Magna Showcases Futuristic Technologies At CES 2021

Magna Showcases Futuristic Technologies At CES 2021

Eco-innovation

This zone highlighted the technologies that deliver on vehicle dynamics and performance while protecting the earth through reduced CO2 and increased efficiency.

Magna is developing highly innovative systems of components that meet a wide range of customer requirements, while providing an optimum combination of BIC efficiency, safety, driving dynamics, and convenience, in powertrain electrification. The company claims that it can provide best in class attributes for the entire electrified powertrain, whether it provides vehicle expertise, full powertrain systems or individual components.

The eBeam is a classic example since it is a drop-in replacement for traditional beam axle in passenger trucks and light commercial vehicles. Scalable from 120 to 250 kW with single or dual electric motors, the system maintains OEM payload and towing capabilities. It does not require any restructuring of existing OEM truck platforms, uses existing OEM suspension designs, existing OEM brake packages and tube-end bearing structures.

The eDS HV Mid+ eDrive with a power range of 120 to 160 kW is primary or secondary eDrive offering enhanced efficiency of over 95 percent. It provides improved traction (2-speed option), performance and safety with torque vectoring option while also delivering best in class packaging with reduced size.

In an electric, autonomous or new mobility vehicle, the inevitable new systems will draw more power. Magna’s systems are integral in making the future vehicle more efficient by extending range capability, thereby reducing anxiety, improving fuel economy and reducing emissions. Within the automotive industry, Active Aerodynamics has saved trillions of kg of CO2. Increasing global regulations are pushing OEMs to offer features like the Active Grille Shutter to meet targets. Magna’s active aerodynamic products help OEMs to make their vehicles move faster, further for less. This helps in reduced emissions, improved fuel economy and extended range. It benefits EVs largely from drag-reducing aerodynamic devices and SUVs, preferred by global consumers and are more difficult to optimise aerodynamically. Magna’s solution helps the OEM not to sacrifice styling as this portfolio provides non-visible and visible options with seamless integration.

As a structural product and material processing leader, the global company has brought together its composite expertise with metal forming prowess to develop an essential element of any electric architecture, the battery tray. Light-weighting is an integral of autonomous, electrification and smart mobility to become a reality. For instance, the battery tray contributes to the structural and safety aspects of the body in white while protecting high-voltage batteries from damage and water. Magna offers battery tray assemblies in steel, aluminium and multi-materials including composites, made through different joining technologies.

Dynamic Drive

With its continuous focus on innovating technologies, Magna has a huge buffer of building blocks to support the mobility transition, concerning the ADAS – advanced driver-assist system. Its expertise in cameras has been a critical building block in its journey to autonomous solutions, supported by solid-state LiDAR and military-grade ICON RADAR as key sensors for complete systems.

The domain controllers function as the key to bringing it all together and enabling the best technology to provide visibility in all situations; making L2+ features a reality today and proving the foundation for full autonomy later.

The exterior of the vehicle is even more important when talking about autonomy. Sensors, cameras, RADAR and LiDAR can be integrated into vehicle exteriors using advanced plastics and thoughtful design. This includes materials that signals can transmit through while still providing durability and design freedom. Magna Mezzo panel is the first-to-market, large-format decorated front panel using in-mould film. It integrated a state-of-the-art sensor and light engines to enable unique OEM brand distinction. Besides, it also combined innovative materials and process technologies to achieve a high-quality lit surface.

Magna’s ADAS solutions connect OEMs to their customers with features that improve their lives. The Valet Park option provides L4 functionality for autonomous parking, allowing for optimum convenience and efficiencies. The Trailer Tow offers convenience and control while trailering taking all the risk and guesswork out of parking with trailers.

As Magna is into the entire eco-system of making modules to the OEMs besides, assembling cars, the company’s understands vehicle as a whole and how individual systems complement each other. Therefore, it is not limited to traditional sensor placements. It can place each and every sensor in its optimum location. As market leaders in lighting, mirror and camera systems, it has the unique ability to offer complete ADAS systems down to the product systems, which the given sensors are integrated into.

For example, the CLEARVIEW digital rear vision solutions, an advanced camera monitoring system, enhance driver experiences. Enabling customisable features safety features such as the ability to see multiple camera views in the interior mirror, including a view from the rear of the trailer.

Driver Monitoring – with distracted driving being more prevalent this day and age, Magna’s inside mirror with an imbedded camera for driver monitoring actively monitors and reduces distracted driving through customisable alerts and notifications.

INIVISION Adaptive Driving Beam – intelligent headlamps offers advanced features such as glare-free high beam, speed-dependent lighting, virtual dynamic bending, hazard/pedestrian detection and tourist conversion.

Intuitive Comfort

Vehicles of the future need to be as responsive and intelligent to personal connections with drivers and passengers. To support the emerging needs Magna has developed technologies to support intuitive and responsive human and machine interface, making the vehicle experience unique whether it is own vehicle or shared.

