
great though prototypes are, there’s
something about road cars being
raced that’s particularly attractive.
IS ANYTHING MORE frustrating
than being stuck at 70mph on a
clear motorway in fine weather?
How about doing that when there
had previously never been a limit?
With serious crashes rising in
the UK, Labour transport minister
Tom Fraser introduced a 70mph
limit from 22 December 1965 – an
experiment set to last four months.
Obviously, Autocar readers were
mostly furious – and staffers were
doubtful, noting that limits actually
had exacerbated issues abroad.
In April 1966, successor minister
Barbara Castle extended the trial
by t wo m o nth s w i th n o r e a l r e a s o n.
Perhaps the ministry was waiting
for the stats to go the right way, we
said, as the number of accidents on
the M1 had actually hit a new peak
in the first two months of the year.
So it proved: the national speed
limit was made forever in July 1967
So companies that wouldn’t after the trial’s apparent success.
otherwise entertain sharing a
dashboard button are spreading the
burden of development.
Toyota, Subaru, Suzuki, Daihatsu
and Mazda are all working together
on e le c t r ic pl at for m s , Ford h a s joi ne d
VW in doing similar, and BMW and
Jaguar Land Rover are developing
drive units together. Those are just
s ome of t he he a d l i ne t ie -i n s.
Yet there’s more disruptive tech
to think about, too: advanced driver
assistance systems leading to some
self-driving, shared ownership,
‘mobility’ as a service, alternative
fuels, and more. For an industry
that until recently was in the habit
of introducing a new car 10% more
powerful and 10% more economical
than the previous one, it’s wildlyexciting and completely terrifying.
No w onde r it ’s l i n k i n g a r m s a s it
walks towards the unknown.
There are still the old-school
l i n k s , t o o, a lb e it w it h ne w t w i s t s.
Geely hadn’t made its first car
when I wrote that feature. Now
it ow n s Vol v o, L ot u s , P r ot on ,
Lynk&Co and others and has a big
s t a k e i n Da i m le r. Vau x h a l l i s now
owned by PSA but still makes cars
sold by GM. The original feature
t o ok me a d ay or t w o t o w ork out.
To d ay, it ’d t a k e ab out 30 m i n.
O