Samjong KPMG "Automotive Industry Accelerates Eco-friendly, Autonomous Driving, and Mobility"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Although global automobile production and sales volume decreased by double digits compared to the previous year, an analysis has emerged that the paradigm shift toward eco-friendly vehicles, autonomous driving, and mobility services is accelerating.

According to a report published by Samjong KPMG on the 16th, worldwide awareness of environmental protection has strengthened, and with the adoption of the Green New Deal as an economic reconstruction policy, demand for eco-friendly vehicles is increasing further.

The automotive industry market research firm LMC Automotive reported that global automobile sales have declined for three consecutive years, with a 16% decrease compared to the previous year last year. In contrast, electric vehicle sales during the same period reached approximately 3.24 million units, a 43% increase from the previous year.

Looking at the global automakers' electric vehicle launch plans for 2025, it is estimated to reach 38.7 million units. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that the number of electric vehicles operating worldwide will reach 125 million by 2030.

The report predicted that the adoption of hydrogen vehicles, which had stalled, will gain momentum as major markets such as the United States and Europe announced hydrogen economy roadmaps and hydrogen strategies last year. In particular, it is expected to grow rapidly with competitiveness in the commercial vehicle sector, such as trucks.

From January to September last year, Hyundai Motor Company held a 73.8% market share (4,917 units) of the global hydrogen vehicle sales (6,664 units). It is regarded as a global leader in hydrogen vehicle competitiveness and is evaluated to be further widening the gap with competing companies.

Especially, as information technology (IT) companies actively enter autonomous driving technology, technological progress is accelerating. According to the U.S. technology research firm Navigant Research, Google's Waymo ranked first in autonomous driving technology last year as well as in 2019, and among the top five companies in technology, three are IT companies including Baidu and Intel's Mobileye.

Automobile companies are also busy vying for dominance in autonomous driving. GM acquired the autonomous driving technology company Cruise Automation, and Ford, together with Volkswagen, made a large investment in the artificial intelligence (AI) platform company Argo AI. Hyundai Motor Group also established Motional, a specialized autonomous driving technology company, in partnership with Aptiv.

Due to COVID-19, mobility services, which were previously centered on ride-sharing and vehicle-hailing, have rapidly expanded into mobility-based platform services such as food delivery, essential goods purchasing, and parcel delivery. As of last month, Uber's market capitalization reached approximately 100 billion dollars.

Leading mobility companies such as Indonesia's Gojek, China's Didi Chuxing, and Malaysia's Grab all started with ride-sharing but have now grown into super application companies providing comprehensive services across daily life, including payment services, logistics delivery, and utility bill payments.

Wi Seunghoon, leader of the automotive industry at Samjong KPMG, said, "The future automobile's three major revolutions represented by eco-friendly vehicles, autonomous driving, and mobility services are evolving the automobile industry into a comprehensive mobility industry," adding, "As the paradigm shift in the automobile industry is accelerating after COVID-19, companies must quickly redesign the value chain according to core technologies and redefine the supplier's role in terms of products, infrastructure, customer experience, pricing systems, and data utilization."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.