Vehicles of The Future: Gina Maria Bonini Of Modine On The Leading Edge Technologies That Are Making Cars & Trucks Smarter, Safer, and More Sustainable
An Interview With David Leichner
Quality is critical in automotive manufacturing, given the safety risk. At Modine, we follow rigorous quality procedures to ensure we provide the highest quality product. We focus on preventative actions with APQP tools like failure mode, effects analysis, and robust control plans. My entire team is trained in APQP and embraces a zero-defect mindset.
The automotive industry has been disrupted recently with new exciting technologies that have made cars and trucks much smarter, much safer, and much more sustainable and more environmentally friendly.
What other exciting disruptive technologies will we see in the next few years? How much longer will fossil fuel powered cars be produced? When will we see fully autonomous vehicles? Can we overcome the challenge of getting stuck in traffic? As cars become “moving computers”, do we have to worry about people hacking our cars? How else will our driving experience be different over the next five years? To address these questions, Authority Magazine started a new interview series about “Exciting Leading Edge Technologies That Are Making Cars & Trucks Smarter, Safer, and More Sustainable.” In this series we are talking to leaders of automotive companies, automotive tech companies, EV companies, and other tech leaders who can talk about the vehicles of the future. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gina Maria Bonini.
Gina Maria Bonini is the Vice President and General Manager of Advanced Thermal Systems for Modine, where she is responsible for leading the company’s Zero Emission Mobility Vertical across global markets. Previously, she served Tektronix as the General Manager of the Component Solutions Organization and Technology Solutions Organization, focused on microelectronics design, development and manufacturing for defense, industrial and medical markets. Gina holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started in the automotive industry?
I became fully immersed in the automotive industry when I started working for Modine in 2021. Previously, my experience in microelectronics design and development was for various applications. When I came to Modine, I began working with a team of engineers focused on thermal management for zero-emission mobility and was introduced to the full spectrum of automotive manufacturing. It is an exciting and revolutionary time to be involved in the industry!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
It is hard to select one story because what I find most interesting and thrilling about my career is the opportunity to be on the leading edge of the ever-evolving landscape of technology. I’ve been part of the transition from analog to digital in electronics, migration from 1G to 2G and now 6G in cellular networks, the explosion of IoT for smart homes, offices, factories and cities, and the resulting impact on wireless spectrum management.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with major technology shifts years before products ever reach the market throughout my career. The chance to see the future and participate in early technology development is inspiring. Though, none of this compares to what I see today with the transition to zero-emission mobility. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime technology transition that leaves me feeling like I am on the frontier of an incredible change in our world.
Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
That is a hard choice. Modine has been actively working on thermal management systems for commercial electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. There’s a heavy amount of activity in the industry right now for transit buses, school buses, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and port-handling equipment with the federal and state incentives and regulations that have been released.
We also see activity among our customers for a range of specialty vehicles — fire trucks, refuse trucks, sweepers, etc. — and off-highway and mining machines, all set to form the next wave of electrification.
I’m excited to see all the activity across different applications and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). With our work at Modine, we have the privilege to work with our customers throughout their vehicle platform development for these different applications and have a front seat to see what’s coming next in the world of zero-emissions mobility.
How do you think this might change the world?
As transportation transitions to zero-emission vehicle platforms, we will see benefits from both an environmental and economic standpoint. We will experience improved local air quality as tailpipe emissions are neutralized, leading to better health and improved quality of life. EVs are quieter and more energy-efficient than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, so we can expect a reduction in noise pollution and overall energy consumption.
While the upfront cost of EVs may be higher than conventional vehicles, the operational costs are generally lower, even for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Additionally, electricity prices tend to be more stable than gasoline prices, leading to potentially lower fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicle.
Powering a vehicle from a battery pack also simplifies adding other capabilities to the vehicle, including autonomous and charging for specialty tools, as well as using the vehicle as a backup generator for a residence, office or sending power to the grid (V2G). This opens up the possibility of what role a vehicle can play in our lives.
I am also enamored with charging my car at home when not in use and avoiding “fuel” stations (whether gas or electric fast charging) unless I’m traveling long distances.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Good question. One key area requiring continuous thought and innovation is the impact on infrastructure as transportation transitions to EV or zero-emission fuel sources. This change significantly increases the amount of energy needed from the power grid to charge the vehicles or power the operations to manufacture hydrogen and electrolyzers. If not carefully managed, this increased load on the power grid may lead to brownouts and blackouts, impacting daily life and commercial productivity.
