A large majority of respondents feel growth in emerging nations is an important trend, while the changing urban landscape is becoming a bigger influence, with vehicle design, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) and connected car technologies increasing in importance. These trends are common to mature and emerging markets alike.
Ninety-two percent consider fuel efficiency to be the number one purchase criteria, while pure battery driven cars have lost ground in the battle for new propulsion technology and are expected to attract the lowest consumer demand by 2018. Plug-in hybrids are seen as having the greatest sales potential of electric vehicles, and just 17 percent of respondents believe fuel cell-powered cars will be the leading form of e-mobility.
In mature nations consumers are downscaling to smaller, more efficient, greener cars. In the developing markets on the other hand, a significant proportion of buyers crave larger, more upscale models such as SUVs.