2. Challenges of Passenger Cars

This chapter addresses a selection of current and future challenges facing the passenger car. The development, production, and use of passenger cars is driven by different global trends that are energy-related, economic in nature, subject to raw material availability, and powered by demographic changes. These trends and many other influences result in a range of vehicle and powertrain solutions being required and have impacts on vehicle systems, such as body, chassis, electrics/electronics, and on vehicle embedded functions, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Depending on the target markets and overall sales volume of each vehicle manufacturer, different platform strategies and new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partnering models need to be considered. The consequent application of lightweight engineering needs to be applied in all vehicle systems to meet increasing demands for vehicle safety and comfort features and the strong demand for powertrain electrification (environmentally friendly and affordable) with the resulting use of bigger vehicle batteries.