A Study of Electric Powertrain Engineering - Its Requirements and Stakeholders Perspectives

The automotive domain is a key industrial sector for Europe with 13.8 million jobs, representing 6.1% of total EU employment, and generating a yearly trade balance of over 84.4 billion. Simultaneously the automotive industry is and has for many years been the key driver of knowledge and innovation in Europe and is the second biggest R&D sector. In addition to this the automotive market is of a highly competitive nature and is now being reorganized on a very broad front in a process which has been continuing for some years. One of the major Drivers-of-Change in the recent time period was related to powertrain electrification and novel energy-efficient propulsion systems. Due to massive societal challenges of CO2 reduction regulations the entire industry has given electrified mobility first priority. This paper will concentrate on the evaluation of electric powertrain related skills required by stakeholder. The aim of this analysis is to establish a basis of skills required by those companies which are developing electric powertrain solutions of the future and develop an adequate training for future electric powertrain engineers. To that aim, the analysis presented in this paper integrates the different viewpoints of stakeholders (including EU perspective, industry representatives, researchers, and niche domain perspectives). Within this work, we present the different stakeholder view points and implications for the development of training concepts related to a smooth upskilling of engineers for the electronic powertrain engineering topics.