Asia with 85% share lead in issuing electronic Driving Licenses

IMS Research finds only 12% of the total 1.4 billion driving licenses worldwide are smart card type documents. IMS says Asia is found to be the region with the largest installed base of electronic Driving Licenses (eDL), accounting for almost 85 percent of the total eDL install base in 2012. Japan is a key market in the region, representing nearly 40 percent of the world’s installed base of eDL at the end of 2012. The other market analysis information shared by IMS includes: Electronic driving licenses (eDLs) can also store driver's fault record and can also be used to store medical information, voting card or travel documents when adding ICAO compliance. In contrast, no eDLs were shipped in Europe in 2012. Although France is projected to begin issuing eDLs in 2013, IHS believes that at this time the French eDL project will actually start in the fourth quarter of 2013. And there have been rumors that Turkey and potentially the United Kingdom will adopt eDLs during the next five years, providing for a large potential upside in Europe moving forward. Meanwhile, the low level of eDL deployment is in the Middle East/Africa (MEA) region can partly be attributed to relatively muted automotive penetration in the population. In the Americas, on the other hand, adoption of eDLs is forecast to be largely driven by Mexico .However, the United States and Canada are a...