Transforming the car-as-a-service market

Louise Davis

Automotive companies are rapidly evolving from manufacturing and selling cars, to a technology-driven transportation company offering multi-modal mobility solutions that offer point-to-point end-user connectivity and car personalisation.

Car-as-a-Service will be driven by mobility, connected services, and value-add upgrades with new business models such as data-driven service streams, servicification, and software-defined cars disrupting the automotive ecosystem as well as fuelling trillion-dollar after-sales revenues.

Frost & Sullivan’s research, Strategic Transition from Products to Services in the Automotive Industry, Forecast to 2030, analyses the evolution of automotive business models, sustainable strategies adopted by key players, market opportunities, challenges and strategies for future growth, key selling points, and how automotive mobility and share mobility will impact traditional car sales.

“To sustain growth in a dynamic ecosystem, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) must form partnerships beyond industry, differentiate their products and services, and evolve from ‘hardware providers’ to integrated mobility service providers,” said Frost & Sullivan Future of Mobility Program Manager Krishan Jayaraman.

Further developments and trends aiding the transition from products to services in the automotive industry include:

* Apple, Google and Uber disrupting the autonomous mobility ecosystem

* General Motors, Ford, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz offering smart mobility initiatives

* Tesla developing over-the-air functional upgrades that can be sold per hour or mile

* Development of data monetisation models

* Focus on fractional ownerships

“North America is the clear leader in terms of connectivity. The United States will continue to witness OEMs throwing in multi-year free connected services with a focus on using them to improve customer loyalty and aftersales relationships, and decrease recalls,” noted Jayaraman.

Strategic Transition from Products to Services in the Automotive Industry, Forecast to 2030 is part of Frost & Sullivan’s Future of Mobility Growth Partnership Service programme.