Recently, ABB Robotics collaborated with the well-known automotive journal “Automotive Manufacturing Solutions” to conduct the third survey on the prospects of the automotive manufacturing industry, showcasing key insights from industry leaders and major suppliers on the production goals of electric vehicles.

01. The flexible and interconnected “smart factory” is the key to the transformation of the automotive manufacturing industry towards hybrid production of internal combustion engines, hybrid power, and electric vehicles

The survey results show that global car manufacturers and major suppliers will consider the transition to “smart factories” as the key next step.

Joerg Reger, Head of ABB Robotics Automotive Business Unit, stated that car manufacturers are deeply aware that advanced robotics technology, artificial intelligence, and digital twin technology are positive drivers of change. These technologies together form the cornerstone of the ‘smart factory’, which will help car manufacturers launch new models faster and more economically, while significantly reducing energy consumption and costs, and achieving sustainable development goals.

The latest survey highlights the benefits of introducing advanced manufacturing technologies, such as AI driven autonomous mobile robots transporting parts to production lines, digital twin technology, and more.

The survey once again emphasizes the importance of robotics technology and advanced automation. 64% of respondents believe that the application of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in the automotive manufacturing industry will increase, while 57% of respondents believe that more collaborative robots will be introduced to perform repetitive assembly tasks with workers.

Respondents stated that the industry has made significant leaps forward driven by generative artificial intelligence and software. 82% of respondents believe that adopting this technology has the potential to reduce car manufacturing costs, improve quality, and accelerate the launch of new vehicle models. The usage rate of another key technology – digital twin and simulation technology – is expected to increase significantly, with 73% of respondents predicting an increase in their applications.

The survey also emphasized how flexible manufacturing is seen as a key way for many well-known manufacturers to cope with complexity, including unpredictable dynamic demands for certain vehicle models (including electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and internal combustion engine vehicles), where manufacturers need to assemble different power systems in the same location while maintaining a faster product lifecycle. 84% of respondents believe that flexible manufacturing will play an important role in the automotive manufacturing industry in the next five years.

Reger added that flexible manufacturing is crucial in addressing the complex issues and financial commitments currently faced by many car manufacturers, and this is precisely how ABB robots empower customers to explore innovation. When there is a sudden increase in customer demand for specific vehicle models or when new power systems are available, it is still crucial to be able to quickly add additional and different assembly capabilities in a modular manner without interrupting production or requiring significant capital expenditures.

Although the respondents support the introduction of new technologies and hold a positive attitude towards future smart factories, they also recognize that achieving this goal faces many challenges. 54% of respondents believe that high initial investment is the biggest limiting factor, while technical challenges (35%), cybersecurity and data protection (32%), as well as workforce adaptation (32%) and a lack of skilled employees (28%) are also prominent issues.

The automotive industry holds a positive attitude towards change and has a clear understanding of the technologies that provide the best solutions, especially autonomous mobile robots, collaborative robots, and artificial intelligence technologies. But as we move towards intelligent automotive factories, human factors cannot be ignored. Respondents once again emphasized concerns about labor adaptation and the lack of skilled IT employees. Industry technology partners need to play an important role in training and education, finding non-invasive and accessible ways to introduce key technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Daniel Harrison, Chief Analyst of Automotive Manufacturing Solutions, stated that ABB robots are accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence and robotics technology, particularly in natural language programming development. In 2024, ABB Robotics named T-Robotics and Mbodi as winners in the AI Entrepreneurship Challenge. T-Robotics achieves natural language dialogue while maintaining accuracy; Mbodi’s platform allows robots to learn and adapt to new tasks through verbal natural language communication.

02. The production of electric vehicles will continue to grow, although there are doubts about the deadline for achieving “full electrification”

Joerg Reger, head of ABB’s Robotics Automotive business unit, stated that this year’s survey found that overall, automotive manufacturing professionals are optimistic about the growth of electric vehicle production by 2025. However, due to various factors outside the factory environment, they are unsure if they can achieve the 100% electric vehicle production target on time. There is ample evidence to suggest that the manufacturing capacity of electric vehicles has significantly improved, with significant changes occurring in the introduction of new production technologies and the enhancement of labor skills. ABB Robotics has made significant adjustments to its robot and automation product portfolio to fully support customers in accelerating their transformation.

Manufacturing industry leaders hold a positive attitude towards the growth of electric vehicle production in 2025, with 31% of respondents predicting that electric vehicle production will increase by more than 10%, and 44% of respondents believing that this year’s production growth can reach 10%. Meanwhile, only 21% of respondents believe that electric vehicle production will remain unchanged (8%) or decrease (13%) by 2025.

Although manufacturing experts are optimistic about the prospects of electric vehicles, confidence in achieving established production targets for electric vehicles has declined. When asked if it is possible to achieve 100% electric vehicle production between 2030 and 2040, 31% of respondents believe it is an impossible goal, compared to 27% the previous year and only 18% in 2022. Overall, 65% of the participants are skeptical about achieving full electric vehicle production between 2030 and 2040.

Further investigation into the decline in confidence has found that the main obstacles currently lie outside of factories, with insufficient consumer demand and lack of confidence in charging infrastructure being prominent pain points. The ABB Automotive Manufacturing Industry Outlook Survey also shows that manufacturing experts predict strong growth in hybrid systems by 2025, with 67% of respondents believing that plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) production will increase and 20% predicting a production increase of over 10%. The data for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is equally optimistic, with 62% of respondents expecting production to increase this year.

Daniel Harrison, Chief Analyst of Automotive Manufacturing Solutions, stated that hybrid passenger car production remains active, and the global manufacturing industry expects to produce more cars by 2025. This confirms the main finding of the investigation, which is that the current popularity of electric vehicles is not fast enough to support certain legislative deadlines for full electrification. In a manufacturing environment, parallel production across multiple vehicle models and power systems may bring considerable complexity and additional costs, as demonstrated in our previous research conducted in collaboration with ABB Robotics.