According to a recent report, there are four specific issues facing automaker and supplier decision makers - and of course their engineers. 

The headline findings of the 23rd-annual AlixPartners Global Automotive Outlook listed these issues as the key challenges facing the global automotive industry: 

1. Vehicle affordability and associated stagnating demand;
2. A pull-back from globalisation - and thus the end of the global car;
3. A blurring of the energy transition and a dialling back on specific powertrain mandating;
4. The advent of the AI-defined vehicle (AI-DV).

In this episode of FISITA's Beyond the Car podcast, we discuss these four challenges with Andrew Bergbaum, Partner & Managing Director at AlixPartners, and Global Co-Leader of the company's Automotive and Industrial Practice.

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

In this episode of Beyond the Car, we look at one of the key aspects of mobility: the movement of goods. 

Logistics service providers keep the automotive value chain moving by orchestrating the flow of parts, vehicles, and materials from supplier to production line to customer, ensuring factories received the right parts exactly when and where they're needed, and customers received the vehicles they ordered on the day they were told it would be at the dealership. 

This episode features two interviews, presenting differing perspectives in order to get a sense of the challenges, innovations, and strategic decisions that influence the movement of finished vehicles, parts and materials through an increasingly complex global supply chain. You'll hear first from Christopher Ludwig, Chief Content Officer at Automotive Logistics Magazine and the Ultima Media Group behind that publication, among others; you'll then hear from Achim Glass, an automotive logistics industry expert, Head of Sales Automotive for Northern Europe at AP Moller Maersk, who talked about the challenges and opportunities faced by automotive suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, and logistics service providers, and why Maersk joined FISITA.

About the guests

Christopher Ludwig - Chief Content Officer, Automotive Logistics Magazine and Ultima Media

Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn

Achim Glass - Head of Sales Automotive (North Europe Continent), A.P.

Connect with Achim on LinkedIn

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

In the complex world of automotive technology, there’s so much more to stopping than brakes—and there’s so much more to brakes than stopping. 

In this episode of FISITA's Beyond the Car Podcast, we're talking about the evolution of brake technology, from a practical and necessary safety device, to an intelligent system that's become central to the successful implementation of next-generation vehicle technology.

Olivier Coppin, Vice President of Innovation at Brembo, and Fabio Squadrani, Senior Manager, Brake Technology at Applus+IDIADA, discuss advances in brake and chassis technology, the influence of megatrends such as electrification, software defined vehicle, artificial intelligence, and automation, as well as the ongoing corner module conundrum: will it ever happen?

Guests

Olivier Coppin - VP Innovation, Brembo LinkedIn

Fabio Squadrani - Senior Manager, Braking Systems at Applus+ IDIADA LinkedIn

More information about the FISITA Advanced Chassis Technology Expert Group: Expert Group – Advanced Chassis Technology – FISITA

Get in touch!

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” – so goes the motorsport-related marketing mantra, coined to indicate that racing success can help move road cars off dealership forecourts.

The pinnacle of automotive engineering, motorsport fuels rapid technology development, with proven technology transfers from race to road. What an automaker does at the track may seem a world away from anything in mainstream automotive, but the real power of motorsport is that teams are not constrained in the way their colleagues are in the mainstream automotive industry. They can push boundaries harder, fail faster, and develop solutions quicker - solutions that can then be fed back into passenger car development.

In this episode of FISITA’s Beyond the Car podcast, we explore the wider reasons automakers invest in motorsport with Pascal Vasselon, Vice President of Toyota Racing.

Connect with Pascal on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Toyota Racing here.

Get in touch!

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

Feat. Peter Sigal, Automotive News Europe; Sam Abuelsamid, Telemetry; Bill Russo, Automobility Ltd.   

In 2025, significant changes in automotive policy and strategy were introduced in the US, the EU, and China, with considerable implications for global automakers, suppliers, and consumers.

In this episode of FISITA's Beyond the Car podcast, we bring together industry experts to look at the key points in each region's automotive priorities, and what they mean for auto industry stakeholders. 

• Peter Sigal is News Editor and Correspondent at Automotive News Europe
• Sam Abuelsamid is VP Market Research and heads up Telemetry Insights' Transportation and Mobility research and advisory practice in Detroit
• Bill Russo is Shanghai-based Founder and CEO of strategy and investment advisory firm Automobility Limited

Get in touch!

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

How far can a vehicle drive itself without human intervention?

In this episode of FISITA's Beyond the Car podcast, we talk about just that: long-distance, hands-free driving.

Motivated by decades of record-breaking road trip experience and enthusiasm, and inspired by the idea of driving from west coast to east coast with zero human intervention, our guest on this episode joins us to talk about his recent trip from Los Angeles to New York City in a Tesla in Full Self-Drive mode.

As you'll hear, Alex Roy is a huge fan of human driving, and of automated vehicle technology. He's also very competitive, curious, analytical, and methodical - all the things you need to be to sit in a car that drives itself 3,081 miles from Redondo Beach in LA to midtown Manhattan in NYC - that’s 4,958km, in a time of 58 hours and 22 minutes, all without human intervention.

We discuss the background to the challenge and the history of coast to coast driving, and Alex tells some great stories from the trip he completed in January 2026.

