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Insights
Written by our automotive experts, these Insights offer our take on the market, in-depth white papers, event presentations and informative webinars to help you stay up to date.


China creating its own path to EV success
A Chinese idiom says 另辟蹊径 (lìng pì xī jìng), indicating the idea of opening up a different path, finding an alternative route, or creating one's own path.
May 11


Could low-cost night-time electricity boost EV sales: SBD outlines how OEMs could use V2G partnerships to trigger higher sales of EVs
As renewables flourish and grids tighten, EVs are becoming flexible energy assets. Winning automakers won’t just build electric cars. They’ll master standards, regulation, and orchestration, while generating real revenue and cost savings.
May 8


Inside Ford's EV Development Center: The Future of Failing Fast
Long Beach, California is a long way from Dearborn, and perhaps that is precisely the point. After a recent tour of Ford's new EV Development Center (EVDC), it is hard to walk away with any other conclusion.
May 5


Auto China 2026 Flash Report Insights
All automakers are working to bring products to market in order to maintain or regain lost market share. Customer value and speed to market for novel technologies are widely seen as key strengths of Chinese automakers, and are often cited as reasons why non-Chinese automakers have been losing share.
May 4


Insights on The Automotive Ethernet Congress 2026
The Automotive Ethernet Congress 2026 marked a pivotal moment for the automotive industry. What once felt like gradual progress in in-vehicle communication is now driving major changes in vehicle architecture, security, and scalability for the software-defined era.
Apr 28


Commercial Vehicle Show 2026 – Summary Report
The Commercial Vehicle Show 2026, held from 21–23 April at the NEC Birmingham, is the UK’s leading event for road freight, logistics, and commercial mobility, gathering over 300 exhibitors and more than 15,000 industry professionals across the transport ecosystem.
Apr 24


636 - Software-Defined Vehicle Ecosystem Players Guide - 2026
The Software‑Defined Vehicle Ecosystem Players Guide gives automotive leaders the strategic clarity to navigate SDV complexity, understand shifting ecosystem power, and make informed platform and partnership choices.
Apr 23


The Profitability Path of Automotive AI - Webinar Insights
The Profitability Path of Automotive AI Webinar. Where experts from across the ecosystem such as cloud providers, AI specialists, and automotive strategists, came together to tackle a problem that many OEMs are quietly struggling with: turning AI innovation into sustainable profit.
Apr 22


Your complimentary Q1 2026 Quarterly Wrap-up report
A complimentary report for SBD Automotive subscribers, the Q1 Quarterly Wrap-up helps you quickly catch-up on the automotive AI, CASES & SDV trends from the past few months, providing insights from our analysts on the impact of major announcements.
Apr 15


From SDV to AI‑Defined: Trends from the 3rd Automotive Computing Conference (ACC)
Automotive computing is consolidating and accelerating. Over two days in Dearborn, the conversation moved from software‑defined vehicles (SDVs) to AI‑defined vehicles (AIDVs), with speakers aligning on three aspects: consolidating compute, shifting intelligence to the edge, and virtualizing development.
Apr 8


Features on Demand: The Quiet Revolution Reshaping Automotive Revenue
The shift to SDV has redefined how OEMs compete, making software strategy central to long-term value creation.
Mar 31


MWC Barcelona 2026: Why the “IQ Era” Matters for Automotive
MWC Barcelona has historically been viewed as a telecom-led event, but in 2026 it became clear that connectivity is no longer the headline story. Instead, the industry is entering what the GSMA described as the “IQ Era”: a phase where networks, devices, and cloud infrastructure evolve into intelligence platforms, rather than simply pipes for data. With 105,000+ attendees and over 2,900 exhibitors from 207 countries, MWC 2026 reinforced its role as the global benchmark for wha
Mar 27


From Hype to Profit: Navigating the Real Economics of Automotive AI
On April 15, 2026, SBD Automotive will host a live webinar tackling one of the most pressing questions facing the industry today: how do you turn automotive AI from a source of excitement into a driver of sustainable profit? Titled “The Profitability Path of Automotive AI – From ‘Hype’ to ‘Sustainable Profit’,” this session is designed for decision-makers navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of software- and AI-defined vehicles. As generative AI becomes embedded across b
Mar 24


Software-Defined Vehicle & AI-Defined Vehicle Europe Summit – Frankfurt, March 19
If there’s one thing that became clear the moment I opened the day in Frankfurt, it’s this: the automotive industry is no longer just building cars, it’s building software platforms on wheels.
Mar 20


The validation cost paradigm: SBD methods show how exponential VPA functionality doesn’t have to mean exponential spend on testing
For years, in-car voice assistants were largely transactional. Drivers issued rigid commands (“navigate home”) and the system executed a predefined action.
Mar 18


When cost reduction backfires: SBD analysis of how deletion of steering locks is costing some OEMs dearly
The current trend for OEMs not to fit a Steering Column Lock or a locking transmission pawl (transmission lock) and instead, rely on the electronic parking brake systems to meet the Anti-Theft Regulations, has led to a spate of low tech, push away thefts, particularly in Italy.
Mar 11


Defining the Future of Automotive Audio
As vehicle programs pivot toward centralized and zonal architectures, most OEM audio strategies are still built around legacy assumptions. Amplifiers, speakers and branded options get plenty of attention but the software that determines how those components behave over a vehicle’s lifespan usually does not. The result is an audio stack that looks great on the surface, but is still specified, sourced and governed as if the vehicle were not software defined at all. This gap is
Mar 10


Customer Is King: Why L2++ Might Outpace L3 in the near term
"Customer is king." It’s a principle the automotive industry knows well. Yet in the race toward automated driving, OEMs sometimes seem to be racing each other more than listening to the market.
Mar 4


CTA Mobility Executive Roundtable at CES 2026
The executive lunch co-sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), SBD Automotive, and HERE Technologies offered a pulse check on the state of global mobility.
Feb 27


Van Security Matters: Addressing the Growing Threat of Light Commercial Vehicle Theft
Statistics show that the number of passenger cars stolen continues to be at its highest level since before the pandemic. However, the theft of – and from – vans seems to be forgotten or ignored.
Feb 26


Ford’s new ‘bounty’ development culture: SBD’s take on how Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle balances performance and cost improvement
Today, Ford lifted the hood on how its Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) program team has leveraged bounties, vertical integration, and a new approach to vehicle design to achieve unprecedented efficiency in the pursuit of an affordable, mass-market electric vehicle program.
Feb 17


Advancing Post-Crash Response Through Data, Connectivity, and Injury Severity Prediction
By the time this insight reaches ‘tomorrow’, three more children will have died in a car crash in the United States.
Feb 13


Solid-State Batteries: The Future That’s Always "Two Years Away"
If you’ve followed electric vehicles for any length of time, you’ve probably heard solid-state batteries (SSBs) described as the next big breakthrough.
Feb 12


SBD study shows that new cybersecurity regs may actually reduce cost burden and risk if OEM policies can adapt quickly
During my time at a European truck OEM, cybersecurity was always a hot topic. Yet many R&D teams were still unclear about what “doing cybersecurity” actually meant in practice.
Feb 5
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