Disruption is a difficult word. Clients are often advised by Navigant Research, a Guidehouse company, to take the long view and consider disruption as part of a larger transformation—a constant push to evolve and adapt to a changing energy and transportation landscape. Transformation involves many small disruptions, not all of which will be as sudden or clear-cut as Uber upending the traditional ride-hailing business model or Facebook taking over the media world. Blockchain technology is just one inflection point of a mobility services transformation that has many drivers, among them widespread electrification, a proliferation of customer-facing services, and ubiquitous connectivity between vehicles, devices, and grid systems. Originally developed to support cryptocurrencies and financial services, blockchain has spread across a range of industries that stand to benefit from data authentication, automated business processes, and new business models.

Interest in blockchain technology has grown in the transportation sector. Chart 1 shows the growth in mobility blockchain project deployments between 2012 and 2019, and the number of blockchain vendors who focus on at least one mobility use case. Industry giants Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover, […]