Interview: ThaiGerTech

Electronics are the key to future success of the automotive industry Markus Waidelich, Managing Director of ThaiGerTec

The automotive industry is in transition worldwide, following the solid progress of the global electric vehicles (EV) market in recent years. Electric components have also become increasingly important, especially for new safety features of modern cars and for enhancing lifestyles of customers. Therefore, the demand for extensive technical know-how and experience in developing automotive electronics is rising.

ThaiGerTec, established in 2006, is the leading Thai-German company in the design and development of microelectronics, power electronics and embedded systems for the automotive industry, with offices in Bangkok and Phuket as well as in Munich, Germany. As a member of KPIT group, ThaiGerTec’s focus is on electronic engineering solutions together with research and development projects for customers, including international car manufacturers and their suppliers. The German-Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC) recently had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Markus Waidelich, founder and Managing Director of ThaiGerTec Co., Ltd., about how ThaiGerTec is supporting the automotive industry with its expertise as well about future cars.

What opportunities were there in Thailand when ThaiGerTec was established here?

Before founding ThaiGerTech 14 years ago, I travelled to Asia to participate in conferences and was introduced to many people in the Thai electronic industry. I began to realise the potential of Thailand as an electronic development country. After that, I co-operated with a company in the field of research and development (R&D), which was hard due to missing know-how and slow communication. Thus, I decided to focus on forming my own company and build a team of talented young engineers and train them. ThaiGerTec was established as a foreign subsidiary of MicroFuzzy GmbH, based in Germany which enabled us to transfer know-how and implement many projects. Initially, parts of development projects were outsourced to ThaiGerTec in Thailand mainly due to cost reduction. However, this focus has changed dramatically, as today Thailand is developed and has become an exciting location full of potential for offering our services to the Asian market. At the beginning, 100 per cent of our engineering solutions we exported. Today we see ThaiGerTec mainly as a development center for serving Asia. The location factors offer great potential, and I’m sure that Thailand will play a crucial role in the future of R&D for electric and electronic systems.

What have been ThaiGerTec’s milestones?

As a company we could have never imagined ending up having such a successful business operation. Our developments in the past five years have been extremely important. From the original five to six people working in the company, we now have more than 100 engineers. Our thanks are due to the Thai Embedded System Association (TESA) for their support that helped us to learn and understand the Thai market and paved the way for our success here.

“Initially, parts of development projects were outsourced to ThaiGerTec in Thailand mainly due to cost reduction. However, this focus has changed dramatically, as today Thailand is developed and has become an exciting location full of potential for offering our services to the Asian market.”

Our first significant milestone was the opening of our own office building in a townhouse in the Sukhumvit area. Now we have a new, modern and stylish office in Ratchada District, offering our employees the possibility to enjoy a friendly work environment and enhance their creativity, which ensures the development of our projects are on an international standard, which is well-recognized by our customers.

Another significant milestone is our success with the electric powertrain solutions, which is the field of engineering electric cars. By entering that field, we were able to focus on the right technology at the right time, which elevated ThaiGerTec to new levels. We suddenly needed to increase the number of our employees from 20 to 90 who have been an essential resource in achieving our success. Our motivated staff also brought more knowledge into our company and made ThaiGerTec more qualified and able to survive in the market. Winning the Thai Prime Minister’s Export Award 2016 for the Best Services Enterprise category is another of our milestones. Today, we remain proud to have won this award.

How is your company different from competitors or other companies in this field?

Our field of work is unique here in Thailand, compared to other countries such as Europe or Japan. We are able to attract and train many young, highly talented employees. ThaiGerTec places a strong focus on its employees and offers them a platform with a flat hierarchy in which people can grow as professionals. We also offer them the opportunity to be part of an exciting new technology and gain unique knowledge for their future careers. At ThaiGerTec, we can only be successful by working together as a team as a whole. We appreciate every employee’s contribution because our only company assets are our employees. The know-how of the company will be gone if people start leaving.

What are the important growth factors for microelectronics, power electronics and embedded systems in the automotive industry?

In my opinion, electric and electronic is the growth factor itself for the automotive industry. Without the electronics as well as the smart functions, the car industry would never have been able to grow as much as we see today. Currently, already 50 per cent of the value of a combustion engine car is made up of electronic parts inside the vehicle. The future electric vehicle will increase the amount of electronic and electric components even further. Up to 80 per cent of a vehicle will be comprised of electronic parts. This high percentage means that the mechanical

rate will decrease, which will then lead to the automotive industry changing from a mechanical dominated industr y to an electronic and software dominated industry.

