DETROIT -- The auto industry is betting billions of dollars in a global game of roulette involving connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicles. While some "traditional" automakers such as General Motors and Ford Motor Co. are hedging their bets to keep their seats at the table, newcomers out of Silicon Valley such as Tesla Inc.​ are going all-in to disrupt the game. No one playing knows whose strategy will pay off in the end, but one thing is certain: Not everyone can be a winner. "There are going to be billions and billions of dollars lost in bets that were put in the wrong place," John Hoffecker, global vice chairman of consulting firm AlixPartners, said Tuesday during an Automotive Press Association meeting in Detroit. The ongoing gambles and challenges facing the automotive industry are the focus of AlixPartners' new "Global Automotive Outlook" covering connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicle (CASE) trends, creating a "new automotive ecosystem." Hoffecker expects a handful of companies to essentially "win" in this new world, while others will be forced to adopt technologies from the leading companies or risk losing their seat at the table. He said companies that are able to quickly and successfully adapt to the emerging technologies, while navigating traditional industry problems, will ultimately be the most successful. "The big winner in the future is going to be this person who can figure out how to change their organization into more of a consumer electronics kind of business than what we've seen," he said. "Where they think about their business in one-, two-, three-year cycles; not four-, eight-, 10-year cycles." The report includes research around emerging trends as well as a survey of 2,000 adult consumers in the U.S. covering shared mobility services.
The automotive industry is gambling, and likely wasting billions and billions of dollars , on connected cars and electric vehicles, because only a handful of companies will "win" in the emerging market, while others will need to adopt technologies from leading rivals, according to consulting firm AlixPartners . Some traditional carmakers such as General Motors and AlixPartners are "hedging their bets" while newcomers from Silicon Valley , such as Tesla Inc.​ , are putting all their resources into disrupting the industry, Ford said.