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Motor 1
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Motor 1
Why Carbon-Ceramic Brakes Are Expensive. And Why They Might Be Worth It
A couple of years ago, a Brembo engineer told me something that stuck: If you buy a car with carbon-ceramic brakes, you'll likely never need to replace the rotors. I'd heard the benefits of carbon-ceramic brakes talked up before, but this particularly bold claim seemed wild, an answer to the ultimate question: Are these fancy brakes worth their huge price tag? On the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, the carbon-ceramics are a $9,000 option; BMW charges $8,500; Porsche charges more than $9,000. Carbon-ceramic brakes are routinely among the priciest options for cars that already have a lot of big-ticket extras. Is there any world in which they're worth it? Welcome to The Rabbit Hole, a bi-weekly column where Senior Editor Chris Perkins explores his latest obsession with automotive technology. He speaks to the best in the business to understand how cars work and what the future of the automobile looks like. Photo by: Brembo Cast iron is a wonderful material for making brake discs. It's relatively cheap, easy to cast and machine into shape, and crucially, it has higher thermal conductivity than, say, steel. To perhaps state the obvious here, brakes convert a car's kinetic energy (forward motion) into heat via friction between the pad and rotor when the two come together. So a brake disc's thermal properties are of key importance. "[Cast-iron discs] have a better ability of absorbing the heat," explains Emanuele Bruletti, senior engineering manager for Brembo North America. "They can absorb it at a lower rate [than other common materials], and therefore, they can help in taking some of that away from the pads." It's the same reason cast iron makes for a great skillet, but if you cook with one, you know just how heavy it is. Weight is a car's enemy. So too is the increased demand on braking systems as cars evolve. This story was available to our newsletter subscribers before it hit the website. Want early access? Sign up below. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . "What has been driving the size increase in braking systems in the last few years is basically the performance envelope increasing," Bruletti explains. Cars are simply more powerful and heavier. Tires also play a role. Bruletti says that modern developments in tires have allowed for far greater deceleration rates, further increasing the demand on a braking system. That increased demand translates to more heat. Upping the size of your cast-iron rotor helps deal with all that heat better and improves the brake's ability to effectively slow a car. For obvious reasons, though, you can only make rotors so big, both for packaging and weight. Brake rotors are unsprung, which means their mass has a disproportionately high effect on ride and handling relative to a car's sprung masses. They're also rotating masses, which have a big effect on a vehicle's ability to accelerate, brake, and turn. "If you can shave weight off your car and more importantly, unsprung weight and evenly more importantly unsprung rotating weight, which is what a rotor is, [there are] huge gains to be had in performance," says James Walker Jr., a racer, engineer, and author on a book about braking systems. Chasing lightness, Dunlop developed the first carbon-fiber reinforced carbon brakes for the Concorde in the 1960s, and by the 1980s, these became common in Formula 1. However, these carbon-carbon brakes, still in use at the top levels of motorsport, are entirely unsuitable for road use, as they don't work well at cold temperatures. They're also extremely expensive and time-consuming to make, even now. A carbon-reinforced silicon-carbide matrix brings some of the weight-saving benefits of carbon-carbon brakes, but in a package that actually works at cold temperatures. And while still expensive and time-consuming to make, a carbon-ceramic brake disc is a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture than a carbon-carbon disc. We're talking a production time of around a couple days vs four months here. (That said, Brembo can make a cast-iron disc in about two hours.) Photo by: Porsche Photo by: Ferrari German company SGL Carbon introduced carbon-ceramic brakes in a road car, with the 2001 Porsche 911 GT2. Brembo's first carbon-ceramic brakes arrived a year later, with the Ferrari Enzo. In 2009, SGL and Brembo formed a joint venture for the development and manufacture of carbon-ceramic brakes, and today, it's one of, if not the largest, suppliers of brakes of this type. Bruletti says the carbon-ceramic matrix it uses has about a third the density of its cast iron. In terms of actual weight savings, you see all sorts of numbers thrown out. A good example is the brake discs in the previous-generation M3 and M4. In a technical document, BMW quotes a 30.6-pound weight for the car's standard front rotors and 17.1 pounds for the carbon-ceramics. So nearly half. The proportional weight savings for the carbon-ceramic rear rotors on the old M3 and M4 are similar, and that's despite the fact