In SMARTACCESS technology, the company fused mechanical systems’ capabilities with the intelligence of electronic control systems to enable new ways of interacting with the vehicle. For doors, frunks, tailgates, liftgates, and more – the company has new, creative, and high-tech solutions to deliver unique vehicle access experiences. For instance, the power side door enables consumers with unique vehicle access experiences. It is intuitively designed to offer customisable HMI solutions such as gesture or tactile touch. Advanced sensors provide enhanced safety and obstacle detection features.

Made lightweight through a composite hood the SMARTACCESS Power Frunk allows consumers to seamless access the front cargo area.

The thermoplastic Multifunctional Liftgate is a modular tailgate with easy access concepts and lightweight architectures. It offers ideal cargo handling and access experience.

As cities and roads change, the way the cars are used will follow suit. The company’s smart mobility seating allows vehicles to be used and shared differently by making them more adaptable, comfortable, and ready for the long-haul by ensuring comfort and cleanability are priorities.

Power Zero G Seat makes sleeping comfortably in the car a reality by offering a unique reclining pivot located below the H-point for a more natural, ergonomic experience and maximum adjustability. The 4Mode seating provides a smooth transition between sitting upright, lying back for a repose, stadium flipping for added storage on the floor, folding, and kneeling for a level flat surface suitable for a package or a laptop.

FREEFORM Seat Trim technology help remove barriers with traditional cut and sew seat trim covers. This trilaminate moulded seat cover allows OEMs to differentiate their brand through entirely new styling options, better comfort, improved breathability and cleanability.

In addition, the seats are easier to clean as they feature simple construction with a seamless surface – making brushing away crumbs and wiping with an antibacterial wipe much easier than with traditional seats. Designers now have the ability to go beyond restrictions with radii as sharp as a 3-4mm, compared to 20-25mm for traditional cut-and-sew techniques, a deep draw of up to 4”, and quilting designs resulting in the seat to stand out from the crowd.

In the case of lighting the company offers customers a wide choice of various lighting technologies, each with specific characteristics that have been designed to help achieve striking and captivating brand identities. The company has a complete portfolio to address all customers’ illumination needs from functional headlamps and taillamps to decorative exterior trim lighting.

For instance, the FLECSFORM offers styling freedom for complex shapes and uniform lighting in an extremely thin package, enabled by mini LED technology. The vivid LED panels give a unique 3D styling opportunities and customisable animations while illuminated exterior trim utilises state of the art light engines enabling a thin decorative product. Combining innovative materials and process technologies helped the company achieve a homogenous lit finish.

Complete Vehicles

Magna is a global leader in a high-tech complex industry with in-depth vehicle engineering, systems knowledge and complete vehicle manufacturing excellence, making it the go-to partner for new entrants and traditional OEMs alike.

Mobility is in a huge transition phase. Within the other areas, global megatrends in digital transformation, environmental impact and health and well-being have a huge long-term impact on the automotive industry in electrification, automated driving and new mobility. This results in challenges for its customers. Traditional OEMs and new entrants need to make high investments, meet new legal regulations while ensuring a fast market entry with these new solutions. Moreover, this is often linked to volatile volumes, which requires flexible production assets. To support these emerging needs, Magna offers several innovative technologies. The company’s Complete Vehicles is the experienced and flexible partner from the first sketch to the start of production and beyond for all those quests. Irrespective of the customer’s initial situation, it can complete it with all kinds of services so that in the end, a full vehicle is created. With its employees’ passion and extensive automotive know-how, the company enables its customers to successfully bring their vision of mobility to the road. (MT)

Neusoft And MapmyIndia Partner For Intelligent Mobility Solutions

MapMyIndia

Chinese technology company Neusoft Corporation and Mappls MapmyIndia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to leverage their strengths in software and data resources to collaborate deeply.

The companies will engage in joint technological development, ecosystem collaboration and resource integration to provide navigation products and intelligent mobility solutions tailored to localised needs in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and India.

The partnership is a response to the fact that while global auto brands are expanding into Southeast Asia and India, they face challenges in these regions due to complex road conditions, unique traffic rules, extensive addressing systems and high localisation adaptation costs. These issues limit the ability of automakers to deliver a complete intelligent user experience.

Under the collaboration, Neusoft will adopt its OneCoreGo Global Intelligent Mobility Solution 6.0 Plus as the core technology carrier, deeply integrating MapmyIndia's map data, real-time traffic information and multi-dimensional value-added services. MapmyIndia is noted as the largest local mapping company in India, holding more than 90 percent market share in in-vehicle navigation.

The integration is intended to strengthen a full capability loop of ‘navigation + payment + interaction + connectivity + operations’.

Through API integration and technological convergence, the two parties will jointly develop navigation products and mobility solutions highly adapted to Southeast Asia, India and similar regional markets. These solutions will deliver precise route planning and real-time traffic guidance, address local user needs and continuously enhance product experience and scenario-based services. This will help automotive partners rapidly launch intelligent vehicle models with competitiveness in local markets.

The partnership enables Neusoft to combine the global end-to-end strengths of its solution with localised ecosystem resources, paving the ‘last mile’ for automakers entering the Southeast Asian and Indian markets and delivering comprehensive intelligent mobility experiences.

