The Auto Industry Needs Students to Focus on STEM for its Future - Beyond the ICE

STEM knowledge is critical for future cars & trucks.

- Michael Coates

In 2020, despite the pandemic, European car buyers bumped up their choice of plug-in cars to 11% of total sales. General Motors expects EVs to account for 40% of its Chinese sales in the next five years. In the U.S., EV-only carmaker Tesla has set a sales record in 2020 of more than a half-million sales, even after two down quarters due to the pandemic shutting down its production facilities.

EV sales are the tip of the iceberg as automakers around the world double-down on electrifying their lineups. More than 100 new EVs and PHEVs will hit the American market alone during the next four years, according to industry trade journal Automotive News. The consequence of this is that car companies will need to have new hires steeped in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) training.

The electric powertrain is the future of the auto industry, but it needs some help. Adapting existing automotive platforms or even traditional automotive configurations to electric drivetrains will not win the day. Automakers need designers and engineers fully versed in the potential of these new technologies in order to create and sell automobiles that will offer buyers fully-realized cars of this new transportation mode.