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    Hitting the software wall: the limits of consolidation in ADAS and automated driving systems
    Hardware consolidation in modern vehicles is no longer the industry's defining challenge, although it remains far from complete. The direction of travel is clear: from dozens of discrete electronic control units (ECUs) toward fewer, more capable compute platforms. Domain-centric solutions, including ADAS domain controllers (ADCs) and cockpit domain controllers (CDCs), have been the dominant intermediate step and are likely to remain the largest part of the industry for at least the next decade. ...
    Balancing the battery loop: Recyclers must manage ambitious growth with strategic caution
    As global EV sales growth moderates and several markets point to a prolonged slowdown, the battery recycling ecosystem built on the assumption of a steep ramp-up in EV penetration now faces a stark mismatch between supply and demand. Fleets of first‑generation EVs are only just beginning to reach the end‑of‑life (EOL), yet recycling facilities and technology platforms have been scaled on the expectation of a flood of spent packs that may now arrive later, slower, or in smaller volumes than...
    Reclaiming the value chain: Inside the European Union’s Battery Booster Facility
    Walk down any street in a major European city today, and the progress of the green transition is visible in every electric vehicle humming past. Yet, behind this sleek facade of progress, the European battery industry is navigating a quiet but existential crisis. While battery cell capacity has surged from a mere 1 GWh in 2017 to over 200 GWh today, the ground beneath the factories is shifting. Global overcapacity is looming, with 2025 production close to 4,000 GWh against demand of less than ha...
    China Speed: Q&A with Catena-X
    China Speed has become one of the defining themes in the global automotive industry, reflecting the widening gap between Chinese original equipment manufacturers and many of their US and European counterparts in development pace, software integration and supply-chain responsiveness. While much attention has focused on vehicle launch timelines and cost competitiveness, suppliers increasingly point to a less visible but more significant factor: the speed and quality of data coordination across the...
    China Speed and OEM responsiveness in crash performance and repairability: Q&A with Thatcham Research
    Over the past few years, one theme has repeatedly surfaced across the automotive industry: how Western original equipment manufacturers can narrow the gap with their mainland Chinese competitors, often summarized as “China Speed.” While much of the debate has focused on shorter development cycles and lower costs, the differences are perhaps most visible at the program level — particularly in how quickly OEMs respond to testing, validation and repairability feedback. From a supplier and ...
    The blind spots in the chip supply chain: Q&A with Loftware
    The automotive industry has spent the years since the semiconductor shortage pursuing a familiar set of remedies: expanding fabrication capacity, diversifying sourcing, reshoring production and securing long-term supply agreements. Governments have poured subsidies into domestic chip manufacturing; automakers have forged closer relationships with semiconductor producers; suppliers have invested heavily in resilience planning. Yet, amid the race to secure more capacity, a subtler vulnerability pe...
    China Speed: Q&A with Monolith
    China Speed has become one of the defining themes in the global automotive industry, particularly as US and European original equipment manufacturers look to close the gap with increasingly competitive Chinese manufacturers. While the discussion often centers on lower costs and shorter development cycles, suppliers are seeing the differences far more directly in day-to-day program execution. The gap is most visible not in engineering capability itself, but in how quickly organizations can turn d...
    China Speed: Q&A with Polaron
    Over the past few years, the automotive industry has been preoccupied with a deceptively simple question: how can Western carmakers match the pace of their mainland Chinese rivals? The discussion is often framed with vehicle development timelines, engineering costs and manufacturing efficiency in mind. Yet, beneath these headline metrics lies a less visible factor that increasingly shapes competitive advantage — the speed at which companies can develop, validate and deploy new materials. Fr...
    Interior Insight: Nissan Micra
    For much of the 21st century, Europe’s small car has looked increasingly endangered. Profit margins are meager; regulation is onerous, and consumers — seduced by the commanding ride height of crossovers — have steadily abandoned hatchbacks in favor of bloated alternatives. Yet the electric transition has unexpectedly revived the format. Cars such as Renault’s reborn 5 and Fiat’s electrified 500 have shown that compact vehicles can still stir emotion, provided they blend nostalgia with ...
    The long-range dilemma: As EVs chase 1,000 km range, NCM gains the upper hand
    The pursuit of an ideal battery chemistry capable of delivering 1,000 kilometers of electric vehicle driving range marks a significant milestone in battery engineering. However, achieving this milestone reveals a fundamental conflict between battery chemistry, vehicle dynamics and structural efficiency. At its 2026 Super Tech Day, held earlier this year, CATL presented its third-generation premium nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery, the Qilin 3, alongside a high-performance variant, the Qi...
    Electric dreams, hybrid realities
    For a brief and excitable moment, the future of the car seemed settled. Petrol engines would follow the fax machine into obsolescence. Diesel would survive mainly in litigation. Carmakers proclaimed deadlines for the end of combustion, governments set targets, investors rewarded battery evangelism and punished anything smelling faintly of hydrocarbons. The strategic map appeared to contain only one road. That road has not disappeared, but it is being redrawn. What has emerged instead is a far...
    Occupant monitoring system: Child detection and robo-taxi push toward full-cabin intelligence
    For most of automotive history, the inside of a vehicle has been treated as a passive safety space. Seats held people in place. Seatbelts restrained them. Airbags protected them in a crash. Beyond that, the car had only a limited idea of who was inside or what was happening after the doors closed. That is changing. Occupant monitoring systems are turning the cabin into an active sensing environment. Instead of simply knowing whether a seat is occupied, next-generation systems are being design...
