The Polarisation of Electrification

Magnus Bredin, Manager System Engineering, Micropower Group

David Bailey serves as Senior Sales Development Manager at Edmunds, where he is responsible for creating and implementing sales development, sales enablement, and curriculum for new and existing sales personnel. He joined the company in 2015 as a Sales Effectiveness Manager, focusing on dealer training and new hire development, overseeing training and development for Edmunds' more than 8,000 dealer partners. David holds a Bachelor's in Marketing from San Francisco State University.

Whether we like it or not we are in an ongoing technological transition going from traditional combustion systems (ICE) to electrification (EV).

The transition is in different states and maturity in different segments of the industry.

Personally, I been working in both segments were electrification been used for decades and others like in automotive industry where it is “quite” new.

What has been striking me and what seems to be accelerating lately is how digital and polarised the opinions, strategies and discussions are. One side, the “EV-lovers” is aggressively pushing that usage of any ICE application is going back to stone age. On the other side we have the “EV-haters” that in the same way aggressively pushing the other direction

claiming that any EV application is madness and that electrification is just a hoax.

Many big companies have since some year back been pushing plans and strategies for 100 percent electrification. Now some of them are pulling back from these plans and the “EV-haters” gets grist to the mill and the debate escalates.

So why has this topic become so black and white then?

My opinion and scouting:

When new technologies arise, it seems to always be an entering phase when it’s unrealistically positive and hyped. After that comes a phase when it goes in the other direction and gets unrealistic negative before it finally will swing into something realistic.

I think a lot comes back to how we are as humans. We strive to search for one solution that answers all questions. One answer that is true everywhere. We also (including myself) often tend to judge everything in the “context of my own” and then assuming this also true for all other contexts or applications. It seems also that there are two types of humans in this topic. Early adopters who jump on new trends and technologies blindly and the other side who refuse new trends and technologies even if they are proven to be better.

Some examples that justify that different solutions are needed for different contexts:

• Electric scooters that have flooded cities lately, imagine that you would try to make these with a two-stroke ICE engine.

• Garden equipment for example a robotic lawn mower, also here ICE seems crazy.

These are two examples where Electrification simply by its features is outstanding compared to an ICE.

On the other hand, if you have a heavy vehicle operating far away from charging possibilities, for example a forest machine or some other work vehicle, the ICE will, with its features, be outstanding.

“I think a lot comes back to how we are as humans. We strive to search for one solution that answers all questions. One answer that is true everywhere. We also (including myself) often tend to judge everything in the “context of my own” and then assuming this also true for all other contexts or applications.”

In the same way looking into the automotive segment, also here the usage, environment sets different requirements for what is the best solution. For users that operate in city that use the car in warm climate going shorter distances and with good charging possibilities an EV gives a lot of advantages and good features. If you on the other hand operate in an area with cold climate far away from the grid with few charging spots and drive long distances an ICE would shine with its capabilities.

Future Outlook,

My personal belief is that we in the future will need both EV:s and ICE:s to co-exist in parallel for a long time. The ratio between them will probably change due to the evolution of technology, charging infrastructure and applications. This will also probably be dependent a lot on available energy and energy politics. Finally, of course, the cost of both vehicle and the fuel/energy will also come into play.

Technological development, practical advantages and cost will pave the way for the best solution. I believe and hope that the discussions and strategies will be less emotional and more fact based in the future.