Digital vehicle ecosystems and new business models: An overview of digitalization perspectives

The ongoing digitalization of passenger vehicles entails a rearrangement of stakeholder power relations within the automotive industry. A bunch of innovation-friendly IT start-ups - the majority of them from outside Europe - has already put energy into the development of novel quantified vehicle services for various beneficiaries, including drivers as well as third parties, challenging the traditional role of vehicle manufacturers. They gather data on how vehicles are used and offer digital products and services exploiting this data. Thereby new business models have been created within the automotive industry, causing an interesting power struggle between the various stakeholders. This paper provides a short overview on the role of the digitalization phenomenon in general, the impact of digitalization in the automotive domain through quantified vehicle start-ups and new business models, as well as a brief investigation of the position of vehicle manufacturers and their digital service strategies - all of them concluded in a comparison of value creation for business model elements.