Built on the presentation made during our  Autumn forum in Paris which was mainly focused on the battery repair capability in the OEM and IAM channels, this webinar enlarges the scope of the analysis to the whole battery pack repair/ replacement ecosystem. It tackles the framework that has to be built by car manufacturers, battery suppliers, OEM franchised workshops and IAM repairers and specialists to respond to both the current demand and regulatory requests in terms of battery SoH, repair, replacement, reuse and,eventually, recycling.

Consequently,and as a first step this webinar will be focused on the different stages of the battery pack lifecycle and will provide information on the current processes required and business generated by SoH, battery repair and replacement in the OEM and IAM channels, both for mechanical and electrical jobs and for operations generated after an accident.

In a second part of the presentation, this webinar will also deliver an outlook at both the 2030 and 2040 horizons, regarding the future demand in battery repair and replacement generated by the growing r electrification of the European car parcs, OEM and IAM will have to adapt their strategies to this demand, and grow their BEV specialised networks accordingly. This webinar will also include an overview of the battery recycling processes implemented by OEMS and the different stakeholders of the sector, to meet the recent regulatory and circularity rules set by the EC.

If you wish to attend, please send an email to projectoffice@icdp.net and a Zoom invite will be sent to you,

In this webinar we will introduce our research plans for the new programme starting on 1st April 2025. 

Membership is open to organisations from across the automotive sector spanning sales, aftersales, parts, and service provision.  It includes car manufacturers, importers, dealer groups and individual dealers, OE suppliers, parts distributors and repair chains, insurers, service providers, digital intermediaries, and trade associations.  Members include both established players and recent entrants.

European dealer networks remain an important topic in the automotive distribution industry, with both externa and internal pressures suggesting a need for network rationalisation that hasn’t materialised. With the importance of the topic, we have been tracking the size and shape of European dealer networks through the European Car Distribution Handbook (ECDH) for over 10 years, and in this free and open webinar we will explore the top-level trends from the latest edition of ECDH. We will cover areas such as trends in sales and service networks, how distributor responsibilities have changed, and how we expect the general issues facing the industry will impact dealer networks over the coming years.

This webinar will run for approximately 45 minutes, with an opportunity for participants to ask questions. To book your place now, please contact the project office at projectoffice@icdp.net.

The Motor Vehicle Block Exemption is the package of EU competition rules that apply to franchised repair, maintenance, and spare parts distribution networks in the automotive sector; they set the framework for how aftermarket competition between the OEM-authorised and independent sectors should work and be enforced, and also have things to say about how new car sales agreements operate.  The current MVBER rules are set to expire in May 2028 but, whilst this may feel a long way away, the process of reviewing how well the current arrangements have worked and preparing the ground for their replacement has already been kicked off by the European Commission with a ‘call for evidence’ over the Summer, and a parallel ongoing data gathering study.

ICDP has tracked the MVBER and its related frameworks closely over many years, and in this webinar, we will bring you fully up to date on the story so far:

• We will give a reminder of how Block Exemption regulations work within EU competition policy, and recap over the driving objective of the MVBER, which is to safeguard aftermarket competition between OEM-authorised networks and independent players

• We will summarise the limited changes that were introduced into the current MVBER framework, focused on recognising the growing role and importance of vehicle-generated data to the aftermarket

• We will look at the submissions that have been made by industry players to the ‘call for evidence’ – overall, they point to a gradual weakening of aftermarket competition which may need to be addressed, and also to a continued gap between the rules as written and practice on the ground, especially when it comes to independent sector access to the spare parts, technical information, and data that they need to be able to do their job

• We will conclude on the next steps in the European Commission’s review, and give our view on what we feel will be the key issues in the debate.

This webinar will be of interest to all those involved in aftersales network strategy and spare parts distribution on both the OEM-authorised and independent sides of the aftermarket.  It will run for 90 minutes.

If you would like to attend, please send an email to projectoffice@icdp.net

We know from our ICDP various aftersales surveys that, prior to a workshop visit for a service or a repair on their car, three key elements are considered by motorists to select their service provider: price, trust and convenience.  This webinar will expand on that through the results of our just-completed survey of 6,000 private aftersales customers across France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

In addition, in an aftermarket where the annual number of repair and maintenance operations per vehicle is expected to decline, competition between the different types of repairers of any type will continue to grow.

