The EV battery trend is definitely real but I think the bigger shift is in how servo presses are being used, not just where.
We're seeing more "multi-process" setups where one servo press replaces what used to be 2-3 machines. Example: a bracket that used to go through a blanking press, then a forming press, then a coining press. With servo motion profiles, we run all three operations in a single progressive die at different slide speeds per station. Blanking at 200mm/s, drawing at 40mm/s, coining with 50ms dwell — all in one stroke cycle. Couldn't do that on a mechanical press.
The other trend I'm watching is predictive maintenance through force curve data. We're collecting about 1.5KB per stroke across 6 presses. After 2 years we have enough data to train simple anomaly detection models. Last month it flagged a bearing wear pattern 3 weeks before it would've caused an unplanned stop. That kind of ROI is hard to put in a brochure but it's what actually sells the next press to management.
Market-wise, the used servo press market is getting interesting too. First-gen machines from 2015-2018 are hitting the secondary market at 40-50% of new price. For shops that can't justify $800K+ for new, a $350K refurbished Komatsu with a drive upgrade is a solid entry point.