Innovation and Digital Transformation in the Automotive Industry

On the eve of the 2020s, the concept of “digital transformation” is discussed increasingly frequently in the car industry. It has brought about a profound change in the competition in all sectors of the economy, so this chapter examine how significant its effects are in various sectors. Analyzing the current situation regarding specific trends in the automotive industry, the aim is to offer a prediction as to the evolution of marketing strategies as we move towards the 2030s. Three forces, acting together, created the new digital world. The first, in order of time, was the exponential growth and ever lower costs of computer power. The second force is the value of networks, which has grown as they have grown in size, and the third is that more data have been transmitted at an ever lower cost using cloud computing technology. In car industry political, environmental, social, and economic trends are changing the competition. Faced with technological change occurring at an exponential rate, companies are much slower. Filling or reducing the gap is the main challenge faced by management. Furthermore, in the automotive industry four innovative trends merit particular attention thanks to their likely rapid evolution over coming years and their impact on the entire industry: mobility services instead of vehicle ownership; increasing demand for connected services; autonomous driving; and electromobility (EV). The chapter tries to answer to the following question: Why, even though it is difficult to predict the consistency of EV and driverless cars demand, are almost all manufacturers investing significant amounts?