CES 2025 – Autotech and Mobility Highlights

The 2025 edition of CES is closing its doors. Following are my insights and opinions for the mobility portion of this global tech event. You may be interested in looking back at similar reports I have published each January since 2017 as this is my eighth participation.

?

General Observations and Trends — Not the Best CES

About 141,000 attendees and 6,000 media visited the 4,500 exhibitors, including about 1,500 startups. Among this last group, the Korean tech delegation was very noticeable as it occupied about 25% of Eureka Park, the hall dedicated to startups. The delegation was clearly larger than the French one which had been the second largest (after the US) for the past years.

This year’s edition was somewhat less intense in the mobility space than the past few ones. The overall booth density in the West Hall — dedicated to mobility — was lower, with a few empty spaces. Several major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers skipped this year’s CES (even more so than in 2024), e.g., Mercedes, Stellantis, Toyota, VW Group, as well as Magna, and Forvia, although most were present with private suites for meetings. The automotive industry is hurting financially, which impacted their attendance in Las Vegas.

?I did not identify any new trends of significant interest or spot any earth-shattering innovation in the mobility space. The software-defined vehicle (SDV) is increasingly in companies’ messages. However, we are still in the early stage of deployment, mainly with dedicated hardware and software presentations and design wins.

?AI is even more pervasive than in 2024 although GenAI-based solutions were not very visible yet, regardless of the vertical. Nvidia’s CEO made very ambitious announcements, touting the massive demand growth yet to come for their chips to support AI training and inference needs, including for autonomous and assisted driving where the company intends to play a key role (e.g., use genAI to create driving scenarii).

?Robotaxi players were present with Waymo and Zoox, as in 2024. This mobility mode is quickly gaining in maturity with Waymo reaching 175,000 paid rides per week between Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles — launches are planned in Austin, Atlanta, Miami and Tokyo. The company displayed the existing Jaguar iPace as well as the Zeekr (above) and Hyundai vehicles which will be operational in 2025 with Waymo’s Gen 6 HW and SW. Zoox presented its purpose-built vehicle which will be used for commercial rides in San Francisco and Las Vegas in the coming weeks.

?On the electrification front, there were signs that the industry is stepping back —?at least temporarily — from BEV to hybrid solutions, including extended range options (a.k.a. EREV). For instance, Valeo presented a mockup with various electrification options, including an industry-first triple wet clutch for hybrid powertrains. Scout, VW Group’s new brand (more later), added EREV options to its BEV-only initial plan, the former apparently receiving about 80% of all pre-orders.?

Lastly, aerial mobility was represented by one company this year. Xpeng AeroHT presented its “eVTOL + land carrier” duo (above). The former can carry two people and fold to fit in the back of the 5.5m-long, 6-wheeled land carrier. The company reportedly received 2,000 pre-orders for this $280k product with first deliveries expected in 2026. For comparison, US companies (e.g., Archer, Joby) are progressing as well whereas European ones (Lilium and Volocopter) are failing. Europe is falling behind.

?

A few Key OEM Announcements

Scout presented its very first products, the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup, both built on the same platform. As mentioned earlier, both BEV and EREV versions are offered; the latter was added recently to address the current resistance towards BEVs. Ranges are estimated at 350 and 500 miles respectively. These vehicles, which will be distributed via a direct-to-consumer model, will be VW Group’s first to benefit from the OEM’s partnership with Rivian, i.e., sharing of zonal / domain electronic architecture and software.

BMW unveiled its Panoramic iDrive cockpit solution, combining a pillar-to-pillar physical display with a large center screen and an optional head-up display (below). This new layout will be introduced in 2025 on Neue Klasse, first in the iX3.

Honda showcased prototypes of the first two models from its 0 Series line of BEVs, i.e., a midsize crossover and a low, wedge-shaped sedan with a daring design (below). The vehicles made their first appearance at CES 2024. Production will begin at the company’s US EV hub in 2026.

Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela presented the launch version of its first vehicle, a sedan named Afeela 1 (below) fitted with a pillar-to-pillar physical display. It was featured with a lidar and two cameras mounted on the roof. Deliveries will start in California mid 2026, initially with a version priced $103k and a targeted range at 300 miles (91 kWh battery). The car is available for pre-order and will be distributed via a direct-to-consumer model.

Zeekr, the 4-year-old Geely subsidiary had a strong presence with three vehicles on display, including the 001FR capable of 0-100 km/h in 2.02 seconds as well as an EV charging bot (below). Zeekr also announced the release of an Nvidia Thor-based driving kit for the cars it will deliver to Waymo in the US this year. The fast-growing brand sold 222k vehicles in China as well as through 500+ showrooms abroad.?

How About on the Suppliers and Startups

Valeo maintained its full presence with two sites, featuring a wide range of technologies. They included sensing tech along with ADAS solutions, domain and zonal HPC from single domain to modular, multi-domain computers, a vehicle OS, heat pump-based, vehicle-wide thermal management to improve energy efficiency, etc. Valeo also announced a partnership with AWS, aiming to reduce SDV development time by 40%.

OPmobility had a strong presence, doubling the size of its previous booth. The 11b€ French supplier showcased technologies ranging from lighting solutions (including the first Adaptive Driving Beam for the US market), to displays integrated in body panels and leveraging SDV capabilities, battery packs, modules, H2 tech and more. Several solutions were developed in partnership with startups like Sonatus.

Continental showcased a Volvo VNL class 8 (40t) truck fitted with Aurora Innovation’s autonomous driving gear (below). This 3-way partnership led to the launch this past December of autonomous trucking operations for DHL Supply Chain in Texas, on the Dallas-Houston and Fort Worth-El Paso corridors.?

SDV-specialist Sonatus, with over 3M+ vehicles equipped since 2021, introduced two new solutions leveraging AI. Both focus on improving the service end of the product cycle, enabling simplified diagnostics and efficient data collection and streaming, using Large Language Models.

Touch interface expert UltraSense showcased its expanded solutions portfolio addressing various UI use cases inside and outside the vehicle. Integrated in-plane, multi-mode sensing solutions with a proprietary HMI driver for haptic and back lighting are already in production at several OEMs.

Two European startups, Elaphe and Donut Lab (subsidiary of Verge Motorcycle) presented in-wheel motors, the latter reaching 115 Nm/kg and 16 kW/kg.

?

Next Steps

Feel free to reach out if you would like to investigate any innovation domains in the mobility / automotive space. Scouting and trend analysis services leverage my proprietary repository of about 4,500 companies (over 90% startups) distributed across the globe, complemented with a large amount of information curated since 2016. Some of the startups and tech spotted at CES will further enrich this repository.

Lastly, I have been organizing private CES tours for senior executives and management teams of major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers for several years. Please contact me in case you are interested a curated tour for CES 2026.

Marc Amblard / Founder & Managing Director, Orsay Consulting

Orsay Consulting is a boutique advisory firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on mobility and autotech. We provide global startup and tech scouting thanks to our proprietary repository with curated information on 4000+ companies across the globe (90%+ startups), deep market insights, executive workshops, keynotes and strategic advisory services to corporate clients. We also advise several startups in the USA and Europe.