How Nissan's cupholder guru is changing the way you drink in your car
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New drink containers keep changing the shape of cupholders.
Door-pocket bottle holders must be easy and safe for the driver to use.
The next time you don't spill hot coffee in your lap driving to work, spare a moment to thank Chris Fischer.
The vehicle development engineer at Nissan's North American tech center in Farmington Hills, Michigan is one of the engineers and designers automakers charge with staying a step ahead of the world's cup, coffee and container manufacturers.
He has been Nissan's go-to guy for cupholders since 2015, when complaints about cupholders weighed down the automaker's customer satisfaction scores ― a key benchmark.
It's full-time work.
'Refillable bottles were becoming a big deal, and they were a different size' from the 12-ounce cans and Big Gulp cups automakers had focused on, Fischer told me recently while holding up a large CamelBak bottle.
He brought a bottle just like it with him to Japan. To this day, it remains in Nissan's box of samples, all painted a neutral color like modeler's clay for easy digital scanning.
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'Americans put a high value on drinking in our vehicles, and we use a wide variety of sizes,' Fischer said. That behavior was behind cupholder mania, which began in the United States with Chrysler minivans in the 1980s. Cupholders became so popular that automakers promoted the number they offered in a vehicle alongside fuel economy and airbags.
But the right design is a moving target.
Keeping up with consumer behavior
'How do you fit a CamelBak and a 6-ounce aluminum can in the same holder?' Fischer asked.
One answer, spring-loaded plastic fingers that adjust to different sizes of bottles, raised a new question: What shape and strength "finger" will hold a 20-ounce insulated Yeti, but not crush an 8-ounce "short" paper cup?
'You also have to be aware of the holder's depth,' he said. It must be high enough to hold tall bottles, and short enough that it doesn't knock the top off a small paper coffee cup. 'Too big or too small is a problem.'
Another challenge: Some people bring their ceramic coffee mugs from home into the vehicle. That led to the development Nissan calls a 'dog bone,' an open space connecting two round holders. A mug handle fits there, though I've discovered it's also a great place for loose coins to take up residence.
The design evolved from round holders with a connecting channel to the current Pathfinder's hourglass shape with rounded plastic fingers to keep small containers in place.
Design continues to adapt
As soon as one question is answered, a new type of container poses another: What to do with juice boxes? Minivans and family SUVs now have square receptacles for them for their kid-dominated rear seats.
Extra-large water bottles also pose a challenge. The answer: modified door pockets with holders that are easy to reach without distracting the driver from traffic.
'We're always looking at data,' Fischer said. 'We're the voice of the customer.'
The 2022 Pathfinder's cupholders had the highest satisfaction scores in its segment, he said.
'We did our job. It seems like a small thing, but we want to sweat the details. The way cupholders work is important to customer satisfaction. It's a reason to buy a car.'
Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
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