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This study aims to identify and prioritize various growth-accelerating factors in the Indian automotive industry. It further develops a hierarchical model to examine the mutual interactions between the factors, their dependence and their driving power.

This study first identifies the growth-accelerating factors and then uses the modified total interpretive structural modeling (m-TISM) framework, which is an extended version of TISM. It further uses MICMAC analysis to analyze the mutual interrelation between the identified factors.

This study highlights the interrelation amongst the factors using m-TISM model. A hierarchical model shows the level of autonomous, dependence, linkage and independent factors considering the Indian automotive industry. This study also provides the understanding related to the interdependence of growth-accelerating factors.

The government and practitioners could evaluate the growth-accelerating factors which have higher driving power for implementing efficient policies and strategy formulation. By implementing m-TISM model in the Indian automotive industry, auto manufacturers can become more productive and profitable. Future studies could use other methods such as expert opinion to derive the factors, and further model could be verified using structural equation modeling technique.

This study uses a novel m-TISM framework for the analysis of growth-accelerating factors in the context of the Indian automotive industry. It further provides a detailed theoretical and conceptual understanding relating to the philosophy and establishes an interrelation amongst these under-researched growth-accelerating factors.

The purpose of this paper is to give an answer to the questions whether China can make the quantum leap in automotive technology from engines that burn fossil‐fuel to those that do not and whether China will take an “alternative Asian path of development.”

This paper is based on a sociological approach to prove potential technical innovations reflecting the social conditions of radical innovations like post‐fossil mobility concepts.

Innovations like a post‐fossil car concept consist of more than new technical infrastructures and mere imitations, they require decentralized spaces for incubation and experimentation. Translated into conditions governing the policy milieu, that need means that potential promoters of innovations need fundamental political freedoms, equality before the law, legal certainty, and the advancement and protection of personal rights vis‐à‐vis the state. In a sociological perspective, China needs social modernization in the sense of differentiation, individualization, and internalization of external constraints.

This paper reflects the opportunities and restrictions of radical change in car technology in china. It does not give evidence for the future of conventional mass motorization as the continuance of the state of the art in car technologies.

This paper implies – as a practical consequence – that the established car industry in the triad is furthermore responsible for progress in car and motor concepts being more energy efficient and less dependent from oil.

The original contribution of this paper is that it connects the technical debate on the future of cars and their drive system with the discussion of social and political terms of collective capacity of radical innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to show how technical-economical cost modeling can help in steering research and development to target key production cost elements of new products based on emerging technologies.

The authors demonstrate the development and use of a technical-economic cost model (TCM) of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) in fuel cells to steer research to produce more economical and reliable products. A TCM is developed to depict how the production cost per unit varies depending on the different fabrication methods, production rate limitations, material selection, labor distribution, energy consumption, financial parameters and the target production volume. By using such an approach in the design, research time and resources can be saved by prioritizing R&D and production scale-up options at an early stage.

The results of this study show the importance of applying technical-economic cost model (TCM) techniques on early stage research projects to steer the development for resolving key problematic figures. As a case study, a cost analysis platform has been established to apply this technique by analyzing different manufacturing and R&D options for producing durable PEM fuel cells. The projected manufacturing cost of the PEM is found to be lower than previously estimated and the enhanced durability does not significantly impact this production cost.

Production is an important factor in informing NPD targets and R&D direction. And yet it is difficult to estimate scaled up production cost for prototype products and components in the R&D lab. Technical-economic cost models (TCM) are a tool to assist decision-making in technology portfolio management and NPD.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of organometallic coatings of automotive fuel tanks. Galvannealed steels and galvannealed steels coated with organometallic layers were analyzed using accelerated corrosion tests.

The characterization of galvannealed and organometallic coatings was done by mass (layer removal and weighing) and layer thickness (glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy), chemical composition (energy dispersive spectroscopy) and surface morphology (scanning electron microscopy). The accelerated corrosion tests were performed in accordance with SAE J2334 and GMW 14872 standards.

The samples tested using the GMW 14872 standard were more deteriorated as compared to the samples submitted to the SAE J2334 test because of the higher degree of aggressiveness of the GMW 14872 test. Despite the presence of white rust, the corrosion resistance of organometallic-coated steel samples was higher as compared to the resistance of galvannealed steel samples.

The organometallic coating is a commercial product, whose chemical composition is confidential.

This study reinforces the quality of automotive tanks with organometallic coating and helps to increase their competitiveness in the market tanks as compared to polymeric tanks.

The study contributes to increase the competitiveness of steel tanks against polymeric tanks that meet the technical requirements but are not environmentally friendly because they are multi-layered and cannot be recycled.

The novelty of this study is the comparison of the corrosion resistance of galvannealed steel tanks and galvannealed steel tanks with organometallic coatings. This corrosion evaluation joined with the physical and chemical characterization was not found in literature and is relevant to the materials selection of the automotive industry.

Examines the issues surrounding fuel lubricity by explaining the background to the problems surrounding lubricity in diesel engines. As the need for low sulphur diesels arose it became clear that a universally accepted bench test was required and ISO working group SC7/WG6 was set up in 1992 to decide on a standard test. The group recommended that an HFRR (high frequency reciprocating rig) ball‐on‐flat test should be adopted. Describes the test methodology.

