Dear Reader,

The year 2018 marks an occasion for ATZ to celebrate its 120th anniversary — yet another milestone in the history of the world’s oldest specialist magazine dedicated to automotive engineering. By way of commemorating this achievement, the present issue of ATZelektronik, a much younger affiliate of ATZ, offers a special historical supplement. Originally published in 1898 under the title “Der Motorwagen”, ATZ has covered developments in vehicle and engine technology since the very beginning. The founding members of the magazine, pioneers in the field of engineering from Germany, various other European countries and the United States, include Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Friedrich Lutzmann, Emil Rathenau, Edmund Rumpler, Emil Škoda, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin and Julius Springer, the entrepreneur who founded our publishing company in 1842.

Ever since the founding of the sister magazine MTZ Motortechnische Zeitschrift in 1939, ATZ has focused exclusively on complete vehicles. In 2015, the Springer Publishing Company launched ATZelektronik to enable a dedicated examination of the development of electrical and electronic systems, and soon went on to provide extensive technical and editorial coverage of hybrid and electric engines, high-voltage batteries, advanced vehicle control systems, EMC and electrification-based efficiency optimization.

“The aim is to develop those components today that will reliably function in production vehicles in five, ten or fifteen years.” This approach was the driving force in vehicle development back in 1898 and was also reflected in the technical articles of ATZ. With the same aspiration, our authors address the latest topics, including the digitization of the automobile, cloud-based connectivity, safety, security, and big-data management — all while keeping abreast of electric-vehicle technology and driverless solutions.

In these times of disruptive change, our entire ATZ family is currently writing — both literally and figuratively — a pivotal chapter in the history of the automobile. We should continue to do so with the same conviction, courage and foresight reflected in the actions of our founding fathers. This will mean staying at the cutting edge of developments and calling attention to up-to-date and promising solutions, solutions of the sort that would help us to avoid roadblocks such as driving bans for the owners of diesel-powered vehicles in large cities.

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