Yanfeng says companies will increasingly view cars as a medium to generate ancillary revenue while new manufacturing philosophies will definitely see jobs lost as production becomes ever more efficient.
The current blizzard of technology on vehicles will only increase with the power of connectivity as non-automotive companies move with greater pace into the mobility sector which, in some cases, will free passengers from the actual process of driving and create new business opportunities.
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“The entry level of vehicles has never been as low as it is today,” said Yanfeng executive director of process innovation, advanced product development and sales, Oliver Becker at this week’s Central and Eastern Automotive Forum in Prague.
“How do you want to make money in the future? Companies don’t want to make money with the vehicle itself – they want to make money with the services surrounding the vehicle – streaming of videos – maybe [even] food. They want to own the time of the passenger.
“There will be many more companies moving into this field because they can. If Google sees financial merit, they will definitely enter this field.”
Becker broadened his theme of future trends to take in those currently sweeping through manufacturing processes, particularly factories of the future and the omnipresent Industry 4.0 philosophy being embraced by so many.
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By GlobalData“Congratulations to those guys who came up with the term 4.0,” added Becker. “If they called it ‘continuous integration,’ nobody would have cared. We are trying to establish a smart factory, so the first thing you need is [to] connect your equipment to the internet.
“Will it cost jobs? I think the answer is, absolutely, yes.
We are now getting cobots – they will cost more jobs, absolutely, yes. People need to cope with the industrial requirements of 4.0.
“I hate to say it – I am not a fan of IT – but IT runs the plant even more than in the past.”
Despite the threat to largely unskilled labour, Becker held out the more optimistic scenario of such strides in technology creating new products, which would, in turn, entice a future generation to look again at the auto sector rather than some of the more headline-grabbing segments of today.
“I think creating something new is a cool job,” he said. “I am convinced we will have no problem [of] more people move [ing] into this kind of industry.
“We all replace technological products. Who runs around with a Nokia? Probably nobody. We continue to purchase the latest gadgets.”
