2015 will undoubtedly be the year of the connected car

Apr 07, 2015

Here's how big connected cars will be in regions around the world

2015 will undoubtedly be the year of the connected car. In their recent annual report, BMW Group CEO Norbert Reithofer said connecting the car to the internet will change the auto industry more than the shift to electric and hybrid cars.

To stay competitive in the automotive market, car makers throughout the world have quickly begun to equip their car lineups with internet connection features. Some automakers have even gone as far as building car “app stores.”

In new research from BI Intelligence, we have expanded upon our previous connected car forecasts and created a regional analysis of how connected car shipments will trend in Asia, North America, Western Europe, South America, and Eastern Europe, and included forecasts for the top countries for connected car shipments in each of these regions.

Here are some of the findings from the report:

• Asia will be the leading connected car market. Although the Asian car market is slowly beginning to cool off, we expect total car shipments will remain high. Further, we believe tech companies including Alibaba and Baidu will have a major impact in bringing connected cars to the region.
• North American connected car sales will be propped up by the US. By 2020, we expect nearly 97% of new cars shipped in the US will have the capability to connect to the internet.
• Western Europe will quickly adopt connected car solutions. We estimate the share of connected cars to non-connected cars will grow from 13% in 2014 to 95% in 2020.
• South America and Eastern Europe will be slow to migrate towards connected cars. The two regions buy the fewest cars and are dominated primarily by emerging, rather than developed, markets. Nevertheless, automakers are likely to install connectivity features to various models sold in the regions.

SOURCE: Business Insider Australia