As driver assist, autonomous-drive features, connectivity solutions, and new ride-sharing models continue to evolve, propulsion-system developers are facing the question: what does e-mobility mean for the propulsion domain? Future vehicles still will need to get from one point to another, but how these vehicles are operated will be the decisive factor in future propulsion systems.

If we assume all future vehicles will be highly automated and connected, one way of categorizing would be based on if they are privately owned by the drivers or they are shared commercial vehicles—for ride sharing, taxis, and shuttles. As long as the human driver privately owns and drives the vehicle, and uses autonomous features on demand, it’s expected the main propulsion system requirements will remain as we see today: efficiency, low emissions, performance, drive experience, image, reliability and total cost of ownership. Once the vehicles are owned by commercial fleets with sharing models and the human driver is out of the pilot seat, it’s expected additional emerging requirements will be the priority, such as high reliability and durability, uptime, and total cost of operation, as well as increased ride comfort and fail-safe/fail-operational.