Ultraviolette Secures $45 Million Growth Capital From Zoho And Lingotto

Ultraviolette Automotive

Bengaluru-based electric vehicle maker Ultraviolette Automotive has secured USD 45 million from Zoho Corporation and Lingotto, one of Europe's investment management companies as part of its ongoing Series E investment round.

The investment from Zoho Corporation was led by Sridhar Vembu, Mani Vembu and Kumar Vembu.

This growth capital will accelerate the domestic and international scale-up of current products F77 and X-47, as well as future product platforms Shockwave and Tesseract.

Ultraviolette has built a design and technology-led enterprise with the F77 and the recently launched X-47.

The company has expanded to 30 cities across India in a short span of 12 months and is expanding to 100 cities by mid-2026. The F77 motorcycles were recently launched in the United Kingdom, bringing Ultraviolette's presence to 12 countries across Europe.

Narayan Subramaniam, Co-Founder & CEO, Ultraviolette Automotive, said, “We are glad to announce our Series E investment from Zoho and Lingotto. Lingotto's legacy of backing iconic performance and mobility brands, combined with Zoho's long-term commitment to fostering cutting-edge Indian innovation, aligns perfectly with Ultraviolette's mission to build category-defining electric mobility solutions for India and global markets.”

Niraj Rajmohan, CTO & Co-Founder, Ultraviolette, said, "With the ongoing Series E investments, we are doubling down on growth and expanding our production to meet increasing demand. Our focus is on advancing breakthrough battery technology, elevating performance capabilities and expanding production to support upcoming product platforms. This investment will accelerate our journey towards scaling into India and global markets."

Disseqt AI Partners Tata Technologies And Infosys For Agentic AI Adoption

Disseqt AI

Agentic AI platform Disseqt AI has announced a partnership with Tata Technologies and Infosys. As per the agreement, Disseqt AI will assist both companies' IT and DevOps teams in developing and fast-tracking the production of tailored Agentic AI applications for automobile and FinTech companies globally.

The partnership aims to help auto and FinTech firms embrace customised Agentic AI faster and in a secure manner.

Disseqt AI, which has operations in Bengaluru, San Francisco and Dublin, provides an enterprise-grade platform for IT and DevOps teams. The company claims its platform cuts down Agentic AI testing and operations cost by 70 percent and improves productivity by up to 80 percent. The platform allows these teams to test, simulate and monitor their Agentic AI systems tailored across industries, ultimately enabling enterprises to operationalise tailored Agentic AI faster and at scale, without sacrificing ethics, governance and compliance.

Apoorva Kumar, Founder and CEO, Disseqt AI, said, “This is a landmark announcement for us as we further embed Disseqt into enterprise workflows for testing, simulation, monitoring and auditability purposes. We are already working closely with both Tata and Infosys on several projects and are proud to be part of their innovation initiatives”

Last month, Disseqt AI announced a strategic collaboration with HCLTech and Microsoft to guide financial services institutions with Agentic AI adoption.

Battery Passport Implementation Beyond EVs To Be Focus Of Barcelona Event

Battery and Energy Storage Europe

Battery and Energy Storage Europe has announced a programme focused on the EU Battery Passport, a regulatory milestone that becomes mandatory in February 2027. The Barcelona-based event will address the compliance gap for applications beyond the electric vehicle (EV) sector, which have dominated the conversation to date.

The event, taking place on 8th and 9th September 2026 at Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue, will focus on solutions and talks for applications that fall within the regulation's scope: stationary energy storage, industrial batteries, grid-scale systems, long-duration energy storage and emerging applications in aerospace, maritime and rail electrification.

With the February 2027 legal requirement date approaching, the programme will bring together industry leaders, technology providers, and policy experts to address the compliance challenges facing these diverse sectors.

The Battery Passport is a digital record documenting a battery's entire lifecycle, from raw material sourcing to production, performance and eventual recycling. From February 2027, it becomes mandatory for all rechargeable EV, industrial and LMT batteries over 2 kWh sold in the EU.

Linked via QR code, the passport will track each battery's complete lifecycle, including composition, carbon footprint and recycled content, fundamentally transforming supply chain transparency and sustainability practices across Europe.

The programme will explore implementation topics including digital infrastructure requirements, data management systems, supply chain integration, verification processes and recycling traceability.

Ken Davies, Conference Programme Director at Battery and Energy Storage Europe, said, "The Battery Passport represents one of the most significant regulatory shifts our industry has faced, yet many companies are still grappling with what implementation actually means for their operations. While the EV sector has dominated the conversation, there's a critical need to address how this regulation applies to stationary storage, industrial applications and the innovative battery technologies powering Europe's energy transition. With the clock ticking toward February 2027, Battery and Energy Storage Europe will shine a light on the practical implementation requirements for these often-overlooked sectors, connecting stakeholders with actionable solutions and bringing together the expertise, technology providers, and collaborative spirit needed to turn compliance into competitive advantage across the full spectrum of battery applications."