(Yicai Global) Dec. 10 -- China's automakers are facing pressure in the long-term to adjust their operations to increasingly serve as mobility service suppliers, according to insiders at a recent industry conference.

Partly driven by the development of autonomous driving, the country's carmakers are increasingly setting up independent units and investing in startups to focus on services inspired by ride-hailing firms like Didi and Uber, industry insiders from auto giants Geely and Dongfeng Motor said at the 11th Telematics@China conference held by the North American Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers in Shanghai from Dec. 4 to Dec. 6.

The event, with 1200 professionals from the automotive and IT sectors in attendance, focused on the model of mobility as a service in the car industry.

Mobility as a service has a long way to go but has great potential, NACSAE China President Walter Zhou said, adding that although mobility accounts for a tiny fraction of a company's revenue, it will grow quickly over the coming 15 to 20 years as consumers choose mobility services over car ownership.

Joint venture Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen already runs an independent Chinese mobility service called Free2Move Sharing, which is fully independent from Peugeot and Citroen, said Zeng Dihao, general manager for the company's carsharing arm.

Shanghai-based SAIC also started its own car-hailing platform Xiangdao Chuxing last month, while Geely has operated Caocao for over two years. International automakers like Daimler, BMW also operate their own mobility services.

"Automakers entering the sector aim to seize market opportunities and snatch scarce resources," said Xing Wen, general manager of strategy development for the Chongqing region at Changan Automobile. "They try to buy up parking spaces or ride-hailing licenses in preparation for future entry into the market."

The emergence of autonomous driving will transfer the whole value chain of the automobile industry from the vehicle itself to mobility and related services, said Shi Shuai, principal at Roland Berger.

Editor:  William Clegg