Regenerative flow pump (RFP) is a rotodynamic turbomachine capable of developing high pressure rise at low flow rates. This paper aims to numerically investigate the performance of a regenerative pump considering the modification in blade and casing geometry.

The radial blade shape was changed to the bucket form and a core is added to flow path. A parametric study was performed to improve the performance of the pump. Thus, the effect of change in blade angle, chord, height, pitch to chord ratio and also inlet port on the performance of RFP was investigated.

Results showed that the modified blade angle to achieve the maximum efficiency is about 41 degree. Also, the most efficient point occurs close to pitch/chord = 0.4 and by reducing the axial chord, efficiency of the pump increases. It was found that better efficiency will be achieved by increasing the “Arc of admission”, but there are limitations of manufacturing. It was observed that the performance curves shifted towards lower flow coefficients by reducing height of blades.

To improve the characteristics of regenerative pump, the blade shape changed to the bucket form (airfoil blades with identical inlet and outlet angle) and a core is added to flow path. A parametric study has been accomplished to see the influence of some important parameters on the performance of the pump.

The case study “Maruti Suzuki – toward cleaner mobility” has been written keeping in view the requirements in the field of strategic management. The key learning objectives are as follows:• Analysis of business environment.• Product development strategy – creating market segment to gain competitive advantage by leveraging available organizational capabilities.• Strategic decision-making – understanding strategic decision-making process in a complex and highly competitive business scenario.

Maruti Suzuki, a leader in Indian automotive market with around 50% market share in passenger cars, was likely to face intense competition because of disruption by electric vehicles. As electric vehicles adoption was increasing globally in developed countries, automotive companies shaped their strategy accordingly to stay relevant. Maruti Suzuki was yet to be ready with electric vehicles and approached this space differently than other competitors. However, with Indian Government pushing toward cleaner mobility, it was yet to be seen how the company would manage to comply with legislations and compete effectively in marketplace. Indian Auto major, Maruti Suzuki, was on the edge to decide future strategy on electric vehicles to sustain its leadership position. The Indian automotive sector was going through the transformation where auto original equipment manufacturers were bringing electric vehicles and supporting policies from government likely to accelerate its adoption. Maruti Suzuki was striving to counter the competition with available resources to create competitive advantage in changing environment and continue to remain profitable with leadership position in Indian automotive market. The company had successfully maintained its leading position over three decades and transformed the automotive space with its strategies ahead of the curve. Now the company was standing at crossroads with regard to future technology on cleaner mobility. Mr Bhargava had to decide whether to throw the hat in EV ring or wait for other alternate technology disruption.

Management studies and executive development programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

The authors hope to filter valuable information from online reviews, obtain objective and accurate information about the demands of auto consumers and help auto companies develop more reasonable production and marketing strategies for healthy and sustainable development. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

The authors collected review data from online automotive forums and generated a corpus after pre-processing. Then, the authors extracted consumer demands and topics using the LDA model. Finally, the authors used a trained Word2vec tool to extend the consumer demand topics.

Different types of vehicle consumers have the same demands, such as “Space,” “Power Performance,” and “Brand Comparison,” and distinct demands, such as “Appearance,” “Safety,” “Service,” and “New Energy Features”; consumers who buy new energy vehicles are still accustomed to comparing with the brands or models of fuel vehicles; new energy vehicles consumers pay more attention to services and service quality during the purchasing and using process.

The development time of new energy vehicles is relatively short, with some models being available for only one year or even six months. The smaller amount of available data may impact the applicability of topic models. The sample size, especially for new energy vehicles, needs to be increased to improve the general applicability of topic models further.

First, this measure helps online review websites improve their existing review publication mechanisms, enhance the overall quality of online review content, increase user traffic and promote the healthy development of online review websites. Second, this allows for timely adjustments in future product production and sales plans and further enhances automotive companies' ability to leverage online reviews for Internet marketing.

The authors have improved the accuracy and stability of the fused topic model, providing a scientific and efficient research tool for multi-dimensional topic mining of online reviews. With the help of research results, consumers can more easily understand the discussion topics and thus filter out valuable reference information. As a result, automotive companies may gain information about consumer demands and product quality feedback and thus quickly adjust production and marketing strategies to increase sales and market share.

To give a background to the automotive sensor industry and consider recent developments in sensors used in vehicle safety systems.

This paper describes the early development of the automotive sensor industry and gives examples of present‐day applications. It subsequently discusses development in advanced vehicle safety systems.

The advent of cost‐effective electronics in 1970 led to the development of numerous automotive systems such as electronic engine management which use a diversity of sensors. Since, the 1990s, safety has emerged as a major consideration and features such as traction control, ABS, stability control systems and air bags have been applied across a wide sector of the industry. New active safety systems which respond to passenger weight and position, as well as collision avoidance systems which can sense the vehicle's external environment are being developed and applied widely. These are fuelling the automotive sensor market which is forecast to reach 2.24 billion units per annum by 2010.Safety system integration is a major theme of present developments.

This paper shows that customer demands for enhanced safety have driven the development and rapid adoption of advanced vehicle safety systems. This has boosted the markets for automotive sensors.