Apr 19, 2021
In the Year of the Ox — is China Showing us the Way Forward?
See Beyond — Future of Mobility #2
The pandemic is still with us and based on level of vaccination and infection rates countries will be in various phases of opening up or planning to open up the countries.
The Ox represents diligence, persistence and honesty. We have all had to show persistence under challenging conditions. This year should be positive and productive, if you put down some hard work. It sounds promising but we have had to endure tough times.
Most of us are still waiting to blend virtual meetings with face-to-face time, travel — now we can look at how China have opened up. Trade fairs are thriving, right now the Auto Shanghai with the slogan “Embracing Change”* is ongoing. Should we look at China and learn, just like Dr. Angelika Sodian challenges in her book “In the Year of the Tiger” ** which was released just as Europe started to get the first COVID-19 reports.
Let’s think what has just happened in the recent days and even today—
- NASA makes a controlled helicopter flight from the surface of another planet (Mars) and humbly states: “It takes a little ingenuity, perseverance, and spirit to make that opportunity a reality”***
2. An autopiloted Tesla crashes with fatalities in the Houston metropolitan area (Texas) with no one in the driver’s seat. Sandy Munro expresses that the self-driving technology development is crucial for improving road safety, as it is already 8 times safer than the average driver****
3. Bugatti as well as Lamborghini reports their best quarters ever. Seems like the passion of driving is not over yet.*****
4. Polestar announces a 550 M$ from external long-term investors.******
5. Audi have been busy with their electrification — the A6 E-Tron Concept is revealed. A future oriented bold and good-looking design.*******
So back to Shanghai, and with Professor Dudenhöffer’s Car Symposium China Digital********, we get to see insights to what is going on:
More EQ’s — Mercedes throwing out several new Electrical Vehicles, even a luxury level vehicle, the EQS.
The show has several hundred new startups, innovation and activity levels in transportation and mobility are boiling.
Shanghai is developing a dedicated area with 560 km of track for Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICV). By 2025 (already!) ICV’s will be a major market.
Semiconductor shortages — from Bosch China we learn that semiconductor production is becoming part of the national strategy. And I think this is not only for China. This is perhaps also a signal that for high-tech products, production and manufacturing will be more and more in-sourced, in-country. And that counts for all major markets.
The MiniEV, backed also by GM is the shows cutie (so far) and will be a cheap BEV for around 10,000€, which is considered also for European markets.
We live in a time with rapid changes, exponential rates of development and our most precious commodity — time — seems to vanish so quickly.
With all this change and much of decision-making moving closer and closer to real-time judgments, there is a need for increased availability to proper, frequent and rich data.
Secondly, manufacturing of high-tech will be closer linked to national strategies (refer also to many countries own manufacturing strategies, innovation eco-systems and similar).
Moreover, the need for energy will not go away, and as the electrification of transportation is speeding up, we need to ensure that energy sources are as emission-free as possible, preferably carbon-neutral/negative.
— It’s demanding to keep up with the pace, just have to get more real-time data —
Sources:
*https://autoshanghai.auto-fairs.com/general-information/
**https://www.amazon.com/Year-Tiger-late-learn-China-ebook/dp/B083WKQ9KV
***https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nasa_marshelicopter-activity-6789874210845138944-TV64
*****https://blog.dupontregistry.com/industry-reports/bugatti-and-lamborghini-set-record-first-quarters/
********https://www.car-future.com/de/symposium/china/#teaser