    Automotive lighting: High tech, low margins and a market in transition
    In the first six months of 2026, two leading tier 1 suppliers announced plans to exit the automotive lighting business. In January, Hyundai Mobis signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with OPmobility to sell its lamp systems business, which produces headlights, taillights and auxiliary vehicle lights. In April, Magna International entered into definitive agreements to sell its global lighting business through two separate transactions. The Canadian supplier agreed to sell its lighting op...
    The V-Model learns to loop
    The car industry once liked its development models the way it liked its assembly lines: orderly, sequential and reassuringly physical. Requirements went in at one end; validated machines rolled out at the other. The V-Model — its descending left side of specification and design, matched by an ascending right side of integration and testing — fit an age when vehicles were chiefly mechanical products with electronics bolted on later. But today’s cars are increasingly software-defined vehi...
    From software-defined to AI-defined: rise of agentic AI in vehicles
    The automotive industry is moving beyond the software-defined vehicle — toward the AI-defined vehicle (AIDV) — where software is no longer a mere mechanism for updating features but a foundation for autonomous reasoning, adaptation and execution. While generative AI “thinks” by producing insights, text and recommendations, agentic AI “does” by acting autonomously, making decisions and executing tasks. A major conceptual shift is that agentic AI not only enhances the vehicle but ch...
    Air suspension technology set to take off in the EV and software defined vehicle era
    Air suspension has long been used in vehicles as an alternative to conventional coil and leaf spring suspensions, offering superior ride comfort and handling. The system relies on compressed air to support the vehicle’s weight and adjust its ride height. It uses compressed-air-filled rubber bellows (also called air springs or air bags) and advanced control systems that allow drivers to adjust the vehicle’s height for various road conditions. Compared with coil or leaf spring sus...
    5G RedCap: Hitting the sweet spot of vehicle connectivity
    5G RedCap (Reduced Capability), also known as 5G NR-Light, standardized by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in Release 17, is a streamlined version of 5G designed for devices that do not require the full complexity, power consumption, or cost of traditional enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) 5G modules. It basically sits between high-end 5G modules used for infotainment and autonomous driving and low-power IoT technologies like LTE-M (Long-Term Evolution for Machines) and Narrowband IoT (...
    Gotion's GGTC 2026: The rise of multichemistry battery systems
    The global transition to clean energy is undergoing a profound paradigm shift driven by raw material price volatility, domestic resource security concerns and localized geopolitical trade barriers. Historically, the EV battery landscape has been dominated by mainly high-energy nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) chemistries and low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) systems. However, as the limitations of lithium supply chains become increasingly apparent — characterized by highly volatile lithium ca...
    China speed and the challenge for Western OEMs: Q&A with eSync Alliance
    For much of the past decade, Western carmakers viewed mainland China primarily as a market. Increasingly, they are forced to view it as a source of competitive pressure — and, in some respects, a model for industrial change. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the rise of “China Speed”: the ability of mainland Chinese automakers to develop, launch and iterate vehicles at a pace that established American and European manufacturers struggle to match. The difference is not simply one of ...
    Helium supply risk re-emerges as a strategic threat to advanced semiconductor manufacturing
    The ongoing geopolitical instability surrounding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz has renewed concerns over global helium supply security, particularly for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. While the semiconductor industry avoided immediate disruption during the initial phase of the crisis due to inventory buffers and contingency sourcing, the risk profile has shifted from a short-term logistics issue to a potential structural supply constraint if disruptions persist into the second half of 202...
    Beyond decoration: Interior lighting evolves into a key tool for safety, comfort and personalization in vehicles
    For several decades, vehicle interior lighting consisted mainly of a few lamps serving basic functions, such as assisting drivers and passengers when entering or exiting the vehicle or illuminating the cabin at night. Automakers primarily offered dome lamps and map lamps as standard equipment in all vehicles. Dome lamps, typically mounted in the center of the headliner, diffused light throughout the cabin, while map lamps, usually integrated into the front overhead console near the rea...
    The new economics of lightweighting
    For most of the past century, the automotive industry’s materials hierarchy was comfortably settled. Steel was cheap and ubiquitous. Aluminum was lighter and pricier. Carbon fiber belonged to supercars and motor racing. Engineers worried about strength, weight and cost; sustainability sat somewhere in the corporate-affairs department. That hierarchy is collapsing. The modern car — particularly the electric one — is increasingly designed around a different set of calculations: life-cy...
    Software-defined vehicles are rewiring the automotive electronics supply ecosystem
    The transition toward software-defined vehicles (SDVs) is fundamentally restructuring the automotive electronics supply ecosystem, shifting control away from the traditional tier-1-centric model toward original equipment manufacturer-led, software-driven and platform-oriented ecosystems. Rather than simply enabling new digital features, SDVs are changing the design, sourcing, manufacturing, integration and monetization of automotive electronics across the value chain. The industry is moving away...
    The Shape of Glass to Come: Q&A with Eastman
    For much of the car’s history, glass was treated as little more than transparent shielding: a passive barrier between occupants and the elements. That conception is gradually disappearing. In the age of electric vehicles, automotive glazing is being recast as an active engineering platform — part climate-control system, part acoustic insulator, part structural member and part digital interface. The shift reflects the changing priorities of modern mobility. Electric drivetrains, being quie...
    Interior Insight: Nissan Qashqai
    The family car was once a blunt instrument. It needed to seat five, swallow a pram and survive supermarket car parks. Style was optional; charm was rare. Yet over the past decade, the family crossover has become the automotive industry’s central product: a machine expected not merely to transport but also to reassure, entertain and flatter. Few vehicles in Europe embody that evolution more fully than the Nissan Qashqai, whose latest interior reflects a broader transformation in automotive desi...
