The 2026 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) confirmed what the entire ecosystem had sensed: the car is no longer just a mechanical object, but a software platform in motion, writes Pascal Benarousse, director of development strategy at Linedata. Between the acceleration of electric vehicles, breakthroughs in autonomy and the rise of Chinese manufacturers, the next generation of mobility is being played out as much in the cloud and AI models as under the hood. For the automotive loan and financing sector, this shift is not a backdrop: it reshuffles the cards of residual value, risk and financing economic models. In other words, what is changing in Las Vegas or Wuhan is not only about the car, it is silently redefining the very business of financing a vehicle. The three disruptions that are transforming car financing The first break is conceptual: the vehicle is no longer a fixed asset with linear depreciation, but an evolving software platform. Software-defined architectures, supported by leading Chinese manufacturers, allow remote updates that activate or degrade key features (driving aids, range, energy performance). The residual value now depends on a software biography: level of updates, compatibility with standards, maintenance of licences and regulatory compliance. The same model can thus diverge radically in value depending on its connected operation, forcing financiers to integrate the dynamics of the software and paid services ecosystems into their expertise. The second break concerns use: from individual ownership, electrification and autonomy are propelling towards shared and intensive models (robotaxis, autonomous urban fleets, usage-based subscriptions). Chinese manufacturers excel in these native vehicles for connected fleets, shifting the field from B2C to B2B and B2B2C. Financiers are now supporting mobility operators whose revenues depend directly on the performance of digital assets. Traditional leasing gives way to hybrid contracts separating hardware and software