Data services
Like all businesses nowadays, we are driven by data. In the course of our work, we gather and collate data through our own primary research, and also from a large number of public sources, and feed it back through our events and publications.
Research programme members also supply us with certain types of data to feed our benchmarking and modelling activities; these are subject to strict confidentiality and anti-trust policies and are never shared with any third parties.
We have developed Data Services as a means of giving members and other clients direct access to rich datasets, where they can run queries and extract the resulting data in a variety of formats for their own use.
ICDP’s aftermarket model: a key tool in planning around uncertainty - new product july 2023
With a large installed base of circulating cars, and an average age of just under 12 years, the European aftermarket has traditionally been slow to change, with stakeholders able to plan on the basis of stable revenues and workflows. However, the extent of the trends now underway – electrification and connectivity chief among them – is such that the whole market will be affected in ways and at speeds that have not been seen before. Structural (technology change, ageing parc, lower distances driven, technician skills shortage, etc.) and conjunctural factors (energy costs, inflation, parts shortages, etc.) are combining to create a ‘perfect storm’ in the aftermarket, where previous assumptions can no longer be relied upon, but the future evolution remains uncertain.
In-depth modelling of the future size and shape of aftermarket demand, how it will divide between different types of stakeholder, and how sensitive it will be to individual trends and scenarios, has been a core element in ICDP’s research programme over many years, and many members and clients have drawn on it to inform their own aftermarket strategy. Against this backdrop of accelerating change, we have now redesigned our model to make it more flexible, and more user-friendly.
Flexible definition of products, repairs, and channels
Covers up to a 10-year outlook
Available to be supported by us, or for you to run yourself
Ideal for scenario-based planning
ICDP’s aftermarket model offers stakeholders a wide range of benefits. Please download the flyer below to find out more details.
We also held a webinar on the 8th April with more in depth detail of what the model can do, and how it could benefit your company. The presentation slides can be downloaded below, and a video recording of the webinar is also available.
Top 300 European Dealer Groups
(Published May 2025)
Continuing consolidation and growth by the largest dealer groups in Europe is shown in the latest edition of the ICDP European Top 300 dealer group ranking. Compared to the previous edition, their combined annual turnover is up 15% - similar to that of Volkswagen Group and twice that of Stellantis globally. They operate over a third of all the franchise points in Europe and together they sell over a third of the cars sold in combined EU+EFTA+UK. These groups do the heavy lifting in Europe on behalf of their manufacturer partners – finding customers for battery electric cars to meet regulatory targets, helping new entrants meet their ambitious growth goals, and at the same time trying to protect the market shares of the established brands on which these groups founded their businesses. Almost all are privately owned, having to balance investment and risk in taking advantage of the opportunities available to them.
Our data is based on 2023 or the 2023-24 financial year, the latest that is available, and is still in part dependent on our own estimates. As a result, this ranking is not necessarily the top 300 but it is certainly 300 of the very largest groups across Europe, and we are confident that the profiles and trends identified are representative. Since our first edition of the Top 300 they have consistently grown the scale of their businesses, not just in terms of turnover (which has been aided by the post-pandemic recovery), but also in terms of the number of franchise points operated and brands represented. The entry point for the top 300 is now over €270 million, up over 30% from 2021, but on average they operate 55 franchise points on behalf of 11 brands, a slight increase in the number of brands, but with 25% more franchise points than in 2021. That implies that the groups are becoming more committed to each of their manufacturer partners, despite their growth.
For more details and pricing, please download the flyer below, and there is a video recording of a webinar held on 3rd June 2025..
European Car Distribution Handbook 2025
The comprehensive guide to manufacturer-franchised new car sales and aftersales networks in Europe
The European Car Distribution Handbook is a comprehensive analysis outlining the size and shape of franchised car dealer networks across Europe, providing a unique and valuable resource for anyone working in the areas of network planning or analysis. The report includes data of the name and ownership status of national sales companies and distributors, the number of individual entities that own dealerships, and the number of franchise points and their function, split between sales and aftersales networks, for revised totals this year of 50 brands across 35 European markets. These changes reflect the addition of the leading Chinese brands and the impossibility of getting reliable data for Ukraine, Russia and Belarus due to the continuing effects of the Russian invasion.
Against a recent background of some attempts at innovation in distribution models from both established OEMs and newcomers, physical networks remain the dominant channel choice, albeit a minority use direct sales models rather than working with independent dealers using either franchise or agency contracts. Within this introduction we comment on the innovations in both physical and online networks, but the scale of these is not yet on a scale that compromises benchmarking using the core data alone.
Date
The data in this edition of the European Car Distribution Handbook refers to the network position as of 1st January 2025. Sales data refers to total new passenger car registrations (retail and wholesale) for the preceding year (i.e. full-year 2024), as does parc data where available. Where network and sales data are not provided and no information was available from own research, it is our understanding that there was no authorised distribution channel for that brand in that market on 1st January 2025.
ECDH is available as a PDF document and separately priced as a Microsoft Excel file.
If you wish to purchase a copy of the European Car Distribution Handbook 2025, please contact projectoffice@icdp.net
We held a webinar on 4th November to introduce the 2025 handbook, the presentation with speaking notes is available via this LINK.
Data services
If you are an existing Data Services subscriber, please contact us for details of how we will continue to provide your access to ECDH network data.