NEW YORK—The road to future electric vehicle dominance faces many road bumps during the decade ahead, warns ABI Research. The industry is faced with numerous deadlines looming around the world to ban new sales of ICE vehicles. Forecasts have predicted up to 45 million EVs produced by 2030 and 71 million by 2035.

Before that happens, the auto industry must address a myriad of challenges, including scaling production, bringing down costs, optimizing battery lifecycles, increasing charging convenience and managing the introduction of a significant new load to the grid.

“The automotive industry needs to address the broader implications of the loss of the ICE, which has historically served as both a high barrier to entry and a key brand differentiator,” says Dylan Khoo, EV Industry Analyst at ABI Research. “Therefore, market incumbents must brace themselves for competition from EV-focused newcomers and find new means to define and differentiate their own brand in a post-ICE world.”

According to Khoo, key enabling technologies that will drive the adoption of EV power trains at scale range from novel materials and battery chemistries to battery management systems, connected services and digital twins.