Automotive is at a powertrain engineering crossroads

At the launch event for MAHLE Powertrain’s Vehicle and Battery Development Centres, Simon Reader, Director of Engineering Services, showed a graph from 2010 predicting the sales share of internal combustion engines (ICEs) versus electric vehicles (EVs). It forecast that EVs—including hybrid and battery-powered—would gain a modest 20% of the European market by 2030, while ICEs would continue to dominate. Now, in a 2022 reappraisal, he believes EVs are more likely to take 80%.