Automotive App Development: Cost, Factors & Key Features

Can you guess the most affected industries in the following decade?

It is the automotive industry. According to a recent poll, around 72% of those seeking to buy a car said they used their Smartphone devices during the process, and roughly 52% said they used their smartphones while shopping for a replacement part. Around 29% of respondents claimed they had used their smartphones to choose and review mechanics.

In the last decade, we’ve experienced the arrival of digitization to the automotive industry. We could now know how apps have integrated themselves into various sectors of the industry. It hasn’t left any stone unturned for the automotive industry. It is witnessing a substantial rise in this industry.

The rising dependency on smartphones and the supportive applications for each task has a huge number of businesses and entrepreneurs looking for the top mobile app developers to build digital applications. Even today, the vehicle manufacturer, buyer, or owner needs an application that can keep them posted on the current happenings, updates, or the best platform to search at affordable rates.

The whole automobile industry has always been placed at the forefront of technology innovation. Today, modern vehicles are projected in a manner to provide high-end efficiency. Now, the tech-enabled GPS services also come with technically advanced features that are never present before.

The latest automotive app developed by best automotive app developers allows you to use your phone to operate the fundamental functions of your car, such as unlocking and locking doors, triggering the keypad, and turning on the emergency lights. Additionally, the product provides access to completed trip reports, car positions, and notifications to the user. Now, this sector requires complete IT solutions for the automotive brands. What works best is mobile app development that’s highly appealing and interactive automobile apps to improve their user experience.

Smartphones and mobile applications are changing the face of the automobile business for the better, keeping the automotive dealers honest and allowing customers to stay ahead of the competition. Not just this, the automotive brands are aware of this shift in consumer behavior and are responding by building unique and game-changing automotive apps that allow users to effortlessly interact with them. That’s why they include it into their mobile marketing efforts as well. Therefore, it’s streamlining the process on both sides, making what was previously a really stressful procedure a little more enjoyable and thrilling.

So, smart apps for the automotive industry have turned out to be a reality from the past few years.

Which are the Latest Trends For Automotive App Development?

Simple automotive mobile app development is not enough to attract maximum users and deliver a wow experience. It’s essential to keep up with the latest trends to stay ahead of the pack and make the automotive app development cost pay off. Here the trends are:

• Enable advanced connectivity by making automotive mobile apps compatible with wireless musical instruments, Wi-Fi, and others.
• Include autonomous driving features such as driving assistance, autonomous parking, and more.
• Enable connected vehicle technology that senses vehicle activities like- speed, performance, etc.
• Build an app compatible with telematics that collects, sort, and share data related to speed, driving behavior, brake patterns, and others.
• Facilitate internet connectivity that helps users access the cloud for navigation or route optimization.

How is Automotive Mobile App Development beneficial?

Still, you are unsure about the need for automotive application development. Here are the advantages of automotive app development that convince you entirely for the same.

Efficiency gets up a notch

The paradigm shifts in users’ preferences to do things smartly through their mobile phones have surged the demand for automotive app development. the automotive apps help businesses improve their operational efficiency, better inventory management, intelligent marketing strategies, and great user experience delivery.

Continuous vehicle monitoring

The smart automotive apps stay connected with the vehicles and provide real-time information related to vehicle status to the passenger so that both vehicle and passenger remain safe. The data received ahead of time helps repair or replace the vehicle parts, saving maintenance costs.

Better vehicle care

Earlier vehicle diagnosis plays a vital role in preventive maintenance. The automotive apps work great in sending alerts for emergency assistance, maintenance if required, and other vehicle-related activities. Leading brands such as Mercedes, BMW, and others have already incorporated such apps for improved vehicle care.

Improved user experience

The automotive apps with connected the dots make things easier, simpler, and faster for the users. It enables users to navigate through the map, check fuel efficiency, monitor engine temperature, and book vehicle maintenance at their fingertips, which helps in providing a unique experience to the users.

Enhanced driver’s safety

When the drivers are pre-informed about the road conditions, weather changes, or traffic jams, and the suggestions for alternate optimized routes, they can complete the drive safely and reach the destination timely.

Respond instantly during an emergency

Reaching out to the vehicle during an emergency is implausible. Now, mobile apps have made it feasible with an SOS option. With a single click, the passenger or driver gets the required help.

Guide to outsource your App Development needs efficiently

The cost and operational hours you need to know

Look, building an application for the automotive industry has its own limitations. It becomes highly dependent on a single platform. Moreover, the development cost is all dependent upon the above-mentioned features, their features, and the UI/UX of the applications.

All around, it takes around 800 to 1000 operational hours to develop a mobile app for the automotive industry with embedded technologies and features. Moreover, specific tech crafts into the app, such as IoT, can bring out unique results.

The typical hourly rate for developing a mobile app is $50 to $100. An automobile app’s overall development cost is estimated to be between $40,000 and $100,000.

Factors Affecting Automotive Mobile App Development Cost

Automotive app development comes with excellent features that make the app unique. The specialties increase the automotive app development cost proportionately. Here are all the factors that influence the cost of automotive mobile app development.

