Automakers saw boom times for new-car sales in 2015 and 2016, and the notion that what goes up must come down (or plateau, if you’re being generous), has appeared to take hold in 2017. Car buyers are, after all, a finite resource. People don’t need to buy new vehicles regularly, and data shows people are hanging on to their cars and trucks longer. Rising technology only compounds this increasingly harsh reality for automakers, as underscored in a new report by the consulting firm Capgemini.
For automakers, the first bit of bad news is that people seem quite receptive to buying a vehicle from a tech brand such as Apple or Google, according to Capgemini’s 17th Cars Online report, which surveyed some 8000 consumers in eight countries. This interest is despite a “lack of substance,” said Matthew Desmond, North American automotive market lead at Capgemini, meaning that tech brands do not yet have their own vehicles ready for sale. The firm’s survey nevertheless found that consumer interest in buying cars from tech brands has grown from 49 percent in its 2015 study to 57 percent in the latest report. Whether consumers actually would buy the tech companies’ vehicles is another matter, Desmond noted. But they’re increasingly open to it. Brand loyalty is not the only thing for the established OEMs to worry about. There is also the growing popularity of ride-sharing services offered by the likes of Uber and Lyft. Fewer people will f...