    Super Tech Day 2026: A deep dive into CATL’s multi-chemistry paradigm shift
    At CATL 2026 Super Technology Day on April 21 in Beijing, the world’s largest battery manufacturer signaled a profound strategic shift, moving away from the pursuit of innovating an exceptionally capable battery material toward a sophisticated multi-chemistry synchronization strategy. This pivot acknowledges that as the world transitions to renewable energy, the complexity of diverse applications — ranging from mass-market commuting to heavy-duty off-roading and aviation — cannot be met by...
    The V-Model, recompiled: Q&A with MAHLE Powertrain
    For decades, the automotive industry has relied on the V-model as its preferred blueprint for engineering discipline. Conceived in an era when vehicle systems were largely mechanical and development cycles stretched comfortably over several years, the model offered manufacturers a reassuringly linear logic: requirements flowed downward through design and implementation before climbing back upward through validation and verification. Each stage mirrored another, and every requirement could, in pr...
    The V-Model, recompiled: Q&A with Elektrobit
    For decades, the automotive industry has relied on the reassuring geometry of the V-Model. Conceived for an era when vehicles were defined chiefly by mechanical engineering, the framework brought order to complexity: requirements cascading down one side of the “V”, implementation at the base and validation climbing methodically back upward. In an industry where failure can trigger recalls, regulatory scrutiny or safety crises, such discipline became indispensable. Yet, the rise of the sof...
    The unfinished business of clean cars
    For much of the past decade, the automotive industry’s climate strategy followed a comforting logic. Electrify the drivetrain, clean up factory operations and allow tailpipe emissions to fall away. The arithmetic looked reassuring. The remaining emissions — those buried in steel mills, chemical plants, logistics networks and mines — were acknowledged but treated as a distant second-order problem. That assumption is now harder to sustain. For most automakers, the largest share of life-cy...
    The V-Model, recompiled: Q&A with Aptiv
    In automotive development, the V-Model has long served as the backbone of the engineering discipline, mapping requirements to verification in a mirrored structure that ensures traceability from concept to production. For decades, it provided the industry with a predictable rhythm: define, design, implement, test — then validate back up the chain. But the model was born in an era of hardware-dominated vehicles, when software changes were infrequent and tightly controlled. Each electronic con...
    Software-defined vehicles and multi-cycle leasing: From OTA refresh to modular vehicle renewal
    The automotive industry’s shift towards a more sustainable approach is driving the growth of multi-cycle usage models. As automakers aim to capitalize on technological innovation and changing customer usage, these strategies extend the life of vehicles, components and materials through repair, repurposing, and refurbishment.  In traditional automotive cycles, vehicles are manufactured for a single owner, before eventually being scrapped, with limited opportunities to recycle materials....
    Plugged in, switched off
    For much of the past decade, the electric-vehicle industry measured progress in plugs. Governments set targets for charger numbers; companies raced to install ever-faster hardware; maps filled with reassuring clusters of pins. The logic was straightforward: Build enough infrastructure and adoption would follow. By 2025 that premise had begun to fray. In many developed markets, chargers are no longer scarce. Yet drivers still report failed sessions, opaque pricing and unreliable equipment. The...
    InterBattery 2026: Battery tech expands into AI and robotics to mitigate EV volatility
    InterBattery 2026, which was organized at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) in Seoul, South Korea, over March 11-13, marked a significant pivot by the battery manufacturers and material suppliers towards application-specific optimization, thermal safety and the expansion of battery technology into the artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics era to mitigate risks associated with EV demand volatility. The 14th edition of InterBattery, which was hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Indus...
    What Europe can learn from China about controlling the growing mass of EVs
    Electric vehicles are significantly heavier than the internal combustion engine (ICE) cars they are replacing, and vehicle mass has climbed by more than 25% over the last decade. Balancing added weight, with rising consumer expectations for ride comfort and refinement, is driving demand for more sophisticated suspension technologies. In China, semi-active suspension is being rolled out at scale, even on midmarket EVs. In Europe, the pressure to hit aggressive price points has largely confined th...
    Watt next? Less than promised
    For much of the past decade, the electric-vehicle industry ran on a potent blend of technological optimism and cheap money. Carmakers promised a swift shift from internal combustion to battery power; investors, buoyed by low interest rates and green zeal, obliged. Capital flooded into gigafactories, vertically integrated supply chains and speculative battery ventures. Companies such as Volkswagen Group and General Motors pledged tens of billions of dollars to electrification. Startups, including...
    Axial flux motors will achieve price parity with radial flux motors in the future: Rory Brogan, founder and CEO, Torev Motors
    With early industry recognition, innovative wound-rotor designs, and a clear commercial roadmap targeting 2029 deployments, Torev is positioned to reshape electric motor technology while anticipating trends like modularity and smarter controllers. The following are edited excerpts. S&P Global Mobility: Tell us about the genesis of Torev Motors; how did it come into being? How did you select axial flux motors? Was the focus always on rare earth free axial flux motors or did you pivot to th...
    Charging ahead, unevenly
    The electrification of transport is no longer constrained by vehicles but by the systems that support them. As electric cars and trucks proliferate, attention has shifted to the charging networks that must underpin mass adoption. What was once a question of rollout is now becoming one of performance: reliability, interoperability and economics are emerging as the industry’s defining challenges. Public charging, in particular, remains uneven. Drivers encounter incompatible systems, inconsist...
    Adopting manufacturing innovations amid rising complexity in automotive seats
    Seats are among the most complex automotive parts in a car, assembled from multiple subsystems, which in turn are built from numerous components. Over the years, the complexity of the complete seat assembly has increased as automakers have integrated new functions and features to deliver greater safety and comfort for occupants, including the driver. The manufacturing of seat parts and their subsequent assembly into complete seats remains labor-intensive, requi...
