The fundamentals of the auto business haven't changed much since Ford Motor Co. opened its plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit in the summer of 1903. A triad of cooperation made up of vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers and franchised dealers has worked remarkably well all these decades.
But given what's happened on the tech front — autonomous, electrification, ride-hailing, connectivity — smart people are questioning the sustainability of this model.
You don't need extra reasoning powers or special prophetic knowledge to see what's going on. The reinvention of the vehicle changes the way vehicles are owned and used, which will change the way the vehicle industry is organized. The goal posts won't just be moved; they'll be put on a tractor-trailer and driven to the next county.
So what's on the other side of the transformation? Will carmakers retain their brands in 2030, or simply fill massive orders from giant autonomous fleet owners such as Lyft or FedEx? Will there even be a need for dealers? And won't suppliers, with their software savvy, dictate and dominate product development?
This is radical stuff, but it's the kind of thing being agonized over in boardrooms. The folks heading today's automotive operations are immersed in a painstaking, industrywide, deep-dive effort to decode the future. And this is what Automotive News aims to chronicle with our series Industry Redesigned, which begins in this issue and continues for the next four weeks.
After more than a century of stability, auto people tend to mistrust the futurists. And the present has its own challenges. The balancing act is difficult, as some who got it wrong and paid with their careers can attest.
But carmakers, suppliers and dealers must be ready for the shock of the new. Will they get some things wrong? Undoubtedly. So never has it been more critical for the industry to be led by visionaries.
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