E-mobility, the Impact on the Comodity System

A two-day convention and particularly intense networking dedicated to e-mobility characterised the 50th FARO Meeting, hosted by Geico Spa

by Mario Conserva

While waiting for the next Meeting which FARO, The International Commodities Club, has already planned for July 5th and 6th in Fabriano (near Ancona), which will be hosted by Elica Spa, and will focus on the theme of Smart Builiding and of the connected apparatuses and appliances, the Club warmed up on April 12th and 13th with its 50th Meeting organized in Cinisello Balsamo (near Milan) and hosted by Geico Spa. There was much talk about electric engines, of course, because the key topic of this two-day convention and networking event was e-mobility. The speech by Al Bedwell, Director, Global Powertrain, LMC Automotive, revealed that in 2017, 750,000 more electric vehicles were produced with respect to the previous year. And while Japan may be considered the cradle of electric mobility with a market share of 27.3%, made up mainly of hybrids, including plug-ins, Europe, while on a smaller scale, reaches 723,000 vehicles, adding up to 4% of global sales.
In a setting where Tesla stood out as one of the brightest stars, the issues still to be solved remain however numerous. The aluminium industry, as Paolo Menossi remarked during Kerb Time, is called upon to perform a remarkable innovative effort to reply with new products and processes to the challenges of lightweighting and of engines conceived in a radically different way. The effects of electric transportation on materials, on the cost and availability of raw materials and on technologies will be the object of a specific White Paper edited by FARO Club and which will be published soon. It will contain exclusive data and studies carried out by Ducker Worldwide and LMC Automotive, Service Partners of the Club, as well as special in-depth analyses by lecturers from Turin’s Polytechnic.