    Suppliers to the new Dodge Charger
    The Dodge Charger is assembled at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Canada. Image Source : Dodge New Dodge Charger – Supplier Overview COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIERS Door Checks Edscha LV Power Cables Gebauer & Griller Craddle Gestamp Door Lock Cable WR Controls EDM Gears Maclean-Fogg Powertrain Mounts Vibracoustic SE Upper Crossmember - ICE Schuler H...
    Suppliers to the new Infiniti QX65
    The  new Infiniti QX65  is assembled at the Nissan Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant. Production of the car is expected to peak at 10852 in 2027, according to a forecast from S&P Global Mobility. Image Source : Infiniti New Infiniti QX65 – Supplier Overview COMPONENT NAME SUPPLIERS Ambient Lighting Antolin Decorative Wheel Nuts Maclean-Fogg Constant Velocity Joints NTN Standar...
    Impact of Europe's IAA legislation on battery manufacturing: a technical analysis
    Europe’s manufacturing sector is confronting a challenging economic landscape marked by high costs, mounting competitive pressure and the ever increasing need to invest in clean and green manufacturing technologies. European policymakers increasingly feel that this has put the region’s manufacturing engine under strain — a sentiment backed by numbers. Manufacturing’s share of EU GDP slipped from around 17% in 2000 to roughly 14% in 2024, a decline that is seen as a risk for long‑term g...
    A different kind of shock
    When oil prices surge, car executives often imagine stranded ships, snarled ports and container boxes piling up like driftwood. The latest flare-up involving Iran invites exactly that sort of picture. Yet the industry could face a more serious and less visible disruption. The risk is not that vehicles cannot be shipped, but that they cannot be sold. The trigger is straightforward. Fighting in the Gulf has pinched energy supply, pushing crude beyond $100 per barrel and hauling fuel prices up i...
    How the hatchback got heavy
    In 1974, when the first Volkswagen Golf rolled off the line, it was meant to be a sensible car for sensible Europeans. Now, after half a century, it has become a rolling ledger of Brussels’ ambition. The model has accumulated weight, complexity and cost with each wave of regulation, from the earliest crash standards and pedestrian-protection measures to mandated airbags and antilock braking systems (ABS) in 2004 and electronic stability control in 2011. To trace its bill of materials is to rea...
    Interior Insight: Honda CR-V
    The interior of the Honda CR-V in its 2026 form reflects incremental change rather than redesign. Honda has retained the structure introduced in 2023 and applied modest updates to technology, equipment and refinement. The result is a cabin that remains competitive on usability and space, but less so on perceived quality and digital sophistication — making it a fitting subject for the next instalment in S&P Global Mobility’s series on in-car technology and materials. Layout and control...
    How thermal management systems have evolved in cars
    Over the last four to five decades, the evolution of automotive thermal management in cars can be seen as a long journey from simple engine cooling to a sophisticated energy management strategy. As vehicles transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to electric vehicles, the thermal system has shifted from being a secondary support unit to the heart of vehicle efficiency and driving range. For decades, thermal management was synonymous with simple heat management. This meant that, pri...
    Code in the driving seat
    The modern car still plainly wears its mechanical ancestry. Turn the wheel and shafts relay motion to the tires; press the brake and hydraulic pressure clamps discs with reassuring force. These systems are robust and familiar. Yet they sit uneasily with a broader shift: cars are increasingly engineered not as assemblies of hardware, but as rolling computing power platforms. A quieter revolution is therefore underway. Steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems dispense with continuous mechanical ...
    Beyond signaling: How rear lighting helps automakers enhance communication and brand awareness
    Automotive rear lighting has undergone significant changes over the past three decades, playing a key role in promoting safer driving. Rear lights not only alert drivers to the presence of vehicles ahead but also help them understand the intentions of those vehicles, so the drivers can adjust their driving to avoid accidents. Rear lighting has also become increasingly important to automakers as a design element for the rear of the vehicle. This is possible due to automakers taking key in...
    From ‘eyes-off’ hype to ‘hands-free’ reality: Premium OEMs bet big on L2+
    While automakers from China to North America have publicly confirmed their intentions to pursue Level 3, others most notably the early adopter German premiums are subtly easing off their Level 3 ambitions as their latest Level 2+ systems come to market. BMW, Mercedes‑Benz and Stellantis all went to market with highly publicized Level 3 plans, and both German automakers have Level 3 systems in market today in very limited availability. But each has discovered that the combination of high cos...
    Building resilient automotive supply chains: lessons from an era of disruption
    For much of the past three decades, the global automotive industry pursued a single organizing principle: efficiency. Supply chains stretched across continents, inventories shrank to a minimum, and production schedules ran with metronomic precision. Components flowed from thousands of suppliers in tightly choreographed sequences, allowing manufacturers to build increasingly complex vehicles at ever lower cost. Then the shocks began. The Fukushima earthquake and tsunami first exposed the fr...
    Intelligent lighting: the car’s new language
    In the automotive industry’s grand parade of innovations — from electrification to autonomy — lighting rarely draws the loudest applause. Yet it is undergoing one of the most consequential transformations in the modern vehicle. What was once little more than a bulb cutting through the dark is becoming something far more sophisticated: a programmable interface for safety, communication and brand identity. The slender LED signatures that trace the outline of today’s SUVs may appear deco...
    Digital vehicle key: Unlocking the fully connected, software-defined vehicle experience
    Digital vehicle access is shifting from a convenience feature to a critical digital identity infrastructure for vehicles. Physical key fobs are increasingly complemented—and in some cases replaced—by smartphone-based digital keys. Integration with mobile wallets (Apple, Google, Samsung) is accelerating consumer acceptance. Strictly speaking, digital vehicle access refers to replacing physical keys/fobs with software-based authentication, including: Smartphone-based digital keys (App...
