Hear the word “sharing” in an automotive context, and your first thought is probably of communal cars you can access with an app. For Joachim Post, head of BMW’s purchasing and supplier network division, it’s a lot more elemental. “I believe it is better to share your ideas,” he says, explaining that collaboration is essential if we want to progress with individual and intermodal mobility.
No one person is going to be able to overcome all the obstacles to sustainability in the automotive sector, for example. “Sustainability is not something that you can solve in one day, you can’t set up a project and, in two years, it’s done. It’s a continuous project,” says Post. For that reason, he sees innovation as an integral part of sustainability strategy. “Every day, every year, with a new innovation, you can get better,” he says, and that improvement is only amplified when every producer, supplier, and manufacturer improves together.
“One of the most important things is to set up a circular economy,” says Post, explaining that the impact of high-energy materials, such as battery cells and aluminum alloys, can be far smaller if they can be recycled again and again. And that is only possible if the whole production line is working in a closed loop, to ensure the quality of the materials endures with every iteration. “Without circularity you won’t find a solution,” he says. “You must take a holistic approach.”
Post is also the new patron for rad°hub, an ideas-exchange event established by BMW in 2016 to encourage creative discussions around innovation in the mobility sector. The aim of this dialogue-oriented format is to push boundaries, bring together influencers with ideas, and encourage dialogue between visionary thinkers and opinion leaders from all over the world. The latest rad°hub event was centred around the question: “How we can collectively envision a responsible future?”—and mapping out a route to a “people- and planet-friendly future” was at the top of the agenda. Delegates imagined a variety of solutions: Optimizing space by equipping vehicles to transport both people and goods; car-sharing systems to help battle loneliness as well as pollution; and turning climate credits into a universal currency.
This type of exchange is important—to think outside the box and develop a robust strategy, especially with an industry in transition. Even the smallest improvement can make a huge difference in a business with so many moving parts.
At BMW, Post has around 3,500 primary suppliers, running over 5,000 locations, and all of those suppliers, have their own chain, too. “Sustainability starts with the raw materials,” says Post, so every portion of the supply chain needs to be able to work together to lessen the overall environmental impact.
To move things forward in the supply chain, BMW hosts workshops for its suppliers showing optimization tactics BMW’s experts have developed in their own component factories, which Post oversees. It focuses on sustainability with a holistic approach to environmental strategy, use of resources, and regulatory requirements. “It’s in our interest to share this,” says Post. “Many smaller companies don’t have the option to put in this level of know-how, but bigger companies like BMW do.”
These types of collaborations—and expertise sharing—are also relevant outside the sustainability sphere. Post sees this kind of in-car digitalization as one example of exactly where the future of mobility is headed. “Look at young people,” he says. “The younger generation live with their mobile phones, they live in this digital ecosystem. So you can only have success if you combine these worlds together.”
BMW recently announced, for example, a partnership with gaming startup N-Dream. The startup’s online video game system, AirConsole, has now been integrated into the infotainment system of the new BMW 5 Series—so drivers stuck in stationary traffic, or waiting for their car battery to charge, can enjoy the extra time spent in the car.
Again, this ever-evolving technology is another challenge that crowdsourcing expertise can help overcome. It’s not possible to design a vehicle—or anything else—using current tech and expect it to stay relevant for the next decade, says Post, pointing to batteries as an example. “If you look at the past five, ten years, technology has increased and improved so fast that if it’s not feasible for you to integrate the newest technology, you have a problem,” he says. “You must be flexible.”
Gatekeeping any innovation, whether it’s a new manufacturing process that helps cut down energy use or a system that brings joy to a traffic jam, is not the best way to get to the future we want in the timeline we want it. Instead, take Post’s view, and share.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
