COVID-19 has prompted many people to rethink life and work, and many industries to accelerate their development. Vehicle electrification has been picking up pace, and the car industry and smart mobility have entered a new era promising better, faster and more efficient development.
MIH was founded in October 2020 with an aim to gather together strategic partners and to offer solutions for electric vehicles (EV), self-driving vehicle, and mobility services, hoping that such partnerships can help them put their visions into practice.
The core concept of MIH was almost unheard of in the car industry, which has been characterized by closed ecosystems for decades. The MIH in its form is an "alliance" and "foundation" that can bring together traditional and new energy car makers, and software solution providers.
It's an open platform for EV that welcomes collaboration to accelerate the popularization and marketization of electric cars. Every member of MIH can contribute to the development and innovation of future cars.
Traffic congestion, low efficiency, high accident rates and high costs have long plagued transportation systems. Electrification provides convenience, safety, and affordability. Most of all, EVs align with the goal of zero-emissions. That's why conventional cars are to be replaced by greener, smarter cars.
According to Virta's latest report for the EV market, registrations of EVs in Europe in 2020 reached a new high of 1.4 million; China's 1.2 million registrations came next, and then it's the US with 295,000 registrations. The more than 100% surge in Europe registrations - as compared to 2019 - was the result of government-backed incentives.
EVs as a proportion of new car sales in Norway grew to 75% in 2020, 50% in Iceland and 30% in Sweden. They are doing everything they can to popularize EVs in order to reduce carbon emissions. Besides giving big subsidies to customers, car makers falling short of carbon reduction goals are given huge fines.
The mobility market is transforming. Suppliers and manufacturers in the mobility sector must respond swiftly through strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and operation optimization with which they can construct smart ecosystems of the future.
The transformation only moves forward when there are ideas, support, and collaborations coming from more than one group of people. That's the belief that lies in the core of MIH.
Members of MIH are divided into four groups - Advisory Group, Technical Committee, Working Group, and Interest Group, based on the specialties and technologies they have, and they work together to form an open EV platform with which they can achieve core technologies and standards, offering solutions enabling faster time-to-market, scalability, agility, risk management, and patent and IP rights. Partnerships are not one of the options, but a neccessity.
EVs with smart connectivity are becoming "computers on wheels." They collect massive amounts of data and feedback from each drive. These data are to be analyzed and used to improve safety, mobility and user experience of people's day-to-day transit.
The mobility market is seeing unprecendented reconstitution of the global supply chains. MIH envisions a better world for our future generations and hopes to work with the best of the best members who share the same vision.
(Editor's note: Jack Cheng is CEO of MIH Alliance)
MIH Alliance CEO Jack Cheng
Photo: Foxconn
Proportion of EVs in new car sales, 2020
Source: Virta, compiled by Digitimes, July 2021