In this context, aftersales stakeholders are developing initiatives to offer various services, aimed at attracting and retaining leads and customers in their workshops. For example, over the past years, we have seen the emergence of mobile workshops and extended workshop hours to enhance convenience, menu pricing or parts ranges for older cars to improve price competitiveness or video checks while the vehicle in on the ramp to strengthen trust.

For obvious economic and organisational reasons, it is impossible for most repairers to offer the whole spectrum of services. Therefore, the main question for managers in charge of aftersales strategies is to understand what are the regular or innovative services that are adding value, from the motorists’ point of view, on the three criteria mentioned previously: value for money, trust and convenience.

In this webinar, we will review the most interesting services that are currently available in order to address the customer preferences within the real world business constraints.

If you would like to attend this webinar, please send an email to projectoffice@icdp.net and a Zoom invite will be sent to you.

The 2023 European Top50 Dealer Groups ranking, published annually for over a decade in conjunction with Automotive News Europe, will show some big changes as the result of the recent wave of acquisitions.  Whilst the majority of groups more or less hold their position, there are some other more dramatic changes, including within the Top 10.  In this webinar we will as usual summarise the ranking and the changes over the years, provide an updated market share projection to 2030, and discuss the underlying drivers of consolidation and the profile of the deals that sit behind the changes.

A press release can be downloaded below, please note this is embargoed until the 12th November..

If you would prefer an excel version of the ranking, please contact the Project Office projectoffice@icdp.net. And if you wish to attend the webinar, please send an email to janetrace@icdp.net and a zoom invite will be sent to you.

Please end an email to janetrace@icdp.net if you would like to attend this webinar and a Zoom invite will be sent to you,

In the next in our series of research topics update webinars, we will bring you a range of contributions from across our streams of work, picking up a number of timely and relevant issues for OEMs, dealers, and others across Europe.

•  In the UK, the ‘ZEV mandate’ rules now oblige OEMs to achieve a fixed share of zero emissions new car sales, or face very substantial fines.  The tactics that are being employed mean that most OEMs will avoid paying fines this year, but they are further destabilising an already-challenging market.  We will look at how the UK may well be offering a foretaste of things to come in other European markets if the step-down in the CO2 emissions targets takes effect next year as planned, and ask whether hitting UK targets in 2024 might be used against OEMs in the EU in 2025

• In France, our colleagues Thomas and Christophe have recently completed a new in-depth forecast of the size and shape of the French aftermarket through to 2030.  We will take a high-level look at how the market is expected to respond to the challenges of technology change and demand evolution

• In Italy, and setting the scene for the latest edition of our own European Top50 dealer groups ranking to be published soon, our friends at Quintegia have recently completed their own regular look at how dealer groups are evolving their structures and strategies in the Italian market – Luca will bring us the highlights

• How is the fleet sector, which is leading the transition to EVs in many markets, mitigating the variety of risks that are arising?   Drawing on our recent programme of interviews with leasing companies conducted across Germany, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, we will summarise the risks and issues raised by the electrification of the fleet sector and its market segments, and highlight what leasing companies are doing to address these challenges, and how they are supporting their fleet customers to do the same.

The entry point for the European Top 50 ranking is now well over €1.2 billion turnover and the average is closer to €3 billion.  The vast majority of these businesses are still privately owned, and as with any family business, succession is a critical issue, potentially triggering the sale of the business.  In parallel we see a trend by manufacturers to reduce the size of their wholly owned networks, leading to large, typically metro-based flagship dealerships coming to the market with price tags to suit.  To date there have been enough buyers with ambition and budget to match that have supported the consolidation process, but as this continues, do the potential transactions become too expensive and too complex to attract sufficient potential buyers?  Might we actually move into an era of rationalisation where groups are more typically broken up and sold in parcels to a number of buyers, making each deal more affordable and easier to align with the buyer’s own strategy?

If you would like to attend, please send an email to projectoffice@icdp.net and a zoom invite will be sent to you.