Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications 2009: Smart Systems for Safety, Sustainability, and Comfort

The current economic crisis is cutting the automotive sector to the quick. Public authorities worldwide are now faced with requests for providing loans and accepting guarantees and even for putting large automotive companies under state control. Assessing the long-term benefits of such help and wei- ing the needs of different sectors against each other poses a major challenge for the national policies. Given the upcoming change of customer preferences and state regulations towards safety, sustainability and comfort of a car, the automotive industry is particularly called to prove its ability to make nec- sary innovations available in order to accelerate its pace to come out of the crisis. Consequently the Green Car is assuming a prominent role in the current debate. Various power train concepts are currently under discussion for the Green Car including extremely optimised internal combustion engines, hybrid drives and battery-electric traction. Electrical cars are the most appealing option because they are free of local emissions and provide the opportunity to use primary energy from sources other than crude oil for transport. Well to wheel analysis show that their green-house gas emissions can be rated negligibly small if electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar is used.