As climate change awareness increases across all sectors of industry, alternative fuels are becoming more relevant, which is why this 2017 automakers offering different energy options will be a trend.
According to Industry Week, the automotive industry is set for a major disruption in 2017, most of which will be focused on ways to save energy and lower carbon emissions.
“Alternative fuels, new lightweight materials and innovative technology are transforming the manufacturing process as well as the cars we drive,” Industry Week highlighted.
The specialised news outlet coincided with KPMG — an automotive news website — in saying that new consumers are more keen to digital capabilities of automobiles, as well as long-term leases and car sharing.
The fact is, anyway, that many IT requirements will become mandatory by 2018, and manufacturers are already considering this.
The rearview camera on will become mandatory by law in the United States as 200 people are killed and 14,000 suffer injuries yearly due to back-over accidents in the U.S. alone.
By the end of 2017, 80 percent of all manufactured cars will have a rearview camera.
Wi-Fi hotspots in vehicles are also becoming standard, with 20 percent of car manufacturers planning to provide WLAN hotspots in vehicles this year.
Electric Vehicles
By 2022, the alternative fuel market will be a US$614 billion industry.
The Asia-Pacific region — mainly China — continues to dominate this sector of the market.
In China, electrical cars have been a huge success mainly due to the massive increase of charging stations from 1,122 in 2010 to about 49,000 in 2015. And if all privately owned stations and those for buses and logistics vehicles are included, the number reaches 160,000.
By 2020, China aims to have built millions of stations to meet reach 5 million to meet the growing demands.
New Materials
Formula One is a hothouse for the development of ultra-high-speed, ultra-light-weight, tough, crash-resistant materials, explains Industry Week.
These materials and technologies will keep transitioning into mainstream serial manufacture this year.
The consumer, though, mustn’t worry as the automobile producers are successfully using higher-quality materials while reducing costs.
Last year, extraordinary progress was made in serial vehicles that were safer, lighter and more powerful and in 2017, “we’ll see even more,” assures the news outlets.
KPGM emphasised that through 2025, the automotive trends will be marked by connectivity and digitalization.
The Global Automotive Executive Survey by KPMG — conducted on 800 automotive industry executives from 38 countries, including Spain, and 2,100 drivers around the world— concluded just that.
Technology and data of vehicles during their use will disrupt the industry helping to increase loyalty between consumers and their favourite car brands.
The survey shows that 82 percent of automotive executives predict a major disruption in the business car model the next five years, a view that was only shared by 12 percent of them in the previous survey.
“Nothing will be the same in the automotive sector,” says Dieter Becker, global head of KPMG Automotive. “The business models, which are in constant transformation and are thrust by data, must pave the way towards attracting and maintaining the main actor: the customer.”
Francisco Roger, partner responsible for KGMG Automotion in Spain, said, “A good way to add value for the customer while offering bespoke experiences is to take advantage of the increasing quantity of data produce by the automobiles themselves as well as by their drivers.”
For now, according to 70 percent of those surveyed, the use of data and the application of information engineering technics are still taking their first steps.
“It’s obvious that customers are aware of the value of data and the results of the survey indicate that customers give economic benefits of the information a very high priority,” Francisco Roger says.
A Growing Industry
On a worldwide scale, the automotive industry continues to develop and this year the production of vehicles is expected to grow by 40 percent, PriceWaterhouse Coopers says.
As all sectors of the economy, the automotive industry went through some harsh times during and after the recession that began in 2008, but now the sector is back on track.
Within this scenario, the competition among vehicle manufacturers will be intense while the introduction of more advanced technologies will be a determining factor.
Customers are especially seeking better fuel efficiency and safer vehicles with higher quality, particularly, in plastics components.