Skip to main content

Biggest change in cars for 100 years now starting, says IDTechEx Research

According to a new report from IDTechEx Research, Electric Car Technology and Forecasts 2017-2027, the biggest change in cars for one hundred years is now starting. It is driven by totally new requirements and capabilities. They will cause huge new businesses to appear, but some giants will spectacularly go bankrupt. Cities will ban private cars but encourage them as autonomous taxis and rentals. Already 65 per cent of cars in China are bought by businesses. The Japanese want the car to be part of the hy
December 5, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
According to a new report from 6582 IDTechEx Research, Electric Car Technology and Forecasts 2017-2027, the biggest change in cars for one hundred years is now starting. It is driven by totally new requirements and capabilities. They will cause huge new businesses to appear, but some giants will spectacularly go bankrupt. Cities will ban private cars but encourage them as autonomous taxis and rentals. Already 65 per cent of cars in China are bought by businesses.

The Japanese want the car to be part of the hydrogen economy and a source of back-up power. Emerging countries want car-like vehicles, mainly as taxis, that are one-tenth of the cost and never refuel. There is even work on getting electricity from tyres.

The mechanical world of cogs, axles, pistons and brakes is becoming one of power electronics, complex electric machine systems, batteries and their successors. Integration is the name of the game with structural electronics, where components-in-a-box are becoming smart wheels, smart bodywork, smart seating and single-piece composite dashboards with integrated instruments.

Electric Car Technology and Forecasts 2017-2027 has the latest insight and balanced analysis on advances of electric cars and their global markets. It details developments in key enabling technologies, structural electronics and progress towards electric independent vehicles, carefully assessing where and when these will appear and who the winners and losers will be.

The report provides ten year forecasts for nine categories of cars and car-like vehicles. It finds a huge market emerging for the cheapest and easiest way of converting the existing production of cars to keep them legal as new climate change laws bite - the 48V mild hybrid. Uniquely, there is also a complete chapter on cars in China - the country that buys the most, has some of the lowest costs and leapfrogging innovation but completely different market drivers and strong government control.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Gas HGVs trials have helped kick start the market says FTA
    June 24, 2014
    Crucial feedback on gas heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) has been provided by the Low Carbon Truck Trial, with the provisional results being detailed in a first report commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) which was published last week. Responding to the DfT report, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said that it supported the trials stating that they have put more gas powered HGVs on the roads, whilst identifying the operational challenges of running gas vehicles. According to the re
  • ASECAP conference debates EU’s changes to concessions
    April 30, 2015
    Colin Sowman picks some highlights from a one- day ASECAP Conference about the EU's new regulations on Concessions. ASECAP, the association of European tolling companies, has outlined the scale of the challenge facing authorities and tolling companies in complying with the European Union’s Directives 2014/23/EU and 2014/24/EU in a new report and at a special conference in Brussels.
  • Pivot Power: 'We need to rethink the EV customer experience'
    October 10, 2018
    Electric vehicles will increasingly become a key part of the mobility mix but charging infrastructure is currently patchy. Adam Hill talks to Matt Allen of Pivot Power about disruption, horses, slot machines – and the importance of customer experience. Electric vehicles (EVs) – including buses, taxis and cars for individual and shared use – are already a common sight on our roads. They are not yet ubiquitous. But that will come. There will be around 30 million electric cars in the world by 2030 (as they
  • Debating the future development of ANPR
    July 31, 2012
    What future is there for automatic number plate recognition? Will it be supplanted by electronic vehicle identification, or will continuing development maintain the technology's relevance? In recent years, digitisation and IP-based communication networks have allowed Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to achieve ever-greater utility and a commensurate increase in deployments. But where does the technology go next - indeed, does it have a future in the face of the increasing use of, for instance, Dedi