To truly reap the benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions with zero-emission vehicles, the power generation industry needs to be cleaned up to use renewable or other zero-emission sources.
Lastly, a new supply chain is being established to provide the necessary critical minerals for EV batteries. Careful consideration of the mining operations or other extraction processes is also important to prevent unintended environmental impacts.
I actually haven’t watched Black Mirror yet. Though, a reboot X-Files episode had a robocab (EV cab that was self-driven), and the passengers became trapped as an AI intelligence took over control. So, let’s also make sure there’s always a manual override in the technology.
What are a few things that most excite you about the automotive industry as it is today? Why?
As the industry embraces the transition to zero-emission mobility, I’m excited by the product development underway for the future of transportation. Innovation is occurring on multiple fronts, from optimizing the reliability and durability of the vehicle chassis to extending range through optimized thermal performance and higher capacity battery packs to the use of autonomous self-driving for improved safety.
I see problems being tackled every day — faster charging and in-route charging to enable long haul driving, vehicle-2-grid (V2G) to charge EVs when the power grid has the lowest demand and then return energy stored in the vehicle’s batteries to the grid at peak demand, to name a few. New companies are emerging with unique ideas and business models enabled by EV technology, including solar panels to charge the vehicle, local small-scale manufacturing for vehicles, and sharing autonomous vehicles. There is innovation occurring everywhere.
I also am excited by the investment in onshore manufacturing to produce vehicles and major components like battery packs regionally. This has led to a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing jobs for the automotive industry. At Modine, we’ve been expanding our workforce both at our headquarters in Wisconsin for engineering and commercial services, and in Tennessee, where we manufacture most of our EVantage™ Thermal Management Systems for commercial EVs.
What are a few things that most concern you about the automotive industry as it is today? What must be done to address these challenges?
The automotive industry is rapidly evolving and solving new problems every day, but there are still many issues to be addressed.
To meet the demand for EVs, the supply chain for semiconductors and battery packs needs to be scaled up. I recently read that the average new car has 1400 semiconductor chips, and future autonomous vehicles could approach 8000 chips per vehicle. Today there is a recognized shortage in semiconductor capacity to meet the specific technology demands for automotive; ongoing innovation in autonomous and other intelligent control will exacerbate the shortage unless additional capacity is added.
For battery packs, the availability of critical minerals is a concern that requires continued efforts to find resilient sources. Lastly, the battery pack represents 40–50% of the bill of materials for an EV. Continued efforts to reduce the cost of battery packs will enable the industry to meet the price targets needed on vehicles to promote large-scale adoption.
Based on your vantage point as an insider in the automotive industry, what other exciting disruptive technologies will we see in the next few years? Can you share some of the new developments that will make vehicles smarter, safer, and more sustainable?
I’ll start with your last question. The development and large-scale use of autonomous technology is undoubtedly a significant step towards smarter and safer vehicles. Autonomous technology is driving a significant focus on functional and product safety and cybersecurity to develop robust intelligence to pilot vehicles of the future to their destination safely. Beyond the increase in safety from the use of cameras, sensors, radar and lidar to complement or replace the human driver, autonomous cars open up interesting new business models for car sharing that could revolutionize how we view vehicle ownership.
I’m also fascinated by the rise of the eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft market. There is substantial development occurring in this space to enable a future where we take to the skies for short trips to avoid road congestion. Commercial electric vehicle market technology is being leveraged to empower eVTOL development and enable the future. In fact, across the EV market, I’m seeing use of commercial EV technology for land, sea and air vehicles as the transition from combustion engines to zero-emission occurs across transportation. As we make rapid strides in the bus, truck, and specialty vehicle markets, we are developing a technology stack to speed the transition of these other markets. Exciting times, indeed!
In your opinion, how much longer will fossil fuel powered cars be produced? When do you think EVs will be the majority of vehicles in use? Can you explain?
This is a hard one to call, as the transportation sector is vast and complex. Likely, the production of fossil fuel vehicles will gradually decline over the coming years, but the rate at which this happens is largely dependent on government policies, technological advancements, and market demand. Thinking in terms of automaker commitments, with some of the major OEMs citing 2035 (GM) or 2040 (Honda) as the end date for ICE sales, I think we can expect to see fossil fuel vehicle production slow to trickle within two decades.
