Surging Premium Car Sales Amplifying Digital Instrument Cluster Use in Automotive Sector
The usage of automotive digital instrument clusters is escalating, due to the advent of autonomous vehicles. Although the number of driverless cars is minuscule in the automotive market at present, the demand is expected to surge in foreseeable future. To cater to this demand, manufacturers for automobile and associated technologies are working toward improving these transportation systems. Due to this reason, the automotive digital instrument cluster market is projected to display a CAGR of 21.8% during 2018–2023. The market was valued at $2.0 billion in 2017, which is projected to surpass $6.6 billion by 2023.
Moreover, the increasing penetration of premium cars has led to an increased demand for automotive digital instrument clusters in recent years. For instance, Mercedes-Benz and Audi sold 2.34 million and 1.84 million cars, respectively, in 2019. In the same year, Porsche and BMW delivered 0.28 million and 2.5 million cars, respectively. To increase their customer base, these marques are integrating advanced human–machine interface (HMI) features and products in their cars, thereby, increasing the application of automotive digital instrument clusters in the cars.
Besides, the automobile manufacturers are focusing on integrating big display-based digital instrument clusters in cars. This is because a larger panel offers a wide-view and provides a quick view of the information. Furthermore, the adoption of big display-based digital instrument clusters is expected to increase in future, due to the decreasing cost of central processing units (CPUs) and large liquid crystal display (LCD) displays. For instance, BMW is now installing a fully digital instrument cluster with a dimension greater than 12 inches across its 7 and 5 series.
Globally, the European automotive digital instrument cluster market generated the maximum demand in 2017, due to the high sales of premium and electric cars in the region. Furthermore, P&S Intelligence estimates that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region will adopt the automotive digital instrument clusters at the highest pace in future. This can be attributed to the increasing adoption of electric cars in the region. Additionally, rising shift toward premium cars will display a greater penetration of these clusters in APAC.
Several players are involved in manufacturing of automotive digital instrument clusters, such as Continental AG, Visteon Corporation, Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd., DENSO Corporation, Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Yazaki Corporation, and Delphi Automotive PLC. Also, the market consists of key suppliers, including Intel Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, and NVIDIA Corporation. These players are opting for strategic measures, such as product launches and partnerships, to consolidate the competition. For example, Visteon Corporation entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with China Automotive Engineering Institute, to explore opportunities in domain controllers, touch screen displays, instrument clusters, and head-up displays (HUD) by using the Visteon DriveCore technology platform.
Similarly, Intel Corporation and Luxoft, a global IT service provider, jointly developed a solution for a new automotive reference platform (ARP) in January 2018. The platform was developed to power the digital cockpit of next-generation automobiles. The Intel ARP is a prototyping and modular development platform for advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs). Through this platform, the design for vehicle’s HUD, driver assistance system, cockpit occupant monitoring system, and instrument cluster are now integrated on the ARP.
These technological advancements and emergence of autonomous vehicles will, therefore, increase the adoption of automotive digital instrument clusters in coming years.
