Automated Guided Vehicle Market By Vehicle Type (Tow Vehicles, Unit Load Carriers, Pallet Trucks, Forklift Trucks), By Navigation Technology (Laser Guidance, Magnetic Guidance, Inductive Guidance), By Application, By End-Use, By Region - Global Insights to 2030

Automated Guided Vehicle Market Exhibits Stupendous 12.5% CAGR Through 2030

Superior features such as enhanced production capacity, reduced labor costs, and standardization of product quality are generating demand for automated guided vehicles. Manufacturers across industries are leveraging industry 4.0 automation technologies to capitalize on the uptake in product demand from developing economies.

The global automated guided vehicle market will grow more than three-fold during the forecast period (2020 - 2030). With increasing competition across industry verticals, manufacturing organizations will continue to increase their automated guided vehicle fleet.

Disruptive products from new entrants and small & medium sized players are forcing major players to adopt automated guided vehicles that increase efficiency of large scale operations.

Lithium Ion Emerges as Top Revenue Generator

On the basis of operating battery type, the market is segmented into lead battery, lithium ion battery, nickel based battery, and others. Batteries play a crucial role in automated guided vehicle form factors, and durability. Lead battery accounts for a lion’s share of more than 65% of the total market value.

Low cost of procurement, good reversibility, and stable voltage output of lead batteries will drive demand for this segment. However, nickel based batteries exhibit the highest growth rate of ~14% CAGR during the forecast period. Higher energy density coupled with reduced carbon emissions contribute to the growth of this segment.

Europe Garners Highest Demand for Automated Guided Vehicles

Europe accounts for a majority share of more than? of the total market value. This can be attributed to pervasive industrial automation across industry verticals coupled with increasing demand for product quality standards. Shifting consumer preference for smart devices and convenient door-step delivery is driving the demand for automated guided vehicles such as delivery drones, and warehouse cobots.

Presence of prominent robotics research and development institutions in North America poise the region as a high-growth potential region. This is furthered by soaring infection rates of COVID-19 thus pressing many of the automated guided vehicles into service.

North America holds the second-largest share of over 23% of the total market value. The region will continue to generate remunerative growth opportunities with a stellar 11% CAGR through 2030.

Strategic Expansion - Key Growth Strategy

• In August 2019, Murata Machinery, Ltd., a material handling solutions provider, entered into a partnership with Alert innovation (U.S.). The partnership aims to transform grocery retail by developing innovative automated guided vehicle systems for commercializing material handling automation.
• In October 2019, Tompkins Robotics and PULSE Integration entered into a partnership to engineer advanced material handling, and system integration solutions.
• In November 2019, Teradyne Inc. acquired AutomGuide Mobile Robots, a global provider of mobile robotics solutions to enhance their production facilities by introducing autonomous mobile robots in Teradyne’s manufacturing, warehouse, and logistics operations.
• In October 2019, Shopify Inc., the Canadian eCommerce multinational, completed the acquisition of 6 River systems Inc., a global fulfillment solutions provider to enhance Shopify’s Fulfillment services.

COVID-19 Impact on Automated Guided Vehicle Market

The COVID-19 outbreak has exposed several challenges for the automotive sector. However, more than 80 percent of the world’s auto supply chain is connected to China

According to Fact.MR, automated guided vehicle market is expected to gain traction in 3Q of 2020. Manufacturers with heavy footprints in china will witness a lower impact than others, as china is slowly starting to recover already. On the other hand many companies are using the COVID-19 pandemic crisis to devise ingenuous solutions to enhance uptake of automated guided vehicles.

Automated guided vehicles are being launched in hospitals to care for COVID-19 patients, thus reducing risk of disease transmission among healthcare workers. Towards this, prototypes of automated guided vehicles have been designed to deliver food, drugs and medical supplies to afflicted patients.

Seeing their high utility, many companies are now being contracted to produce automated guided vehicles en masse. Most of these will be remotely controlled through the cloud. This will give an uptick to sales of automated guided vehicles in the near term.

Global Automated Guided Vehicle Market: In-Depth Assessment on Key Segments

The global automated guided vehicle market is segmented on the basis of vehicle type, navigation technology, battery, application, end-use and region.

• By Vehicle Type :

  • Tow Vehicles
  • Unit Load Carriers
  • Pallet Trucks
  • Assembly Line Vehicles
  • Forklift Trucks
  • Other Types

• By Navigation Technology :

  • Laser Guidance
  • Magnetic Guidance
  • Inductive Guidance
  • Optical Tape Guidance
  • Vision Guidance
  • Others

• By Battery :

  • Lead Battery
  • Lithium-Ion Battery
  • Nickel-based Battery
  • Others

• By Application :

  • Transportation
  • Storage
  • Distribution
  • Assembly
  • Packaging
  • Waste Handling

• By End-Use :

  • Automotive
  • Manufacturing
  • Food & Beverages
  • Aerospace
  • Healthcare
  • Logistics
  • Retail

• By Region :

  • North America
  • Latin America
  • Europe
  • East Asia
  • South Asia & Oceania
  • Middle East & Africa