The global car market is expected to grow in 2015 between 2% according to the forecast made by VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie) and 4% according to the study “The global automotive market´ by Euler Hermes. The outlook for global passenger car demand is more mixed than at the corresponding time a year ago, particularly in view of the sharp fall in the price of oil and varying economic development in different regions. However the carmakers continue to invest in automotive software for new car models and the market for software products and services is estimated to continue growing during 2015. The demand for EB´s products and services is estimated to develop positively year-on-year during 2015 in the Automotive Business Segment.
The market for electronics and software for cars is estimated to continue growing in the long term. The study “Future Industry Structure of Automotive (FAST) Electronics 2025´ from Berylls assumes a growth of automotive electronics from EUR 215 billion in 2012 to EUR 456 billion in 2025 (CAGR 6%).
Growth in the automotive software market in 2015 and beyond, and growth for EB, is expected to be driven mainly by:
- The majority of in-vehicle innovations come from electronics and software. Using software as a differentiator carmakers are able to develop feature-rich vehicles, and differentiate in the areas of comfort, safety and security, information and entertainment, powertrain and communication. The trend of separating hardware from software continues in 2015 and beyond, allowing carmakers to speed up innovation and to improve the quality and cost efficiency of their vehicles. As a software provider, this direction gives EB an opportunity to work directly with the major carmakers, providing them with software development services, products and tools according to their individual requirements. EB also offers software integration services to integrate software applications and modules from various suppliers.
- Carmakers continue to work on global modular car platforms to achieve scalability as well as good ability to handle the complexity of a growing number of car models and variants. This means volumes for software platforms will increase and software development programs will become global and include localization for all regions.
- The increasing complexity of car electronics and software is resulting in increasing efforts to provide safety-compliant systems. e.solutions, EB´s jointly owned company with AUDI, is developing high-end infotainment software solutions for the Volkswagen group companies. During 2015, development of software will continue and deliveries from e.solutions are planned for several new car models of Volkswagen group.
- Consumers expect in the car the same richness of features and user experience they know from the Internet and mobile devices, and therefore infotainment systems become increasingly common in all car price categories. This is expected to create continuing demand for development of infotainment software and software development tools, such as EB GUIDE.
- Mobile connectivity will become one of the fastest-growing Internet-connected device platforms among other connected consumer electronics devices, such as media tablets and smartphones. Gartner estimates that by 2016, the majority of car buyers in the automotive markets, such as in the U.S. and the Western Europe, will view the availability of in-vehicle, web-enabled dynamic content as a key buying criterion when considering a standard brand car.
- Connected Car solutions and cloud connections enable the introduction of new applications and enhancements to car functions, for example real-time traffic information or map updates for navigation. The increasing demand to better integrate mobile devices with the car has been reflected in the announcements by consumer electronics companies, such as Apple´s “CarPlay´ or Google´s Open Automotive Alliance. These drivers are creating demand for software integration services.
- New Active Safety Systems and Driver Assistance applications are being brought to the market, as automated driving is one of the key trends and an area with significant investments. Carmakers are preparing highly automated driving systems for their new car models to be available in the market in the coming years.