Such change will can pose many problems for traditional car manufacturers since new companies will be able to supply the new technologies that will be needed, including microelectronics and power electronics to improve the batteries and the engine, safety features such as anti-blocking systems and airbags, up until autonomous driving. All these features are based on sensors, electronics and software. As I already mentioned, businesses that are able to offer these technologies are rare, which provides companies like MicroFuzzy and ThaiGerTec the chance to succeed in this new environment. In the future, there will be many changes in the automotive industry based on these new trends, and we are only just at the beginning of developing a whole new mar ket. ThaiGerTec is excited to be a crucial part of it.

How does ThaiGerTec sees the future of EV in general, and what is the company doing to support the EV sector in Thailand?

ThaiGerTec wants to be the provider of solutions not only for Thailand. The EV issue is global but different regions have different requirements. In Europe, combustion engine cars are using the engine head for warming the interior of the vehicle, while that is not necessary in Thailand.

We are a not a product company, we are not suppling parts for the automotive production. We develop solutions and they are mainly based on software today. Therefore, one of our focus area is automated software testing. When new software is developed the effort for testing and validation is often bigger than the effort needed for implementing the software. But it is necessary to assure that life critical systems are reliable and we can prevent recalls from car manufacturers, which can cost millions of dollars. In our test centers we do this at the highest standards gaining the trust from more and more world class car manufacturers.

What type of advantages will your company gain from the new 5G innovation?

This innovation offers many options for autonomous cars and also electric cars, especially new comfort and security features. For autonomous driving, cameras and sensors inside the car are the eyes of the vehicle. With 5G, we are able to receive sensor information in real-time from cars around us and will be able to evaluate critical situations much even better. So, 5G connected cars could process information from cars driving in front of us, or even driving around the corner in another street.

All this multi-dimensional data will allow us to look ahead, react in advance to avoid accidents which can not be avoided today. Another advantage is the transfer of highvolume data to improve smart driving. With the new 5G technology, the cameras and sensors can collect and share much more data for cars to communicate with each other. For example, with 5G technology, a car passing free spaces can send information on the open spot location to other drivers who are searching for a place to park the car. And this regardless if this space is outside or somewhere on the 4th underground floor of a parking garage. Collecting and processing all this huge amount of data will bring up a complete new industry.

Therefore, 5G technology will be an important new feature that will help us offer even better solutions and to make driving safer, more efficient and comfortable.

Where do you see ThaiGerTec in five years and what are your company’s long-term plans?

Thailand is underestimated when it comes to R&D and it needs to get away from being just a production country since it has many talented workers. The electric vehicle sector for the automotive industry also has so much potential.

Since two and a half years ago, we have been part of the KPIT Group, one of the biggest automotive engineering companies with more than 7,000 engineers. KPIT focuses solely on the automotive industry. With their network and support, we aim to grow in Thailand and build up much more knowledge. Currently, we have about 100 employees; however, our goal is to increase this number to 500, and in the longer term to 1,000 employees to ensure that we are able to offer the best solutions and services for our global customers.

What is your view on the electronics market in Thailand and ASEAN, both previously and now?

For ThaiGerTec, Thailand is our base. We are happy to be here since Thailand offers a good infrastructure that provides us with talented workers, which ensures our quality. However, despite good standards, Thailand still needs to make improvements, which our company suppor ts. When graduates star t their professional career in our company, they can be sure that we will offer professional training to improve their skills. Thailand has been working hard to develop well in the ASEAN region, but the neighbouring countries are catching up and have been growing well in the past decade. They are developing themselves as serious competitors. However, we are happy about this situation since competitors who also work at a high level motivates us to ensure that we provide the best quality in the market and that we remain competitive.

What are your perspectives on Thailand’s electronics industry in 2020 and the Government’s current promotion efforts?

Thailand’s significant positive step is the Government’s recognition of the environmental problems and its willingness to tackle the problem. Another important topic is promotion and support for engineering and R&D activities.

Better promotion for the industry as well as for the locals can be expected to ensure a better quality of life due to wider usage of electric cars instead of the combustion engine. While Thailand is already an exciting and important market for projects that are trying to tackle pollution issues, it needs to improve its attractiveness by providing even greater governmental support (for industry to increase R&D and production and for private with benefits for eco-friendly vehicles) to remain attractive for the automotive industry.

Interviewed by Chadaphan Maliphan and Julian Kaiser, GTCC Team