Type of app

The app’s type impacts the cost of app development as every app is unique in itself in terms of industry, target audience, features, design, and tech stack. Under the automotive app development umbrella, the business may opt for navigation apps, vehicle maintenance apps, route optimization apps, and others.

Number of platforms

The costs to develop an automotive app depend on the number of platforms for which the app is to be built either Android platform, iOS platform, or for both. Android development costs are higher due to fragmentation issues. Going the native way as opposed to a cross-platform approach also increases the development cost.

Complexity level

The apps are built in three types- MVP with a basic set of features, mid-sized apps, and large-sized, complex apps. As the size of the app increases, the features and functionalities’ complexity also get augmented accordingly.

Design components

The app when requiring a minimal design with an optimal number of graphics that attract the users and deliver them amazing experiences, the development gets affected proportionately.

Development team

The cost estimation in the automotive industry is largely based on the location of the automobile app development company. The hourly rates of app development vary according to the location of the developers. Based on the project type, the number of developers and specialists involved gets uplifted, and so is the development cost.

Tech stack

The fierce competition has urged the need for AR, VR, IoT, and AI technology usage in the app’s frontend and backend development. Such technologies require developers with special skills or experience that ultimately impact the costs to develop an app.

Third-party integration

Adding pre-built software or readymade APIs makes it easier to implement functionality in the app without building from scratch. It saves a lot of development time and cost. There are various third-party plugins such as payment gateway, push notification, analytics, SMS, hosting, and others available.

Don’t forget backend infrastructure

The backend infrastructure is the backbone of the app that must be robust enough. The automotive app infrastructure includes- app maintenance, app monitoring, database, networking, and data sharing via sensors.

Questions to Ask for Mobile App Development Company

Features to estimate cost of automotive app development

The cost of mobile app development in the automobile sector is driven by various aspects. There are few features that aid in estimating the cost of an automobile app’s development.

• Similar to the Start/Stop voice-over technology used in big cars like Audi, a top automotive app can also detect the app that has just been used for few times and by then, send the push notification to the user to close to save the battery. These intelligent solutions show how capable an automotive app can be. Developers in the automotive industry follow a high-end automotive software development model approach that works brilliantly in the development of cars. If you could reach skilled app developers companies that have expertise in app development for the automotive industries as well as designing in UI/UX of automotive applications.
• To automate your complete business portfolio, you need an automotive app with certain essential features such as stock information, customer inquiry, and sales services information. Remember that an enterprise solution for the automotive application is vital for the automation of the back end as well as sell process. It is an essential thing as it can drive the cost of the development of the automotive mobile app.
• Next important feature that can add to the automotive app development cost list is the creation of interactive UI/UX designs for the web and mobile apps. In order to grasp the consumer picture in our mind, the best automobile app must be created using UX unique approaches and significant user research. User interactions and visual design must also be thoroughly examined. It is critical to use a design-first method, which aids in the creation of ground-breaking designs for clients. As a result, UI/UX design has a significant impact on app development costs.
• IoT has its name much in developing automotive applications. Thus, this generates an ecosystem where customers can receive real-time updates on the fuel efficiency, working of engines and the driving experience on the smarts section in the automotive application. Whether a scenario can be executed today or is on your pipeline for the near future, your automotive organization must invest in the necessary technology and IT infrastructure or risk falling behind the competition. Integration, size, ecosystem, and trust are all factors to consider when choosing the appropriate IoT partner for your automobile business to build IoT applications.
• From this, businesses do also have several reasons to invest in automotive IoT so that respective apps. Let us know the reason behind it.
• Businesses can undoubtedly, monetize their products as the automotive apps are priced high on the store than the apps that are usually free and come at the cost of 99 cents. Therefore, you can easily conclude monetization and demand from here.
• Once you start selling your API access to other businesses, you can certainly have more significant ROI for your business. You can develop these third-party integrations and partnerships directly to benefit the vehicles and data for any application.
• Automotive devices, like any other IoT device, allow you to tap into massive quantities of user and vehicle data. It enables you to get useful information and modify your offering correctly. Third-party organizations in connected areas, including insurance, repair shops, and roadside assistance providers, can also get the information.
• The advantage is visible to get an entry to this market. Sourcing valuable insights become possible to tailor your products dependently. Existing automobile firms and users alike are anxious to see new developments in this field. Thus, the entrance barrier is now low.

App Development Cost Estimation for Entrepreneurs

Conclusion

It’s still easy to create a space in your smartphone for the right mobile application, but if you want to build from scratch, you need to find automotive car applications. This kind of need pushes businesses to hire the best developers for app building.

There are a variety of ways that automotive applications may improve the performance of your business as well as your product, i.e., vehicle. GPS and navigation, safety, vehicle maintenance, fuel consumption and mileage recording, voice and gesture control, and multimedia access are among the functions that are now accessible in the app store.

Find the best automotive app developers that are accustomed or attuned to provide you the virtuous suits of the automotive industry. They must be passionate automotive app development professionals with a proven work record. They must have well-planned concepts and methodical development customization processes that operate in tandem with value differentiators to produce outstanding results for the clients’ multiple demands. They should be making genuine and trustworthy findings that allow companies and users to better understand the features and functionalities in their pursuit of technological excellence.

Ensure the high-performance app development solutions are built with the latest technology for your automotive business.