The story of 2025 livestream: Electrification brings challenges and opportunities for OEMs
Although the transition to electric vehicles has been on the cards for years, 2025 saw a great deal of progress when it comes to electrification, with EVs representing a significant share of total vehicle production in key markets around the world.
With EVs accounting for around 23% of all new light-duty vehicle sales globally in the first half of 2025 – up from 19% in H1 2024 – and General Motors (GM) more than doubling its EV output in the US alone, it's fair to say 2025 has been a big year for EVs.
But this EV boom brought with it a number of logistics challenges. Transporting EV batteries is complicated, the charging infrastructure for carriers is still lacking, and the weight and dimensions of EVs often force companies to reduce load factors. Fewer vehicles per truck or ship, and a need to adjust routes to avoid weight limits, can severely impact cost, and definitely reduce efficiency.
And it's not just outbound logistics that's affected. On the inbound logistics side, EV production has its own headache – moving lithium-ion batteries from gigafactories to assembly plants, often across continents under strict safety regulations.
So this year, we saw OEMs using more ocean and rail transport for batteries, developing special packaging solutions and training staff in hazmat handling. Some even localised battery pack assemblies closer to their vehicle plant to avoid shipping high-voltage packs over those long distances.
But while there are challenges, the EV transition did spark a lot of logistics innovation. Some companies are establishing brand new processes and facilities tailored to EVs. One particularly interesting concept is the EV fulfilment centre from GM. Marcio Lucon, executive director of global logistics and containers at GM, shared more about this on Automotive Logistics' famous Red Sofa at ALSC Global.
"We developed what we call EV fulfilment centres, which are special places where we keep EVs and the dealers can pull from there, so they have availability [and] they can react, because if an EV customer loses their window, you basically lose the sale," he said.
Lucon also identified two key differences between ICE vehicles and EVs from a logistics standpoint: "First, EVs are more heavy, so their loading factor is different, so we need to plan in a different way how we do the loading planning for their distribution; second, there is more uncertainty in the market."
Also in this clip, Christopher Ludwig, chief content officer at Automotive Logistics and Ultima Media, provided wider context to Lucon's insights into the electrification journey in 2025, and shares his biggest takeaways from the year as well as looking ahead to what the industry might be able to expect in 2026.
Watch the full livestream on demand here and make sure to register now for Automotive Logistics' first livestream of the new year – 'Building the automotive supply chain of 2026' – taking place online on January 29, 2026.
