Day two at MOVE America 2023 is well and truly underway! Some fascinating discussions were held in the keynote theatre this morning between the biggest experts in the industry. Here’s what you missed…
The keynote panel The strategic supply chain that took place this morning, hosted by Liz Kerton, executive director at Autotech Council. Kerton guided the panel with questions for conversation, all with an overarching focus on the issues in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain including a designated discussion on battery supply.
The panel was joined by a diverse range of experts to offer reliable and technical insight to the supply chain issue, including: Genevieve Cullen the president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, Amir Tirosh the COO of StoreDot, and Ryan Castilloux the managing director of Adamas Intelligence.
The front-running question which loomed over the talk was how? when? and will? we get the vehicle industry to turn fully electric?
Genevieve Cullen said:
“0-100 is not what we’re solving for. We need to be continually innovating in this space to address battery chemistries and we need so much more infrastructure and the completion of all these steps in the middle to make it easier for consumers to adopt.”
It became apparent over the course of the discussion that the rate of EV adoption in America is at a less than favourable speed and that the European rate is significantly bigger.
Ryan Castilloux said:
“A bigger challenge for us is the long charging time for DVS. Even fast charging stations some can take upwards of 40 minutes to charge and when you factor in minus 30 temperatures and the reduction in rain to get that makes it challenging to go and see family of 500 kilometres away.”
The panellists bounced between ideas of increased infrastructure, localisation of of battery manufacturing plants, and refinement of operations in order to create a seamless supply chain and increase in EV adoption.
Amir Tirosh added:
“The supply chain is now changing, in the beginning everybody ran fast in a cylindrical way and now the EV makers are more mature that they understand more of what is they require. They’re starting to deal with new changes and advancements in EVs and we are going to have some kind of uniformity but it’s not there yet.”
The keynote talk wrapped up with an opinion round-up of whether the panellists are optimistic about the future electrification in America, which received a positive response from each panellist.
Tirosh perfectly summed up the talk about EV adoption, he said: “It’s not if we are going to get there, it’s how fast”.
