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Co-inventor of near field communications (NFC) NXP has announced plans for the automotive industry with a whole batch of new products for the space.

NFC has barely reached critical mass in the consumer mobile market, yet NXP has decided that now is the perfect time to unleash new NFC tags, transceivers and a high-end NFC controller on the car industry.

However, Kurt Sievers, executive vice president and general manager of automotive business at NXP Semiconductors argues that there is enough of a market to justify his company’s new car-focused strategy.

“ABI research recently predicted that there will be 418 million NFC smartphones shipped into the market this year, which is expected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2019.,” he said. “As a result, auto OEMs are strongly pushing to integrate the car into connected ecosystems.”

An industry in ascension

NXP also added credence to the move by stating that the NFC car market is rapidly ascending thanks to trends such as car sharing, corporate fleet management, bluetooth and wi-fi pairing along with personalisation inside the car.

The company has seen other developments including car access and engine start via NFC-enabled smartphones in addition to traditional car keys. NXP believes that payment services and connected displays will eventually become commonplace in vehicles.

Although the consumer NFC market may not have completely taken off the ground, Eindhoven-headquartered NXP still managed revenue of $4.82 billion in 2013 with an outlay of $639 million on research and development in the same period.