The May issue of Automotive Electronics International hit our doorstep today and contains a number of comments on product differentiation in the automotive sector.

For example, Terry Costlow notes on p22 that Diesel engine developers are facing problems due to varying requirements for different vehicle classes limiting their ability to deliver a one size fits all solution to address new U.S. emissions legislation.

Frank O. Klegon of Chrysler is also quoted on p40 “We have to have products that are differentiated to the customer so that they look very different and have different characteristics, yet ‘behind the scenes’ have more shared commonality.” Chrysler are using a sharable, configurable architecture to achieve this. This has given them benefits such as a decrease in development times, an ability to produce lower volumes of some vehicles due to cost-sharing and an ability to enter new markets more quickly than their competitors - the benefits usually noted for organisations adopting Software Product Line Engineering.

On p42 Visteon is described as “focussing on providing its customers with efficient ways to differentiate their vehicles”, particularly to allow its customers to differentiate between low-, mid, and high series vehicles while using the same tools and facilities.

If anyone sees other examples of pressure for differentiation in the automotive sector, or indeed more widely, then please share these with us.