Page 40 - MetalForming March 2020

Special Report:
Seismic Changes in Store for the
Auto Industry
The next five years require huge changes in order for automakers and suppliers to succeed. Gain a lead on your competition by attending the Precision Metalforming Association’s Automotive Parts Suppliers Conference (APSC), April 28-29, 2020, in Detroit, MI.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR AND LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
The next five years will determine winners and losers, as automak- ers and suppliers shift gears to best deal with revolutionary changes in vehicles and in those who use them. The upcoming annual Automotive Parts Supplies Conference, produced by the Precision Metalforming Associ- ation, will provide a wealth of infor- mation to keep metal formers serving the auto industry up to speed. The con- ference runs April 28-29 in Detroit, MI.
To set the table, consider the recent report, Five Trends Transforming the Automotive Industry, prepared by Aut- ofacts, a team of auto-industry experts at PwC (www.pwc.com/auto).
“The decision about long-term sur- vival will be made in the years from 2020 to 2025,” the report reads. “Tradi- tional manufacturers and suppliers will
be extremely vulnerable in the years ahead. They will have to battle against falling margins while at the same time making far greater investments in elec- tro-mobility and new, customer-ori- ented innovations. The combustion engine, which was for decades at the heart of the...automobile industry... will become obsolete. At the same time, more and more new competitors will force their way onto the market, which will make life difficult for the old timers. All these trends are likely to come to a head between 2020 and 2025. These are the decisive years for manufacturers and their suppliers.”
PwC’s research and mathematical models point lead to predictions revolving around EASCY, an acronym symbolizing five key trends as the reports summarizes here:
• Electrified. The transition to emis- sions-free individual mobility would hardly be possible without the electri- fication of the drive train. First is the issue of local components and the fact that cars now only emit very low levels of harmful substances, dust and noise. It also seems that going emissions-free will become a global initiative. The idea is that the electricity used to charge vehi- cles will come from renewable sources to ensure CO2-neutral mobility.
• Autonomous. Rapid progress made in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep neural net- works make it possible to achieve what until recently seemed utopian: the development of autonomous vehicles, which require no human intervention even in complex traffic situations. This will completely redefine the use of indi-
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The growth in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid elec- tric vehicles (HEVs) is climbing, and by 2025, experts estimate that EVs and HEVs will account for 30 per- cent of all vehicle sales. Shown is the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, which pairs a dual-motor electrically variable transmission with a specially modified version of an upgraded 3.6-lV-6 gasoline engine, along with 16-kWh lithium-ion battery pack.