Siemens VDO Managing Board: Electronics Key Technology for the Engine

The positive effect of automotive electronics on consumption and emissions is already demonstrable today. From the introduction of the first European Exhaust Gas Standard (Euro I) in 1993 to the current Euro IV Standard, the pollutants carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and nitrogen have all been reduced by more than 95 percent. Although the exhaust gas aftertreatment necessary for this increases consumption, fleet consumption - that is the average consumption of all new vehicles - fell by more than 20 percent during the period from 1990 to 2003. Electronically controlled injection systems have played the key role here. The "brain" of these systems is the engine control unit.

The importance of electronics will continue to increase. And that is why Siemens VDO is cooperating together with automobile manufacturers and research institutes to develop new combustion processes that combine the advantages of gasoline and diesel engines. "To this end, we need new sensors that precisely observe the combustion process in the cylinder". If the hybrid engine is established in the market by the end of the decade, the need for control units will be even greater. "Electronics will ensure that electric and combustion engines optimally work together in every driving situation. Electronic energy management is the prerequisite for this."

ADAC (German Automobile Association) statistics have demonstrated that the reliability of cars has increased considerably over the last 30 years: the likelihood that a car will break down in the first six years has dropped from 3.5 percent in 1976 to 0.6 percent today.

Despite this success, automobile manufacturers and suppliers such as Siemens VDO do not want to rest on their laurels. Egger: "We have taken measures to make the electronics, and therefore the automobile, even more reliable". Thus, Siemens VDO is the world's first supplier to launch a software platform for an engine management system that allows changes to be made to individual software modules without having to access the entire control unit. As a result, the supplier reduces the probability of error during necessary procedures - for example, if a hardware component is no longer available and has to be replaced by another.

Increasingly, however, standardized hardware elements are being used in engine management systems across manufacturers and series. Even direct gasoline and diesel injectors share individual components. Siemens VDO sees the use of tried and tested components in new systems as another way to further improve reliability.

At Siemens VDO, software is developed on the basis of meticulously specified and partially automated processes. "Human error" as a source of faults can therefore be largely excluded. In addition, system suppliers such as Siemens VDO closely incorporate their suppliers, manufacturers of semi-conductors and other electronic components, into their quality assurance system.

"The competitiveness of the internal combustion engine as a drive source for automobiles in the future will greatly depend on whether we use the possibilities provided by better sensors and electronic control units", concludes Egger. "As an electronics and mechatronics specialist among suppliers, Siemens VDO will be making a contribution to this."