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Automotive IoT: Telematics, OBD & Fleet (One in Five Connections by 2035)

Automotive IoT: Telematics, OBD & Fleet (One in Five Connections by 2035)

You cannot design a connected vehicle the way you design a fixed machine. A modem in a car moves, vibrates, bakes in the sun, runs off a battery that is never the point of the product, and is expected to stay in contact across a country, then a border, then another. And in 2026 the ground under it is shifting, because the 2G and 3G networks the first generation of telematics was built on are going away.

The 2035 number worth designing against

Omdia forecasts that cellular IoT connections reach 5.9 billion by 2035, and automotive is the fastest-growing slice of it. The segment moves from roughly 500 million connections today to about 1.2 billion, lifting its share of all cellular IoT from 13 percent to 21 percent. Put plainly: one in five cellular IoT connections in 2035 will belong to a vehicle. That is not a marketing figure. It is a planning horizon. The module you drop into a fleet product today is a ten-year commitment to a network that is still being built.

The interesting part for a buyer is what drives the growth. It is not cars buying more radios. It is regulatory pressure, the 2G/3G sunset, and a move from simple location pings to actual telematics: OBD-II and CAN data, dashcam video, driver behavior, geofencing, remote diagnostics, and eventually V2X safety messaging.

A vehicle is not a warehouse asset

The single biggest mistake in automotive IoT is treating a moving node like a fixed sensor. The connectivity requirements are genuinely different.

  • Handover matters. NB-IoT is excellent for fixed and low-mobility devices, but it lacks the cell handover a moving vehicle needs. That is why LTE-M (Cat-M) is the correct baseline for mobile fleet devices, not NB-IoT alone. If your device lives on a truck, the network has to follow it.
  • Data-heavy devices need Cat-1 bis. A dashcam with video AI, a high-frequency telemetry feed, or a remote diagnostics stream wants more throughput than LTE-M comfortably delivers. Here LTE Cat-1 bis is the right choice: wide coverage, cheap, and enough bandwidth for image and telemetry bursts.
  • Power is a design problem, not a spec. A tracker that wakes for one ping a day is a different part from one that streams. Match the tier to the duty cycle, and plan for PSM/eDRX and a proper sleep current, because a fleet device can sit idle for weeks.
  • Automotive is a hard environment. Wide temperature, vibration, and thermal cycling are not optional. If the module is not automotive-grade, the field returns will tell you within a year.
  • GNSS is usually not optional. Location, speed and geofencing all need a GNSS receiver. Pairing the modem with a good receiver, such as the LC29D or L76, is half the telematics build.

The sunset is forcing a forklift, not an upgrade

The clearest signal for buyers is regulatory. The EU eCall regulation (2015/758) has been mandatory for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles since 2018, and the first wave of those devices was designed around 2G/3G. As those networks shut down, eCall has to move to 4G, and that is a controlled retrofit, not a voluntary choice. Across the market, 2G/3G sunsets are pushing telematics designs toward LTE-M, LTE Cat-1 bis, and 5G with eSIM. Where 5G coverage is patchy, the sensible pairing is a Cat-1 bis or LTE-M baseline with 5G down the road.

The practical version for a buyer: ask whether the network your device is tested on is one the operator still plans to run at the end of your contract. The band you test on today is cheaper than the forklift you will pay for in two years.

Which module for which job

The tier you pick should follow the data, not the catalog. Here is the short mapping we use when we help customers size an automotive build.

  • Location and heartbeat tracker (fleet, trailer, rental): LTE-M, e.g. the BG96 or BG95. Low power, real mobility, broad coverage.
  • OBD-II plug-and-play tracker (fleet, mixed fleets, sharing): LTE Cat-1, e.g. the EG21-G. Good balance of coverage and cost; reads the 16-pin OBD port, CAN and J1939.
  • Dashcam, video AI, high-frequency telemetry: Cat-1 bis or Cat-4, e.g. the EG25-G. Enough uplink for images and event clips without the price of a 5G radio.
  • Connected car, T-Box, V2X: 5G or 5G RedCap, e.g. the RM520N. The T-Box is where 5G-V2X is landing fastest; module-level V2X integration is climbing quickly.
  • eCall retrofit: a 4G part, typically Cat-1 or Cat-4, with the right regional band plan and certification.

Certification is not a box to tick

Automotive is one of the few markets where the compliance certificate is a real gate, and a missing one can stop a whole fleet deployment.

  • eCall / emergency-call: EU Regulation 2015/758 requirements, and the equivalent national mandates where they apply.
  • E-mark (UNECE, E1/E13): required for many in-vehicle electronic components going into type-approved vehicles.
  • Radio: CE/RED in Europe, FCC in the US, plus the local approvals for the destination market.
  • V2X (where applicable): regional C-V2X and dedicated short-range requirements vary by market.

The lesson for a buyer is to ask for the certification list for your destination, not the global one. A rad model that is certified for Europe may need a different band plan and approval for North America. Our module selection guide walks through the certification questions to ask before you commit, and the form factor guide covers the footprint question that matters in an automotive enclosure.

The eSIM decision is not optional for fleets

Fleet devices cross borders, and a fixed-profile SIM is a constant operational headache. A module that supports eSIM (eUICC) provisioning lets a fleet switch carriers or add a roaming profile without a physical swap, which matters when a truck crosses into a country where the incumbent operator is not the cheap one. If you also change operators over the life of the device, the eSIM is the difference between a remote provisioning call and a service visit. Several of the modules we carry, including Cat-1 variants, support an eSIM option.

The trap that costs the most

Vehicle telematics is a long-lived, safety-adjacent market, and a re-marked or recovered part is a real risk. A module that loses contact, reports a wrong location, or fails a certification audit is not a cost saving; it is a recall. The authenticity article covers how to screen suppliers. For an automotive build, buy from someone who can show a certificate, a lot code and lot traceability.

What we keep in stock

We carry Cat-1, Cat-4, LTE-M, NB-IoT and 5G modules from Quectel and SIMCom, plus GNSS receivers and antennas, and we hold stock rather than quoting from a list. That matters in automotive, because a fleet program cannot wait on a factory quote. Browse the Quectel range, pull a datasheet for the band plan and certification, and read our brand comparison if you are deciding between vendors.

The short version

Automotive is the fastest-growing slice of cellular IoT, and the network that first-generation telematics ran on is leaving. So buy a module that will outlive the network you test it on: LTE-M for location and fleet basics, Cat-1 bis or Cat-4 for data-heavy devices, and 5G or RedCap for connected cars and V2X. Pair it with GNSS, put eSIM in the design, and check the certification for your destination market before you commit.

Tell us what the vehicle does and the quantity, and we will pull the stock list, the band plan and a realistic ship date. Then send us your BOM and we will do the same for the whole line.

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