ITB’s Blog

Data Sources:  VW, Mahle, Valeo, Chosun Univ., The ITB Group

Reports indicate that Volkswagen temporarily discontinued offering the heat pump system on its MEB platform electric vehicles (ID.4, Q4 e-tron, etc.). Although Volkswagen states that this is “due to the ongoing shortage of semi-conductors”, other factors are likely to have affected this decision. These include the fundamental value of  […]

The potential to have interior driver and occupant monitoring is creating a variety of opinions in the industry. The range of opinions include […]

To explore these ideas to create premium value in a cabin, The ITB Group posed an economic problem to OEM engineers. It encouraged them to brainstorm where a supplier could potentially create new value in an automotive cabin. We asked OEM engineers […]

Every day, new patents are generated for New Cabin Technologies. This blog post lists notable patent filings since our last update, ranging from the realms of […]

Source: The ITB Group, Ltd.

Automakers are making tremendous investments in new thermal architectures involving both hardware and software. Despite this investment, the systems have great leeway for improvement, particularly in software and controls. For Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) the importance of thermal controls may have a […]

Many OEMs offer cabin pre-conditioning as a standard feature for BEV’s, yet Rivian has been able to connect cabin conditioning to a safety feature. Rivian has introduced the feature as Pet Comfort. If the Rivian R1T or R1S truck is parked and possesses greater than fifty miles of range, a pet owner can set cabin temperature between 68° and 74° F, which the vehicle will maintain while the owner is away from the vehicle. If no temperature is set, cabin temperature […]

Huawei Technologies has been investing a considerable amount of operating profit, approximately $1 Billion, to increase its participation as an automotive supplier and collaborator. It is cementing various levels of agreements with domestic Chinese OEMs, including Chang’an, Chery, JAC, Arcfox and […]

ITB’s New Cabin Technologies Report included seating as a cabin component that would see potential change, due to the introduction of audio, sensing, switch controls, and more modular and movable seating/ A less-explored area of seating has been the A-Surface itself, which reflects changing market attitudes regarding [...]

Reflecting the new recessionary signals of the economy and a slowdown in the startup-driven investment cycle, series production BEV manufacturers Rivian and Lucid Motors lost their Top Ten ranking market capitalization in June 2022. Both OEMs dropped from the Top 10 to the bottom of the Top 20, joining value-priced BEV...

As of the summer of 2022, the automotive world is continuing to experience more than a mere rough patch. War, supply chain, the risk of recessions, and climate create operational issues on a weekly basis. In this environment, the long-promised forecasting scenario in which global vehicle production surpasses projected volumes of one hundred million is no longer “just around the corner”. These variables create lasting effects on OEM...