Latest KPMG Report: Connectivity More Important Than Horsepower in Cars of the Future

Jennifer van der Kleut

Luxury, gas mileage and horsepower-features such as those have long been the deciding factors for consumers when picking the car for them.

The latest report from research/consulting firm KPMG says those features are starting to move toward the back burner, though-and that the future is all about connectivity.

According to KPMG, processing capability and connectivity will be more important than horsepower in the cars of the future.

In the report, KPMG analysts go so far as to theorize that technology is completely taking over auto innovations, and that within a decade, automakers will no longer exist as independent companies, implying that OEMs will join together with tech companies like Apple and Google to continue manufacturing cars, or perhaps tech companies will even even acquire car companies.

Mobility-on-demand (such as ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft) and autonomous cars are two areas of auto innovation that KPMG says are experiencing the biggest push right now-largely by tech companies.

In short, KPMG’s report says that tech companies, not car companies, are the ones most focused currently on what consumers really want, and that is why they are poised to take over automakers.

In addition, KPMG says companies like Apple-perhaps best known for its smartphones these days-are more accustomed to high levels of production, cranking out hundreds of millions of units each time a new product comes out, in comparison to automakers’ mere millions.

“Maybe automakers should start thinking about behaving like phone companies,” comments columnist Patrick Nelson of Network World.