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This year's CES was certainly unusual, between the numerous
exhibitors "going virtual" at the last minute and the sheer variety
of announcements that transpired. Yet mobility topics were front
and center, with companies highlighting some of the innovations
consumers will see in six months, and possibly even some they will
see in six years.
Electrification continued as a central theme among the products,
concepts, and innovations the industry showed this year. Starting
off, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the VISION EQXX Concept. It is of
course electric, but the main point was its efficiency. It is
estimated to get 648 miles on a single charge, but that is not from
a massive battery. It is from an efficient powertrain that is
capable of more than 6 miles per kWh (roughly double the efficiency
of the best EVs on the market today) coupled with a coefficient of
drag (Cd) of 0.17 and a solar panel rooftop. The vehicle presents a "vision" of what the competition will be in the future. It will no
longer just be about electrification, but about how one uses the
electrons they have on-board.
Next came debuts from General Motors (GM) and BMW, both bringing
production-ready EVs to CES. GM used CES to show the upcoming 2024
Chevrolet Silverado EV. It offers some 400 miles of range, DC fast
charging up to 350 kW, and 10,000 lbs towing capacity to make a
serious contender defending GM's market share, as full-size pickups
transition to electric drive in the near future. Coupled with other
innovative features, such as a 17-inch free-form display, the
capability to provide up to 10.2 kW of power to auxiliary devices,
and a rather nifty multifunction tailgate and cargo area, and it
will stand out from the Silverado internal combustion engine (ICE)
counterparts.
BMW, meanwhile, showed its iX M60, which will hit production
lines soon, and illustrated a much more performance and
excitement-oriented approach to electrification. With 610 hp, 811
lb-ft of torque, and 280 miles range, the iX will fit nicely among
the competition from Mercedes and Audi on the market already. Plus,
BMW used its new EV to showcase some interesting technologies -
namely a concept exterior using E-ink displays that allows the
vehicle to shift from black to white, and any shade of grey in
between. While some see it as a party-trick, BMW is experimenting
with how a color-changing exterior might help if a vehicle is lost
in a parking lot, trying to communicate with pedestrians, or
optimizing solar heating conditions in warm or cold
environments.
More electrification came from myriad start-ups, most notably
VinFast, who showed its VF8 and VF9 EV crossovers on the world
stage. While the specs were competitive, it was its sales and
marketing strategy that caught the most attention. VinFast has
priced its VF8 and VF9 at USDS41,000 and USD56,000, respectively,
and has opened them up for reservations. Interestingly, according
to the company, reservation holders who make a deposit of USD200
today will receive many benefits for being an early reservation
holder. They will get a USD3,000 of USD5,000 credit toward the
purchase of a VF8 or VF9, in addition to a free mobile charger,
access to the ADAS and connectivity services packages for life, a
seven-day vacation in Vietnam, and the company will plant a tree.
Is this what it takes to attract customers today in the EV
marketplace?
While not technically a start-up, Sony used CES 2022 to debut
its Vision-S 02 concept SUV, to follow on the original Vision-S
sedan it showed in 2020. It will integrate countless Sony
technologies from CMOS sensors, 5G connectivity, integrated video
services, 360° audio, gaming experiences, and more. However, the
more notable news is that Sony has officially founded Sony Mobility
Inc. to explore the commercial launch of Sony's EVs to global
markets. This marks yet another example of a technology firm
jumping into mobility with an electric offering.
Electrification was next presented as an answer to everything
commercial, especially in logistics and last-mile delivery. While
Doosan Bobcat debuted an electric skid steer, it was the
announcements from GM again that made the biggest news.
BrightDrop—an entity of just over a year old—went from a
concept and idea to production and deliveries in record time.
However, at CES 2022, it brought its commercial customers FedEx and
Walmart in to discuss their needs for electrification. FedEx has
received 5 EV600s to date and has another 2,000 on order and
potentially another 20,000 on top of that. Meanwhile, Walmart has
5,000 EV600s reserved, as it expects to bring its in-house
last-mile delivery to 30 million households by the end of 2022.
