How do traditional European car manufacturers respond to competitive pressures in an increasingly changing environment?
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- The twenty-first century has witnessed impressive advancements in technologies along with the rise of environmental awareness and the advent of collaborative consumption. The automotive industry has particularly been shaken by those evolutions and is therefore going through an important transformation. Part of this transformation is the arrival of a new set of actors who are trying to capture value on four main fronts: connectivity, self-driving cars, electric vehicles and shared mobility. The aim of this research is to understand how traditional car manufacturers respond to competitive pressures in this increasingly changing environment. Our analysis of semi-structured interviews with managers from the biggest European car manufacturers and of secondary data suggests that OEMs are encouraged to play and collaborate with an increased range of actors: direct competitors (traditional OEMs), providers of mobility solutions, start-ups, tech giants and emerging OEMs. With these collaborations, traditional OEMs are more and more going from car manufacturers to providers of mobility solutions. This research also helps to play down the situation of traditional OEMs: they are strong groups with colossal operational and financial means and are not meant to disappear any soon.