Infosys

Jasmeet Singh Executive VP and Global Head of Manufacturing

Over recent decades the automotive industry has come under considerable pressure from policymakers and environmentally conscious consumers to become more sustainable. The embrace of electrification is certainly serving the industry to accelerate this agenda; After all, 65 to 80 percent of emissions an automobile generates are tailpipe emissions. The rise of electric vehicles, however, doesn't automatically mean the immediate end of the gas-powered car, and likely both will continue to be made and run on our roads for a significant time. Time – that I believe – we can’t afford to lose and must start to put to use to reach the full potential of automotive decarbonization; Industry players need to turn their attention more holistically, beyond impacting tailpipe emissions, to sustainable practices throughout the lifecycle of the automotive - whether electric or combustion engine-powered.

The future of the zero-carbon automotive is decidedly digital.

Digital to accelerate reuse, recycling and transparency along the supply chain

Automakers can no longer be part of the traditional take-make-dispose linear economy that has underpinned manufacturing for the past 150 years. Raw material supplies will eventually run out and there are only so many landfills we can cram. They need to pivot towards a reduce-reuse-recycle circular model, which captures more of the value that’s lost in a traditional linear system, by creating loops in that supply chainto retain inherent value. We are now at a point where, thanks to advances in technologies like IoT, AI and blockchain, every product and component in the manufacturing mix can be digitally identified, tracked and data-managed transparently throughout its lifecycle. A good example is the IOT-enabled part traceability system that Honda Car has implemented in India to enable parts tracking, through the production line without manual interventions. While this served the company well for quality assurance, it can easily be extended to help trace the origin of parts and ensure circularity along the value chain. This means car manufacturers and suppliers can implement innovative solutions for battery recycling, biodegradable components, extending life and efficiency of plants along with efforts to make manufacturing processes so much more sustainable. Digital twins can also play a significant role here – helping cut back on the use of resources for trials and tests by relying on digital simulations instead.

Digital to extend the life of vehicles and their components

New age digital manufacturing-enabled concepts like servitization – offering services on a pay-per-use model, with the manufacturer taking responsibility for the end-to-end life of the product – can help the industry become more progressive. The widespread use of embedded IoT devices in automobiles enables performance tracking, user experience enhancements, and innovations empowering automakers with live data to continuously optimize their services, and upgrade products through their lifecycle. This means longer productive lives for vehicles on the road, and fewer resources expended in building new automobiles and disposing of used ones. Building smart supply chains is an essential foundation for delivering on the promise of servitization and leaders like Daimler are investing significantly in fully scalable on-demand digital IT infrastructure to strengthen this foundation.

Digital to make efficient use of the vehicle over time and its use

Efficiency and discipline of use are concepts that lie at the heart of the fully circular economy. With more sophisticated software integrated into vehicles, driving will no doubt become more efficient from a perspective of both fuel consumption and wear-and-tear management. And as we move further into the regime of EV, digital technologies will continue to power efficiency-led differentiation. One needs to look no further than Tesla that is leading the electric vehicle race because it has more high-powered battery tech designing ground up and using software to make the batteries more efficient.  

No doubt, there are a number of imperatives disrupting automakers and requiring them to act on bold new long-term strategies. Prioritizing circularity in all their efforts will become non-negotiable. With a task as ambitious and as crucial as this at hand, it will take the entire industry – OEMs, surrounding players and technology partners - to come together to see us all through this transition.