    R-1234yf to remain the preferred automotive refrigerant in cars in 2030-35
    The automotive refrigerant market is shifting from a stable, overlooked commodity to a high-tech product that is expected to fuel a niche, multi-billion-dollar industry amid global adoption of electric vehicles. The global automotive refrigerants market is estimated at $60 billion and is projected to reach approximately $100 billion by 2035. The increasing valuation of the automotive refrigerant market is no longer just about maintaining optimal temperature in the passenger cabin; it is now d...
    BEV-native leadership and established OEM transition in SDV readiness
    The recent adoption by many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of an electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture based on zone controllers supporting a software-defined vehicle (SDV) is slowly replacing distributed electronic control architectures that rely on small pieces of control code housed and distributed widely inside isolated electronic control units (ECUs). This new approach centralizes the hardware processing and memory in fewer, more powerful control units that will house functional...
    From steel torsion to sensor control: The evolution of stabilizer bars in vehicles
    A stabilizer bar, also known as an antiroll bar or sway bar, is an integral part of a vehicle’s suspension system. It plays a key role in reducing body roll during sharp cornering, turning or when driving on uneven surfaces by transferring the load from one wheel to the other. When a vehicle takes a turn, the centrifugal force causes the driver and other occupants to lean outward, shifting weight to the outside wheels. The stabilizer bar counteracts this movement by transferring some of the fo...
    From connectivity to intelligence: What did MWC 2026 bring to the automotive table?
    Organized by the GSM Association (GSMA), the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was held in the Spanish city of Barcelona from March 2-5, 2026. The event showcased major advances across 6G, AI integration, satellite connectivity, and automotive digital transformation. The automotive industry was no longer a peripheral presence at the event. Instead, it emerged as one of the event’s central themes, highlighting a profound shift: vehicles are rapidly evolving from mechanical machines into fully conn...
    Charged up, but not connected: the bottlenecks in electric mobility
    Politicians have rarely been shy about their electric dreams. From Washington to Brussels, targets for zero-emission vehicles multiply by the year. Carmakers, too, trumpet all-electric futures. Yet beneath the glossy projections and ribbon-cuttings lies a simpler truth: the electric-vehicle transition will move only as fast as the plugs in the ground. And in many places, those plugs are arriving more slowly —and less evenly — than ambition demands. The past year has offered a study in con...
    Mainland China phases out battery export VAT rebates: Impact on materials, cells and global supply chains
    Mainland China's battery industry, the world's manufacturing powerhouse supplying over 80% of global lithium-ion capacity, faces a seismic policy shift with the January announcement to phase out export value-added tax rebates. Issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration, the policy slashes rebates for both cathode materials and finished cells. This move, mirroring immediate rebate scrapping for solar/PV products, targets reducing overcapacity, irrational price ...
    Tesla signals strategic reset with FSD subscription shift and Model S/X exit
    Tesla is sending a clear message to investors, and the broader mobility ecosystem — the company’s next growth chapter will be driven less by premium vehicle volume and more by recurring software revenue and long-horizon AI and robotics bets. Two moves underline this shift: transitioning Full Self-Driving (FSD) to a subscription-only model and planning to wind down Model S and Model X production by the end of the second quarter of 2026, freeing capital and focus for newer platforms, including...
    Nvidia Alpamayo democratizes autonomy and shifts value away from in-house stacks
    Nvidia formally introduced Alpamayo at CES 2026 as an open-source framework designed to accelerate autonomous driving development. Nvidia’s introduction of the Alpamayo family represents an expansion of the company’s role in autonomous driving from a compute and middleware provider toward a supplier of foundational vehicle intelligence. Rather than presenting a stand-alone algorithmic improvement, Nvidia is positioning Alpamayo as part of a broader environment that spans model development, d...
    From analog dominance to the memory era: How vehicle architecture and memory pricing are reordering automotive semiconductor demand
    S&P Global Mobility expects the automotive semiconductor market to return to growth in 2025, expanding by 6.6% to surpass $90 billion following a flat 2024. Looking further ahead, revenue is forecast to rise at a 7.4% compound annual rate through 2031, approaching $140 billion by the end of the period. The expansion is driven by the accelerating shift toward software-defined vehicles, higher levels of autonomy, electrified powertrains and increasingly sophisticated cockpit platforms, all of ...
    From reactive to predictive, cybersecurity continues to evolve for software-defined vehicles
    Automotive cybersecurity has shifted from a niche technical concern to a core vehicle-program requirement as vehicles have become connected, software-driven, data-rich and continuously updatable. Cybersecurity is now positioned as essential not only for safety (preventing unsafe manipulation of vehicle functions) but also for privacy (protecting driver or vehicle data); revenue and brand trust (avoiding recalls, service disruption, ransom or extortion, and reputational damage); and regulatory co...
    The shortening of the automotive supply chain
    For decades, the car industry perfected the art of distance. Design in Germany, components from Japan and South Korea, wiring harnesses from Mexico, electronics from mainland China and final assembly wherever labor was the cheapest. The logic was simple: stretching the supply chain across borders, arbitrage wages and scale, and trusting that trade would remain broadly liberal and logistics would remain frictionless. That logic is fraying. Automakers are not abandoning globalization, but they ...
    Mainland China’s DRAM push – a solution to the global supply crisis?
    The first quarter of 2026 opened with renewed concerns about a shortage of DRAM for automotive applications. Memory manufacturers have been reallocating wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other premium products for AI data centers, where demand and margins are rising fastest. This reallocation tightened supply for traditional automotive DRAM, leaving vehicle makers exposed to constrained inventories and rising competition for limited fab capacity. A small number of firms do...
