Cars are dying and are in danger of becoming extinct.

Last week, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders ( SMMT) recorded its consecutive annual decrease in car ownership in more than 100 years even as the number of cars on the road rose by 0.4%. New car sales are skewed towards sales of Electric cars (EV)-which recorded a spectacular 71% growth, but on the whole the car industry is in trouble.

The industry itself is seeing a massive disruption from several VUCA driven forces forcing customers to hold on buying new cars. The average age of the UK passenger car fleet has risen to over 12 years partly due to an alignment of the pandemic induced VUCA pause on buying new cars to a number of forces, converging on the Industry. Philip Nothard defines this VUCA as “new vehicle production problems, primarily caused by semiconductor shortages and coronavirus restrictions, disrupted the wholesale and retail vehicle markets”.

An Increase in new technologies and government led disruptive cycles have created ripples through established car consumption and manufacturing cycles which make cars extinct. Some of these disruptive VUCA forces are :

(a) A move towards electrified powertrains to support the development of sustainability mobility ecosystems that help cities . While laudable as a shift towards mitigating some of the effects caused by our use of cars, one must remember that electrified powertrains have been around for as long as the internal combustion engine. In 1835, Thomas Davenport had demonstrated first practical…