2nd ICAI 2022

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

Foreword

Ladies and gentlemen, dear readers, As predicted by one of the invited speakers at the opening panel of the International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020, the automotive industry is experiencing an even more challenging period in 2022 than that which it faced at the beginning of the Covid era, especially in Europe. It is facing new challenges to find the optimal configuration of value and supply chains. Among these challenges, aspects of European security and self-sufficiency come to the fore. These challenges are demanding enough in themselves, not least because the dominant global market is, and will remain for some time to come, the Asian market, where the advantage of size (scale) has been successfully transformed into technological advancement. Despite this, Europe is the second largest automotive market and is striving to respond not only to problems in the current supply chain configuration, but also to challenges connected with climate change. Here, with establishment of the appropriate regulatory frameworks, national and supranational economic policy in Europe is, in addition to well-developed regulation, establishing support through targeted measures within National Recovery Plans. Technical and technological development brings opportunities for the automotive industry in a number of areas, such as utilisation of new materials or the introduction of digital and information technology elements. Together with the introduction of new business models, including the sharing economy, all of the above-mentioned thematic areas also bring with them challenges to modernise the legal framework – these can be issues relating to liability during operation of autonomous vehicles, regulation of emissions or protection of competition, etc. All of the above-mentioned issues are naturally also today, at the beginning of the Czech EU Presidency, converging at ŠKODA AUTO University, where the individual departments are living and breathing these topics. Although the University is still young, it has already become an established part of international academic networks. We believe that organisation of the International Conference on Automotive Industry (ICAI) – this year with the subtitle “European Automotive Industry at the Crossroads” – at our university is yet another step, which will help to facilitate exchange and sharing of information in the given thematic areas. We hope that the conference will be a suitable platform for their discussion and will prove to be a valuable source of information for all those who deal with issues relating to the automotive industry.

We wish you an inspiring experience.

doc. Ing. Pavel Mertlík, CSc.

prof. Ing. Stanislav Šaroch, Ph.D.

Rector

Conference Guarantee ŠKODA AUTO University

ŠKODA AUTO University

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