Last year, 12% of respondents in KPMG’s Global Automotive Executive Survey (GAES) believed that the global automotive industry was somewhat to extremely likely to see a major model disruption in the next five years. This year, the figure increased to 82%.

The global automotive industry is faced with a push towards autonomous driving and the ever-increasing appetite for in-vehicle data consumption.

When asked what executives viewed as the key trends until 2025, connectivity and digitalisation jumped from number ten in last year’s list to number one. This year’s second key trend was the development and use of hybrid electric vehicles, with number three being battery electric mobility.

Last year’s number two, the downsizing and optimisation of the internal combustion engine, moved to number ten this year.

When asked to identify the key ground-breaking innovators and technology leaders among vehicle manufacturers in the industry, BMW was seen as number one, followed by Toyota in the number two spot.

However, 35% of respondents in the vehicle manufacturing sector believed that information and communication technology (ICT) companies would be the “ground-breaking innovators”, with only 31% convinced it would be traditional automotive companies.

Responding to the same question, 53% of ICT industry respondents noted that ICT companies would be the innovators, with only 26% stating that it would be traditional automotive companies.

The KPMG GAES 2016 canvassed 800 executives in 38 countries. This year, however, KPMG also surveyed 2 100 customers from around the world.

In this year’s survey, 33% of the respondents stated that vehicle manufacturers would be the ones taking over the customer relationship towards 2025 – down from 72% in the 2015 survey.

However, 22% of respondents believed that ICT companies would be the ones taking over the relationship, up from 4% in 2015.

Flowing from this, the GAES asked executives who they believed to be the owner of consumer and vehicle data. Thirty-nine per cent believed the owner of the car to be the owner of any generated consumer data, while 30% stated that the vehicle data belonged to the owner/driver of the car.

Twenty-three per cent of executives believed that consumer data belonged to the vehicle manufacturer, with 29% noting that that vehicle data belonged to the vehicle manufacturer.

Consumers did not agree, however.

Fifty-seven per cent of consumers noted that the owner of the car also owned the consumer data generated by the vehicle, with 48% convinced that the owner of the car also owned the vehicle data.

Only 12% of consumers believed that the consumer data belonged to the vehicle manufacturer, with 18% noting that the vehicle data belonged to the vehicle manufacturer.

When rating possible benefits to be paid for their data, consumers rated cash as number one, followed by incentive schemes and individualised services. Automotive executives, however, rated these three benefits the other way round, starting with individualised services as the most attractive benefit.

Consumers and executives also differed on the investments to be made in powertrain technologies.

Thirty-four per cent of consumer respondents rated hybrid electric vehicles as number one, as did executives. However, the number two option for consumers was the downsized international combustion engine, while automotive executives believed it to be the pure battery electric vehicle.

“Nothing will stay as it is in the automotive industry,” says KPMG automotive global head Dieter Becker. “Ever-changing service and data-driven business models should be paving the way towards owning, securing and keeping the key stakeholder – the customer. “In order to meet their current needs, becoming a customer-orientated service provider is of utmost importance. “One way traditional carmakers can add value and offer customised client experiences is leveraging the massive amounts of data that both the car and its drivers produce.”