The race to the next generation of EVs

In the age of combustion engines, we marveled at roaring exhausts and intricate mechanical wizardry. But as the world shifts gears and enters the era of e-mobility, the heart of a vehicle is no longer its engine. Today, it is the intersection of data streams, algorithms, and electric currents.

Over the past decade, we've witnessed remarkable breakthroughs in electric vehicle battery technology. It remains to be seen which automakers will emerge triumphant in the race to dominate the smart EV era over the next decade. But one thing’s for sure. The winners will need to excel in three core domains: the reconfiguration of onboard data networks, the evolution of smart cockpit systems, and smart power management.

The revolutionary leap of 5G-V2X

5G Vehicle-to-Everything (5G-V2X) represents a communication technology powered by 5G networks, enabling interactions between vehicles and virtually everything else. These interactions include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), and vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) communications. Studies indicate that 5G-V2X delivers ultra-low latency (on the order of 1 millisecond), high bandwidth (exceeding 1 Gbps), and enhanced reliability that dramatically surpasses earlier Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) technologies.

However, "faster connectivity” is just one of the numerous benefits of 5G-V2X. This revolutionary technology also delivers:

• Enhanced safety: Real-time data sharing offers immediate alerts to potential hazards, such as sudden braking or changing road conditions ahead, significantly reducing accident risks.
• Optimized traffic flow: Coordinating vehicle movements streamlines traffic, alleviating congestion. For instance, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) highlights that this technology supports complex message exchanges critical for autonomous driving across L1 to L5.
• Autonomous driving potential, unlocked: 5G-V2X provides essential data support required for advanced autonomous driving capabilities, which is especially crucial in complex urban environments.

 
 
5GAA's roadmap for advanced driving use cases and connectivity technologies

This new technology is set to construct a neural network for automobiles, powered by 5G-V2X. Smart vehicles won't evolve in isolation, but will advance collectively through connectivity. With 5G-V2X, they take their first step toward collective intelligence.

Smart cockpits: Beyond screens, toward a new era of human-machine interaction

We've all seen the cars overloaded with tablets – central displays, panoramic dashboards, even entertainment monitors for front passengers. Of course, it’s a misconception that more screens automatically mean smarter cockpits. The truly smart cockpit isn't a collection of hardware. Rather, it's a human-machine interaction system, a Cockpit OS, built around a deep understanding of the user.

Smart cockpits are entering a new era driven by sensory perception and semantic comprehension. Multimodal interaction systems integrating voice, vision, gestures, and facial expressions are gradually replacing traditional UI logic. More importantly, the implementation of GPT technology is now making in-vehicle large models feasible. Soon, drivers will be able to have their very own digital cockpit twin, capable of remembering their preferences, driving habits, family members, and even emotional shifts.

Imagine this: In the near future, you casually say to your car, "Navigate to my mom's house, and pick up some roses along the way." Not only will your vehicle instantly grasp your intention, it will seamlessly coordinate navigation, e-commerce orders, cockpit ambiance, and driving preferences, all fully automated.

When this hypothetical scenario becomes reality in the not-too-distant future, the smart cockpit will have made the leap from being simply a "smart IVI system" to a genuinely "soulful companion."

Power management: Beyond "range anxiety" to smart power orchestration

In an electric vehicle, the battery is often the most costly and sophisticated component. The key questions are – how can we extend driving range, cut power use, and ensure safety? The solution lies not only in battery materials but in the smart, system-wide optimization of energy management.

Traditional battery management systems (BMS) primarily monitored temperature, voltage, and balance. Today's next-gen smart BMS serves as an AI-driven command center, integrating thermal management, predictive battery health analysis, and load scheduling.

Several core capabilities of this system are reshaping the energy logic of electric vehicles. Here’s how:

• Leveraging big data and AI algorithms, this system accurately forecasts battery State of Health (SOH) and State of Charge (SOC), pushing prediction accuracy beyond 99%.
• By integrating in-vehicle climate control with heat pump systems, dynamic thermal management becomes possible, significantly boosting energy efficiency. (Industry players like BYD and Tesla have already rolled out similar systems.)
• Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) integration supports two-way energy exchange. EVs can soon feed power back into the grid during peak periods, becoming "mobile energy storage stations."

Evidently, the role of batteries has far exceeded mere power supply. They are evolving into sophisticated, critical nodes within a smart energy network.

Conclusion

The future of e-mobility isn't merely about stacking chips or racing to build batteries. It is about understanding the intermarriage of three key concepts, namely data streams, algorithms, and electric currents. You can think of data flow as the bloodstream, with networks forming the nervous system. Algorithms enable connectivity, informing the smart cockpit to manage and orchestrate user relationships. And electric currents are the life force, providing power through an ever-evolving algorithm for energy.

Behind this technological revolution, the battle isn't waged solely in visible hardware, but in the invisible mastery of system architecture, algorithmic excellence, and platform integration. As a global leader in technology distribution and solutions, Avnet continues to deepen its expertise in key areas such as smart cockpits, ADAS, vehicle body control, and three electric systems. The global technology leader provides its customers with diverse, innovative solutions, helping them unravel complexity, reconstruct value, and blaze a trail toward the next frontier of smart vehicles.