For the season finale of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling," we're going behind the scenes.

Frantz Lohier, the first guest of Season 1, reverses roles to interview Stéphane Lagresle about how 30 episodes with automotive executives actually get made. This isn't about interviewing techniques or podcast equipment. It's about the systematic approach to understanding what makes great conversations work in a technical industry.

What You'll Learn:

The Four-Hour Formula
How to prepare for high-stakes conversations with executives you've never met, using AI tools, pre-interview calls, and strategic research to create authentic dialogue regardless of topic complexity.

The Validation Discovery
Why the podcast's original hypothesis was wrong: Stéphane assumed automotive executives were skeptical about storytelling. Every single guest proved otherwise, confirming that narrative is now critical for cutting through technical noise and winning business.

The Machinery Behind Authenticity
From Google Notebook LM for research synthesis to the intentional structure that balances technical credibility with human connection, here's the process that makes preparation look effortless.

The Honest Part
Stéphane also shares something uncomfortable: he almost didn't start this podcast. An inner voice (he calls it "Alfred") kept him from posting on LinkedIn for years. This episode is about what happened when he decided to ignore that voice, and what months of systematic content creation actually produces.

Why This Episode Matters:

If you're preparing for CES presentations, investor pitches, or OEM meetings in 2025, this episode offers a blueprint for the kind of preparation that creates memorable conversations. If you're a tier-one supplier wondering why OEMs can't remember your presentation, ask yourself if you have a story that will resonate with your audience.

Your technology might be brilliant. Your storytelling is what makes it memorable.

🎧 Season 1 complete. Season 2 coming soon.

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #B2BMarketing #PodcastProduction

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

The debate is over. 2026 is SDV execution year.

At We.Conect's SDV Europe 2025 in Berlin, seven industry experts revealed a fundamental shift: the companies that win won't have the most features—they'll tell the most honest stories about strategic focus, security vigilance, and what software-defined vehicles really mean for drivers.

THE THREE SHIFTS DEFINING 2026:

🎯 From "More" to Strategic Focus
After years of feature accumulation, complexity has become unsustainable. Ola Svensson (Knowit): "Complexity must be reduced. Functionality is being taken away." Success in 2026 means mastering "subtractive storytelling": choosing 10 features that work flawlessly over 50 that create chaos. This is the differentiation customers will finally experience.

🤝 From Handoffs to Co-Integration
The relationship between OEMs and Tier1s keeps evolving. Michael Niklas (Aumovio) identified the real challenge: "fragmented tools, data inconsistencies, unclear ownership." Felix Pretscheck (Bosch) presented three collaboration scenarios, with "Co-Integrate" as the breakthrough: OEMs and suppliers integrating continuously through shared pipelines, compressing feedback from months to days.

🔒 From Building to Securing
Every connection you market is also a vulnerability. Gregor Knappik (VicOne): "So everything gets even more interconnected. And these are basically the biggest threats upcoming that we see and needs to be solved now." With vehicles connecting to smart homes and third-party services, security isn't a feature to hide—it's a trust-builder requiring radical transparency. GPS spoofing threats, public hacking competitions, and the convergence of safety (ISO 26262) with security (ISO 21434) demand a new narrative: continuous vigilance as strength, not admission of weakness.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS:

• Reframe subtraction as vision: "We chose these 10 features because they matter" beats "We offer 50 because we can"
• Translate engineer-speak to human language: Replace "flexible feature deployment architecture" with "Your car gets better every month, like your phone"
• Launch co-integration partnerships now: Move beyond quarterly supplier deliveries to shared development infrastructure
• Build security transparency within 6 months: Proactive bug bounty programs before incidents force reactive crisis management

FEATURED EXPERTS:
Stefan Marxreiter (Avenga) • Ola Svensson (Knowit) • Mikhail Vink (JetBrains) • Michael Niklas (Aumovio) • Khaled Alomari (MHP) • Hans-Martin Ritt (MathWorks) • Gregor Knappik (VicOne)

The companies that master honest narratives—ambitious yet credible, innovative yet trustworthy—won't just win in 2026. They'll define automotive storytelling for the next decade.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🔗 THE COLLABORATION REVOLUTION DECODED

Twenty-eight companies. Three years. One unified data standard that BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen all agreed to. Thomas Rösch, CEO of Cofinity-X and Board Member of Catena-X, joins "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" to unpack this unprecedented automotive collaboration.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Centralized vs. Decentralized: The Trust Paradigm Shift

Thomas exposes automotive's "one-up, one-down" data sharing trap that creates supply chain opacity, then unveils Catena-X's data sovereignty solution—where companies retain ownership while enabling standardized peer-to-peer data exchange that builds industry-wide trust.

The Standardization Strategy of Seamless Integration

Discover how 28 companies achieved the impossible—three years of collaboration bringing a global data ecosystem to life that creates a trusted environment for cross-company collaboration and innovation. It enables: Sovereign data exchange between all automotive enterprises.Catena-X creates a foundation for a connected, resilient, and sustainable automotive industry, which Cofinity-X brings to life.

The Global Scaling of Data Ecosystems

Learn why data spaces are exploding beyond automotive into aerospace, chemicals, and construction, with Korea's government-funded rollout and 25+ Chinese company pilots proving that collaborative data infrastructure is becoming an essential industrial operating system.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Audit Data Readiness Now: Regulatory requirements like battery passports and PCF reporting are non-negotiable—Catena-X allows standardized processes for the exchange of sustainability data with all your partners
  
• Choose Your Software Strategy: Select from 50+ certified marketplace applications and services or leverage open-source code—freedom from vendor lock-in while maintaining standards compliance saves costs and preserves agility.
  
• Join Readiness Programs: Leverage Catena-X's supplier-focused booster programs—the network effect only works with broad participation, and early adopters gain first-mover advantage in supply chain transparency.
  
• Explore Cross-Industry Opportunities: If you serve multiple sectors, one infrastructure works across automotive, aerospace, and industrial—ChemX, FactoryX, and AerospaceX are emerging with identical principles.
  

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Thomas Rösch brings 40+ years of automotive and IoT expertise, including nine years founding ZF's Openmatics telematics platform. After learning firsthand why centralized, single-company platforms fail to achieve industry adoption, he now leads dual roles: CEO of Cofinity-X (first Catena-X operator) and Catena-X Association Board Member, where his conviction that "belief and making it happen" is reshaping global automotive data collaboration.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.