Guest blog: on the road to a net zero automotive sector

Over the past five years we have seen notable change with the transition to clean-energy propulsion systems firmly underway, but there is still a long journey ahead as we strive towards a net-zero future. The future of the UK’s automotive sector has come under the spotlight with the recent launch of the Automotive Council’s roadmaps detailing an in-depth look at what the next 15 years could hold for the sector. 

Here at the APC, we have produced a series of eight roadmaps on behalf of the Automotive Council UK. What is key to note about these roadmaps is that they have been developed with industry consensus with input from 230 organisations including academia, government, and industry.

The technology roadmaps are a refresh of documents last produced in 2020, and this iteration reflects the considerable change we have seen in the industry over this time period. In particular, how we have presented themes has changed, with the introduction of two brand new system roadmaps in addition to the six technology ones, focused on the ‘Mobility of Goods’ and the ‘Mobility of People.’

The Mobility of Goods Roadmap is set to be a crucial resource for automotive industrial strategy planning, helping to build synergies across its interfaces with the wider transport system and the adjacent sectors. It highlights both the current and future mobility landscape, capturing key trends and drivers that shape automotive road transport for the movement of goods with an eye on sustainability and working towards net zero.

The Mobility of People Roadmap focuses on the surface-based movement of individuals or groups using personal or shared transport modes. It responds to a changing transport paradigm to define the role of the automotive products and provides a resource for automotive and wider transport industrial strategy planning, which helps build synergies across its system interfaces with the wider transport ecosystem. The roadmap aims to highlight the current and future mobility landscape, highlighting key trends and drivers which are expected to shape automotive road transport for the movement of people.

Working on the 2024 roadmap refresh, it has been interesting to see the developments and changes we had anticipated and those that we had not. In 2020, we knew an era of disruption was upon us in the form of climate change, air quality regulation, consumer demand and the expectation of a rapid transition to clean-energy propulsion systems driven by legislation. As we look ahead to the next 15 years, what we also have had to build in, is the significant global impact the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions and disruptions have had on economic stability and the automotive industry’s worldwide supply chains.

The technology roadmaps (Electrical Energy Storage, Electric Machines, Power Electronics, Lightweighting, Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Storage, and Internal Combustion Engines) all feature an overarching set of cross-cutting themes which address the impact of policy and regulation, energy and infrastructure, materials and manufacturing, and digitalisation.

As you would expect there are some areas that overlap as they are relevant to all roadmaps, for example the pace and breadth of infrastructure implementation, but one key theme we see threading through everything is the importance of the lifecycle circularity of all components and materials in these strategic technologies. Reuse, remanufacture and recycle is now at the core of the technologies along with the introduction of more environmentally friendly manufacturing processes with reduced water-use and energy consumption. Previously the focus to reduce emissions has been on the tailpipe but now we are seeing a more holistic approach to become end-to-end net zero.

There is significant focus throughout the roadmaps on the onshoring of the sector’s supply chain in addition to reusing and extracting what materials we can for second use. Over recent years the UK’s vulnerabilities in the automotive industry supply chain have been exposed and the roadmaps address the steps we need to take as we look to overcome this.

What we do very well as a nation is innovation and research and development. We have a fantastic ecosystem in place with strong, established links between industry and academia. This will be crucial as we look to address the issues we have as we look to build a resilient industry that can deliver against a backdrop of increased legislation, changing consumer expectations and an increased use of digitalisation.

You can download all eight of the 2024 roadmaps and the supporting narrative reports here: Our Roadmaps - Advanced Propulsion Centre (apcuk.co.uk)