By Franco Gonzalez, Senior Research Analyst, IDTechEx. The days of car companies controlling the future of the automotive industry are numbered. Indeed, waves of creative destruction and globalisation are shaking the industry. All incumbent companies established and new, are either resisting or acting, sometimes both!

Newcastle University has been chosen by Boeing to develop an ultra-lightweight electric motor for an upper atmosphere electric aircraft. These spidery fixed-wing aircraft can have the wingspan of a jumbo jet but the weight of a small car. Such 'atmospheric satellites' are being designed to take 10,000lb payloads into atmospheric orbit at 65,000 ft.

By Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx The IDTechEx report, titled Electric Motorcycles and Three Wheel Electric Vehicles 2015-2025, reveals gaps in the market as e-motorcycles and their three wheel derivatives become a multi-billion dollar market. One gap is the crossover between bikes and motorcycles created as a premium-priced product.

After years of slow progress from small companies, flexible batteries now have the attention of bigger brands such as Apple, Samsung, LG Chemical, Nokia and STMicroelectronics. These companies are set to drive the flexible battery market from $69m in 2015 to over $400m in 2025, according to IDTechEx Research in their latest report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025.

Autonomous vehicles are successful here and now but you are unlikely to meet one, because the successes are in the upper atmosphere, open cast mines, nuclear power stations, underwater, and in other relatively inaccessible places. As the IDTechEx report Autonomous Vehicles: Land, Water, Air 2015-2035 explains, the primary technology of an autonomous vehicle is that which confers autonomy and the powertrain, which is usually electric.

Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx Hybrid vehicles are already big business from hybrid cars, buses and trucks to outdoor forklifts, even hybrid tugboats. Indeed, many hybrid aircraft will soon appear. An increasing majority of hybrid powertrains are series hybrids where the engine only charges the battery: it never drives the wheels. As explained in the IDTechEx report, Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025, th...

Recent IDTechEx conference presentations and webinars on the research carried out for the IDTechEx report, titled Electric Buses 2015-2025, attracted many questions. They reveal a general perception that things are moving much more slowly than is actually the case, with the exception of a few aspects such as use of fuel cells and continuous charging, both of which are failing to progress at the intended speed.

There will be over 3bn sensors in wearable technology devices by 2025, with more than 30% being emerging sensor types. The Wearable Sensors 2015-2025: Market Forecasts, Technologies, Players report from IDTechEx gives detailed coverage of the 15 most prominent sensor types in wearable technology today, including inertial measurement units, optical sensors, wearable electrodes, chemical sensors, flexible stretch, pressure and impact sensors, tempe...

Once upon a time, the simple glass of the car windshield began to incorporate printed antennas and heaters. Fast forward to 2015, and the world's first car with a 3D printed load-bearing structure and body is the Strati, developed by US startup Local Motors. In 2014, the company undertook a challenge to build a 3D car live on the internet. In late 2015, the first street legal versions are expected to be delivered to customers.

The first range extender invention announced in 2015 is an "Electronic Carnot Engine ECE" by Kan Cheng of KanLabs. According to the IDTechEx report Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025, over 8m hybrid cars will be made with a range extender in 2025, the additional power source that distinguishes them from pure-electric

Most drones are, and will remain, electric, as detailed in the recently released IDTechEx report, “Electric Drones: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) 2015-2025”. Cameras of an increasing variety of types will be in more and more drones and they will become more versatile, lighter weight, more robust and lower cost as they are used for many purposes beyond navigation and surveillance.

A report published by IDTechEx, which analyses the off-road, on-road, water and airborne EVs, is particularly useful for benchmarking new technology for EVs. The report, tilted, ‘Electric Vehicle Forecasts, Trends and Opportunities 2015-2025’, discusses how the types of energy harvesting used in EVs do not first appear in cars.

Launches of fuel cell cars are reportedly planned by up to six carmakers from 2015, including Tata Motors of India, owners of Jaguar Land Rover. Hydrogen fuel cells are portrayed as pivotal in creating success for pure electric cars but the truth is very different. More is explained in the latest IDTechEx report, Future Technology for Hybrid and Pure Electric Cars 2015-2025.

Pholtovoltaic industry shipments grew by 15% from 34.0 in 2013 to 39.3GWp in 2014, according to the IDTechEx/SPV Market Research annual supply report Photovoltaic Manufacturer Shipments: Capacity, Production, Prices and Revenues to 2019. Supply side inventory was 1.1GWp at the end of 2014 and demand side inventory decreased by 400MWp to 2.4GWp. Defective modules removed from service were around 1.6GWp at the end of 2014.

Prime time for printed sensors - the printed electronics industry shows a huge interest in sensors as it seeks to forget the failures from the past. By Dr Guillaume Chansin, Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEx.

The popular term 'drones' gives a military connotation to the long-awaited, futuristic innovation that is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). According to IDTechEx, most of today's market value lies in military applications, both for electric and - the big money - non-electric versions. Nonetheless, small UAVs are increasing in sales fastest, primarily due to non-military applications.

An IDTechEX report has recently been released, which forecasts the growing market for EVs in 37 categories of land, water and airborne e-vehicle, and predicts that electric buses will replace five million conventional buses in Asia. There are two types of these buses - one set not requiring plugging in, which will be found outside of East Asia, whilst East Asia will pay host to the other types - PHEVs and PEVs.

IDTechEx's 'Electric Buses 2015-2025' report finds that buses will account for over 20% of the total future hybrid and pure EV value market, meaning that those seeking leadership in the market must take the bus forecasts seriously.

The oil price may stay low for many years due to oversupply. However, this will not affect the sales of road EVs because their sales numbers decoupled from the oil price many years ago thanks to superior performance, subsidies and privileges such as no congestion charge.

Metal oxide display backplanes have already gone commercial. Sharp has invested in establishing a Gen8 IGZO plant at its Kameyama plant in Japan while LG has also selected IGZO backplanes for its large-sized white OLED technology. At the same time, Chinese companies such as BOE are fast playing catch up with both prototype and production capacity announcements. By Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Head of Consulting, IDTechEx.