Predicting a timeframe for when EVs will outnumber ICE vehicles is also dependent on a multitude of factors and will vary greatly worldwide. In Norway, the shift is already in favor of EVs. Focusing on U.S. policy, and regulations in states like Washington and California that phase out new fossil fuel car sales by 2035 will drive the shift to EVs more rapidly on the West Coast than in other parts of the country. Still, ICE vehicles purchased before the ban could remain on the roads for decades to come, meaning the shift to EVs outnumbering fossil fuel vehicles on the road may not happen until after 2040, perhaps closer to 2050.
When do you think we will see fully autonomous vehicles deployed in a mainstream way? What do you think are the main barriers to reaching that stage?
Fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) are perhaps closer than we may think, yet still a thing of the future. Research firm GlobalData predicts it will be 2035 before we see meaningful deployments of fully self-driving vehicles, which feels like a balanced evaluation of the current space.
While not quite the sci-fi device they once were, mainstream autonomous vehicles still have some hurdles to overcome. Advancements in technology happen rapidly, but regulatory frameworks and infrastructure are slower to move. Plus, consumers have to buy in, and widespread acceptance by the general public will require awareness, education, and time.
How else will our driving experience be different over the next five years?
To start, we can expect to see more augmented reality and heads-up window displays. These technologies help provide drivers with information about their surroundings in real-time and are meant to improve functionality and safety. Automakers continue to refine technologies that help drivers avoid collisions or parallel park with ease, making driving safer overall.
As more drivers shift to EVs for personal use, the way Americans run errands and road trip will change too. For instance, EV drivers will plan ahead to schedule charging breaks while grocery shopping or dining out. Rest stops will offer more than a restroom and a vending machine. Companies like Subway have already announced an EV charging oasis with picnic tables, Wi-Fi, green space, and playgrounds. We can expect an onslaught of similar announcements in the coming months and years as retail companies figure out how to connect with the electrification movement.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Automotive Industry?
- Innovation: As we see the migration from the combustion engine to electric vehicles, those of us in the transportation/automotive industry are faced with new problems that we must find solutions for, requiring us to innovate on a daily basis. My own team faced this back in 2018 when a long-standing transit bus customer approached us about a thermal management system for their electric bus. We had been supporting this customer with an intelligent cooling module for their diesel engine for years. However, new challenges were evident with the electric bus. For the battery pack, the temperature needed to be maintained in a very tight window much closer to typical ambient temperature than ICE engine cooling, a game changer in the world of heat transfer. My team took this challenge and designed our first Battery Thermal Management System with a new approach to cooling to meet the stringent requirements.
- Perseverance: Perseverance always goes hand in hand with innovation. When solving a new problem, failure is common. Perseverance means you learn from your failure and try again. My team has embraced this concept throughout our product development journey. We have an extensive sample shop and testing lab in our Racine, WI headquarters. This has allowed us to quickly experiment with different solutions and fail fast, pivoting to the next solution until a solution is found. We do this early in the development process to minimize the risk of failure late in the product development cycle.
- Quality: Quality is critical in automotive manufacturing, given the safety risk. At Modine, we follow rigorous quality procedures to ensure we provide the highest quality product. We focus on preventative actions with APQP tools like failure mode, effects analysis, and robust control plans. My entire team is trained in APQP and embraces a zero-defect mindset.
- Teamwork: Teamwork is, of course, also critical. My team develops complex products that require engagement from multiple engineering domains — system, mechanical/thermal, electrical, firmware and controls, software, and reliability testing. Teamwork needs to be strong during the product design process, both across our team and with our customer’s engineering team, and then in the handoff to our production team. At Modine, we are like a family and work well together, challenging one another when needed and always collaborating. In a fast-paced, changing market, teamwork is crucial.
- Integrity: This should go without saying, but to succeed, you need to do the job right and in the right way. Take ownership of a situation, act honorably without exception and follow through on your commitments. This is table stakes. Enough said.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I do wonder what will be possible with autonomous, electrified agriculture equipment. Given an EV’s lower noise profile and autonomous equipment’s ability to work without sunlight, farm equipment could work at night or even 24 hours a day, even near populated areas. Everyday farm tasks, from seed planting to plowing, could be automated to help alleviate labor shortages, allowing farmers and their workers to focus on other tasks. Using AI in other areas, such as pesticide spraying and irrigation, could improve precision, driving up sustainability in farming. This could help drive food production in food-insecure regions and maybe even enable more agricultural diversity for crop types. This new world of technology opens up new possibilities.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
We have a Modine EVantage blog highlighting the latest innovations in thermal management for zero-emissions vehicles with regular updates and a monthly newsletter, and I am on LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.