    Cars that know too much
    For most of the past century, the car’s relationship with its owner has been transactional and forgetful. A car burned fuel, wore out brake pads and occasionally stalled at inconvenient moments. It did not remember where its driver had been, how fast they drove, whom they called or how long they lingered outside a particular address. Today’s cars do all of that and more. Modern vehicles generate rivers of data. Sensors track location, acceleration, battery health and driving behavior. Inf...
    US automakers, battery suppliers rationalize excess battery capacity, pivot to energy storage systems
    In December 2025, Ford Motor Co. and SK On announced plans to end their $11.4 billion battery joint venture — BlueOval SK — as part of their broader business overhaul amid a slowdown in demand for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and the end of government subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The decision to cease the battery JV came as the two companies sought to avoid accumulating losses from EV battery operations in a market witnessing policy shifts away from BEVs and to r...
    From connected cars to fragile factories: How cyber risk is rewiring the auto industry
    When Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) halted production across its UK factories in late 2025, the headlines focused on lost output, idle workers and delayed deliveries. That was the easy story. The deeper, more uncomfortable truth is that the attack exposed how profoundly digital vulnerabilities have been baked into the automotive industry — not just in connected vehicles, but across factories, logistics systems and sprawling supplier networks. What was once a sector defined by nuts, bolts and mecha...
    Human Machine Interface technologies: What consumers value
    As vehicles become increasingly digital, the in-cabin experience has emerged as a key battleground for automakers competing for consumer loyalty. From expansive touchscreens to intelligent voice assistants, in-vehicle human machine interface (HMI) technologies now shape how drivers interact with their cars—and how they perceive brand value. With consumers expecting seamless, intuitive and personalized interfaces, OEMs face rising pressure to understand what t...
    From reserves to reality: India’s rare earth value-chain race
    In its Union Budget 2026–27, the Indian government introduced dedicated rare‑earth corridors in four states — Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — to develop mining, processing, research and manufacturing of rare earths. The corridors are intended to stimulate local economies, enhance R&D capacity and integrate the region into global advanced materials value chains. They complement the operations of IREL (India) Limited, a Department of Atomic Energy enterprise that ...
    CES 2026: Software-defined vehicles continue to evolve and gain momentum and scale
    The recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 (Jan. 6–9, 2026) marked a clear inflection point: software-defined vehicles (SDVs) have entered their industrialization phase. Original equipment manufacturers and suppliers shifted decisively away from exploratory demos and concepts toward scalable, production-ready SDV platforms, with most architectures, toolchains and compute strategies aligned to 2026–28 SOPs. The focus has clearly moved from what SDVs could do, to how they can ...
    OPmobility eyes Hyundai Mobis lighting business to accelerate global expansion
    In late January, OPmobility signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hyundai Mobis to explore the potential acquisition of the South Korean supplier’s lighting business. The two companies aim to reach a definitive agreement in 2026. The acquisition promises to significantly expand OPmobility’s global position as one of the leading tier 1 suppliers of lighting systems, a business the French supplier entered just four years ago. Hyundai Mobis is the largest tier 1 ...
    European New Car Assessment Program’s button mandate forces a rethink of the digital cockpit
    For more than a decade, the automotive industry followed a clear trajectory: digitize the driving experience, replace physical controls with touchscreens and let software define the cockpit. From 2026, Europe’s most influential vehicle safety assessor will begin to reverse that logic. Under revised protocols, the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP) will explicitly reward vehicles that provide physical controls for essential driving functions, such as indicators, hazard lights, wi...
    AI in automotive manufacturing: Promise, payoff and the problem of scale
    Artificial intelligence has become one of the automotive industry’s buzzwords. It appears in earnings calls, factory tours and investor decks with near-compulsive frequency. Automakers promise smarter factories, fewer defects and lower costs, all delivered by algorithms quietly optimizing production in the background. The reality, however, is more prosaic. AI has proved very useful in specific, tightly bound applications. What it has not yet delivered is the sweeping transformation often impli...
    Tariffs, tech and torque: What’s driving — and slowing — vehicle lightweighting
    For decades, automakers have sought ways to shed vehicle weight — from early aluminum and high-strength steel use to modern composites — but electrification, with heavy battery packs, has put lightweighting under the spotlight. Reducing mass improves performance, efficiency and range while helping to meet tightening emissions standards. Today, manufacturers are exploring a broad palette of materials — magnesium alloys, advanced steels, aluminum, carbon-fiber and bio-based composites and th...
    CES 2026: Key technology highlights in the Autonomy domain
    The first Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off in 1967, with 250 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees in New York City. Since then, CES has grown by more than tenfold and now encompasses both traditional and nontraditional tech industries. CES 2026 was held in Las Vegas from Jan. 6–9, with attendance reportedly reaching 148,000 people. CES 2026 marked a clear inflection point for vehicle autonomy, shifting the narrative from long-term promise to near-term deployment. Across the show floor,...
    CES 2026: Key technology highlights in E/E and semiconductor domain
    The first Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in 1967, with 250 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees in New York City. Since then, CES has grown more than tenfold and now encompasses both traditional and nontraditional tech industries. CES 2026 was held in Las Vegas, on Jan. 6-9, 2026, with attendance reportedly reaching 148,000. Key trends Silicon enters the 3-nanometer (nm) era: CES 2026 highlighted a decisive step change in automotive computing power, with 3-nm-class semiconductors enabl...
