Analysis of the Business Models of the Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Industry

Abstract

Intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) are recognized as a great opportunity with huge social benefits by the global auto industry. Governments of various countries attach great importance to them, and traditional Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and technology companies are also introducing them into consumers’ lives by virtue of various business models, thereby generating practical value. The business model plays a decisive role in determining whether a company can share the ICV market cake and its future position in the industry. More importantly, it will also determine how fast the ICVs can become reality from imagination. In this paper, the ICV industry ecosystem was sorted out, the business models of ICVs adopted by mainstream OEMs were analyzed, and five typical business models were summarized, i.e. platform model, self-transformation model, traditional Tier1 dependence model, alliance model, and outsourcing model. On this basis, the SWOT analysis method was adopted to systematically analyze the internal and external advantages and disadvantages of the five business models, and forward insights on enterprises’ developing and maintaining the competitive advantages in the ICV industry were proposed from five perspectives of technology, market timing, customer experience, brand, and data.

Monetizing Car Data: A Literature Review on Data-Driven Business Models in the Connected Car Domain

“…In addition, we address the challenge of many incumbents to develop specific capabilities either internally or externally. We then examine actors in the connected car ecosystem, that will naturally be forced to take on certain roles (e.g., service providers or platform providers) and enter into strategic partnerships with multiple entities [51,13,31]. Last, we elaborate on financial aspects around connected car business models, including their revenue streams and cost structure.…”

“…Following Al-Debei and Avison [19], we distinguish between the actors of which a connected car ecosystem is composed and the roles played by these actors. The group of actors capturing the car data monetization opportunity primarily consists of drivers, OEMs, suppliers, startups, tech companies, fleet operators, workshops, infrastructure players, retailers, insurers, roadside assistance, and governments (e.g., [13,45,48]). One of the first decisions for these actors is what role to play in the connected car ecosystem.…”

“…Moreover, a large number of startups entered the ecosystem, creating numerous digital services based on car data from the OBD interface or the driver's smartphone. An example is Zendrive.com, providing smartphone-powered and gamified driving analytics [13,33,34].…”

“…While OEMs are launching digital services such as BMW ConnectedDrive and Mercedes me connect, they are threatened by major tech companies such as Google, introducing its own car operating system Android Automotive, or Apple, even planning its rumored electric car [10]. At the same time, several scholars work on related topics, such as novel connected services [8,11], required collaboration [12,13], technological enablers [14,15], or shifting revenue pools [16,17]. As our society is strongly driven by mobility, Kaiser et al state that "[...] it is almost our duty to examine the emergence of digital services based on vehicle usage data more closely" [18, p.40].…”

Research on a Task Offloading Strategy for the Internet of Vehicles Based on Reinforcement Learning

“…ICV are equipped with highprecision sensors and other computing devices such as powerful CPU and GPU, and can realize the information exchange and resource sharing of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicleto-pedestrian (V2P) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). The ICV industry [2] is based on artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and 5G communication technology, and supported by electronic information industry, communication industry, integrated circuit industry, internet industry, transportation industry; it is applied to the Internet of Vehicles, autopilot and market service industry. Based on the automation degree of the autopilot system, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) divides autopilot into six levels (L0-L5).…”