He also shares valuable insight into automated driving, having advised at a strategic level right at the top of an AV company, namely Argo AI, and from the perspective of a regular automated vehicle user.

Connect with Alex Roy

New Industry Venture Capital: NIVC

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexroy

Get in touch!

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

Automotive suppliers and vehicle manufacturers have honed their skills to assemble the parts, subsystems, and subassemblies from individual components into the vehicles that we know so well.

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What they don't know is how many parts their competitors use - how they assemble and join them, how much those parts weigh, and critically, how much they cost.

That's where vehicle benchmarking companies come in. They literally take vehicles apart, down to the level of fasteners and fixings - and then they weigh, measure, photograph, scan, and analyse every single part. The resultant cost models provide their customers with invaluable competitor intelligence.

In this episode of Beyond the Car, Patrick Katenkamp, CEO of automotive teardown and benchmarking company A2MAC1, shares insight into how a teardown company approaches a vehicle - literally. He explains the teardown process, and the analysis - and what they do with the disassembled vehicle once the work is complete.

We talked about:

• how contemporary computing power and AI have evolved the company's work since its inception in 1997; 
• the trends shaping the automotive industry, vehicle design, and manufacturing - as seen from the inside out;
• the role of software and electrification; and
• China's influence on the global auto industry.

Get in touch!

Follow FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast on LinkedIn

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

Episode 3 of FISITA's Beyond the Car podcast features a conversation with Pierre Millette, the Chief Technology Officer of ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.

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ACEA is headquartered in Brussels, directly opposite the city's famous Berlaymont building, the home of the European Commission (EC), the executive branch of the European Union (EU).

We talked about the role of ACEA, and how it represents its members in discussions with European regulators, and on the world stage. We looked at the challenges currently facing automakers in general, and the European industry in particular. As the title suggests, we discussed  at length the potential for a new small vehicle category and how that would be achieved in Europe as well as in other markets. And we chatted about challenges in the European and global automotive supply chains, the semiconductor crisis, and the evolution of the European automotive industry.

ACEA represents 16 car, truck, van and bus companies with manufacturing operations in Europe: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault Group, Stellantis, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group.

You can learn more about the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association at www.acea.auto.

About the guest

Pierre-Olivier Millette is the Chief Technology Officer of ACEA. Connect with Pierre on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pomillette

Get in touch!

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

Parking is, for most drivers, one of the most mundane and frustrating aspects of driving. But it's also one of the most complex challenges in urban mobility - one that reaches deep into issues that include public transportation, urban design, business models, technology, and sustainability.

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In this episode, we discuss the business and technology of parking with Lukas Neckermann, Co-Founder of the Urban Places Lab, and Managing Director of Neckermann Strategic Advisors, and Jonny Combe, President and CEO of PayByPhone.

We look at the technologies that have been developed to address the challenges of finding parking, paying for parking, and what else you can do with a parked car, as well as alternatives to parking, the future of connected car services, and the evolution of digital payment services.

Episode guests

Jonny Combe, President and CEO of PayByPhone

Learn more at paybyphone.com and connect with Jonny on LinkedIn

Lukas Neckermann, Co-Founder of the Urban Places Lab, and the Managing Director of Neckermann Strategic Advisors

Find out more at neckermann.net and connect with Lukas on LinkedIn

Links

Dynamic parking availability information in Paris:

Have We Helped Solved Parking’s Biggest Problem?

The Urban Places Lab White paper mentioned by Lukas (published in German):

"Parkflächen im Umbruch – Lösungen für den Einzelhandel"

Whitepaper Parkflächen - Urban Places Lab

Get in touch!

Follow FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast on LinkedIn

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.

FISITA is the global alliance for automotive engineers and engineering leaders, led by the FISITA President.

In 2025, the two-year rolling presidency of FISITA was passed from Mike Anderson to ChangHwan Kim.

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Mike is Vice President Global Battery & Propulsion Engineering at General Motors, and ChangHwan is Executive Vice President, and Head of Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development at Hyundai Motor Company.

As well as discussing their current corporate responsibilities, we talked at length about FISITA—what it means to them, Mike's reflections on his Presidency from 2023 to 2025, and how ChangHwan aims to lead the organisation during his tenure that runs from 2025 to 2027.

We discussed the role of FISITA, the important work it does in bringing engineers together in the pre-competitive space, and the evolution of the organisation.

This episode of Beyond the Car was recorded on the sidelines of the 2025 FISITA World Mobility Conference, so there are some gentle background atmospherics thanks to the buzz of the event that was going on around us.

I'd like to thank Mike and ChangHwan for being on the podcast. It’s not often that we get two FISITA presidents in the same room, so we’re delighted that this episode came together as it did.

About the guests

Mike Anderson, Vice President Global Battery & Propulsion Engineering at General Motors

linkedin.com/in/mike-anderson-a5040311

ChangHwan Kim, Executive Vice President, and Head of Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development at Hyundai Motor Company

linkedin.com/in/chang-hwan-kim-3b992b16

To learn more about FISITA, go to fisita.com

Get in touch!

Follow FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast on LinkedIn

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Podcast website: Beyond the Car Podcast - FISITA

You can listen to FISITA's 'Beyond the Car' podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information about FISITA, head to FISITA.com - and to learn more about the 'Beyond the Car' podcast, you can contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to Martyn Strong for production.