Moving energy: The fusion of automotive and energy

Electricity is at the focus of several of the most pressing debates facing the engineering sector at the moment: the technologies used to generate it and how best to deploy those to reduce carbon emissions and conserve reserves of fossil fuels as they begin to dwindle and the costs of extracting them rise ever higher; distribution, and how to direct its flow in the best way to reduce waste and ensure that supplies always meet demand; and its increasing use in transport.

While the first two are often linked, electrification of transport is most often seen as a separate topic. Electricity generation and distribution have always been seen as integral components of the energy industry and are often discussed together. Transport — at least, transport over the ground — is the province of the automotive industry, which is so large and complex that it’s seen, if not in isolation, then only as a part of the industrial make-up of whole countries and affected by global trade and the issue of skills, but not overly linked to any other industrial sectors.