Smart City: Opportunity or Challenge for the Automotive Industry?

Megatrends such as population growth, urbanisation and climate change pose growing challenges for cities and citizens. The limited space in cities combined with an increasing number of citizens leads to problems such as space shortage, congestion, pollution, and overloaded infrastructure. Consequently, there is a growing demand for solutions to make cities more efficient, sustainable, liveable, and safe. The use of new technologies in cities is seen as a promising approach to address these challenges. This transformation to a smart city means a change in all areas of life, including mobility. Increasingly more cities are trying to transform urban mobility; for example, by introducing green zones or congestion fees. Since mobility today – with a share of about 70 % of the traffic volume – is largely shaped by the car and a large proportion of potential customers will live in such cities in the future, this change also affects the automotive industry. Accordingly, the question arises: “Smart City – Opportunity or Challenge for the Automotive Industry?”.