Dear Reader,

In his Guest Commentary in the German journal of this ATZelektronik, Wilfried Nietschke motivates developers to apply more foresight in research and development. IAV’s Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President and Leader of Technology Monitoring knows all about the constraints of everyday engineering. As recently as four years ago, issues such as the inductive charging of e-cars were hardly even considered. Today, charging technology offers all the more perspectives for successful electric mobility.

In his activities as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ATZelektronik, Wilfried Nietschke has often supported me in my editorial work on these and other subjects, and we have both kept our eye on the ball with regard to the key issues of the future. I would like to convey my sincere thanks to him in these last months before his retirement. At the end of the year, he will regrettably also reach the end of his term as a member of our board, but will remain in close contact with our magazine.

The Scientific Advisory Board of ATZelektronik will be further expanded this year, with new responsibilities in fields such as software and IT, end device technologies and electric mobility. Martin Sattler, Director of the Systems House E-Mobility and Mechatronics at Schaeffler, and Thomas Hülshorst, Director of the Electrics/Electronics Business Unit at FEV, are among the most recent new members. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome them.

Martin Sattler gets us off to a flying start. In the October issue of ATZ, he and his team describe an electronic rear axle that has been developed at Schaeffler. In ATZelektronik in October, you can read about this innovation in more detail, with more information on its control technology, software and E/E architecture. We have included this article in the October issue at short notice due to his appointment. This also underlines the interconnections between the ATZ magazines and, in many cases, MTZ.

The report in the october magazine of ATZelektronik includes some words by Martin Sattler. Within the framework of a survey on the 48-V on-board power supply, he gives his estimate on when the first car with a dual-voltage power supply will be launched.

Companies are having a hard time. It was already clear at the start of this century that the dual-voltage power supply system would have to come sooner or later. At that time, in the 42-V debate, the technology was rejected because most failed to include the additional benefits of hybrid drive systems — with the exception of a few forward-looking pioneers.

I hope that we all succeed in developing the necessary intuition.

Yours,

figure b