The world of mobility is changing dramatically yet where are we going? NSCIIC Hosted The Book Launch Event of “The Future of The Car and Urban Mobility”

31 Oct 17

Ningbo Supply Chain and Innovation Institute China (NSCIIC) hosted the book launch event “The Future of The Car and Urban Mobility” on October 25, 2017 in Ningbo. The event featured two keynote speeches and a roundtable discussion and attracted many attendees from academia, the car industry, government, consulting companies and the media.

At the beginning of the event, Professor Liu Shaoxuan, Director of the NSCIIC, made an opening and welcome speech and a few remarks on the development of Chinese automobile market and urban mobility. In the first section, Dr. Venkat Sumantran, Chairman of Celeris Technologies and former Chief Executive of TATA Motors along with Dr. David Gonsalvez, CEO and Rector at the MIT’s Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain and Innovation (MISI) gave keynote speeches over the topic. Given that globalization and urbanization have boosted the rapidly growing number of cars, urban cities and the environment thus are threatened as a worldwide issue. “Many cities already stand on the edge of gridlock, therefore an innovative mobility architecture reconfigured has been treated as a social and economic necessity”, stated by Dr. Venkat.

The world of mobility is changing dramatically yet where are we going? The twenty-first century will see mobility dramatically re-envisioned. The auto industry is responding with information technologies and internet development. Mobility services such as public transit and car sharing are emerging to mobility challenge. Dr. David pointed out that the whole industry needs to rethink to cities’ mobility system which is more connected, heterogeneous, intelligent, and personalized (the CHIP architecture).

Following the speeches, the two keynote speakers together with two additional panelists, Dr. Marco Hecker and Mr. Jian Xu representing the world’s leading consulting companies (Deloitte China and AT Kearney Greater China) joined a Roundtable discussion. The roundtable was moderated by Professor Liu Shaoxuan. The panelists shared their insights and observations on the future of development of car and urban mobility and had great interactions with the audiences.

Subsequently, Professor Liu and the two authors jointly made the official release of the new book “FASTER, SMARTER, GREENER: The Future of The Car and Urban Mobility”. This was the very first exclusive release in mainland China.

This book was written by Dr. Venkat Sumantran, Prof. Charley Fine and Dr. David Gonsalvez. The authors describe the changes that are coming. City administrators are shifting from designing cities for cars to designing cities for people. Nations and cities will increasingly employ targeted user fees and offer subsidies to nudge consumers toward more sustainable modes. The sharing economy is coaxing many consumers to shift from being owners of assets to being users of services. The auto industry is responding with connected cars that double as virtual travel assistants and by introducing autonomous driving.

Guests’ Biography:

Dr. Venkat Sumantran
Venkat Sumantran has spent over 30 years in the auto industry spanning USA, Europe and Asia. He is currently Chairman of Celeris Technologies and serves as advisor to many Fortune 100 corporations. He was Director of R&D for the GM-FIAT alliance in Europe and later served as chief executive of the car business at Tata Motors. He is a member of the Board of Governors at the IIT Ropar and also an Adjunct Professor at MIT’s MISI.

Dr. David Gonsalvez
David Gonsalvez is the CEO and Rector at the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI)). Earlier he was in charge of MIT’s Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) in Zaragoza, Spain. Prior to joining MIT’s Global SCALE Network, he had a 20+ year career at General Motors where he was Director of Global Supply Chain Strategy.

Dr. Marco Hecker
Consumer & Industrial Products Consulting Managing Partner and China Clients & Industries Consulting Lead at Deloitte China.

Mr. Jian Xu
Partner at A.T. Kearney China, former Executive Vice Director Daimler Greater China Ltd., Managing Director at Arthur D Little Greater China

Text and photos by : Vanessa Wu (Marketing and Communications, NSCIIC)