Triple Trouble?

Electric mobility is an exciting topic, as you can see in the ATZextra section starting on page 44 of this magazine. Unfortunately, the exciting aspects are not only associated with e-mobility itself, but also include the economic pitfalls it holds. The topic of the century is causing a lot of trouble: The simultaneous switch to software-centric architectures is known to tie up considerable additional resources. Even if we disregard the latter factor, we discover suboptimal areas that still result from the Diess & Co. era, with its overly positive “no dents allowed - always forward, never backward” aspiration of many company management teams when it comes to capacity expansion and attempts to completely abandon combustion engines which were considered outdated at the time. Looking at indicators such as the insolvency of Northvolt, the great hope for European battery production, the coming Chapter 11 filing by Wolfspeed, a player in power electronics, and the problems of Tier-1 suppliers ranging from ZF to Bosch, we can't paint a rosy picture. OEMs are also under pressure, and this tbh does not even already include job cuts resulting of the switch from combustion engines to electric cars featuring fewer parts, but rather a “go all-in on electric, but we're selling far too few” effect. Is this still a double dip or is it turning into a triple dip? …