Supply Lines: the latest innovations from Shanghai

For the past week the major OEMs have been basking in the headlines and glories of their latest models and concepts. There are two halls full of unsung heroes at the Shanghai Auto Show. It is the suppliers that make the designs possible and increasingly that relationship is extending to design collaboration. Grupo Antolin, which specialises in the design and manufacture of interior components such as overhead, doors, lighting, cockpits, and consoles, has been in the Chinese market for eighteen years. “We came eighteen years ago to support our European and American OEM customers. A few years ago, we realised that the winners in China would be the local brands and so we started to work with companies like Geely and BYD and startups like Nio and Xpeng,” says Jorge Juarez Maillo, president Asia Pacific.

The company’s Inspire cockpit demonstrator premiered at the show and highlights Grupo Antolin’s various technologies and products centred around lighting and HMI, active surfaces, and electronics. This includes such areas as backlit surfaces using various tactile materials along with technologies such as driver monitoring systems.

“Our strategy is smart integration, and our aim is to have the whole package,” says Maillo about how Grupo Antolin competes with Chinese companies many of which only specialise in components. Further showing the company’s capabilities is a virtual reality experience where you take a car integrating Grupo Antolin’s various lines.

Another supplier going down the integration route is Faurecia. “We no longer just do seats or parts. I think this is the trend for the future industry. You need to have this integration,” says Gordon Siu, principal designer. On display was Faurecia’s Cockpit of the Future. It’s the first time the company has fully designed and developed a physical interior cockpit concept in China. All the technologies showcased are ready for the market and available to OEMs. The cockpit concept is intelligent and immersive, integrating the company’s solutions in a premium way.

There are various modes such as a welcome mode. If while moving the driver monitoring system detects you are falling asleep it will respond using an integration of the company’s various technologies. Firstly, air will blow on you from an air vent, fragrance will release from the headrest and finally the seat will vibrate to alert you. Faurecia has seats which give haptic feedback.

“We work together with an OEM’s designers because they don’t know what’s available, what the technologies can do and what interpretations you can do,” explains Siu. In line with Faurecia’s premium and sustainability ethos, the company’s seats for example feature upholstery and inner foam that is fully recyclable.

A common thread, one taken by Grammer as well, is ‘In China for China.’ Their display centred around the company’s Pure concept and the pillars of Living Space, Functional Upgrade, Premium Comfort and Sustainability. “For us, Auto Shanghai will be a platform to start an intensive exchange with existing and potential customers about the requirements of future mobility solutions in China,” says Thorsten Seehars, CEO of Grammer AG.

Grammer only established its China design department in August last year. This has already resulted in a moving console prototype for use in MPVs in China. Underlying the company’s sustainability commitments Grammer has console modules and air ducts sustainably produced from recycled materials.