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Key takeaways
- Monetization is moving to the forefront: Leaders should align technology choices with recurring revenue opportunities and measurable economic outcomes.
- Customer and ecosystem control may determine value capture: Customer experience, connected services, and mobility ecosystems remain priorities. Leaders should protect customer access, data rights, and the commercial relationship beyond the vehicle sale.
- Software architecture is an enabler, not the end state: Software-defined vehicle (SDV), compute, and electronics enable connected services and digital offers. Leaders should link architecture choices to customer value, service scale, and monetization.
- Capital is shifting toward integrated value propositions: Investment is moving beyond standalone technologies toward combinations of vehicle technology, software, services, and business models. Leaders should evaluate capital across the integrated value stack.
- Partnerships should accelerate capabilities without giving away the economics: Leaders should align technology choices with recurring revenue opportunities and measurable economic outcomes.
Automotive competition is moving from vehicle-centered scale to control-point economics.
Software architecture, update authority, data rights, customer identity, connected services, and partner ecosystems now determine who captures value after the vehicle sale. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers can remain essential to engineering and manufacturing yet lose margin and customer access if external platforms control the digital and service layers.
That’s why it’s critical for leaders to develop a clear ownership map. Own the control points that define differentiation and accountability, partner for scalable technology and infrastructure, and monetize investments by tying them to measurable customer and economic outcomes.
In new research, PwC analyzed 1,306 publicly announced investments and initiatives across 25 traditional OEMs and suppliers and 14 mobility and technology players. Our findings show a clear shift in the top automotive investment value pools. Battery investments led in 2024 but declined in 2025, as vehicle electronics, sensors, semiconductors, and compute architecture gained prominence. By early 2026, business model and monetization innovation emerged as the leading theme, followed by customer experience and connected services, and the mobility ecosystem.
PwC research confirms that rising categories are tied to control points, while lower-ranking categories are the ones increasingly available at scale from partners.
We’ve outlined four implications of that dynamic:
Value is moving beyond the vehicle:
Traditional players should consider an explicit control-point strategy before they commit product, technology, or partnership capital. The strategy should state what should remain in-house and what can sit with a partner.
Own control points, partner for scale:
Treat the automotive stack as a set of control choices, not a list of technologies. Own where control shapes safety, vehicle behavior, brand experience, customer identity, update authority, proprietary data, or recurring monetization. Use partners where scale, speed, or shared standards matter more than exclusivity. Retain system integration and the interfaces that connect the vehicle, customer, and ecosystem.
Partnerships are an economic necessity, not a strategic choice:
Automotive companies need software, consumer data, autonomous technology, EV capabilities, and connected services to improve margins and valuation. Yet few traditional players can fund these bets while also supporting plants, tooling, powertrain transition, and compliance. Lower valuation multiples when compared with technology companies further constrain funding capacity. Partnerships can provide access to critical capabilities without requiring each company to fund, build, and own every layer of the technology stack.
Localize execution on common foundations:
While companies need a common architectural and operating foundation, execution must vary by region. The implications play out differently across North America, Europe and Asia, where regulatory environments, infrastructure readiness, customer demand, and competitive dynamics shape how capabilities should be deployed and monetized.
The strategic decisions OEMs and suppliers should make now
PwC has identified seven key decisions that OEMs and suppliers should consider now as they respond to the industry’s shifting value equation, from defining control points and build-partner boundaries to creating the value model and localized execution. These decisions can help leaders move from broad ambition to practical action in a market where value is increasingly determined beyond the vehicle itself.
Download the full report for deeper insight into PwC’s research, strategic implications through 2029, and the seven decisions that can help position your business for the road ahead.
The new automotive value equation
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