At least one auto executive wants more regulation. This is why

“To make transport safe and sustainable, we need regulations,” Grotendorst told me and other authors during a media roundtable. “People are unmotivated. If we (were) motivated, we would all compromise right now, today, and pay the extra cost to drive electric cars.”

What he meant was that consumers and businesses would not spend more money on environmentally friendly vehicles unless they were forced to do so by regulation. I don’t agree with this, but I was still quite surprised to hear a high-ranking businessman strongly advocate for more regulation in his industry. Executives usually say that the free market will fix everything, but Grotendorst seemed more realistic.

“Do you think people would be willing to pay extra for a diesel particulate filter or something like that? No… do you think anti-lock braking systems would have come (in every car) if there were no regulations?”

Grotendorst then cited seat belts, airbags and, as a more modern example, driver-assist technologies as all things that improved car safety and ultimately became ubiquitous through legislation.

He even discussed individual transportation and private cars with a level of self-awareness and honesty that I would never have expected from someone in his shoes. “I think we all like to be independent, (but) from a purely economic point of view, does it make sense to drive? No, it’s not. (A) typical vehicle has less than 10% wear over its lifetime…90% wear and tear the time it sits.” This division certainly looks a bit different in rural America than in urban Europe, but the thesis still holds true.

“Individual mobility in itself is not a problem (right)? WHAT₂ the issue is footprint and sustainability. I think the only solution we have right now is regulation. Legislation and regulations. Otherwise, humanity would lead itself to death.”

“People would rather spend more money on nice rims, leather and so on. We are the only creature on this planet that would kill itself,” Grotendorst said. I thought about my 1975 Scout being dangerous to passengers AND toxic to the environment, with a little self-awareness.

I’m changing the order of what he said a little, but Grotendorst made some comments about nature and animals and their relationship to engine performance that I really liked.

“Nature is always the best example of what can be done in terms of product development,” he said definitively. “None of the creatures you see on this planet make noise to move forward. Don’t forget that when you leave this room, noise always means loss.”

We told him that the next day we would be driving a Ferrari SF90 (which uses a gearbox made in Germany by Magna). It’s a gas-electric hybrid, but its gas-powered component is a twin-turbocharged V8 that roars with Godzilla-like ferocity when you wake up.

“What is this noise you are making? This is the unused pressure at the end of the combustion cycle. So you push the piston in and then open the exhaust valve and unfortunately there is still pressure in the cylinder. Unused energy. And then you can shoot it, which makes noise. In an ideal world, if you depress the piston, the internal pressure in the cylinder should be almost around 1 bar, the best solution. (But if you have) a supercharged engine, you inject a lot of air, then you inject fuel, you shoot it, and then you can have, in a gasoline engine, 20 bar or something like that. Then the piston is really screwed up and when the exhaust valve opens, there may still be 6, 5, 4 bar in the cylinder, which is a loss. But physically it’s stupid.

Of course, a car’s environmental impact is much more than just the amount of fuel it turns into noise. Many Magna employees, including Grotendorst, told us that all of the company’s customers (car manufacturers that have parts or vehicles manufactured by Magna) now need detailed information on the environmental impact of their entire supply chain. This is partly due to legislation. The sourcing of rare earth materials needed to produce electric cars remains a contentious issue, but it was mentioned that greener alternatives are being explored.

Grotendorst told us that his own household is energy negative. He has two electric cars, solar panels on his roof and batteries in his home that, on average, produce more energy each year than he can use. As you can tell from what I’ve already shared, he’s clearly not an old school hardware guy.

I asked him about the future of enthusiast cars, partly because that’s my wheelhouse, but also because they currently represent a decent portion of Magna’s business. The company currently builds the BMW Z4, Toyota Supra, Mercedes G-Class and Ineos Grenadier at its plant in Graz, Austria. To be fair, the electric Jaguar I-Pace and, until recently, the Fisker Ocean (RIP) were also produced there. But some of the cars on this list are among the most anachronistic gas guzzlers on the road today.

He essentially rejected the idea of ​​an emotional connection to a vibrating engine and more or less insisted that any vehicle would be objectively better as an electric vehicle. I wanted to delve deeper into how the company is trying to be green while building Mercedes-AMG G63s that will spend their lives idling in Los Angeles traffic, but we veered off into a broader production path.

Electric vehicles represent an expense for research and development, but also offer interesting assembly possibilities. “Since Tin Lizzie Ford, we’ve had pretty much the same (production) process,” Grotendorst said. “With the trend towards electrification, this process can be completely rethought.”

In traditional car manufacturing, “…space is limited because many people can work on a white body at the same time. Imagine that you can divide your car into three parts. Theoretically… more people could work on the car at the same time. Assembling the vehicle will be faster, and with smaller elements, less space is required. You can also gain more flexibility in connecting the different front and rear parts of the vehicle by unifying the intermediate part. That’s what we’re discussing.”

Magna is a unique company in the automotive world, providing components, manufacturing processes, compliance testing, vehicle evaluations and sometimes the entire car – from design to construction – for many car brands. Grotendorst’s green automotive ambitions cannot be entirely altruistically motivated, so I presume he sees business opportunities in OEMs adapting to future sustainability regulations.

But I was impressed by his thoughtfulness and sincerity. Grotendorst’s comments even did a little to alleviate my cynicism. Maybe there are enough people in power who care enough about our environment to save us from ourselves. On the other hand, he left me with a new fear in his offhand comment: “Next WHAT₂ there is water.” The next environmental factor we will panic about is H deficiency₂A. Maybe we can survive ours Mad Max finally “fantasies”.

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