Servitization in the automotive industry: how car manufacturers become mobility service providers

The automotive industry, as other manufacturing industries, has evolved from competing on discrete transactions to relational agreements with customers. While previous literature calls for further analysis of the observed heterogeneity found across servitized manufacturing industries, this article contextualizes the analysis in the automotive industry. Servitization follows a sequence of stages, from offering basic and intermediate services, to new business models based on the provision of advanced services to customers. As the advanced services are related to core competencies of the car manufacturers, complex collaborative arrangements are the primary market strategy choice. This article demonstrates the challenges and opportunities related to such choices, over a set of internal and external categories and along the servitization journey.