Stellantis made commercial news at CES via an extended
arrangement with Amazon, wherein the mega digital retailer will be
the first recipient of the upcoming RAM ProMaster EVs. In addition,
Amazon will provide other services to Stellantis products in the
form of Alexa integration, the AWS cloud, and software development
capacity. However, the company also used CES to promote its newly
minted product and services strategy for the next 10 years. First,
CEO Carlos Tavares announced the company would debut 8 more BEVs in
the next 18 months. Second, the Stellantis executive team spent
lots of time highlighting its 4 vehicle platforms and 3 tech
platforms to bring vehicles to market across its 14 iconic brands.
The most interesting part was the rather rapid move toward
electronics consolidation with the STLA Brain platform. It will
offer a 30-ECU architecture with complete OTA integration by 2024,
which by automotive industry standards is lightning fast.
Diving deeper into E/E architecture topics, Qualcomm showed up
in a big way at CES 2022, citing both near-term and long-term
initiatives to help bring domain consolidation to market. The
silicon vendor touted its growing list of OEMs using a variety of
its products, including Honda, Volvo, and Renault in the coming
months and years. It also described the Snapdragon Digital Chassis
as a way to scale a digital platform in the same way OEMs have
perfected scaling physical chassis across cars, trucks, SUVs, and
more. The Digital Chassis will encompass car-to-cloud software and
an integrated ride platform for ADAS, connectivity platform for 5G,
and a cockpit platform for in-vehicle experiences.
Meanwhile, Intel focused on its automotive announcements with
Mobileye. The company touted its milestone 100-million EyeQ SoC
shipments and 41 new design wins with more than 30 OEMs, including
several program wins with robo-taxi applications. In addition, it
showed the next-generation EyeQ6 SoC family with chips applicable
for Level 1 to Level 2 driving, Premium Level 2+ and Level 3
driving, and even a top-line Level 4-capable chip. This EyeQ ULTRA
will offer 12 cores at 5 nanometer process and perform 4.2 TFLOPS
using less than 100 watts of power. Ultimately, the story with
Intel is the SoC capabilities will continue to meet or exceed the
requirements from OEMs, as they gradually advance to the next stage
in autonomy.
Beyond those already mentioned above, CES played host to debuts
of many other component technologies that will come to new vehicles
soon. Panasonic showed augmented reality heads-up displays
(AR-HUDs) with a very compelling integration of Phiar navigation
rendering. Marelli, LG, and Visteon touted some cutting-edge
technologies on automotive displays, including large, curved, and
pillar-to-pillar systems. Valeo debuted its third-generation lidar
sensor, claiming no Level 3 vehicles will exist without lidar.
Bosch illustrated its AI presence and cited by 2025 that all of its
products would be equipped with or manufactured by AI.
In summary, CES 2022 was much less about the technologies
available for purchase in the next one to two months and much more
about those fundamental technological shifts that impact the whole
industries. Clearly, the mobility industry theme for 2022 is
electrification and all the subsequent effects it has on products,
services, digitalization, and distribution.
Yet, the consumer electronics industry was looking beyond the
physical and into the metaverse. Fundamental advances in AR and VR
technologies, combined with the now omnipresent 5G connectivity,
have spawned new focus on digital twin technologies in all sorts of
applications. Most notably for the auto industry was Hyundai. It
showed off its tech from the 2021 acquisition of Boston Dynamics,
telling the story of how robotics will be a fundamental
underpinning to the future of our existence in the metaverse. The
Korean firm went so far as to coin the term, "meta-mobility"
illustrating how its new tech can provide mobility solutions, in
both the physical and the metaverse.
Whether you were in attendance or not, CES 2022 provided some
foresight on where the mobility industry is headed next on a
technical, theoretical, and commercial basis.
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