SEAT President Luca de Meo on Europe’s economic future at the prestigious Scuola di Politiche

Posted on 18, September 2018 by | This entry was posted in Automotive, Economy, Italy, Management, Spain, Technology, Transportation & Logistics and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

SEAT President Luca de Meo on Europe’s economic future at the prestigious Scuola di Politiche

  • The President of SEAT argues that innovation and training are the two main instruments of change
  • De Meo: “We need a stable institutional and regulatory framework and State agreements to encourage the competitiveness and internationalisation of businesses”
  • “When the Administration regulates certain sectors it must comply with the principle of ‘technological neutrality’ and tell us what to do, but not how to do it”

Cesenatico, Italy, 18-Sep-2018 — /EuropaWire/ — SEAT President Luca de Meo shared his vision of Europe’s economic future with young people from the prestigious Scuola di Politiche at an event chaired by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in the city of Cesenatico, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. De Meo reflected on the challenges facing the automotive sector, in a context of transformation due to the so-called fourth industrial revolution and changes in urban mobility.

Luca de Meo emphasised that in order to successfully tackle the future, Europe needs more collaboration. “Businesses, Public Administration, financial institutions and social partners must cooperate and work together to promote a European model of innovation. In addition, new collaborative environments must be created, such as clusters or innovation hubs, that enable SMEs to compensate for their small size when tackling challenges and dealing with Industry 4.0.”

De Meo highlighted that it is essential to have “policies that encourage the development of leading-edge sectors, competition and business growth, and which foster employee training”. “We need a stable institutional and regulatory framework and State agreements to encourage the competitiveness and internationalisation of businesses”said De Meo.

Training and innovation for Industry 4.0

The President of SEAT pointed out that each industrial revolution has been a turning point in history, but unlike the previous ones, the origins of the fourth revolution are different in that “society, with its changing consumer habits associated with the access to mobile internet and hyperconnectivity, is forcing us to change industry. We are in a continuous revolution and competition continues to grow. We all have to adapt.”

Luca de Meo underlined that the so-called Industry 4.0 is going to involve a change in the future of employment, where training will be essential. “The transformation of professional profiles does not imply the destruction of jobs. It’s possible to redirect the nature of work and train employees so they can develop their full potential and transform together with industry”. Innovation and training are the two main instruments of change”, he argued.

A future of constant challenges for cars

De Meo underlined that the electric, autonomous and even shared car will completely alter its architecture and the user experience. The key certainly lies in connectivity.

“Neither the autonomous nor the shared car can exist without connectivity, which is going to become a determining factor in the purchase of a vehicle”. In this sense, de Meo said that “cars will no longer be an object to transport people; they will be a connection platform where the driver will be at the centre of the network instead of the last link in the chain.”

De Meo pointed out that the road to the electric car remains long, as only 1% of the more than 14 million cars sold in Western Europe in 2017 were fully electric. “Success will largely depend on administrations and third parties: infrastructures, charging points or the location of battery factories. As soon as they provide twice the amount of range, are always charged and become more affordable, electric cars will outnumber the rest”, he stated.

The President of SEAT also underscored that “when the Administration regulates certain sectors it must comply with the principle of ‘technological neutrality’ and tell us what to do, but not how to do it”. One of the main trends in the sector highlighted by de Meo are the new mobility services. “Without individual mobility, economic growth is not possible. At present it’s impossible to imagine personal well-being without a car”. At the same time, large cities demand mobility solutions that were unthinkable a few years ago. In this sense, Luca de Meo pointed out that in these large urban environments “the future of cars lies in them becoming of shared ownership or a transportation service, where users pay for each journey and not for the vehicle.”

Scuola di Politiche, committed to political education for the past three years

The Scuola di Politiche academic institution was created in 2015 by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta. This school was founded with a view to offering political education to young people aged from 18 to 26 using meaningful content, contextualising politics as a service aimed at the common good, based on ethics and the value system that underlies public commitment. Luca de Meo’s conference was included in this year’s summer school programme, which for this edition was held under the heading The irrepressible motion of History.

SEAT Communications

Cristina Vall-Llosada
Head of Corporate Communications
T / +34 93 708 53 78
M/ +34 646 295 296
cristina.vall-llosada@seat.es

Ezequiel Avilés
Corporate Communications
T / +34 93 708 59 50
M/ +34 646 303 738
ezequiel.aviles@seat.es

SOURCE: SEAT, S.A.

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