At least … we have been saying it is the new gold for years now but still I don't believe we have really started the data revolution in the automotive landscape yet. But please no more car salesman small talk.ĭata and information is the new gold. Automotive distribution needs to change to satisfy their customers. Car buyers don’t want to spend their Saturday afternoon driving from one dealer to another to get a good deal … they just want to get the good deal … preferably on their couch. Consumers are fully on-boarded in the digital commercial world. please), survive family members, drink wine at home but especially to shop online. Of course, the current supply chain problems actually helps them to do so.Ĭovid has thought humanity to wash their hands (finally. It therefore makes perfect sense for manufacturers to cut discounts and cut middlemen. The EV is less profitable for both car manufacturer and dealer and the latter is penalized twice because of the almost non existing after sales margins. They need to build different types of cars, which are more expensive to start with, especially as scale is not there yet, and need to do that in a context of rising commodity prices. Manufacturers need to revise their production capacity and shift their R&D investments. But the rise of the EV has a number of consequences for margin management at Big Auto. The electrification trend is finally moving like a tornado through automotive board rooms. It would not call it the happiest place on earth but for sure it has been one of the most exiting industries in the world.Īmong the burst of trends, three elements are pushing the manufacturers to change their distribution model: electrification, digitization and data. Converging trendsįor trend watchers, the automotive industry has been a bit of a Disneyland over the last few years. And yes, I believe that Big Auto is with its back against the wall … maybe even surrounded by a four walls. Only when you are with your back against the wall, you will take the courageous decisions you know you need to take and do the things which are really needed to succeed in your plans.
Long long time ago, when animals could talk and I was still considered a young high potential, one of the members of my “committee of wise (wo)men” once gave me a lesson in entrepreneurship saying that the "mother of business success is not opportunity but necessity". So why does Big Auto think this will actually work this time? cutting the middle man is what that is called. Inventories sit at the manufacturer rather than at the dealer and more importantly the manufacturer will have direct communication and financial transactions with the end client. National sales companies will see their roles reduced to administrative hubs. The dealership becomes an experience center and the physical tentacle of a digital sales journey. So what exactly is this agency model? Simply put, in an agency model the manufacturer will reduce the role of the dealer to a demo and delivery point. But we have never witnessed such a big shift towards a new distribution set-up.
Many manufacturers have a history of agency management in specific territories with different level of success.
Of course this concept of an agency model is not new. Stellantis, Volkswagen Group, BMW, Mercedes, … every self-respecting manufacturer with deep enough pockets seems to have cancelled its dealer agreements and has launched its agency model offensive. Obviously it was not enough to keep all car maker executives busy as the big buzz word over the last few weeks has really become the “agency model”. Electrification, spiking commodity and energy prices, a shortage in micro-chips, … and of course the consequences of dramatic situation in Ukraine. Times have been busy in automotive world lately.
0 kommentar(er)
