Lessons from CESA 2012

This second edition of CESA congress has been successful, with a large audience and top experts coming from BMW, PSA, Volkswagen, Bosch, Continental, NXP, Valeo and so many others. Through technical sessions, no less than eight round tables and an attractive exhibition, the congress has kept its promises.
But, what did we learn so far, after such intense discussions ?
First, electrication of the powertrain is really launched. In the future, we should see more mild hybrid, full hybrid and plug in hybrids, and later on pure EVs.
The second point is linked to the first one. Many OEMS and tier 1 suppliers converge on 48 volt, and not only in Germany.
Third, the architecture of the future will be for sure mainly based on Ethenet. It's not the only solution, however, and the automotive industry should find ways to simplify E/E architecture, instead of adding more and more embedded networks.
Fourth, if the connected car is on the way with apps and cloud-based services, nobody knows who will win at the end, between the OEMs, third party players, telecom carriers and giants such as Apple and Google.
Fifth, the automotive industry should work with new partners. The success of Autolib' in Paris, which celebrates its first birthday and which is the largest EV car sharing experience in the world, with nearly 2000 cars running in the streets, is there to show that it's possible to adress customers, even when you're outside of  this business.