Report

PSA Auto Technology: The Automotive Operating System – the Big Question

The auto industry has spent the last few years on redefining their powertrain strategies, as electrification has become the key focus of automakers and investors. However, these changes are nothing compared to the upcoming disruption from the emergence of the software-defined car. As the car’s digitalization expands from driving functions and infotainment to connectivity and autonomous drive, the software requirements are increasing exponentially. Against this backdrop, automakers’ decision on whether to develop proprietary automotive operating systems or cooperate with Big Tech should be crucial for their long-term success. Auto analyst Julie Boote investigates.
Underlyings
11 Bit Studios S.A.

11 BIT STUDIOS SA is a Poland-based company engaged in the game development industry. Its product portfolio includes four games: Anomaly Korea, Sleepwalker's Journey, Funky Smugglers and Anomaly Warzone Earth. The Company produces video games for different devices, such as video consoles, personal computers (PC), and Apple products (iPhone, iPad), among others.

Aeris Environmental

Aeris Environmental is engaged in research, development, commercialization of proprietory technologies and global distribution of the AerisGuard range of products; provision of air-conditioning and refrigeration remediations to commercial customers; and provision of site-specific water treatment remediations to industrial customers.

ALPHABET HOLDING CO INC

Apple Inc.

Apple designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and sells a variety of related services. The company's products include: iPhone; Mac; iPad; and wearables, home and accessories, which includes AirPods?, Apple TV?, Apple Watch?, Beats? products, HomePod?, iPod touch? and other Apple-branded and third-party accessories. The company's services include: digital content stores and streaming services; AppleCare, which includes AppleCare + (AC+) and the AppleCare Protection Plan; iCloud, which is the company's cloud service; licensing; and other services, which include Apple Arcade?, Apple Card?, Apple News+, and Apple Pay, a cashless payment service.

Baidu Inc Sponsored ADR Class A

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

Bayerische Motoren Werke is a holding company, engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of cars and motorcycles. Co. owns three brands: BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce. Co.'s BMW automobile range encompasses the 1 Series, including coupe and convertible models; the 3 Series, including sedan, touring, coupe and convertible models; the 5 Series, including sedan and touring models; the 6 Series, including coupe or convertible; the 7 Series large sedan; the Z4 roadster and coupe; the sports utility vehicles, X3, X5 and X6 and M models. Co. also provides cars under the MINI brand and motorcycles under the BMW brand. The Rolls-Royce brand provides three cars, Phantom, Coupe and Ghost.

DENSO CORPORATION

Denso and its affiliates are mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of automobile electronic, electrical parts, and other components. Co.'s principal business segments are powertrain control systems, electronic systems, thermal systems, information and safety systems, small motors, industrial systems and consumer products. Co.'s principal products include starters, alternators, engine management systems, components for gasoline, diesel and electric hybrid vehicles, engine ECUs, hybrid ICs, air conditioners, radiators, remote keyless entry controllers, car navigation systems, car-mounted ETC devices, motors, bar code handy scanners and industrial robots.

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor designs, manufactures, markets, and services a line of Ford cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles, electrified vehicles, and Lincoln vehicles, as well as provides financial services through its subsidiary, Ford Motor Credit Company LLC. The company is engaged in electrification; mobility solutions, including self-driving services; and connected vehicle services. The company has three operating segments: Automotive, which includes the sale of Ford and Lincoln vehicles, service parts, and accessories; Mobility, which includes its autonomous vehicles and its investment in mobility through Ford Smart Mobility LLC; and Ford Credit, which includes vehicle-related financing and leasing activities.

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited

Geely Automobile Holdings is an investment holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged in the investment holding and export of sedans outside the People's Republic of China (PRC); research, production, marketing and sales of automobile parts and related components and the research and development of electric hybrid engines in the PRC; procurement of automobile parts and components in the PRC; and marketing and sales of sedans in Russia and South America. In addition, through its associated companies, Co. is also engaged in the manufacturing of traffic facilities; provision of webpage design and related technology support services; manufacturing of emission control systems.

General Motors Company

General Motors designs, builds and sells trucks, crossovers, cars and automobile parts. The company also provides automotive financing services through its subsidiary, General Motors Financial Company, Inc. (GM Financial). GM Financial provides retail loan and lease lending across the credit spectrum. GM Financial provides commercial lending products to dealers including new and used vehicle inventory floorplan financing and dealer loans, which are loans to finance improvements to dealership facilities, to provide working capital, and to purchase and/or finance dealership real estate. Other commercial lending products include financing for parts and accessories, dealer fleets and storage centers.

Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. Class A

Great Wall Motor Company Limited is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) manufacturer in the People's Republic of China (the PRC). The Company is principally engaged in the design, research and development, manufacture and sale, as well as distribution of SUVs, sedans, pick-up trucks and automobile-related parts and components. The Company has three brands, Great Wall, Havel and WEY, and its products include SUVs, sedans and pick-up trucks. The Company also manufactures and supplies relative automotive parts and components. The Company's vertically integrated parts and components production unit manufactures various products, including engines, transmissions, chassis, electronics, interior and exterior decoration parts and molds. The Company manufactures cars, which include Great Wall C50 and Great Wall C30. The Company's SUVs include Great Wall H6, Great Wall H5-E and Great Wall M4. The Company's pick up vehicles are Wingle 5, Wingle 6 and Wingle 5 Upgrade.

Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. Class H

Hino Motors Ltd.

Hino Motors is a manufacturer of large, medium-duty, and light-duty trucks, buses and passenger vehicles. Co. is engaged in the design, development, manufacture and sale as well as the provision of services of diesel trucks, buses, special-purpose vehicles, industrial and marine diesel engines and spare parts. Co.'s truck models include light-duty truck "HINO Dutro," light-duty/medium-duty truck "HINO Ranger" and heavy-duty truck "HINO Profia." Co's bus models include "Hino Rainbow"and "Hino Liesse." Co. also manufactures passenger vehicles, commissioned from Toyota Motor Corp., including the sport-utility vehicles and commercial vehicles.

Hitachi Ltd.

Hitachi and its subsidiaries are engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of diversified product mix ranging from electricity generation systems to consumer products and electronic devices. Co.'s businesses are diverse, and include information and telecommunication systems, social infrastructure and industrial systems, electronic systems and equipment, construction machinery, high functional materials and components, automotive systems, life & eco systems, financial services, and others including logistics services, optical disk drive, as well as real estate business.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. GDR

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

Honda Motor is the parent company of a group mainly develop, manufacture and distribute motorcycles, automobiles, power products, and also provide financing for the sale of those products. Principal manufacturing facilities are located in Japan, the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Turkey, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Argentina, and Brazil. Co.'s principal business segments are motorcycles, automobiles, financial services, and power products & other business. Co.'s principal automobile products include passenger cars such as "Legend," "Accord," "Inspire," "Civic," "Insight," "City," "Acura RL," "Acura TL," "Acura TSX," and "Acura CSX".

Mazda Motor Corp.

Mazda Motor and its affiliates are mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of passenger and commercial vehicles. Co. provides compact vehicles, sports cars, sedans, mini vans, light cars, commercial vehicles, welfare vehicles and customized vehicles, as well as car accessories. Co.'s principal products are four-wheeled vehicles, gasoline reciprocating engines, diesel engines, and automatic and manual transmissions for vehicles. Co.'s principal brand automobiles include Demio, Axela, Atenza, CX-3, CX-5, CX-8, Roadster, Carol, Flair, Flair Wagon, Scrum Wagon, Bongo, Titan, Familia Van, and Scrum Van/Truck.

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft is a technology company. The company develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The company provides an array of services, including cloud-based solutions as well as solution support and consulting services. The company also delivers relevant online advertising. The company's products include operating systems; cross-device productivity applications; server applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; and video games. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells devices, including personal computers, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, other devices, and related accessories.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Mitsubishi Motors and its affiliates are mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of motor vehicles including passenger cars as well as component parts. Co. is engaged in the development, design, manufacture, assembly, sale and purchase, import and other transactions relating to automobiles, component parts and replacement parts, agricultural machinery and industrial engines; the sale and purchase of used automobiles; the sale of measuring equipment; and acting as insurance agents in accordance with laws relating to property damage insurance and to automobile damage indemnity insurance. In addition, Co. is involved in the provision of automobile leasing and sales finance services.

Neusoft (A)

Neusoft Corp. Neusoft Corporation is a China-based company principally engaged in the software businesses and system integration businesses. The Company's products are applied in health and social insurance, intelligent automobile interconnection, intelligent city, enterprise interconnection and other fields. The Company is also involved in the provision of related services, as well as property advertising businesses. The Company operates its businesses in both domestic and overseas markets.

