Managing the Decline and Seeding the Growth: How a Global Filter Manufacturer Used Consulting and Strategy Advisory to Build a Portfolio Transition Plan for the EV Era

The structural challenge facing the automotive filter industry in the EV era is not a question of whether ICE-dependent filter revenue will decline — it is a question of how quickly, at what category-level rate, and with what lead time available to respond.

The client’s revenue base was materially exposed to this transition but lacked the consulting analysis to understand the specifics of its own risk profile.

The secondary challenge was equally consequential.

Key Challenges

• No category-specific, timeline-defined quantification of EV-driven ICE filter demand decline.
• No systematic assessment of which OEM programme relationships and aftermarket channel positions were most exposed to the earliest volume.
• No evaluated opportunity set for adjacent growth.
• Limited competitive intelligence on how peer filter manufacturers were responding.
• A capital allocation process that continued to distribute product investment by historical category share, systematically maintaining investment in declining.
• Board expectation of a consulting-led, evidence-grounded transition strategy rather than a general commercial growth plan, given the specific and.

The EV transition creates a portfolio management challenge for ICE-dependent automotive suppliers that is more nuanced than it appears. The decline is not uniform across categories, not simultaneous across geographies, and not unaccompanied by new demand creation. The companies that navigate it most effectively are those that quantify the risk with precision, identify the opportunity with rigour, and commit to investment in the transition before the competitive timing advantage has been lost.