Those studying for the Industrial Master's Degree receive a lecture about electric vehicles and the automotive sector

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Those studying for the Industrial Master's Degree receive a lecture about electric vehicles and the automotive sector

LECTURE

Those studying for the Industrial Master's Degree receive a lecture about electric vehicles and the automotive sector

Jose Manuel Cubert Otaño, director of engineering at GKN automotive for the last 25 years, gave a lecture on "The electric car, present and future".

2020·11·18

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Those studying for the Industrial Master's Degreee at Mondragon Unibertsitatea had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Dr José Manuel Cubert Otaño, a professional with an extensive career dedicated to engineering. Cubert Otaño has been Director of Engineering at GKN Automotive for the last 25 years, as well as head at GKN of of traction motors for hybrid and electric vehicles, having previously worked for 17 years at INDAR and always as Engineering Director.

The lecture, entitled "The electric car, present and future", lasted 3 hours, in which interesting topics such as the Basque and world automotive industry, new materials, new technologies and products were discussed. In addition, reflections on new trends in the automotive sector were discussed, such as digitisation, car-sharing, autonomous driving, propulsion systems, types of cells for batteries, types of recharging, hydrogen in electric cars, impact on the Basque automotive industry, comparison of carbon footprint according to the type of vehicle, raw materials and recycling of batteries, manufacturers and the world battery market. The lecturers from the Escuela Politécnica Superior who attended the lecture rated it as very interesting and comprehensive, as well as suitable for those studying for the Industrial Master's Degree. Furthermore, the rating given by the more than 70 students who participated in the session was very positive. 40 of them were able to attend in person in the auditorium of the Fundación de Orona-Ideo Building while the rest were connected in streaming,

A lecture for the present day

In the words of Cubert Otaño “the electric car is the future, a future that is already here and that can be a professional path for students from the Escuela Politécnica Superior”. The speaker also highlighted the impact that new technologies are having in making the electric car a reality, that they are having on the Basque industrial fabric; and by extension on professional and engineering careers; “The impact on Euskadi is substantial, 25% of the GDP comes from industry and 11.5% of the GDP from the Automotive industry. We have to adapt to the new challenges that the electric car brings with it, such as legislation, technology, infrastructure and user acceptance”. Looking to the future, a very ambitious challenge lies ahead in the form of the conversion to electromobilty. As his final conclusion, Cubert Otaño emphasised that “in Euskadi we make products for conventional vehicles and so far we have done very well with this, but we are still not fully aligned and, furthermore, we are considerably behind in the development and manufacture of the new technologies and products required by the electric car when we compare ourselves with other European countries such as Germany, France, the UK, Holland, … and at world level such as Japan, the US and South Korea”.