that BMW's carbon discs were slightly larger than their cast-iron counterparts. So great! But, we also need to talk about what carbon-ceramic brakes don't do. As Walker explains, a brake system is, essentially, a series of hydraulic levers that turn the relatively light force the driver applies to the brake pedal into a huge force at the road that slows the car down. In a road car, a 20 to 30 pound pedal input can translate to 1G of deceleration. This is called gain. Here, carbon-ceramic brakes don't have an advantage. "There's nothing that's done with a carbon-ceramic system compared to a cast-iron system that increases the mechanical output of the brake system," Walker explains. "So there's no real advantage to them in that space. The only reason people say, 'Oh, they feel better, they stop better,' is not because it's carbon ceramic, it's because [the automaker has] tuned that carbon-ceramic system to have a higher gain." Taking things a step further, Walker also points out that the braking system is only as good as the tire you have attached to it. Imagine you could have two identical cars, on the same model tires, the only difference being that one has cast-iron brakes, the other has a carbon-ceramic brake package. The brakes don't change the level of grip the tire is capable of. On the flipside, and to Bruletti's earlier point, the tire has a profound effect on the energy that goes into the braking system. Photo by: Ferrari As we've established, a carbon-ceramic disc is materially very different from a cast-iron disc. Carbon-ceramic has a much lower level of thermal conductivity than iron, but also far less mass and heat capacity. Which is a good and bad thing. Good because the brake disc can withstand the higher temperatures that today's faster/heavier/grippier vehicles generate in extreme braking events, courtesy of that ceramic chemistry. Brembo says carbon-ceramic discs can comfortably operate between 1,000 and 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and can even withstand temperatures beyond 1,800 degrees. That's why carbon-ceramic brakes are frequently praised for their resistance to fade on track. But since the lighter and less-dense carbon-ceramic rotors gain and lose temperature quickly, that leads to huge thermal stresses on the rest of the braking components as they heat and cool in rapid succession. A cast-iron rotor better contains its heat, which keeps everything else cool. "You need to find a way of dissipating that heat away from the pads in some other way, and this is where it becomes very important to provide the necessary cooling at the brake system," Bruletti says. Photo by: Porsche Photo by: Porsche Beyond carefully designed cooling from both external components and internal rotor ducting, the fact that carbon-ceramic rotors aren't made from a homogenous material also has implications . The length, diameter, and orientation of the individual carbon fibers all have an effect on the material's thermal capacity. Adding additional layers and coatings also improves thermal capacity, which is why Brembo and SGL offer CCB brakes with additional ceramic friction layers on both sides, and CCW brakes, which use five carbon-ceramic layers. These options allow automakers to size down components, further saving weight, but their manufacturing processes are more time-consuming and thus, expensive. That's helpful because generally, carbon-ceramic rotors are larger than their cast-iron equivalents, in cars where both are optional. This is a direct result of the heat a carbon-ceramic rotor reflects into the pad during large braking events. 'In order to guarantee a stability of the friction material, you need to go larger with the pad,' Bruletti explains. And when you make the pad larger, you make the caliper larger, and the rotor larger. It's all cyclical. Yet, there's also a virtuous cycle here. Reducing unsprung, rotational mass means there's less weight to control. In theory, an automaker can use the weight reduction from carbon-ceramic brakes to employ smaller tires, lower spring and damper rates, smaller anti-roll bars, and so on. Photo by: McLaren All because of the outsize effect that a brake rotor's weight has on the rest of the car. That's a big part of why Ferrari and McLaren only use carbon-ceramic brakes, beyond the simple need for a brake system that can handle the huge stresses these fast cars generate. And now, we get to the original claim, the thing that started me down this path. Does a carbon-ceramic rotor last the life of the car? Yes. In some cases. 'The wear of the components really depends on usage, how you use them,' Bruletti says. 