40 Years of Driving Change (40 IESE Auto Mobility)

This is a highlights video for the 40th IESE Auto Mobility Industry Meeting, organized by IESE Business School and Deloitte. Marking four decades since the event was first held in 1986, this year's edition explored the defining challenges reshaping the global automotive industry: geopolitical competition, the rise of Chinese manufacturers, artificial intelligence as a competitive lever, and the restructuring of global supply chains. Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group, opened the meeting with a call for regulatory pragmatism in Europe. While affirming Volkswagen's commitment to electromobility, he argued that CO₂ regulation must be adapted to market realities: at current EV market share levels, manufacturers are still paying penalties despite their investments in the transition. Vicente Segura, Automotive Responsible Partner at Deloitte Spain, put numbers behind the competitive shift. China today concentrates almost half of global production capacity and manufactures more than a third of all vehicles worldwide. He also posed the central question of the day: as AI tools become democratized, how can manufacturers protect their competitive advantage? Alberto de Aza, Managing Director of BYD Spain & Portugal, highlighted vertical integration as the core structural advantage of Chinese manufacturers: with 85% of components produced in-house, BYD is significantly more agile in scaling and implementing new technologies than competitors relying on external suppliers. Marc Sachon, Professor of Operations Management and Chairman of IESE Auto Mobility at IESE Business School, contrasted China's AI strategy with the Western model — noting that rather than concentrating development in mega players, China injects AI at a basic level into all aspects of industry in a strategic, coordinated approach. Antonio Fondevilla, Global Head of Automotive at Maersk, warned about supply chain fragility, highlighting the automotive sector's dependency on Middle Eastern polymers and fossil fuel-derived materials across its entire manufacturing process — not just its finished products. Rafael Ruiz, President of Ebro EV Motors, argued that investing in domestic productive capacity is the intelligent response to partial deglobalization. Ebro's vehicle, built in technological partnership with a Chinese partner, currently supports 1,600 direct employees and 3,000 people directly or indirectly in Spain. Pedro Nueno, Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School and founder of the meeting series, closed the event reflecting on why the automotive industry has always mattered beyond economics — and on 40 years of bringing its leaders together to ask the hardest questions about its future. Throughout the event, participants called for proactive investment in AI, greater supply chain resilience, and a European regulatory framework that supports rather than penalizes the industry's transition. Also in the video: Finn Boysen, Chief Revenue Officer of NavVis Laura Delgado, Deloitte Legal Partner responsible for Automotive Antonio Rodríguez, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer of Astara Alberto de los Ojos, AI Director at HORSE.