FISITA World Mobility Summit speaker Carla Bailo shares her thoughts on the theme of the event, “To EV, or not to EV?”
Carla Bailo has been President of SAE International since February 2023. A past President and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), Carla is the President and CEO of ECOS Consulting LLC and a leader in engineering and vehicle program management with 42 years’ experience in the automotive industry.
That experience includes five years as assistant vice president for mobility research and business development at The Ohio State University, 25 years at Nissan North America, Inc., where she served as senior vice president of research and development, and a decade at General Motors. Carla is currently an Independent Director on the corporate boards for SM Energy (SM) and Advance Auto Parts (AAP).
In the build-up to the 2024 FISITA World Mobility Summit, we asked Carla to share some thoughts on the theme of the event, “To EV, or not to EV?”.
What are the key challenges for the automotive industry in the transition to clean mobility, and how could these be overcome?
There are several challenges in the clean mobility transition, but the primary challenge is customer acceptance. This is followed by affordability, range, charger availability and raw material availability. Nobody can make a customer purchase something they don’t want. Customers have a plethora of reasons for not wanting an EV, and these need to be negated to make faster progress. Firstly, clean mobility products are more expensive than others, and when pocketbooks are stretched, this is very difficult. Many consumers can’t afford any new vehicle today, so EVs are out of reach. Range anxiety is real, especially in the US where driving distances are very long. In order to have long range, the vehicle cost goes up. So, back to affordability we go.
Next, charger availability which should be mitigated with the congressional funding, but so far, charging infrastructure has been rolled out extremely slowly. Depending on where you live, this is a problem that may last for several more years.
Lastly, raw materials are not being mined in great numbers locally, and it is taking far too long for mining and refining approval in the US. If we build a new battery plant, we must have recycling operations next door. This is the only way to reduce our dependency on other countries for the materials required.
Sales of battery electric vehicles are slower than initially hoped and expected, but the products themselves are highly compelling. What has impressed you most about the evolution of BEVs?
Simple: the technology in the batteries in terms of efficiencies and cost. However, we’re not close yet to the breakthroughs forthcoming. Recently, it was reported that a Chinese company is working on a battery with a 950-mile (1,529km) range, which is a game-changer. Also, there’s the seamless integration of technology to really impress the customer throughout the experience. This is happening on all vehicles but is particularly prevalent on EVs. Further, the expansion of EV technology throughout the line-up. At first, many automakers focused on their high-end models which were unaffordable to most of the population, but now that strategy has changed. If we want to keep up with China, focusing on affordable—or should I say, cheap—is critical.
We’re seeing regional and national governments introduce restrictions or bans on the sales of internal combustion engine vehicles after certain dates. Is this the right approach, or should market forces lead the transition to clean mobility?
As I mentioned, you can’t make people buy what they don’t want. In my view, this will result in several customers retaining their older non-EVs longer until they feel comfortable with an EV purchase. Market forces should definitely drive the shift, and this will be propelled by having the right product for the customer.
Electrification appears to be inevitable, but few automakers can compete by producing BEV only, and BEV is not suitable for all markets, in terms of cost, infrastructure, terrain… How will the transition play out?
My motto has always been, “right sized and right propulsed,” and there is no one-size-fits-all solution in mobility. We will see many powertrains including EV, hybrid, fuel cell, nuclear and more depending on the type of mobility, which includes land, air, marine and agriculture. We should consider the optimised carbon footprint for the usage. If we choose a solution which requires more energy to produce, manufacture, or refuel—whether that’s electric, hydrogen or other—this doesn’t make any sense from a total carbon footprint perspective and will not lead to a reduction in global CO2.
Automotive engineers face a wealth of challenges, with electrification competing with the software-defined vehicle, automation, artificial intelligence, and changing business models for automotive engineering expertise. How do automakers and suppliers prioritise topics and allocate resources for next-generation technologies while also maintaining sufficient focus on contemporary engineering programmes?
In my view, this is one of the most difficult challenges facing so many companies today. I believe you need to understand your brand identity fully to help with this prioritisation. And of course, you must understand your customer base. All customers are not created equal and perhaps you don’t want to go after everyone. Consider a Tesla customer and a Toyota customer: the characteristics in terms of what they expect in a vehicle are different. This allows Tesla to be on the leading edge of technology, as it claims to be a “technology company”. Toyota and some others don’t have this luxury, instead offering a balanced portfolio.
To be smart in this era of challenges, stay true to your brand and deeply consider the timing of the investments for the future. Be prepared in case things begin to rapidly shift and be agile as a company to move at the right speed. Agility is a company asset and if you don’t have it, get it! Technology won’t wait for you to catch up.
You’re speaking at the FISITA World Mobility Summit in November 2024. The event is titled, ‘To EV, or not to EV?’ With that in mind, what will be your key message to delegates?
As I stated before, you can’t make the customer buy what they don’t want. I’m a firm advocate for looking at the total carbon footprint of a product, not just the emissions from the tailpipe, or other emissions. The global atmosphere doesn’t care if the reduction comes from an EV or other mobility solution, so we simply need to reduce the level of hydrocarbons. Personally, I’ve been a fan of EV technology ever since working at Nissan on the first Leaf. But the customer will decide the rapidity of this transition, not the automakers or the government. We need to look at our carbon footprint holistically and continue to reduce it year over year.