'If we assume that the usage, the cycles will be the same, yes, it is fair to say that in normal driving and non-track usage, just everyday driving, a carbon ceramic rotor will last in my opinion almost the entire life of your vehicle.' It's not just the guy from Brembo saying that too. Walker agrees that in normal street use, a carbon-ceramic rotor will last a very long time. Obviously you'll need to replace pads, but the rotors could have incredible longevity. But add track use into the mix, and the calculus becomes very different. With lots of heavy braking events, the carbon fibers in a carbon-ceramic rotor will eventually burn out. They'll lose thermal capacity. At road speeds, this won't happen much, if at all, but depending on what sort of car you drive on track, what sort of tracks you go to, and how you drive it, the carbon fibers can burn out very quickly. Photo by: BMW Let's say you're running your new, 5,300-pound BMW M5 at Road America, where you'll regularly blow past 150 mph on the track's long straights. Let's also say you're one of the last of the late brakers, pushing your brake zones as deep into the corner as you dare, hitting the pedal as hard as you can. If you've got carbon brakes on, you shouldn't expect those rotors to last very long at all. But say you've got a Porsche 911 GT3, which weighs in around 3,330 pounds, and you're at Lime Rock Park, which has only one heavy braking zone. And let's also say that you're a bit more measured. Rather than braking hard and late, you brake a little lighter, a little earlier. In that case, you can reasonably expect a more life out of your carbon-ceramic rotors. That difference, though, is why Porsche still offers cast-iron rotors on its GT cars, even the mighty GT3 RS. It knows that some customers will use up their brakes tracking their cars often, and in that instance, it makes sense to go for cast-iron discs, which are much cheaper to replace. Some other things to consider: With usage, a carbon-ceramic rotor doesn't lose thickness like a cast-iron rotor, but when those carbon fibers burn out, they do decrease in weight. This means a carbon-ceramic rotor won't develop cracks or warp like a cast-iron rotor would on track, so there's another point in favor. It's also why the hats on many carbon-ceramic rotors list a minimum weight. Once the rotor goes below that weight, it's time for a replacement. So, there isn't a simple answer to whether carbon-ceramic brakes are 'worth it.' But given what we all now know, their high upfront cost can be offset by rotor longevity, and the myriad other benefits the technology brings. It becomes a question of you, the customer. How are you going to use your car, and what do you value at the end of the day? More Deep Dives Brake Dust Is a Problem. Brembo Has a Solution Why BMW's B58 Is a True Successor to the Toyota 2JZ Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Free Malaysia Today
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Free Malaysia Today
Amazon's in-car software deal with Stellantis fizzles
Stellantis had hoped Amazon's software expertise would help the global automaker in the race against companies like Tesla and China's BYD. (AP pic) DETROIT : Amazon's deal with Stellantis to create in-car software that the companies hoped would transform the driving experience while bolstering their vehicle-tech credentials is 'winding down,' the companies confirmed after a Reuters inquiry. The Stellantis SmartCockpit project, which would rely on Amazon's in-car technology, is the latest example of traditional automakers struggling to work with Silicon Valley to introduce more sophisticated vehicle software. 'Stellantis remains a valuable partner for Amazon and the companies continue to work together on a range of initiatives,' the companies said in a statement, adding that the decision to end their joint work on SmartCockpit was mutual. The project between the Seattle tech giant and the maker of Jeeps, Peugeots and Alfa Romeos was hailed by the CEOs of both companies when it was announced in 2022. The two planned to develop features that would make the cars feel like an extension of home by detecting the driver and personalising settings such as the thermostat, navigation and even home automation, like turning on lights. Stellantis had hoped Amazon's software expertise would help the global automaker in the race against companies like Tesla and China's BYD. For Amazon it was meant to serve as a prototype for a wider rollout to more automakers. In a January 2022 press release, Stellantis's then-CEO Carlos Tavares said he hoped the partnership would help make the vehicles 'the most wanted, most captivating place to be, even when not driving'. Tavares left the automaker abruptly last year, and the company on Wednesday named its North American chief Antonio Filosa as its new chief executive. Stellantis has been trying to revive its slumping stock, which fell about 40% in 2024, amid disappointing sales, especially in North America. Automotive software has emerged as one of the most important, and difficult, areas for legacy automakers to nail. Much of what modern cars do today is dictated by code, including the feel of the brakes, infotainment system, and advanced driving-assistance features such as automated steering – for which automakers can charge subscription fees, unlocking significant revenue streams. Ford recently axed its next-generation electrical architecture due to ballooning costs around the technology. Reuters couldn't determine any singular reason the partnership on SmartCockpit ended. The companies said the shift 'will allow each team to focus on solutions that provide value to our shared customers and better align with our evolving strategies'. Relative newcomers, like Elon Musk's