The future car is developing in response to trends such as electric vehicles, autonomous driving, shared, connected and updated annually, and mobility patterns, instead of auto manufacturing, will be the core business mode, consulting firm PwC said on Tuesday.
"It is no longer just product, but the offering of mobility services that will form the heart of auto business models," said the report.
The percentage of the population of "traditional" users will be much reduced in China, and autonomous and shared forms of mobility will become much more significant by 2030, it noted.
"Traditional manufacturers and suppliers will be extremely vulnerable in the years ahead. They will have to battle against falling margins, while at the same time making far greater investments in electro-mobility and new, customer-oriented innovations," said Jun Jin, a partner at PwC China.
"These trends are likely to come to a head between 2020 and 2025, which means that the decisive years for manufacturers and their suppliers are just ahead," he added.
As for the world's top three markets - China, Europe and the US - the company forecasts that by 2030, Europe's vehicle inventory will drop 25 percent to 200 million, while for the US, a reduction of 22 percent to 212 million vehicles is anticipated.
However, for China, the auto industry still has much space for continued growth in inventory, and it is forecast to rise by 50 percent to 275 million vehicles.
