SUPPLIER EYE

The recent flurry of investment announcements focused on the conversion of North America's light-vehicle production to electric-vehicle propulsion has been head spinning. No less than 20 announced battery plants are in the planning stages with a further round of yet-to-be-announced facilities expected to arrive later this decade. While strategies towards electrified propulsion differ between OEMs, virtually everyone is on the EV bandwagon.

This rapidly rising rate of EV commitments has many suppliers re-examining their future strategic plans with an eye on ensuring their organization can catch the wave - or survive a swifter decline in both combustion-engine and planetary-type automatic transmission volumes through this decade. In previous columns I've outlined whether a supplier should consider the sectors they are currently active in as being EV-positive, EV-agnostic or EV-negative. This determination and subsequent actions by each supplier to optimize the overall strategy are critical to future survival.