Tesla, built electrical and software systems that can quickly deliver new features or fixes to customers at a lower cost to the company. Traditional carmakers, including Volkswagen and General Motors, have struggled to master these systems on their own, and have been poaching talent from Silicon Valley or forming partnerships in an effort to reverse that trend. Unlike Tesla which has very little complexity across its smaller lineup of vehicles, Stellantis manages dozens of models across 14 brands and a maze of global suppliers, increasing the challenges around implementing new software. SmartCockpit was initially planned to arrive in vehicles in late 2024 to early 2025. It was a part of what Stellantis called its ABC platform, which included its electrical architecture, called STLA Brain, and Autodrive driver-assistance system. Under the agreement, Stellantis would pay Amazon for access to the software in each car, as well as other maintenance fees. As envisioned, Amazon would pay Stellantis incentive fees for things like drivers signing up for its music subscription service through the vehicles, two sources said. The automaker also partnered with Amazon to use the tech company's cloud business, called Amazon Web Services, to store and update data across its complex lineup. Stellantis will continue to rely on AWS, the companies said, and Alexa will also still be available in some Stellantis vehicles. 'Stellantis could potentially continue work on the SmartCockpit with another operating system as its base, such as Google's Android platform,' people familiar with the matter said. 'Amazon hoped that the team's work, internally called Digital Cabin or 'Project Quatro', would rival Google's Automotive Services, the standard Android-based operating system used by many automakers,' one of the sources said. 'Most of Amazon's Digital Cabin staff has been reassigned or left the company,' one of the people said.
Forbes
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Partnership Develops Tech To Cut Active Suspension Size, Weight, Cost
Close up of car wheel on a road in very bad condition with big potholes full of dirty rain water ... More pools. A new partnership aims to make a comfort feature generally available only in luxury vehicles, smaller and less expensive enough to be offered in more affordable models. That feature is called active suspension. As opposed to what's known as passive suspension using shock absorbers and springs, active suspension does a better job absorbing road bumps and other inconsistencies and providing a quieter ride using electronic components and sensors. The problem is, active suspension systems are heavier and more expensive. They also require 10-15 kilowatts of power, requiring large and heavy DC-to-DC power converters. But a partnership between Andover, Massachusetts-based Vicor and Chinese tech firm Xiamen Hongfa Electroacoustic Co., Ltd., better known as Hongfa, is combining their expertise to solve those issues, the companies announced Wednesday. Hongfa has designed the smallest and lightest active suspension system on the market by combining a ... More 48V architecture and high-density power modules. Four Vicor fixed-ratio BCM6135, 800V-to-48V DC-DC bus converters are used to convert high voltage to 48V and route power to each wheel. Hongfa, a leading manufacturer of power relays, developed a compact, lightweight active suspension system using much less power by incorporating high-density, small, lightweight power modules produced by Vicor. The systems also use regenerative power to reduce the load on a vehicle's battery—an important feature for battery electric vehicles. The Hongfa active suspension system is liquid cooled and is the most compact on the market, weighing ... More 2.6kg and measuring 197 x 201 x 71mm, according to the company. Indeed, the concept leverages the 48 volt networks replacing 12 volt systems in today's electrified vehicles aimed at improving efficiency and reducing vehicle size and weight. It's a power level considered safe for anyone servicing a vehicle, and also allows a major reduction in the size of active suspension system actuators. Greg Green, director, automotive marketing at Vicor 'What was needed was a power system that has very fast transients—it can rapidly switch from low power to high power, but more importantly, one that could switch from putting power into the actuator to accepting power out of the actuator so it can go back into the battery, and that's what our BCM 6135 does, and that's what Hongfa is leveraging to move forward in their system,' explained, in an interview. 