Mobility was the main topic of the Conference & Exhibition, with a conference about the future of a pivotal industry for the steel value chain.

 

Electric, but not only electric. The entire transport industry - cars, commercial vehicles, or rail transport - is faced with challenges which require complex answers. This is in a nutshell what emerged during the “THE FUTURE OF END-USERS: SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY” conference, organized for the second afternoon at Made in Steel.

 

On the one hand the industry «is experiencing three major trends: greater focus on the environmental footprint, more safety and greater efficiency – said Gianpiero Mastinu, Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan and Secretary of the Lombardy Cluster for mobility -.

 

Secondly a number of technological challenges. «For commercial vehicles – said Sergio Carpentiere, chief purchasing officer at CNH Industrial – electric engines do not guarantee the power needed for professional use, and therefore it is highly likely that, in the future, traditional engines, or alternative combustion engines including gas, will go hand in hand with electric ones».

 

The same applies to farming equipment: Giovanni Esposito, Head of innovation at Argo Tractors, remarked that, based on his company preliminary tests with available technologies «tractors would need a 6 cubic meter battery, which is not a viable solution».

 

A total transition to electric vehicles, moreover, would set the stage for geopolitical risks: «Nickel, lithium, cobalt, which are scarcely available, are necessary to make batteries:  Some raw materials, as in the case of cobalt, are mined exclusively in Congo – said Carlo Mapelli, professor at the Polytechnic of Milan -.

 

Watch the live streaming video of the conference.