Innovation Management

Car companies as smart city enablers

2018-03-07

To regard car manufacturers as being responsible for space scarcity and pollution is obsolete. IMCG works with an automotive industry adapting to an era of increasing urbanisation, regulation and cities that are becoming smart.

“Car manufacturers that can define how they will be part of the mobility solutions of tomorrow, will become smart city enablers”, says Jonas Norrman, Partner IMCG.

The smart cities’ challenges – major opportunities for car manufacturers

A car manufacturer, that acknowledge the automotive industry being all about offering mobility services, will develop strategies embracing the cities’ mobility and environmental challenges.

Major opportunities arise for car manufacturers offering products and services contributing to the city becoming smarter and simultaneously enforcing the urbanisation process.

Digital platforms, that can leverage the market between small and large suppliers, have become just as important as pricing when it comes to business model innovation. Not surprisingly, cities becoming smart, have to increase the IT-based support for city processes. It’s both costly and complex for a city to handle. Mobility services processes are operated both by the city and the citizens. When cities set up an IT-system, city services are often prioritized and the public transports operated by the city is promoted. Thus, major opportunities arise for car manufacturers offering products and services contributing to the city becoming smarter and simultaneously enforcing the urbanisation process.

“Smart mobility providers that immediately take a broader perspective into account and think in terms of “smart regions” rather than smart cities, will have a huge advantage”, says Jonas Norrman, Partner IMCG.

A car manufacturer’s smart mobility strategy is also strengthened if including such as suggestions on changes in regulations, which would enable the deployment of a of a new innovative mobility solution.

The EU embraces mobility – become part of the future cooperation

EU-projects offer platforms for testing roles and responsibilities for future cooperation between cities and the mobility sector. Through the projects, trends for the future mobility services such as car-pools, electrification, ban on self-driving privately owned cars and self-driving shuttles are identified.

IMCG has built and is involved in several of the Smart City Lighthouse projects in Europe. Through them, IMCG creates impact, to make a sustainable change on the market. With over 80 European cities in our network, IMCG acts as a change agent when supporting cities that are to deal with the challenges that arise when moving towards becoming smarter offering smart mobility services.