Episode 22: An Interview with Gary Vasilash, Gardner Business Media

Gary Vasilash is the transportation editor for Gardner Business Media. He has written about the automotive industry for more than 30 years and has covered everything from trends and best practices to innovations and emerging technologies. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Automotive Design & Production magazine, AutoBeat, Car and Driver and The Wall Street Journal. Products Finishing recently sat down with Gary to get his take on current trends in the automotive industry and what the future might hold for coaters and finishers. Check out an excerpt (below) or Listen to the complete interview with Gary Vasilash in an episode of our On the Line podcast (above).

The pros and cons of electric vehicles (EVs) have been long debated — in your opinion, does the advent of EVs seem to have finally arrived?

One way to look at this is in terms of investment, and the other way to look at this is in terms of sales. In terms of sales, General Motors has a whole lot of vehicles you can buy and very few EVs [the Chevrolet Bolt EUV and the Hummer EV]. The same goes for Ford — you have the Mustang Mach-E and you have the Ford Lightning. If you look at Stellantis, right now there are basically no EVs.

Now, that said, if we look at 2021 sales overall, there were roughly 1.4 million electrified vehicles sold in the U.S. That’s in a market of 15 million vehicles. Of the 1.4 million vehicles that were electrified last year, 487,000 of those were pure EVs and 969,000 were hybrids.

On the other hand, you have the issue of investment — and this is just mind-blowing. Ford is spending $50 billion by 2025 on transforming its ability to manufacture EVs. General Motors is spending $35 billion by 2025 for its EV efforts. Reuters calculates that globally, $515 billion will be spent by Global Automakers by 2030. Alex Partners, which analyzes the industry, is anticipating that $330 billion will be spent by 2025 on the transformation to electric vehicles.

I think that people in the finishing industry need to think about these numbers and think very hard about the opportunities that they present.

From your experience, what do you think a realistic near future will look like in terms of the mix of EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles?

Internal combustion engine-powered vehicles are not going away anytime soon. So, if you are involved in producing products that are in that space — whether you’re finishing parts that are going into engines or chassis or what have you — that business is going to go on for quite a while.

And, you still have body panels that need to be painted. You still have plastic components that need to be coated in some way. You still have a steering system, a suspension system, a chassis — all of the elements that go into any vehicle, be it electric or traditional.

But, the thing that is so exciting is that the auto industry is making huge investments, and this means that they’re going to be making lots of different things that they weren’t making before. And this, I think, is a huge opportunity that cannot be overestimated. At the same time, I think what the people in the finishing community need to keep foremost in their minds is that much of what they're doing now is applicable to these new products.

With regard to EVs, the internal combustion engine gets replaced by a motor (or motors, depending on the strategy that the vehicle manufacturer is taking). Those motors are pretty much conventional vis-à-vis motors used for other industries. Then there’s the battery — it’s breathtaking to see the number of battery plants that have been announced by General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, Volkswagen, you name it — Mercedes just opened one in Alabama. For finishers that are savvy in terms of dealing with electrical equipment, this may be a big opportunity.

One of the biggest hurdles for widespread adoption of EVs is making sure there are enough charging stations are available. Can you talk about some of what’s happening in terms of growing an infrastructure that supports EVs?

According to the most recent numbers from the Department of Energy, there are 52,000 charging stations comprising 135,000 ports. This is far too low for what is anticipated in terms of need.

Electrify America [a subsidiary of Volkswagen established to build an EV fast-charging station network] is constantly announcing new stations going up. Tesla continues to grow its superchargers network. General Motors has announced that it is working with various charging companies. Ford is working with Electrify America. Honda is working with Electrify America. So, we’re seeing a big build-out. But it needs to be DC fast charging (480 volt). People are not crazy about Level 2 charging — it just takes too long to charge a vehicle.  

Also, let’s not forget about home charging and the production of units that people can have installed in their garages. That’s another big opportunity.