Mobility services are making it less essential to own a car in many urban areas and the rise of autonomous mobility solutions will only accelerate this trend, according to a new report from Accenture.
A multi-country survey of 7,000 consumers for Mobility Services: The Customer Perspective found that almost half (48%) would consider giving up car ownership if autonomous mobility solutions such as self-driving buses or taxis were available.
The findings suggest that car manufacturers will have to reassess their business models or risk losing ground to more agile competitors.
“The transition from car ownership to mobility-as-a-service seems inevitable, so traditional auto manufacturers will be at great risk of losing customers to new mobility service providers that can establish mature offers,” said Axel Schmidt, a senior managing director at Accenture who leads its Mobility industry practice globally. “Traditional car companies need to begin fully embracing alternatives to the ownership model – becoming brokers of mobility solutions rather than just car manufacturers.”
Underlining the threat to existing car makers, the survey revealed that vehicle brand is losing its importance. When asked to rank their top criteria for both car buying and car-sharing from more than a dozen factors including price, speed, flexibility, comfort, environmental impact, brand and privacy, respondents ranked brand as the sixth most important factor in terms of car buying but tenth in terms of car-sharing.
“While brand clearly enables some auto manufacturers to charge a premium for their products, the importance of brand will likely fade for the product and shift to the service as the popularity of car-sharing services and autonomous vehicles grows,” explained Juergen Reers, a managing director at Accenture who leads its Mobility X.0 practice.
In other findings, consumers showed strong interest in revenue-generating add-on services for autonomous mobility trips, such as music and video streaming, wellness (e.g. massage seats), food and hotel services.
And there is untapped potential for autonomous vehicles outside cities, with many people open to the idea of moving to suburban and rural areas if their daily commute could be facilitated by autonomous vehicles there.
Revenues from mobility services are projected to amount to nearly €1.2tn (£1.0tn) by 2030.
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