Page 20 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Jan-Feb 21

Industry Insights
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PAINT&PANEL JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021
MOTORING JOURNALIST STEPHEN CORBY EYEBALLS NEW CARS HITTING THE AUSTRALIAN MARKET AND WHAT REPAIR CHALLENGES THEY MIGHT PRESENT.
NEW CARS, NEW CHALLENGES: WHAT’S COMING IN 2021?
B ACK IN THE DARK AGES OF the 1970s and the bright neon ’80s, the year 2021 sounded like a far-off futuristic utopia where hover boards and person- al jet packs would surely be every silver-
suited commuter’s transport of choice. We may now be living in a future that is slightly less spectacular than Marty McFly found it (although the talking screens were bang on) but that doesn’t mean our vehicles haven’t made techno- logical leaps and bounds - they just
haven’t sprouted wings. Yet.
But this next decade, the 2020s, will see
the pace of change accelerating like never before. The most obvious and far-reaching change on the horizon is the steady roll- out of electric vehicles (EVs) and the phas- ing out of petrol and diesel cars.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to ban the sale of new combus- tion-engine vehicles by 2030, and even new hybrid cars by 2035, leading the charge for countries looking to eradicate gas guzzlers, and plenty of other Euro- pean nations are planning the same.
Just think about that for a moment - the kinds of cars you drive and work on every day will become contraband in
one of the world’s biggest markets in less than 10 years.
In Australia the shift is a lot slower, al- though you have to wonder what we’ll be left with once major manufacturers are forced to abandon the internal-combus- tion engine elsewhere. Still, in a report released earlier this year, the Australian government said it expects EVs to hold a 50 per cent market share locally by 2030.
Clearly, it’s a matter of time before Aus- tralia will be forced to ban fossil-fuelled vehicles, meaning local repairers will soon have to deal with a whole new world.
Other emerging production methods and technologies set to become more com- monplace, such as using mixed materials for body construction, the latest Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and new paint-application processes means there’s a lot you’ll need to stay up to speed with to keep up with 2021, and beyond.
MIXED MATERIALS –
A DOUBLE CHALLENGE
Motor vehicles constructed from mixed materials with different tensile strengths, like steel and aluminium, have long been a weight-saving answer for luxury brands
like Bentley and Audi, but it’s not some- thing you often find in cheaper cars.
But that’s about to change, as the tech turns up in more consumer brands such as Volkswagen. Its new Golf GTI is set to imple- ment a mixed-materials approach, boasting a new aluminium subframe that promises greater rigidity and a claimed 3kg reduction over a steel structure.
This presents its own challenges, since alu- minium subframes require a specially de- signed sealed environment to work on them, as even the slightest cross contamination with steel can result in aluminium breakdown.
Volkswagen has purpose-built positive- pressure Aluminium Repair Rooms at its facilities to ensure all work is carried out to manufacturer’s standards.
For repairers, there’s no shortage of new models featuring mixed material construction to watch out for in the year ahead.
Aston Martin’s first SUV, the DBX, is based on a bonded aluminium chassis, while Audi’s new e-tron EV features a hy- brid steel and aluminium construction, as does the BMW 4 Series Coupé. All three will be stepping up their sales in early 2021,