Automotive Start-Stop System Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Government regulations on vehicle emissions: Governments worldwide are implementing policies aimed at diminishing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality, driving the growth of the automotive start-stop system market. For example, in March 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed strict emissions standards for passenger vehicles to decrease carbon emissions. This regulation encourages the adoption of an innovative start-stop system, which safeguards better fuel efficiency and lower emissions.
  
  Similarly, the European Union’s (EU) strict CO2 emission standards for light commercial vehicles and passenger cars have mandated automakers to limit average emissions to 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer. These standards, part of the EU Green Deal, directly encourage the integration of start-stop technology to meet targets efficiently. Also, prompting automakers to include start-stop systems in more of their models.

• Growing adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles: The growing adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles significantly drives the automotive start-stop system market. These vehicles progressively integrate start-stop technology to improve efficiency and comply with environmental standards. For example, in July 2023, Valeo helped transform the automotive industry by evolving its portfolio for electric and hybrid vehicles with traditional and new product technologies. This was also followed in 2022 by introducing the dividing-wall column (DWC) and Digital microfluidics (DMF) which was recognized as innovative in helping reduce the noise, vibration, and harshness associated with the start-stop mechanism of hybrid vehicles.

Challenges

• Lack of user awareness about adoption of automotive start-stop system: Many users remain unaware of the benefits of start-stop technology owing to concerns related to long-term maintenance cost and reliability. This may lead to slow adoption rates of start-stop systems mainly in regions where automotive technology is developed. Moreover, the automotive industry is presently facing competition from economic downturns and electric vehicles. Volkswagen, a German automaker is experiencing declining sales in China due to competition from Chinese EV manufacturers.   

• Inefficiency of start-stop technology: In heavy traffic situations, the constant activation and deactivation of the engine can diminish the overall fuel savings which makes the technology less effective. This inefficiency contributes to consumer skepticism and hinders the extensive adoption of start-stop systems thereby impacting the growth of the automotive start-stop batty market. Hence, this factor poses a significant challenge to the market.