- BERMAN CLAIMS 5% STAFF REDUCTION POSSIBLE
- LISA BRANKIN CALLS FOR ‘AMBITIOUS’ EV INCENTIVES
- DUCATI SIGNALS RENEWED PUSH INTO UK RETAIL
- PROTESTORS GATHER AT TESLA UK RETAILER
- UK RETAILERS ‘3 TO 5 YEARS BEHIND THE US’
- WEEK AHEAD: UK unemployment
- BIG DISCOUNTS CONTINUE ON ELECTRIC CARS
- MOTABILITY ‘SCANDAL’ IN THE HEADLINES
- PORSCHE EXPANDS STANDALONE US RETAILERS
- XPENG EXPANDS IN EU WITH INCHCAPE, HEDIN
- OPINION: Connected data is worth nothing if you don’t use it properly
Berman claims 5% staff reduction possible
Bill Berman, CEO of DMS provider Pinewood AI, has claimed retailers could reduce staff costs by 5% with the introduction of better technology.
Speaking exclusively with sister title Auto Market Insight, Berman said retailers won’t be able to combat the incoming National Insurance and minimum wage increases either through higher margins or cutting non-staff costs. He added the only way to balance these costs was through a lower headcount and improved conversion rates.
Berman said Pinewood had around 30% market share at the end of 2024 and was looking to hit 40% in the next couple of years, and hinted the business is likely to level out at around 50% in the UK. He added the bigger growth for the firm would come from North America where the overall market scale, with around 20,000 dealerships, meant that it would overtake the UK.
“We’ve got 350 already sold orders right now between Lithia and Alpha Auto, parent to Lookers Group. They have currently 16 stores but they’re planning on being multiple times that and we already have an exclusive contract with them,” said Berman.
Commenting on the US opportunity he said: “If you put 300 stores on a year, for five years, you’ve got 1500 stores out of 20,000, which nobody’s done before, but it’s a great growth opportunity.”
Lisa Brankin calls for ‘ambitious’ EV incentives
Ford GB and Ireland chair and MD Lisa Brankin says the UK has the most demanding electric car targets in the world and she wants “a similar level of ambition from government” in helping rally consumer demand for EVs.
Speaking at the SMMT Electrified conference at London’s QEII centre this week, Brankin warned that Ford has already restructured to right-size its EU business “and if you don’t get demand running, it could have a broader impact across Ford and other UK businesses”.
“You can’t underestimate the impact on dealer networks across the UK – as the whole market shrinks, we are in danger of losing key infrastructure.”
The support retailers give to customers locally is often not recognised, she added – nor the local employment they provide.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes, who has recently joined the UK Government’s Board of Trade, told the conference that EVs should be a driver of growth, not of deindustrialisation.
The SMMT’s asks of government remain the same: halving VAT on new EVs for three years (which would put 250k new retail cars on the road) and reducing VAT on public chargepoints to 5%.
Ducati signals renewed push into UK retail
Ducati is “investing millions into its 30 UK showrooms, with a goal of opening 15 more in the coming years,” reports The Times. It sells around 3k motorcycles a year here, of around 54k total global sales in 2024. CEO Claudio Domenicali calls the UK “a developed market with a lot of connoisseurs,” albeit skewing to older riders.“
Protestors gather at Tesla UK retailer
UK retailers ‘3 to 5 years behind the US’
Customer data inaccuracies and a lack of personalised marketing mean UK retailers are missing out on a significant amount of untapped business, according to data experts ADS. Its research shows the average UK retailer is 3-5 years behind the US when it comes to customer database use, in particular having a ‘single point of truth’ rather than data being spread across several systems.
Monday, Close Brothers Group interims
Thursday, UK unemployment]
Friday, GFK consumer confidence
DATA INSIGHT
Big discounts continue on electric cars
Motability ‘scandal’ in the headlines
GLOBAL AUTO
Porsche expands standalone US retailers
Porsche added 16 standalone retailers in the US last year, taking its total up to 153. It is targeting a total of 202 franchises. Porsche Cars North America said it had a longstanding policy requiring retailers that reach a certain sales volume to have an exclusive dealership.
Jim Ellis Automotive Group completed construction on a Porsche Atlanta Destination Centre last year. It spent $20m (£15.4m) on the building alone. CEO Wes Ellis said the retailer will be allocated 25 new cars a month.
Xpeng expands in EU with Inchcape, Hedin
Xpeng has expanded in the EU by entering Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It has signed agency cooperation agreements with Inchcape for import and distribution in Poland, and Hedin Group for the other three markets.
OPINION
Connected data is worth nothing if you don’t use it properly
A couple of years ago consultancy firm McKinsey claimed connected car data could be worth between £200 billion to £300 billion annually. A figure it said was equivalent to £240 per car.
However, data is only worth something if it’s put to use properly. And that word ‘properly’ does a lot of heavy lifting.
Not only is connected car data valuable in terms of its potential sale to third parties, but it’s also valuable to the manufacturer and retailer partnership when it comes to sales and servicing.
At a simple level, if analysis of the connected data can spot when a car is due a service, then a proactive booking reminder can be sent in plenty of time for both the customer and the retailer to find a workshop slot that works.
However, as personal experience tells me, it’s not just connectivity with the car and customer that’s needed to make this a seamless journey.
In my case, the car knew it was due a service and the connected app took me through a wonderfully easy booking form. All good so far. I chose a date and time that suited me and received a confirmation.
What I realised a few hours later, after a call from the service manager was that all the data had come from the OEM side. I rapidly discovered there wasn’t a real-time connection with the retailer’s service booking system, because the service manager told me that the slot I’d booked wasn’t available – although he could fit me in on the same day at a different time.
I’ll save the whole ‘who owns the data (customer)’ issue, for another time, but what’s clear from this is that having connected car data is one thing, but if it’s to benefit the OEM, retailer and customer, more thought needs to go into how it’s used and which parties are involved in the interactions.
One of the major issues for retailers is workshop efficiency; something that’s only going to get more important as the electric vehicle parc grows.
Using connected car data to proactively flag not just annual servicing timing but a multitude of other items, such as tyres and brakes, can allow for better workshop booking and ultimately greater efficiency. But in order to do that, connectivity between retailers and OEMs needs to improve.
