|
11 février 2009
Globalization
What It Means for Technicians
There was a time when American products were designed and built in America—mostly in the United States, Canada, and even Mexico—when European cars and trucks were made in the many then independent countries of Europe and the few Asian cars that made it to North America were made mostly in Japan. But in the few last years, the world economy has slowly blended within many industrialised countries and one will find that many so-called Japanese cars are built in the United States and Canada or even in some small Asian countries, while some European cars and light trucks are assembled in the Southeastern United States. Some small American cars are designed and built in Asia while a few bigger ones now come from… Australia! Even emerging countries like India and China are getting involved. Ironically, Indian industrialist Adrian Tata bought the British brands Jaguar and Land Rover from American owner Ford and most recently, Italian performance car maker Alfa Romeo has contacted Tata on order to establish a joint venture in which a new Alfa Romeo sedan might be designed and built on a Jaguar architecture!
Unless you spent the last ten years on a desert island, you all know what globalization is by now. It began with communications but, with time, it has trickled down to the world of automobiles. Consequently, when in the past a technician or a shop would advertise its speciality in European cars or Japanese products, today’s technician must be able to work on any type of mechanical components of any origin, no matter where he lives and works. That is because there is no such thing anymore as an American, Japanese, or European car other than the country where the brand was born.
|
 |
 |
 |
Chrysler’s Global GEMA engine has already been modified for racing purposes.
|
GM will be offering this new global 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine soon.
|
Chrysler has been producing this Global GEMA engine with Mitsubishi and Hyundai.
|
What’s in it for you?
So, what does this mean for technicians? How are they involved? It means that nowadays, there are no more American, Japanese, or European specialists. Take for example Chrysler’s World Engine. Have you ever heard of the World Engine, a product of the GEMA, the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance? This is a joint venture including Chrysler, Mitsubishi Motors, and Hyundai Motor Company for developing a line of shared engines. This is the kind of engine any technician working at any Chrysler, Mitsubishi, or Hyundai dealership will have to become accustomed to. The basic design of the engine block, a four-cylinder unit, was developed by Hyundai and features Siamese bores, meaning that no coolant flows between cylinders. The block is made of aluminum but has cast iron cylinder liners so different sizes of liners can be fitted for different engine displacements.
The GEMA engine is available in a few formats. There is a 148-horsepower 1.8-litre format which is generally seen under the hood of a base Dodge Caliber. The 158 horsepower 2.0-litre is used in older Mitsubishi Lancer Turbos, Dodge Calibers, front-wheel drive Jeep Patriots and Compasses, and Dodge Avengers and Chrysler Sebrings sold outside North America. The most popular GEMA engine is the 173 horsepower 2.4 litre four-banger that can be found under the hood of many Chrysler products including the Dodge Caliber (even the high performance SRT-4 version), Avenger and Journey, the Chrysler Sebring and the Jeep Compass and Patriot. Mitsubishi uses it in its most recent Lance and its Outlander SUV including its spin-offs Citroën C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007. As for Hyundai, it has its own version in its popular Sonata sedan and its Kia counterpart, the Magentis.
Catching on like wildfire
The Chrysler-Mitsubishi-Hyundai adventure is only the tip of the iceberg. More and more automobile manufacturers are looking at producing not only global engines but also global cars. In the past, local laws and rules made it difficult to blend in international products. There were some attempts, such as the earlier Ford Focus, but there were always differences between cars built for North America and the ones built for the other parts of the world.
But the most recent economic moves forced big car manufacturers like General Motors into designing and building cars and parts that will be the same for North Americans as they are for the rest of the world. For example, GM just unveiled a new generation of four-cylinder engines to be produced for its global Chevrolet Cruze car (also sold under the Daewoo badge in South Korea). The little engine will be of 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4 litres, the latter being available with a turbocharger. Remember that GM has also been producing its 3.6-litre V6 engine for North American and European (Saab-Opel) applications.
Ford will be moving in a new smaller Fiesta car soon to America right after its official European launch. Expect the car to make it in Asia too, as well as the soon to be redesigned Focus that, for the first time, will be the same all around the world—except, maybe, for the availability of diesel engines in North America. Note that Ford has been using its Volvo branch platform to build some of its new strictly American big cars on it.
The Japanese too
Think the Japanese were not included? Lately, Toyota has been dealing a lot with GM, building its Pontiac Wave, while Suzuki has been a provider to GM in the past but now is tapping GM for its bigger XL7 and Nissan for its Equator pickup. Expect Nissan to have the next generation of its big Titan pick-up made by Chrysler as it is having its smaller Versa car made by French automaker Renault and newly born Chinese automaker Geely. Chrysler, in turn, will have some of its small cars built by Nissan but, here in Canada, it is producing a minivan for Volkswagen. And speaking of Chinese manufacturers, we haven’t seen everything they are capable of now.
As you see, global manufacturing is already in full swing. But we haven’t seen the end of it. Many manufacturer managements have warned that some mergers or joint ventures will have to be created if the industry wants to survive in our fast growing global world. So expect to be an international car specialist soon!
| |
