Meet the Analysts

Zoia is a veteran journalist and analyst with more than three decades’ experience covering the global auto industry. His work focuses on Autonomous Vehicles, Shared Mobility and Electrification, as well as the impacts of those industry megatrends in the automotive retail sector.

 

He has authored, contributed to and edited extensive reports on battery technology and the battery-electric vehicle market, autonomous vehicles, electric-vehicle charging, megatrends and the commercial-vehicle market and the transition to the digital economy and its effects on U.S. automobile dealers. Zoia also has written extensively about technology advances in sensors (cameras, radar, lidar), new-vehicle architectures and controllers and software. He serves as a juror for the Wards 10 Best Engines, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards.

 

In more than 30 years with Wards and the Informa Tech Automotive Group, Zoia has held several top editorial positions, including Editor of Wards Automotive International, Wards Engine Update and Wards Automotive Reports. He currently oversees content for Wards Intelligence, WardsAuto and TU Automotive and various research projects.

Bell is an accomplished strategy and technology analyst with Informa Tech Automotive Group. His team are focused on the development of the automotive market, landscape, ecosystem and value chain. His coverage at Wards Intelligence and TU-Automotive focuses on connectivity-based technology transformation (4G, 5G, V2X, Satellite, Mobile Edge computing, AI, IoT, cybersecurity and blockchain) on vehicles, development and production and adjacent areas such as smart cities.

 

Previously, he was a Senior Analyst with Heavy Reading and focused on IoT in the mobile network domain specifically the growth of 4G and 5G in two verticals: Industrial IoT and connected and autonomous vehicles. For 2 years he also served as analyst in residence at TU-Auto.com providing insight on the future of this emerging industry.

 

Steve joined Heavy Reading in 2014 after an extensive executive career in industrial applications and then Telecoms with Motorola in Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. He is also an entrepreneur having founded two companies: one an analysis and advisory firm the other a digital city services platform focused on parking.

Schweinsberg is a Principal Analyst at Informa Tech Automotive Group, covering the sectors of Sustainability and Digital Economy. She follows and analyzes topics pertaining to charging infrastructure and corporate sustainability goals, as well as the area of subscription-based features in vehicles. Prior to 2022, she was an analyst covering electrification for Wards Intelligence. She wrote two reports on electrification in recent years: “Putting the Charge in Electric Vehicles” (published in 2018) and Closing the Loop: Strategies Ahead for Reuse, Recycling of Li-ion BEV Batteries” (published in 2020). She explored batteries and battery-pack design in a series of projects in 2021. She is targeting an updated look at charging infrastructure in the U.S. in 2022, in light of the Biden Administration’s plan to create a nationwide, 500,000-charger network.

 

She oversees the Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX awards, and is also a judge for the Wards 10 Best Engines and Propulsion Systems, as well as a contributor to the WardsAuto website. Prior to her current position she was a senior editor for WardsAuto covering Asian automakers, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.

Haig has followed the auto industry for over three decades, starting as a reporter and editor for Ward’s Automotive Reports and transitioning to automotive market analyst. Most of his career has been spent at Wards, with stints along the way forecasting North American vehicle production at IHS, and as a vehicle market analyst at both Dana and General Motors.

 

Since returning to Wards, he has served as the company’s lead vehicle-market analyst, focusing on tying together demand, vehicle production and powertrain trends. He also has created and co-created several of the company’s current analytical outputs related to forecasts, plant capacities, product cycle plans, market segmentation and future vehicle propulsion reports. Currently, he supports the Wards Intelligence database and produces regularly scheduled and custom subscription-based posts tied to North America production and sales analysis and forecasts, as well as general global market analysis. He also is working on projects to help expand the company’s coverage of future trends through creating vehicle-based forecasts related to factory-installed equipment, such as ADAS and mobility.

Bob is a Principal Analyst with over two decades of experience evaluating thousands of new vehicles and investigating the latest propulsion systems and leading-edge automotive technologies His reporting focuses on e-machines and automaker and supplier efforts to assure that internal-combustion engines remain relevant, capable, low-emission and highly efficient amid the automotive industry’s rapid transition to electrified propulsion.

As Editor-in-Chief, Gritzinger oversees content for the Informa Tech Automotive Group’s Media sites, managing a supporting staff of in-house editors and a stable of outside contributors, assigning coverage and directing copy to WardsAuto, TU-Auto and Wards Intelligence. In addition, Gritzinger is a juror for the Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems and Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX awards.

Bob joined Wards in 2015 after over a decade at the Detroit, MI-based enthusiast publication AutoWeek and as an online contributor to consumer outlets, including Forbes, AutoWeb, and BeCarChic. He tested the latest vehicles daily in those roles and travelled worldwide to cover automotive news events, global auto shows, and key vehicle evaluation programs. Before automotive journalism, he enjoyed a long career in newspaper reporting in suburban Detroit. Bob is a former auto mechanic and still enjoys working on vehicles in his spare time. Bob holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Michigan State University.

Irwin is a veteran journalist with extensive exposure to all aspects of the automotive industry, from engineering to retailing to new technologies including connected cars and autonomous and electric vehicles. He writes on these topics and serves as a judge in Wards annual 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards.

 

Irwin joined Wards in 2011 after nearly three decades at the Detroit bureau of The Associated Press, where he backed up the automotive-beat writers by reporting on topics including sales, production and financials. He was a newspaper reporter prior to joining the AP. Irwin holds a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University.