The automotive industry is going to be transformed by five letters—EASCY. That stands for electrified, autonomous, shared, connected, and yearly updated. We have seen how these five trends have changed the industry in the past five years but there will be more changes to come leading up to the year 2030. Key cities such as the United States, Europe, and China will have to restructure their production and marketing of vehicles in terms of volume, scale, and technology.
This is more than just an update on the car wheel balancing equipment or other mechanics used to maintain cars in tip-top shape. These changes are going to be revolutionary. These will impact the way people decide whether to buy a car or not. The transformation of the automotive industry is going to affect the mobility of its users, vehicle mileage, frequency of usage, and of course, sales.
Electrified
Governments around the world are aiming for emissions-free mobility this decade. Carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles need to decrease by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030. The aim is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. More and more automotive companies are closing down their production of fuel-dependent vehicles. Instead, they are pouring their resources into researching hybrid and electrified cars.
As such, the world should expect to see emerging industries that solely focus on producing renewable energies needed to power electric vehicles. The auto industry won’t be able to develop electrified cars and produce renewable sources of energy for the cars at the same time. This means an opportunity is opening up for other players in the market.
Autonomous
In the future, vehicles won’t need human intervention. Drivers and passengers will be able to laze around, eat, work, and even sleep in their vehicles. That is the future of automobiles. While there are different levels of autonomous driving available in the market today, none has gone so far as to be completely self-driving. The current crop of “almost” self-driving cars are not yet on Level 5, which is considered a fully autonomous car.
The five levels of autonomous vehicles range from Level 0 (zero automation) to Level 5 (full automation). Level 0 refers to your everyday car while Level 1 (driver assistance) refers to cars with adaptive cruise control and parking assistance. Currently, there are prototype vehicles for high automation and full automation cars, but none are legally allowed for public use.
Shared
Shared mobility is the future of the industry. The term refers to the shared use of vehicles, bicycles, and other modes of transportation. It will allow you not to own a vehicle but still have access to one if you need it. Ride-sharing companies are considered part of shared mobility. Companies like Uber have a fleet of cars and drivers that offer ride-sharing services to clients.
The concept is founded on the need to lower the ownership of cars. This will prevent everyone from taking their cars to work or to school every day. Instead of each person driving a car and suffocating roads and highways, they can instead share a car if both riders are going in the same direction. It is the modern-day equivalent of hitchhiking, except that it’s safer.
Connected
Nowadays, cars can “talk” with each other. They can share information about the routes it took and the state of traffic there. It can even communicate with traffic management infrastructure such as tollgates. As an occupant of the car, you will even be allowed to communicate through it with the outside world. This is part of the internet of things, which is a system of interrelated devices that can communicate with each other.
This trend aims to make cars a “third place” after the home and workplace. By combining the comforts of your home and the professional ambiance of a workplace, a connected car can be your moving office/home. You can do everything inside your car. That’s the kind of future you are looking at.
Yearly Updated
Developments in this industry will continue. That means that there will be yearly updates on hardware and software. The industry will also react to the changes in fleet requirements and environmental policies. Does it mean you’ll have to buy a new car yearly? Not really. That’s why shared mobility is changing how people buy and consume automotive products. Since these are new technologies and likely to change in the next years, people are not going to want to immediately jump on the bandwagon and invest.
The future of the automotive industry is heavily impacted by environmental concerns. As the world tries to grapple with climate change issues, the auto industry has to do its part in slashing carbon dioxide emissions. The industry remains to be the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide.
