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New faces — and new products — rise up the supply chain

It's the dawn of a new era for the automotive supply chain. Not only are the companies that populate it changing, but so are the products and the places.

This week we present the annual Automotive News Top Suppliers ranking, which orders parts makers by their global 2022 sales revenue to automakers. The list includes several new companies near the top this year, specifically major producers of batteries for electric vehicles.

The fast-growing Chinese EV battery giant CATL crashed this year's Top 5, while companies such as Samsung SDI that have long had an automotive presence saw their position on the list rise now that automakers are buying more batteries.

This is all happening even though EVs still account for only a small, if quickly growing, portion of overall new-vehicle sales worldwide. So just imagine, as automakers roll out dozens of new EV models in the coming years and source even …

The Green Hills Software CEO and The Dawn Project founder catalogs his concerns about the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self Driving” driver-assistance systems. He further scrutinizes the problems associated with software in safety-critical systems.

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The annual top supplier list, which ranks companies by global sales to automakers, for the first time features a number of major EV battery makers.

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North America Total Sales Location Phone Top executive Total global OE automotive parts sales (dollars in millions) 2022 Total global OE automotive parts sales (dollars in millions) 2021 PercentNorth America2022 PercentEurope2022 PercentAsia2022 Percentrest of world2022 Products Stuttgart, Germany (49) 711-811-0 Stefan Hartung(chairman) $50,456 $49,144 ( f ) 18 39 42 2 Technologies & components that are safe & sustainable & combine the group's expertise in personalization, automation, electrification & connectivity Kariya, Aichi, Japan (81) 566-25-5511 Koji Arima(CEO) $47,900 $43,569 ( fe ) 23 11 64 2 Thermal, powertrain control, electronic & electric systems; small motors & telecommunications Friedrichshafen, Germa…

Auto plants in Europe will cut their production schedules by 13,000 vehicles this week because of microchip shortages, but the industry is showing clear signs that it is slowly climbing out of the global supply line crisis that began in early 2020.

Factories in North America, China and South America made no chip-related schedule changes this week, according to estimates from AutoForecast Solutions, which has tracked the problem worldwide for three years. Factories in the Middle East and Africa are cutting almost 4,600 vehicles.

But according to the forecast, by the end of this year, North American factories will have to drop 400,000 more vehicles due to the lack of microchips.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com

With dealership service technicians in short supply, General Motors says it's seeing some improvement toward building a talent pipeline.

Enrollment in GM's Automotive Service Educational Program, which trains aspiring technicians through a partnership mostly with community colleges across the U.S., is at a 10-year high, said Eric Kenar, GM's manager of technician environment and service technical training.

Enrollment in the program this year tops 600 student technicians, Kenar said. Since 2012, enrollment has totaled between 365 and 450 students per year.

One reason for the bump, Kenar said, may be the impact of a two-year-old marketing campaign, "Bring Us Your Talent," that aims to change the image of auto repair as a career. Kenar, along with dealership service technicians themselves, say the job requires more electrical and technological knowledge than it once did.

"It's a very, I would say, mentally intensive as well…

The supplier industry's big gainers last year were dominated by battery makers and microchip producers.

Top 10 gainers in global OE automotive parts sales Dollars in millions   2022 global OE sales 2021 global OE sales Change 1. Nifco $2,193 (f) $316 (e) 594% 2. SK On Co. $6,040 (e) $2,685 (e) 125% 3. CATL $33,500 (fe) $15,075 (fe) 122.2% 4. STMicroelectronics $5,250 $3,515 49.4% 5. Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co. $2,210 (f) $1,484 (f) 48.9% 6. Samsung SDI $15,624 (e) $10,523 (e) 48.5% 7. Iochpe-Maxion $3,248 (f) $2,382 (fe) 36.3% 8. Visteon Corp. $3,756 $2,773 35.4% 9. CITIC Dicastal Co. $5,718 $4,311 32.6% 10. Ningbo Tuopu Group $2,146 (f) $1,656 (f) 29.6% e = estimate, f = fiscal year, fe = fiscal year estimate Source: Automotive News Research & Data Center

Automakers and dealers daydream of selling new vehicles to order, of washing away all the inventory carrying costs onto their respective bottom lines by delivering vehicles to ready buyers as soon as they're driven off the truck.

But if the U.S. auto retailing market is ever going to migrate to those more profitable practices — instead of just temporarily stumbling through them as happened during the pandemic — both automakers and dealers are going to have to get exponentially better at customer communications and managing customer patience.

How do I know? Let me tell you the story of "No matter what."

Nine months ago, on Sept. 16, 2022, I placed an order with my local Ford dealership for a new Maverick Lariat hybrid pickup in Atlas Blue Metallic. I knew that I would be waiting months and months for delivery, given ongoing production constraints across the industry.

I was — and still am nine months later — completely OK with that.

My order…

Europe's portfolio of leading suppliers continue to be powerhouses on the global scene.

Top 10 Europe-based suppliers Ranked on global original equipment parts sales, dollars in millions 1. Bosch Group $50,456 2. ZF Friedrichshafen $42,106 (f) 3. Forvia $26,835 (f) 4. Continental $25,401 (f) 5. BASF $19,465 (e) 6. Valeo $17,636 (f) 7. Aptiv $17,489 8. Mahle $13,104 (f) 9. Thyssenkrupp $12,475 (f) 10. Gestamp $10,311 (f) e = estimate, f = fiscal year, Source: Automotive News Research & Data Center

The faces of the world's biggest auto suppliers are changing — and fast.

As automakers race to roll out new electric vehicles to meet rising demand and government rules, battery manufacturers are rising on the Automotive News list of the world's largest auto suppliers.

The annual list, which ranks companies by global sales to automakers, for the first time features a number of major EV battery makers. CATL, of China, ranks No. 5 on the list, with estimated 2022 global automotive revenue of $33.5 billion.

Companies such as CATL, a manufacturing giant, and Samsung SDI of South Korea (estimated 2022 global automotive revenue of $15.62 billion), have been around for years, producing thick portfolios of consumer and industrial goods. But the awakening of the EV market in China, the U.S. and Europe is now boosting their automotive business.

The list of top suppliers this year reflects a rapidly changing automotive supply chain, as relative newcomers an…