Welcome to our series of articles about current theses of our students!
The alumna Elisabeth Bouikidou has written an outstanding master’s thesis on “Future Mobility Concepts – A critical analysis of the impact of digitization on the automotive industry” as part of her Digital Management studies at the Hochschule Fresenius in Cologne. The summary is presented below. Read the second part now! You can find the first part here.
Creating added value from data analysis
The OEMs established in Germany must recognize that digitization offers their physical product a decisive added value that should definitely be exploited. Automobile manufacturers have direct access to important and necessary data generated in accordance with vehicle usage. This is in line with the premise of future business models, which must be data-driven, as OEMs need to find out how to monetize the available data and embed it into future strategies to generate additional profit pools.
“The customer is king”
German automobile manufacturers have already taken measures, which are described in the so-called CASE strategies. These deal with issues such as connectivity, autonomous driving, shared mobility, electromobility and digital services. These pillars form the foundation for every strategy currently being developed in the automotive industry and always put the customer at the center. Therefore, the central role in the creation of concepts and proposals is always to provide added value to the end user. Customer preferences in terms of mobility primarily include the desire for access to flexible and individual on-demand mobility with different means of transport at acceptable conditions in terms of price, comfort and multimodality.
Sustainability and efficiency are in demand
If we look at the area of mobility, which encompasses more than just automotive mobility, it should be noted that mobility today is to be made more efficient and sustainable overall, and that customer needs should be placed in the center of attention in a targeted manner. The mobility of the future must be efficient, sustainable and demand-oriented, thus enabling an uncomplicated change of transport modes, i.e. seamless mobility. Against this background, automobile manufacturers (OEMs) must adapt accordingly and embed themselves in an integrated mobility chain consisting of different modes of transport.
Sharing instead of buying
The changing mobility behavior is also recognized in the changing structures of car ownership, as sharing is becoming increasingly important, especially in urban areas. Car manufacturers are reacting to this with various models and concepts aimed at increasing attractiveness and reducing the prevailing challenges of the aforementioned urban smart cities, such as traffic congestion and lack of parking space. These models include car sharing, ride hailing, ride pooling and integrated MaaS models.
Closing Words
The OEMs can be seen as active providers of mobility services today and in the future, offering more than just the physical product. In addition, the OEMs are embedded in an integrated mobility chain with other, traditional and innovative modes of transport, which are designed under strong influence of digitalization aspects in order to satisfy the mobility needs of customers and to solve current challenges, such as the reduction of CO2 emissions and other points mentioned above. In order to remain competitive, German car manufacturers will inevitably have to work with digital roadmaps on their agenda and maintain a future-oriented view of the market.
Summarized and edited by Louisa Roszinski