In brief

Automobiles are the world’s biggest manufacturing and retailing sector, with nearly 90 million units produced in 2023. Cars are at the core of mobility, where ecosystem reconfiguration and business model reinvention are most visible. As technologies evolve, for example, the concept of individual car ownership may be replaced by the notion of mobility as a service (MaaS). The ecosystem that is developing around electric mobility is drawing in incumbents and upstarts alike, and is inspiring hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and new products and services.

Uneven progress

1. It starts with cars

2. Planes, trains, and ships

3. Practically audacious strategy

The new mobility ecosystem is driving reinvention across every industry. Are you ready to get on board?

motion

In depth

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Flying sustainably

Mobility isn’t just about cars, of course. Other modes of transport—notably, aviation, rail, and shipping—are on their own net-zero transformation journeys.

For the mobility transition—and for the necessary transitions in sustainability, technology, and other industries—harnessing ecosystems will be critical. The scale of investments required is so vast, and the range of capabilities and resources needed to drive change is so expansive, that only a network of actors collaborating intensely can succeed. If you’re running an organization, or supervising its management, the task at hand is to envision the future ecosystem in which you intend to operate. Beyond understanding what types of companies will perform what roles, you have to develop a clear view of how value pools are going to shift. Then, determine your target position in this future ecosystem:

1. Understand the future ecosystem

EXPLORE

More issues

For ages, the concept of fully reimagining how things and people move around has been regarded as the very definition of an exercise in futility. You can’t reinvent the wheel, as the saying goes. But a deep look into the multiple coincident transformations surrounding mobility reveals that, in fact, we are well into the process of reinventing how the wheel moves, how it might communicate with other wheels, and what powers its motion. The result is an exhilarating set of opportunities.

In conclusion

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March 2024

Illustrations by Paul Weston

Pause motion

Value in

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8 min

Dive deeper: How ready is the world for e-mobility?

2. Planes, trains, and automobiles

Nadia Kubis Global Strategy and Leadership, PwC Germany Email

Peter Kauschke Global Smart Mobility, Director, PwC Germany Email

Harald Wimmer Global Automotive Leader, and Global Smart Mobility Co-Leader, Partner, PwC Germany Email

Blair Sheppard Global Leader, Strategy and Leadership, PwC US Email

Ryan Hawk Global Industrial Manufacturing and Automotive Leader, Principal, PwC US Email

Hazem Galal Global Cities and Local Government Leader, and Global Smart Mobility Co-Leader, Partner, PwC Middle East Email

Dive deeper: Supercharging sustainable aviation fuels for net zero

3. Practically audacious strategy

1. It starts with

The business imperative for reconfiguration: How mobility is setting the pace Read the transcript.

Dive deeper: Tapping ecosystems to power performance

cars

ships

Mobility is everything

Encouragingly, there are signs of progress. Nowhere is the rubber hitting the road with more impact than in the vast, burgeoning, and vital mobility sector, which is now fully in the throes of a technological—and climate-fueled—reconfiguration.

Leap ahead

In brief

2 min

Click compass for historical mobility milestones

Among the world’s most urgent, expensive problems lurks a whopper. We have no more than 15 to 20 years to remake our entire industrial system—the intricate and finely tuned set of networks that feed us; move us around; and build, make, and power the things we use every day. If we fail, the cumulative effects of the greenhouse gases emitted by our current system (with its 19th-century roots) will irreversibly damage societies and our planet.

206 BCE

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Image of car in a parking lot of solar panels

The reconfiguration imperative

A journey to intelligent urbanism: Cognitive Cities

Tapping ecosystems to power performance

Image of an aerial view of a neighborhood

The energy-demand opportunity: How companies can thrive in the energy transition

Image of close up of charging an electric vehicle

eReadiness 2023: Customer needs and recommended actions for OEMs

Digital Auto Report 2023: How fast will the mobility ecosystem really transform?

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Mobility is a cornerstone of wealth in our societies. In the dynamic mobility ecosystem, massive investments, rapid innovation, scaling technologies, a changing regulatory landscape, and a heightened sense of urgency are combining to put immense amounts of value in motion—sapping long-standing pools of value and profit while paving the way for the creation of new ones. But the comprehensive reinvention of mobility business models highlights the challenges and opportunities for leaders in other sectors, who must learn to work and thrive in evolving ecosystems. In mobility, as in many other sectors, the rapid pace of change is creating both urgency and opportunity. The necessary response from leaders? In our recent article “The reconfiguration imperative,” we succinctly articulate reasons for combining audacity and practicality in the face of this challenge. Succeeding in this approach means being radically audacious in questioning previous assumptions and scaling solutions rapidly, while being incredibly practical in developing realistic plans and overcoming the powerful forces of inertia.

Key actions for leaders

Own the change—and the uncertainty Emphasize ways in which collaboration can help your organization navigate through ambiguity.

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Because of the volumes of capital required along with other forces of inertia (for example, slow technology adoption), the development of ecosystems such as those surrounding electric mobility is highly spiky across countries and geographies. For instance, battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales in 20 key markets rose 28% in 2023 from the year before, as analyzed by Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. But China alone accounted for more than two-thirds of BEV sales in the markets analyzed. For 2024, projected volumes, penetration, and growth diverge among the most developed economies.

—Dr. Emmett Brown (Back to the Future)

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

What parts and geographies of the value ecosystem are you going to focus on? Where does your organization have a right to win based on existing capabilities? What value are you going to create for whom? And with whom will you best partner to compensate for your own lack of relevant capabilities and resources?

