Connected and electric, the future of the automotive industry is taking form—and reshaping the competitive landscape. BCG helps automotive companies both master how the game is played today and transform to win tomorrow.
Nathan Niese
Now is the most exciting time in the history of the automotive industry. It’s also the most challenging. New entrants are disrupting how the business works, while innovations such as software-defined vehicles and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are fueling new opportunities and challenging the status quo. To lead the way, legacy automotive companies must evolve, adopting new business and operating models, new ways of working, and new approaches to automotive strategy.
The automotive industry is shifting rapidly, propelled by new ideas and possibilities. BCG helps companies turn inspiration into innovation, creating the vision that takes them—and the industry—even further, while building the resilience to respond quickly to challenges and uncertainty, such as volatile supply chains. We partner with clients to create a next-generation automotive strategy that accelerates the journey to sustainable mobility and electrifies the future, as well as the cars themselves. And we empower them to seize new opportunities long after we’ve left the scene.
Collaboration and enablement are at the heart of our automotive consulting work. So is our holistic approach. With more than 1,100 experts around the globe and across the value chain, we help companies both new and old develop connected and autonomous vehicles, pursue new businesses, and launch large-scale automotive digital transformation projects. Five key themes stand out:
We work with OEMs, suppliers, retailers, and other players across the automotive value chain to shape the journey to sustainable mobility. Our automotive consulting services have been integral in launching new vehicle manufacturers, transforming established players, and guiding some of the industry’s most successful mergers and automotive digital transformation projects. Here are some examples.
Through a large-scale cost transformation, we enabled a European premium vehicle manufacturer to realize more than $7 billion in cash and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improvement, helping navigate tough market conditions and helping fund the internal combustions engine (ICE) to battery-electric vehicle (BEV) journey. We also helped strengthen their supply chain and lowered material cost, including for the new BEV platforms.
We worked with a global vehicle manufacturer to optimize their partner network for their next generation of software-defined vehicles. We enabled quicker and broader access to cutting-edge technology and optimized the deployment of more than 10,000 engineers and more than €2 billion annual R&D spend.
We helped a leading off-highway vehicle manufacturer revamp its supply chain and improve its engineering efficiency by supporting initiatives that will deliver approximately $250 million in annual EBIT opportunity. Within engineering, our team also outlined ways to reduce costs by 10% and improve speed to market by up to 35%.
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To help clients unleash the power of AI, we bring a unique set of enablers, powered by BCG X. These proprietary tools and solutions let automotive industry players uncover new sources of value. They also help us accelerate key initiatives, including automotive strategy, supply chain optimization, and cost reduction in the automotive industry.
Many AI projects in the automotive industry never progress beyond proof of concept. BCG X’s advanced AI and analytics solution leverages business and technology expertise to help clients achieve end-to-end implementations that change the course of the industry, disrupting operations, sales, marketing, and more.
OEMs throughout the automotive industry are under intense pressure to do more with less and streamline the entire manufacturing process. Our integrated AI-powered manufacturing offering brings together BCG’s operations know-how and BCG X’s advanced analytics capabilities to unlock value at scale on the shop floor.
The adoption of integrated, software-enabled business models holds significant growth potential—worth billions of dollars—for today’s manufacturers and other industrial players. By leveraging data from connected products and machinery—combining hardware, software, and services—industrial companies can create subscription-based offerings that unlock new customer value and generate recurring revenue. BCG partners with clients to design and launch software-as-a-service business models that improve productivity, reduce costs, and drive endless opportunities for growth through subscription-based offerings.
Our automotive consulting services draw upon a cadre of experts in automotive strategy, connected and autonomous vehicles, the transition to electric vehicles, and sustainability in the automotive industry. We complement these teams with thought leaders across the spectrum of functional and technical areas, from data science and digital transformation to talent strategy and organizational design.
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