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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the most significant problems were those of ensuring the continuity of supply of electronic parts and whole components. These were due to reduced production volumes, transportation problems, etc. Though the pandemic ended many months ago, the effects are still being felt, although to a lesser degree. Production at car assemblers has reached the expected level, but the question remains: how to secure for the future? How to reorganise logistics, and the supply chain, I order to avoid the consequences if another pandemic or other global event occurs?

The next challenge, this time related to the natural development of motorisation and changes in consumers’ expectations of vehicles, is the change in the way cars, primarily passenger cars, are driven. This calls for actions on a scale hitherto unexpected. New engine designs are needed, as well as new concepts for the use of cars, and the construction of a network of charging stations to enable the operation of vehicles of a new type on the scale that cars with internal combustion engines are currently being operated.

At the same time, the segment producing high-capacity batteries is growing. Here, too, the activity covers all possible aspects: from supporting research work to improving cell designs, searching for optimal parameters for production lines, constructing machines for the production of semi-finished products, and integrating finished cells and combining them into optimal packages. In the background, work is underway to increase the supply of lithium and other elements needed for battery production. Some of this work is political, as there is a need to obtain new lithium mining concessions in countries that maintain standards far removed from those of Europe, or the West more broadly.

The next challenge is the need to meet increasingly stringent restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. And that's on many levels: from producers arranging their own car portfolio in such a way as to reduce sales of the highest-emitting models by promoting hybrids and electric vehicles, to modernising production. The carbon footprint also includes the gas emissions associated with raw material extraction, component manufacturing, vehicle assembly, storage, and transportation.

Another challenge, also related to production and requiring changes, is to align production planning with customer needs. Fewer and fewer vehicles are being produced in "typical equipment versions". The number of vehicles whose appearance, equipment, and driving characteristics are decided by customers placing orders online is growing. This means that factories have to be more flexible, because of several cars successively leaving the conveyor belt, each may be different. These differences have to be taken into account at the stage of manufacturing semi-finished products, such as laying out and arranging wire harnesses to match the number and type of electronic devices ordered by the customer.

Also a major challenge for the automotive market is the high price of electric cars due, among other things, to the high cost of producing batteries with sufficient capacity. Electric cars are significantly more expensive than internal combustion engine vehicles, and many governments in Europe and around the world have stopped subsidies for these vehicles, resulting in lower customer interest and declining sales. A major challenge for electric car manufacturers and parts suppliers is therefore to develop more affordable vehicles, which in many cases requires changes to the production process.

Mitsubishi Electric has been supporting the automotive industry for decades with solutions that help meet the aforementioned challenges.

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