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Shift: A podcast about mobility

Alex Oyler: Starting fresh is easier than merging old and new on SDVs

Shift: A podcast about mobility

Automotive News

Business

4.637 Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alex Oyler, consulting director at SBD Automotive, joins Automotive News reporter Molly Boigon on the “Shift” podcast to talk about whether traditional automakers can keep up with the pure-play electric vehicle manufacturers on software-defined vehicles. He also explains how some companies end up stagnant by marrying old and new in the same vehicle.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the Automotive News Shift podcast, where we bring you the latest on

0:08.8

automotive technology, trends, and transformation. I'm Molly Boygan, tech and innovation reporter

0:15.8

at Automotive News. Our guest today is Alex Euler, consulting director at SBD Automotive. We spoke about what he's calling

0:23.9

the SDV space race and whether traditional automakers can keep up with the pure play EV manufacturers

0:30.9

of the world. The companies that are winning have a much smaller set of problems to solve from a

0:36.4

product point of view. They might have three or four different vehicle lines, and they don't have to support,

0:41.4

you know, all the way from your most premium vehicle all the way down to entry level.

0:45.1

But first, let's talk about the week.

0:46.9

For that, I'm joined by my colleague Doug Bulldoch, managing editor of Automotive News Europe,

0:52.2

who just got back from the Beijing Auto Show.

0:54.8

Doug, welcome back home, and thanks for being here.

0:57.6

Thanks, Molly. Great to speak with you.

0:59.7

Great to speak with you, too. So tell us about your trip. What did you see at the show?

1:03.7

Do you feel like the vehicles lived up to the hype? What did you see?

1:08.5

Well, we saw a wide variety of different vehicles.

1:12.9

And it's just amazing because so many of these vehicles are not overall present in the markets,

1:20.4

whether it be the U.S. or Europe.

1:22.5

So there were some that we have seen, of course, because the European market is becoming

1:26.7

more and more a market for the Chinese to enter. But even still, so many brands you'd walk across and look

1:33.8

at a stand and say, wait a second, I don't know these guys. And it just kept on happening again and

1:40.2

again. And it was interesting to see how the designs have evolved. I mean, it used to be

1:47.7

a lot of things that were just being done to grab people's attention. And also, there was a lot

...

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