My Job is in Danger!

Embyness
Oct 26, 2019
4 min read

Updated: Apr 10, 2020

We all know how hard the automotive industry was hit this year. In case you don't know, Suzuki lost $2 billion in 2 days back in July because of the economic slump owing to the fact that Maruti accounts for nearly 50% of Suzuki's global sales. This is perhaps the hardest hit, any industry has taken in decades.

As an automotive engineer (to be), I've looked closely at the various factors that caused this slump and let me make this very clear. THIS WAS INEVITABLE. Here are some reasons. Not all, but the major ones.

1. Shared connectivity is the biggest factor contributing to the slump. You have a phone, you can call up a cab, drive to your drop point and let the vehicle go.

In a way, shared connectivity is the best answer to resource management.

A. You don't need to buy a vehicle just to have it parked in the office premises or your personal parking (which you might have paid an extra 10-15 lacs for). Think about it, if you invest 10-15 lacs of your own money on something that is used only 10-15% of the whole day, you don't call it a good investment. And people are starting to see this folly. So you save up on the cost of buying a vehicle. You save up on parking space (yet another huge topic to be discussed).

B. Shared connectivity solves yet another problem. In point A, I wrote about the actual usage of the vehicle. Let's do a simple calculation, consider you drive your vehicle from your place to your office, which let's say, on an average takes about 30-40 mins of time. You then park it, and it stays there for a solid 8-9 hours. After you're done working, you take another 30-40 mins to head back home. You get back, have dinner and sleep. In a day of 24 hours, your vehicle that you paid lacs for is only running for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 mins. That means the working efficiency of your investment is only 1/24 to 1.5/24 ~ 4% to 5%. That's just a bad financial move from an investor's point of view. If I am investing so much amount of money, I want it to work for at least 50% efficiency or above. This is just a hole in your pocket, and shared connectivity solves it.

So people are not willing to pay such a hefty amount for something that they don't even use at up to 5% of it's potential. They'd rather just call one up.

2. Rise of the Electric Vehicle. It's high time we saw the negative impacts automotive emissions have on the environment. The government saw it too last year and we saw FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) which subsidises electric vehicle so that they cost less and more people are lured into buying it. However, the current charging station infrastructure isn't ready to support such a drastic change in the industry. We have petrol pumps at every nook and corner, but what about charging stations?

Range anxiety is another concern that stops a customer to buy an electric vehicle. Let us consider you're driving a Ford Ecosport which has a fuel tank of 52 litres and an on road mileage of 15 KMPL, then the car will be able to travel 52*15 = 780 KM in a single refuel. And this is where electric vehicles lose the race. Tesla Model S range is said to be 600 KM, AND THAT'S A TESLA. Hyundai Kona boasts of a 450 KM per charge range which is commendable, but do we have charging stations outside of the city? Would a customer really want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere without any means of refueling? I don't think so. And so doesn't the customer.

The government is pushing the electric dream and the customer is willing to pay, BUT, there's a lack of infrastructure and the customer is just not willing to take that risk. People are waiting for charging stations to go mainstream and then go electric. They'll wait till petrol and diesel is yesterday's talk and then move to the next energy source. And very few are able to see this in the grander scheme of things.

So, yeah, my job is in danger, but not really. This just opens up new avenues for people seeking jobs in the automotive sector. The electric vehicle market is sure to rise, if not now then later, but it will. Battery management and Battery cooling is a field every company is involved in. Hardcore R&D is being done on a daily basis because every company wants to be ahead in the race. More and more EV startups are coming up with such awesome vehicles that I am amazed and see myself working in one of them. Here are some EV startups to look out for.

1. Ather Energy The most beautiful electric scooter in India.