    The evolving landscape of cathode active materials in EVs: Balancing production capacity investments amid oversupply challenges
    Cathode active materials (CAM) form the heart of lithium-ion batteries powering the global electric vehicle boom. These high-value components determine energy density, cost, performance and safety, making CAM production a critical constraint in the supply chain. As EV adoption accelerates worldwide, the CAM market stands at a pivotal juncture. Global production capacity is projected to expand at a robust 11.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), surging from 6.7 million metric tons in 2025 to...
    Automotive lighting suppliers bracing for another challenging year in 2026
    Automotive lighting suppliers reported moderate growth in lighting system supply in 2025, driven by the recovery in light vehicle production. According to data compiled by S&P Global Mobility’s analysts, the supply of headlights and taillights each improved by 2.5% year over year to 183 million units as global light vehicle production increased 3.1% year over year to 92.2 million vehicles. Moreover, lighting suppliers also recorded 6.2% year-over-year growth in the supply of ambient light ...
    Greenland’s mineral edge: opportunity and obstacles
    Greenland has emerged as a strategic area due to its extensive reserves of rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical minerals essential to industries such as automotive, defense, and clean energy. Its resource base includes REEs, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, iron ore and tungsten, which are key inputs to clean energy technology. According to the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), the island contains an estimated 36.1 million metric tons of REE resources, with the ...
    Lights out: The automotive industry’s uneasy march toward dark factories
    Across parts of mainland China’s automotive sector, factories designed to operate without human presence are no longer experimental showcases. So-called “dark factories” — highly automated plants that rely on robotics, AI and dense sensor networks — are already producing electric vehicles at an industrial scale, operating continuously without lighting, heating or on-site labor. In Europe and the US, the concept remains more aspirational than real. Yet the direction of travel is incr...
    CES 2026 Spotlights Automotive Technology, from AI to Software-Defined Vehicles
    CES 2026 marked a clear shift in the automotive industry’s priorities. With demand for electric vehicles (EVs) softening and regulatory and cost pressures mounting, automakers and suppliers used the CES tech conference to emphasize automotive technology like artificial intelligence (AI) rather than electrification. Their focus moved to so-called physical and context-aware AI—systems that interpret real-world conditions in real time—positioning cars as software-defined vehicles rather than ...
    We have solved the technical limitations associated with switched reluctance motors: Ali Emadi, founder and CEO, Enedym Inc.
    Enedym’s switched reluctance motors (SRMs) are expected to not only reduce the dependence on rare earth metals, currently used in a majority of propulsion e-motors produced worldwide, but also significantly reduce the cost of development and production of e-motors in general. Enedym is tackling one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: reducing reliance on rare earth elements (REEs), which are costly, environmentally taxing, and largely sourced from [mainland] China. Dr. Emadi expl...
    CES 2026: KPIT’s vision for the software-defined vehicle
    As the automotive industry accelerates toward software-defined, electrified and connected mobility, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 has become a critical forum for technology-led transformation. In this interview from CES 2026, Omkar Panse, chief technology officer of KPIT Technologies, outlines how the company is refining its strategic focus — both in how it engages at global events and in the solutions it brings to market. Panse explains that KPIT’s participation at CES is not ...
    The quest for organizational SDV readiness—EV startups calling the shots?
    As stakeholders across the mobility and industrial ecosystem rewire to become software-enabled enterprises, the concept of software-defined vehicles or SDVs and its readiness has gained much attention. SDV readiness is required both at the vehicle as well as the organizational level. Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) readiness is an organization’s ability to design, build, deploy, update, and monetize software-centric vehicle platforms in a scalable, safe, secure, and continuous manner. SDV re...
    A conversation with Cerence AI at CES
    Conversational artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the in-car experience, transforming vehicle systems into intelligent, voice-driven companions. Today’s platforms combine advanced speech recognition with generative AI to enable seamless, hands-free control of navigation, entertainment, climate and more. What was once limited to simple commands has evolved into multi-step dialogue, proactive suggestions and interactions that blend voice, visuals and contextual cues. The industry ha...
    Rear-wheel steering: Reviving a niche technology for the autonomous and electric future
    The rear-wheel-steering (RWS) system, also known as four-wheel steering, has been used in vehicles for over 50 years but has yet to achieve widespread adoption. The system relies on electronics, such as actuators, sensors and control systems, to perform steering functions, offering enhanced vehicle stability and maneuverability by allowing the rear wheels to turn either in the same direction as or opposite to the front wheels. At low speeds, typically below 30 to 40 miles per hour (mph), the ...
    Driving the future: NVIDIA’s vision for AI in automotive
    NVIDIA is redefining the trajectory of automotive technology, with a vision for AI that extends far beyond the traditional concept of AI-defined vehicles. In a recent interview with S&P Global Mobility, NVIDIA shared insights on the evolution and integration of generative AI, agentic AI and physical AI within the mobility sector. This multilayered approach starts with GenAI, which creates realistic scenarios for autonomous vehicle (AV) training, and advances to agentic AI — capable of auto...
    Automotive suppliers sustain margins amid slower growth in 2025
    Automotive component suppliers demonstrated resilience during the first nine months of 2025 (January–September), navigating a period of moderating top-line growth while effectively enhancing profitability, compared to the strong performance in the corresponding period of 2024. While overall revenue growth decelerated from the double-digit pace observed earlier, the industry managed to expand its collective operating margins, reflecting a strong focus on operational efficiencies and cost manage...
    The global rise of autonomous trucks and last-mile delivery 
    For years, robo-taxis absorbed most of the spotlight in the autonomous-vehicle world. But if you look closely at where automation is scaling fastest and where commercial partnerships are forming, where regulators are paying attention, and where the economics are already tilting, the story is shifting. The autonomous trucks market is accelerating significantly, on the highways where autonomous 18-wheelers are beginning to run driverless, and on the sidewalks and industrial yards and ports where d...
