September 2020 Parts distribution: the impact of changing vehicle technology webinar

Technological progress, and especially electrification and connectivity, does not just affect the new car, it has knock-on consequences for the aftermarket and for the spare parts business.  The number, nature, cost, and complexity of the parts that a car is likely to need across its lifetime are changing, and this has the potential to impact on the choice of parts available to the aftermarket, the range of providers supplying them, and the distribution channels that bring them to the workshop.  In this forward-looking webinar, we examined a number of the key technology-related questions facing the spare parts business, including:

• Is the combination of connectivity and the growing proportion of cars under ‘managed service’ set to make the parts market for younger cars even more captive to the OEMs?  What does this mean for the independent parts supply and distribution sector

• With a growing proportion of electronics components reliant upon the control of OEM- or OES-managed software to function, what will this mean for the choice of alternative independent aftermarket parts?  Will they risk finding themselves effectively ‘locked out’ of the car in the future?

• What do these technology trends mean for the growing ‘green parts’ sector?  Will the new generation of electronic componentry be able to as capable of being refurbished and reused as more ‘traditional’ mechanical parts, and will there be issues in getting electronic controllers and refurbished mechanical parts to work together?

• What will technology-driven changes in parts mean for both OEM-franchised and independent parts distribution channels?  Will they help or hinder the greater collaboration and ‘co-opetition’ we see as being key to an efficient and effective approach to the evolving aftermarket?