Purpose-built Vehicles, 2023: Frost Radar Report

Purpose-built vehicles (PBVs) represent the new breed of customized vehicle development. Unlike custom-built vehicle manufacturing processes, in which few alterations are made to existing vehicle models, PBVs are customized from the design phase to suit the application in which the vehicle will be deployed in the future.

The PBV market is fragmented, with most companies launching vehicles for application areas like ride-sharing, last-mile delivery, and recreation purposes. Service providers in these areas require customized vehicles with components and features that are useful for their customers and enable them to achieve high productivity and customer satisfaction levels.

While more than a dozen other companies are exploring or have recently entered the market, Frost & Sullivan has identified 10 companies in this global PBV Radar™ study featuring REE Automotive, Canoo, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Arrival, Zoox, Cruise, Mobilize, and Rivian as market powerhouses.

The companies considered here have a varying scale of operations - some are automotive startups that design and develop electric, purpose-built, and tailor-made vehicles to suit particular applications, while others are large conventional automotive OEMs converting existing vehicle models into PBVs that are highly customized to customer requirements as an additional business opportunity segment.

The companies are ranked based on various factors, including the vehicle customization level as per the application needs; innovation in vehicle design that will benefit customers; the feasibility of manufacturing these customized vehicles, the company vision for the PBV market and EV platform strategies; and technology advancements such as autonomous capability and software-defined vehicle architecture.