Skip to main content

Report predicts how future mobility solutions will affect automotive OEMs

Global management consultancy, Arthur D. Little (ADL) has released a new study, The Future of Automotive Mobility, based on a global survey of 6,500 participants, including customers, industry players and regulators. The report examines how the megatrends of electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving are likely to impact on the global automotive ecosystem and future OEM sales. The report notes that the future of mobility will no longer depend primarily on the preferences of customers, but wil
March 31, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Global management consultancy, Arthur D. Little (ADL) has released a new study, The Future of Automotive Mobility, based on a global survey of 6,500 participants, including customers, industry players and regulators. The report examines how the megatrends of electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving are likely to impact on the global automotive ecosystem and future OEM sales.

The report notes that the future of mobility will no longer depend primarily on the preferences of customers, but will increasingly be driven by regulation as cities seek to resolve traffic-generated problems such as congestion and poor air quality. Electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving solutions all have an important role to play in meeting these challenges. However, ADL believes the effect on traditional OEMs’ production volume may not be as severe as some experts have predicted.

As an example, the report says a key component of autonomous driving will be “mobility-on-demand” solutions, in which customers use “robot taxis.” Based on real mobility data from almost 100 mega-cities, ADL simulated the effect of robot taxis upon mobility behaviour and car sales. The findings revealed that even with total market coverage, their effect was not as bad as the predicted worst case scenario.

The report details how new roles are being created in the automotive-supplier pyramid, with the shift to the electric drive train and the increasing importance of software being additional factors to consider. However, a major challenge for manufacturers is the loss of direct access to the mobility customer.
 
Wolf-Dieter Hoppe, author of the study and associate director at ADL, warns: “Millions of individual customers will be replaced by a few very large, multinational fleet operators. These could take over the dominant role of OEMs in the ecosystem, as they would have direct customer access as well as considerable volume power. In particular, this would be a problem for today’s premium manufacturers.”

Related Content

  • Get connected at ITS European Congress in Lisbon
    February 20, 2020
    The way connectivity is transforming how we plan and deliver mobility will be discussed in detail at this year’s ITS European Congress in Lisbon from 18-20 May.
  • Developments in urban traffic management and control
    February 1, 2012
    Mark Cartwright, Centaur Consulting, discusses developments in urban traffic management and control. Despite the concept of UTMC (Urban Traffic Management and Control) having been around for some years now, there remains a significant rump of confusion as to its relationship with its similar-sounding cousin UTC (Urban Traffic Control). To many people, the two are one and the same. However, this is not the case.
  • Panasonic gets connected on The Ray
    June 5, 2020
    A stretch of rural Georgia highway called The Ray is a particularly useful testbed for V2X technology. Panasonic’s Chris Armstrong tells Adam Hill what’s so special about it
  • Aimsun takes part in driver data study to improve C/AVs
    November 14, 2018
    Aimsun is taking part in a UK study which is using human driver data to help improve the performance and acceptability of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). The one-year project, Learning through Ambient Driving Styles for Autonomous Vehicles (LAMBDA-V), will also look at how driver behaviour can be analysed and used to accelerate the adoption of C/AVs. Aimsun says new rules for safer and more efficient driving behaviour could be created from existing vehicles, based on road laws and on how h