NVIDIA Corporation

NVIDIA engages in graphics processing unit (GPU)-based visual computing and accelerated computing platforms. The company has two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor, which are based on a single underlying architecture. The company's GPU product brands are aimed at markets including GeForce for gamers; Quadro for designers; Tesla and DGX for artificial intelligence data scientists and big data researchers; and GRID for cloud-based visual computing users. The company's Tegra brand integrates an entire computer onto a single chip, and incorporates GPUs and multi-core CPUs to drive supercomputing for autonomous robots, drones, and cars, as well as for game consoles and mobile gaming and entertainment devices.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Samsung Electronics is engaged in the manufacture and sale of electronic goods, communication products, semiconductors, telecommunication equipment, home appliances and other similar products. Co.'s products are mobile phones, MP3 Players, DVD players, video equipment, including Blu-Ray, TVs and VCRs; household appliances, including microwave ovens, refrigerators, home air conditioners, washing machines, ultrasonic humidifiers, dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaners and other small electrical goods; audio equipment, including semiconductors, information systems, and computers; miscellaneous parts; other products, including automatic vending machines, refrigerated display cases and electric tools.

SUBARU CORP

SUBARU and its affiliates are mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of automobiles and aerospace-related equipment. The Automobiles segment is engaged in the manufacture, sale and repair of passenger cars and their components under the name of "SUBARU." The Aerospace segment is engaged in the manufacture, sale and repair of commercial and defense aircrafts, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and their components. In addition, Co. is engaged in the manufacture, sale and repair of generators, engine-equipped machinery, agricultural machinery, construction machinery and their components; the leasing of real estate; and the manufacture and sale of temporary houses.

Suzuki Motor Corp.

Suzuki Motor is engaged in the manufacture and sale of automobiles and motorcycles in Japan and overseas. Co.'s business segments are automobiles, motorcycles, and marine. Automobiles segment manufactures and sells light automobiles, compact automobiles and general automobiles including "Swift," "Solio," "Jimny," "Spacia," and "Hustler." Motorcycles segment manufactures and sells compact two-wheel vehicles, light two-wheel vehicles, motorized bicycles and buggies such as "Hayabusa," "GSX-R1000R ABS," and "Skywave." Specialized Machinery segment manufactures and sells outboard motors, engines for snow vehicles, motorized wheelchairs, among others.

Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Tencent Holdings Limited is an investment holding company principally involved in the provision of value-added services (VAS) and online advertising services. The Company operates through three main segments. The VAS segment is mainly involved in provision of online/mobile games, community value-added services and applications across various Internet and mobile platforms. The Online Advertising segment is mainly engaged in display based and performance based advertisements. The Others segment is mainly involved in provision of payment related services, cloud services and other services.

Toyota Motor Corp.

Toyota Motor is an automobile manufacturer. Co. is primarily engaged in the design, manufacture, and sale of sedans, minivans, compact cars, sport-utility vehicles, trucks and related parts and accessories throughout the world. Co. provides financing, vehicle and equipment leasing and certain other financial services primarily to its dealers and their customers to support the sales of vehicles and other products manufactured by Co. Co.'s principal business segments are automotive operations, financial services operations and other operations. Co. sells its vehicles in approximately 190 countries and regions, and markets for its automobiles in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia.

Toyota Tsusho Corp.

Toyota Tsusho is a general trading company. Along with its subsidiaries and affiliates, Co. provides general steel products, specialty steel products, construction steel products, non-ferrous metal products and alloys iron; machine tools, industrial machines, information communication equipment and electronic devices; passenger vehicles, business vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, buses and automobile parts; petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, coal, oil and natural gas products; feed materials, processed food and alcohol drinks; condominiums and commercial buildings facilities, furniture and housing equipment.

Provider
Pelham Smithers Associates Ltd
Pelham Smithers Associates Ltd

Founded in 2009, Pelham Smithers Associates (PSA) provides market intelligence on Asian technology, focusing in particular on Japan. The industries covered by our team of specialists are: consumer electronics, telecomms, pharmaceuticals, internet, electronic parts and materials, automotive technology, retail and capital goods. 

PSA produces both company and sector reports. The focus of PSA’s research is to identify winners and losers as new technologies impact the top and bottom lines of corporations. Critical to our research is the clear explanation of how these new technologies work and how they impact companies and industries. 

The founding partners have worked closely together for twenty years and the team has more than doubled in size since 2012. 

Analysts
Julie Boote

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