I sat down with Helmuth Ritzer, Co-Founder and Managing Director of 800 Volt Technologies, for a deep dive into the forces shaping today’s automotive landscape. We explored the digitisation challenges OEMs are currently grappling with, drawing on Helmuth’s rich background at Daimler and his leadership roles across HERE Technologies, car2go, and moovel. Our conversation spanned the enablement of OEMs through digital innovation, the electrification of powertrains, and the rise of the software-defined vehicle (SDV). We discussed the shifting value proposition in the industry, the evolving engineering-manufacturing dynamic inspired by smartphone business models, and the pressure from global competition—particularly from China. Helmuth shared real-world AI use cases across infotainment, safety, location services, and autonomous driving, and offered insight into smart charging, V2X integration, and enabling charging everywhere. We closed with a forward-looking view on collaborative innovation models and the operating framework required to scale autonomous mobility.