Crain's Detroit Business: Tingting Yan on opportunity for small suppliers in EV boom
The multi-billion-dollar commitments of automakers and their suppliers to an electric vehicle future has spurred a battery-powered gold rush in Southeast Michigan. Vehicles with a battery core as opposed to an internal combustion engine require a new kind of supply base and pose a unique set of challenges, from combustibility and safety issues to longevity and range concerns. The supplier with a solution stands to cash in on the industry's new direction. Many are hoping to seize on the opportunity by expanding their scope of business and placing big bets on products and services. Automakers are poised to spend more than $300 billion to shift production to EVs over the next five years, according to consulting firm AlixPartners LP. General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV have said they aim for up to 50 percent of new car sales to be EVs by 2030. "You can always look at any disruption as an opportunity, and now is really a good time for a small supplier startup and also nontraditional companies usually outside the supply chain to enter into the game," said Tingting Yan, professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University. "All the OEMs and big tier ones, they are forced to think about how they need to restructure their existing supply base."
