Reinventing the wheel: what’s driving change in 21st century mobility

In the coming decades, the world will become even more urban and populous. The second quarter of the twenty-first century will be dominated by the need to retool economies to serve more people, decarbonise, adapt to climate change, and improve resilience in the face of viruses, cyber threats and other sources of fragility. 

Leaders across the private and public sectors – including local governments – will, in turn, grapple with how the automotive, aerospace, and transport and logistics sectors can innovate and grow in the face of these headwinds.  

The mobility industry is experiencing a major transformation in operations and mindset. It is moving from the ‘heavy footprint’ model of the twentieth century, characterised by physical, mass-produced, carbon-intensive assets, to the ‘light footprint’ model of the twenty-first, characterised by personalised and shareable mobility technology and software, alongside integrated, interconnected systems.  

Trends and changes encompass not just the movement of people but goods, services and data as well. Navigating the tension and evolution of both legacy and emergent systems will require agility, adaptation, and a wide range of expertise.  

Noisy debate will continue to play out across the industry, asking: How can the mobility sector respond to evolving consumer expectations to influence and lead a transformation towards cleaner, more connected and collaborative systems? 

To make sense of the debate, we have created three interconnected article series focusing on interrelated aspects of mobility transformation and interviewed senior executives to shed light on what’s happening ‘on the ground’ as key automotive players work to shape the future of mobility.