Global Autos & Auto Parts
Future Powertrain: From sail to steam
We hosted our second annual Future Powertrain Symposium in London last month (July 3) with experts from Ricardo, VW, Valeo, LMC, Neste, RNO, BMW, Bosch and Intelligent Energy. It was notable that many of the discussion points remained similar to the prior year (see Future Powertrain: Premium pain?) and many of the unknown questions, such as the shape of regulations beyond 2021 and the likely speed of consumer’s shift towards a “sharing economy” and Disruptive Mobility remain unanswered. Powertrain questions unsurprisingly crossed over into much wider topics such as connectivity in driving, car sharing and the timeline towards autonomous driving. We hope to discuss many of these themes in more detail at our inaugural Driverless World conference in London 4 Sept. What is clear is that both regulations and changing consumer demands are making the industry more costly
for all and that, just as we saw steam engines in the 19th century taking over from the age of sail, so the internal combustion engine will be displaced over time by electrification, be it battery or fuel cell. The speed of the shift is unclear, but clearly opens up risks of new entrants and innovators entering the auto space and leapfrogging over the existing players by avoiding the costly hybridization phase.