Be ambitious when staking out your future position.

Answering questions about how you will participate in ecosystems will probably lead to the realization that you have a lot of work to do at the organization, team, and individual level. That may mean resetting expectations with investors about the timing and pace of investments and returns. CEOs may need to expand their executive teams to include experts in emerging areas that are critical for their company’s future success, such as climate regulation or AI. And in an age of widening skills gaps and rising employee expectations, they’ll need to focus intensely on making sure their workforce is reinvention ready.

2. Get reinvention ready

In a world as complex and interdependent as ours, you will need to have the entire executive team own the change, rather than putting one or two functional leaders in charge. You will also need new mechanisms that account for the fact that the answers to many questions don’t yet exist. How precisely will electric vehicle charging be monetized in a profitable way? Where will all the green minerals necessary to build millions of electric cars come from? This puts even more emphasis on collaboration, both within organizations and within ecosystems, to solve problems—rather than simply presenting plans and solutions and mandating action. CEOs who are serious about reinvention must find approaches for acknowledging concerns, prizing curiosity and openness to learning, and encouraging managers to help people adapt.

3. Own the change—and the uncertainty

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Decarbonizing the iron horse

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), made from biomass, fatty acids, or from power-to-liquid processes, can reduce life-cycle CO emissions by up to 80% compared with conventional jet fuel. In 2024, SAF production is expected to triple from the year before to 1.9 billion liters from 600 million liters. Production will have to rise dramatically in the coming decades to meet net-zero goals, necessitating the creation of hundreds of facilities and huge quantities of storage and feedstock, as well as the required distribution infrastructure. Since 2019, Airbus has used SAF to operate its Beluga transport aircraft for internal logistics purposes. The company is working to make all its aircraft capable of flying with 100% SAF by the end of the decade.

Many trains already run on electricity—which can lead to zero-emissions trips when the power comes from renewable sources. But where electrification isn’t an option, hydrogen fuel cells have the potential to turn the 19th-century iron horse into a zero-emissions workhorse. Alstom’s Coradia iLint is the world’s first passenger train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The regional train with zero direct carbon emissions has been running since 2018 in Germany, and has been tested successfully in several other European countries. The keys to further progress include policy assistance and incentives, as well as cross-industry collaboration.

The route to shipping decarbonization requires the creation of a vast new ecosystem surrounding chemicals, batteries, ship construction, and port operators. But batteries designed to work for electric vehicles (EVs) won’t have enough power to accommodate long-distance sea transport. Japan-based Ocean Network Express (ONE) is currently exploring how carbon-free methanol or ammonia could play a role in addressing this challenge. The company is ordering ships that are built to run on fuel oil but can be retrofitted to be run on methanol. It is part of a joint venture between the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and six founding partners, aimed at increasing the supply and infrastructure of green fuels.

Casting off carbon

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Similarly, a look at the development of electric mobility infrastructure and support reveals very different rates of progress and preparation across countries and territories. The Strategy& eReadiness Index measures readiness in key markets across a range of KPIs in four dimensions: government incentives, infrastructure availability, supply, and demand.

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Get reinvention ready Reset expectations with investors, and focus intensively on preparing your workforce for what’s to come.

Understand the future ecosystem Develop a clear view of how your organization will work with others to create value.

In conclusion

11 of 11

By truck, sea, and then truck again, Malcolm Purcell McLean ships 58 specially built truck trailers from Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas.

1956: Intermodal containers

1 of 11

Known as the south-pointing fish, the compass is developed and ¬used for fortune-telling.

206 BCE: The magnetic compass

4 of 11

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens—the first regularly scheduled steam-powered train service.

1830: Trains

3 of 11

Two Roberts—Fulton and Livingston— launch the first commercially successful steamboat, which cuts the travel time between New York an d Albany from four days to 32 hours.

1807: Steamboats

2 of 11

Ch’iao Wei-Yo develops China’s extraordinary Grand Canal by inventing the modern canal lock, raising or lowering ships as needed.

984: Canal locks

5 of 11

Elisha Otis develops a breakthrough safety device to prevent elevator cars from falling.

1852: Elevators

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John Kemp Starley introduces the Rover “safety” model, the ancestor of our own bikes with its equally sized wheels, pedals under the seat, and a chain to transfer power to the rear wheel via gears.

1885: Bicycle pedal power

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Carl Benz applies for patent number 37435 on a “vehicle powered by a gas engine”—regarded as the “birth certificate” of the automobile.

1886: Automobiles

8 of 11

The first electrified underground urban metro system opens in London, an innovation used in hundreds of cities today.

1890: Electric underground

9 of 11

The Wright brothers get powered flight off the ground at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. In 2023, an estimated 8.6 billion passengers boarded planes.

1903: Airplanes

10 of 11

Herbert Everest and Harry C. Jennings develop a lightweight folding model that is well-suited to (and widely adopted for) solo use.

1932: Folding wheelchairs

2 min

In brief

8 min

In brief

Automobiles are the world’s biggest manufacturing and retailing sector, with nearly 90 million units produced in 2023. Cars are at the core of mobility, where ecosystem reconfiguration and business model reinvention are most visible. As technologies evolve, for example, the concept of individual car ownership may be replaced by the notion of mobility as a service (MaaS). The vast ecosystem that is developing around electric mobility is drawing in incumbents and upstarts alike, and is inspiring hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and new products and services.

In brief | Cars | Other transport | The strategy | Top