    2026 Automotive Supplier Outlook
    In the wake of another tumultuous year for the global automotive industry, this report provides unfiltered insights directly from the front lines. S&P Global Mobility’s Matthew Beecham engaged with 59 senior executives from across the automotive supply chain to capture their experiences and strategies. Now in its third year, this comprehensive end-of-year analysis outlines the operational and strategic challenges suppliers faced in 2025 and how they are preparing for 2026. The suppliers...
    The steel deal: lightweighting the future of EVs
    This analysis summarizes insights from an Autology podcast hosted by Matthew Beecham exploring the evolving role of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) in the automotive industry. Joining him are Mengyin Tao, Principal Research Analyst for Materials at S&P Global Mobility, and Ingo Olschewski, Director of WorldAutoSteel, representing a coalition of leading steel producers. Their discussion centers on how AHSS is shaping the future of vehicle design, safety, efficiency and sustainability. ...
    Interior Insight: VW Tayron
    Filling the long-standing gap between the Tiguan and Touareg, the Volkswagen (VW) Tayron arrives not as a stretched derivative — as the Tiguan Allspace once was — but as a purpose-built, full-size crossover with a more upmarket feel. That matters because customers now expect seven-seat sport utility vehicles in this class to be bespoke designs with interiors that convey substance and refinement. Measured on those terms, the Tayron’s cabin is one of the clearest areas where VW’s new appro...
    2026 Automotive Analyst Outlook
    S&P Global Mobility’s 2026 Automotive Analyst Outlook presents a comprehensive collection of insights, reflections and forward-looking perspectives from our team of analysts. Drawing on a year marked by volatility, innovation and adaptation, our experts examine how the global automotive industry navigated the challenges and opportunities of 2025 — from supply chain disruptions and regulatory shifts to the evolving landscape of electrification, connectivity and consumer preferences. Throu...
    Adapting to change: The future of automotive interior trim suppliers amidst challenges
    In late November, Forvia confirmed that it is conducting a comprehensive strategic review of its portfolio but did not specify the assets involved in the current evaluation process. Some media reports claimed, citing people familiar with the development, that the French supplier is considering selling part of its Interior division business. Forvia operates its diverse business across six divisions: Seating, Interior, Clean Mobility, Electronics, Lighting, and Life Cycle Solutions. The last tw...
    Driving comfort: The transformation of India's automotive seating landscape
    India has emerged as the fourth-largest single market for complete seats after mainland China, the US and Japan. In 2024, automotive suppliers produced over 17.3 million complete seats for 5.6 million light vehicles produced in the country. S&P Global Mobility analysts expect the supply of complete seats to grow to 24.3 million units in 2031, in line with the growth in light-vehicle production volume, which to expected to reach nearly 8 million units. In addition to vo...
    Insights on robo-taxi technology and collaboration — Interview with Horizon Robotics
    The rise of robo-taxis marks a clear shift in the mobility sector, with the industry favoring a gradual, step-by-step approach to autonomy. This method allows for real-world testing of advanced capabilities, making robo-taxis a practical extension of existing automotive technology. Collaboration across the robo-taxi ecosystem is essential. Partnerships with technology providers, operators and regulators help build the platforms needed to improve efficiency and support future growth. At the sa...
    Interior Insight: Honda Civic Type R
    The latest-generation Honda Civic Type R arrives as both a celebration and a farewell. With production expected to end in 2026, it stands as one of the final purely petrol-powered, manual-transmission hot hatchbacks in a landscape rapidly shifting toward dual-clutch gearboxes, electrification and all-wheel-drive (AWD) mega-hatches. At first glance, the new Civic Type R strikes a more mature tone than the flamboyant model it replaces. The swollen wheel arches, functional vents and deep front s...
    “Our first products in cars will be in speakers and accessory motors, followed by EV drivetrains” - Jonathan Rowntree, CEO, Niron Magnetics
    Niron Magnetics, an emerging company with strong backing from the US government, has garnered a lot of attention over the last few years, thanks to the in-house developed iron nitride-based magnets, which can potentially replace the rare earth-based magnets. Several leading automakers and drivetrain suppliers are working together with Niron, strategically integrating its innovative technology into their core products to achieve sustainable, rare-earth-free solutions. In this interview, Rownt...
    Automotive industry faces looming supply shock as DRAM makers pivot to AI-centric HBM
    The automotive industry faces renewed turbulence as the Nexperia chip shortage disrupts supply chains already strained since the 2021–2022 crisis. While the industry is only now closing out the latest shortage episode linked to Nexperia components, a more disruptive challenge is emerging: a potential shortage of automotive DRAM chips beginning in the first quarter of 2026. Suppliers are increasingly reallocating wafer capacity toward high bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI data centers, where profi...
    The push to eliminate rare earth elements from EV motor supply chains
    Amid shifting global trade dynamics, automakers are being forced to rethink supply chains for critical electric vehicle (EV) components. EV motors—long dependent on rare earth elements (REEs)—are now a strategic pressure point. Recent export restrictions from mainland China, which currently dominates the mining and refining of rare earth elements, combined with geopolitical uncertainty, have transformed automakers' dependence on REEs into a significant strategic vulnerability. Rare earth ...
    Interior Insight: Nissan Ariya
    The Nissan Ariya enters a crowded field of midsized electric crossovers, and on paper, it doesn’t promise anything especially radical. Efficiency is average, the charging speeds are merely competitive and the opinions on exterior design are divided. Yet step inside and the car’s priorities become clear. This review continues our series exploring in-car technology and materials. Minimalist cabin design The Ariya’s cabin does not reinvent the electric vehicle interior, but it does app...
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