'When it comes to active suspension, our OEM customers require a DC-DC converter with a response rate measured in milliseconds otherwise, additional battery support is needed. Vicor's BCM 6135 power modules enable the competitive performance we need,' said Peter Li, research & development director at Hongfa, in a statement. Indeed the speed at reversing direction to capture regenerative power is key to reducing the overall size of the system and draw on the vehicle's battery. Vicor BCM6135 DC-DC converter transient response is 8 million amps per second, a rate essential to ... More support optimal energy recuperation and storage for Hongfa's active suspension system Here's how it works in an active suspension system, according to Vicor. The vehicle's 800 volt battery provides current when the vehicle travels over smooth road surfaces, and the suspension actuation motor is the 48 volt load. When the vehicle travels over a bumpy road, the linear motors in the suspension system momentarily become generators, which increase the voltage on the low side of the converter. That's then multiplied by the conversion ratio of the converter, in this case 16-to-1, increasing the voltage on the input side above the 800 volt battery voltage. This difference in voltage reverses the direction of current flow. The 800V battery then momentarily becomes the load and recovers energy by charging through its battery management control system. Once the displacement from the bumpy road subsides, the bus converter once again steps down the 800 volt battery and supply current to the suspension linear motors – all without intervention from the vehicle's onboard processors. It all happens with half the equipment normally required to capture regenerative energy since Vicor's BCM 6135 DC-to-DC converter is what Green describes as "symmetrically bi-directional, so it does roughly three kilowatts down, and it does three kilowatts up, so you don't have to add additional devices for the regenerative aspect, and regenerative is very important, because it's a lot of power and you want to get it back into the battery." The results could mean a benefit for EV drivers looking to squeeze more driving range from their vehicles' batteries. 'You get a small range increase because of the weight decrease, but also because of the power regeneration, recapturing the power,' said Green. 'Essentially any suspension event, you're only consuming three to 4% of the total power that was put in, and then 96% or so gets put back into the battery. So you're not really consuming battery range, whether it's a plug-in hybrid or BEV in order to drive the suspension.' Green expects the first use of the active suspension system incorporating Vicor and Hongfa technology to reach consumers around the end of 2026 or 2027—the 2028 and 2029 model years, mainly in luxury and mid-luxury vehicles. But within about 15 years, it could become ubiquitous across a wider vehicle price range as high-volume production results in lower costs. Of course, with Hongfa being located in China, the question comes up regarding import tariff considerations. But it's an issue Green predicts will have little impact, pointing out Vicor ships its U.S.-made power modules to Hongfa, which builds the finished product. 'We see a little impact, of course, in some of the stuff that we buy,' said Green. 'But you know, this is a made in America product. So, yeah, there's some tariff issues going on, but I would say by the time we're actually live, those will be resolved.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Niu Clocks 57% e-Scooter Sales Surge, But Tariffs Impact Margins
Chinese electric scooter company Niu Technologies (NASDAQ:NIU) on Monday reported fiscal first-quarter revenue growth of 35.1% year-over-year to 682.0 million Chinese yuan ($93.98 million). Revenue growth was mainly due to an increase in sales volume of 57.4%, partially offset by a decline in revenues per e-scooter of 14.2% in the quarter. The number of e-scooters sold increased by 57.4% Y/Y to 203,313, with sales in China growing by 66.2% Y/Y to 183,065. The number of e-scooters sold in the international markets was 20,248, up 6.4% Y/Y. The number of franchised stores in China was 4,119 as of March 31, 2025The quarterly gross margin declined 160 basis points Y/Y to 17.3%, mainly attributable to the international market, including changes in the product mix of kick-scooters, higher freight costs and tariffs, and inventory write-downs, partially offset by increased gross margin in the Chinese market. The operating loss for the quarter was 46.58 million Chinese yuan versus a loss of 69.32 million Chinese yuan a year ago. The company reported an adjusted net loss per ADS of 5 cents in the quarter. The company held 747.2 million Chinese yuan in cash and equivalents as of March 31, 2025. CEO Dr. Yan Li said that the company advanced its intelligent product development strategy in China by integrating automotive-grade technologies such as millimeter-wave radar, dual-channel ABS, and AI Smart Ecosystem to enhance the user experience. He added that its retail network has continued to expand in line with expectations, with new stores opening during the quarter. Dr. Li also said that the company leveraged innovation and agile infrastructure to mitigate geopolitical challenges. Outlook: Niu expects second-quarter revenues of 1.317 billion Chinese yuan ($181.50 million) to 1.411 billion Chinese yuan ($194.44 million), representing a 40% to 50% Y/Y increase. Price Action: NIU shares are trading lower by 3.92% to $3.68 premarket at last check Monday. Image by Karolis Kavolelis via Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Niu Clocks 57% e-Scooter Sales Surge, But Tariffs Impact Margins originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
