- Lookers sets 4% RoS target
- JLR cyberattack outage ‘may last until October’
- LSH, Available Car back in profit
- Used EV batteries ‘piling up’ in UK
- WEEK AHEAD: IAA Munich Motor Show
- Savers rush to withdraw from pensions
- Chinese brands outnumber Europeans at Munich Motor Show
- OEMs call on EU to follow China with hybrids
- 300 Koreans released after Hyundai-LG immigration raid
- GUEST OPINION: From alliances to integration, the automotive shift
Lookers sets 4% RoS target
Lookers managing director James Brearley is aiming to take the group to a 4% return on sales within five years. Speaking to sister publication Auto Market Insight, Brearley insisted the target is achievable if the business embraces efficiency, standardisation and growth beyond new car sales.
Since its acquisition by Global Auto Holdings in 2023, Lookers has cut costs, but Brearley warns: “Any business that tries to cost-cut to success… just goes out of business. You have to be innovative.” He points to aftersales, used cars and tighter performance management as key drivers.
Brearley is also pragmatic about market headwinds, from oversupply to uncertain EV demand. While critical of the government’s ZEV Mandate, he sees opportunity in scale and manufacturer relationships. “There are going to be winners and losers – never more so than in the next five years,” he said.
“We plan to be among the winners.”
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JLR cyberattack outage ‘may last until October’
Production at JLR will remain on hold this week as it battles to recover from a crippling cyberattack – with disruption possibly lasting until October. Production was halted a week ago after it discovered hackers had infiltrated its systems.
With computer systems rendered “useless”, retailers are unable to register new cars, cannot perform diagnostics tests and are not able to access online spare parts catalogues. Retailers are using workarounds with third-party technology.
“The hit to profits is going to be in the region of £5 million a day,” Professor David Bailey told The Sunday Times. A rapid resolution seems unlikely, with one big JLR retailer saying “they can’t give us a timeline”.
The firm will update workers on the latest plans tomorrow (Monday).
The Sunday Times calls it the worst crisis since the pandemic for the West Midlands automotive sector, while plants in Slovakia, Brazil and India have also been brought to a standstill.
LSH, Available Car back in profit
LSH Auto UK has reported profit before tax of £2.39m for the year ended December 2024, compared to an £11m loss for 2023. “Performance in these areas improved through increased sales volumes and changes in leases under IFRS16 occurred in 2024,” said the directors of the Mercedes-Benz, BYD and Smart retailer.
It sold 4,809 cars, compared to 2,535 in 2023, with a slight increase in used vehicles to 7,511. Aftersales retail sold hours decreased slightly.
Graham Bell Holdings, trading as Available Car, has also turned around an £8.4m loss for the year ended December 2023 into a £938k profit for 2024. Describing it as a positive year, the directors said plans to make operational changes “are now starting to deliver over-budgeted results”.
Used EV batteries ‘piling up’ in UK
Scarce recycling capacity in the UK is leading to a mounting stockpile of used EV batteries, industry experts warn. The FT says tens of thousands of EV and energy storage batteries are in storage – up to 90% of the approximately 23,500 batteries that have reached the end of their life.
Most of the batteries in warehouses are from early EV models and electric cars written off in accidents. “The UK’s ‘latent stockpile’ of batteries is a serious, growing problem, said Christian Marston, chief executive of battery recycling firm Altilium.
Europe as a whole faces a lack of battery recycling infrastructure but the UK is at particular risk of falling behind due to a lack of a homegrown EV battery industry.
A decline in the cost of raw materials has also made battery recycling commercially unattractive. One expert told the FT that the composition of lithium iron phosphate batteries means they are not worth recycling at the moment. Lithium prices have plummeted since 2022.
WEEK AHEAD
Monday-Tuesday, IAA Munich Motor Show media days
Tuesday, UK retail sales
Thursday, RICS housing market survey
Friday, UK GDP
DATA INSIGHT
Savers rush to withdraw from pensions
£18bn: The amount withdrawn from pensions as a 25% tax-free lump sum between April 2024 and March 2025. 211k pension savers took the lump sum, a third more than the previous year, amid an impending inheritance tax raid and possible changes to the rules around the tax-free lump sum.
Chinese brands outnumber Europeans at Munich Motor Show
14: The number of Chinese brands present at the upcoming IAA Munich Motor Show. Just 10 are European.
GLOBAL AUTO
OEMs call on EU to follow China with hybrids
Europe is being urged to follow China and include hybrids in the push to lower car emissions, the FT reports. Brussels is also being warned that sticking to the 2035 ban on ICE vehicles “puts the bloc’s biggest industry at risk”.
“No date, no ban, technology openness… if that playbook has been successful, why are we not willing to at least discuss the European version of that,” said ACEA president and Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius. He also warned of the risk of consumers rushing to buy combustion engine cars ahead of the 2035 ban and then hanging onto them.
300 Koreans released after Hyundai-LG immigration raid
South Korea has brokered a deal to release more than 300 Korean nationals detailed in a US immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG energy EV battery factory in Georgia, reports Automotive News. It is sending a chartered jet to bring them back home – and will revamp its visa system for nationals visiting the US to prevent a repeat.
OPINION
From alliances to integration, the automotive shift
Executing transformation to reduce complexity, improve agility and enable strategic partnerships in automotive is proving more difficult than imagined.
The industry is grappling with the paradox of accelerated innovation, profound uncertainty and disruption. The traditional pillars that once gave OEMs a competitive advantage – such as engineering prowess, manufacturing scale and even brand power – have been increasingly diluted in a market where disruption is not just anticipated but required.
What emerges are strategic partnerships and alliances focused on accelerating technological improvements and software-defined vehicles. Toyota and Waymo’s recent announcement to develop autonomous driving technologies, or GM and Nvidia’s plan to build custom AI manufacturing systems and collaborate on advanced driver-assistance, are both examples.
However, these strategic partnerships may not represent a unique value proposition in the long term. True differentiation will come from unconventional partnerships and mergers that integrate automotive companies into broader ecosystems. It is in the unconventional partnerships that the next wave of automotive innovation (and survival) will be defined.
One possibility is the integration of an automaker as a business unit of a global energy company. This would create a vertically integrated mobility-energy platform, addressing the current disconnect between mobility and energy. Such an integration would allow for comprehensive control over EV infrastructure and energy consumption, positioning companies to lead in the transition to sustainable energy.
The mobility-energy disconnect is unsustainable; EV adoption is surging, but fragmented value chains prevent scalability and profitability. At the same time, industries such as oil and gas face an existential threat as transportation – their largest demand segment – rapidly decarbonises. Car manufacturers are capital-constrained, struggling to fund the digital ecosystems needed to succeed in a post-ICE world.
No incumbent has vertically integrated mobility and energy at scale, leaving a strategic gap – and therefore a real competitive advantage – for a sustainable future. The integration of an automaker as a business unit or strategic JV of a global energy company would enable vertical control of energy consumption through owned EVs and fleets, as well as the seamless bundling of vehicles, charging, carbon offsets and energy billing.
It could even include the launch of platforms offering mobility-as-a-service, V2G and grid services under a single brand with one key advantage: reuse of existing energy infrastructure (fuel stations, logistics, billing) to dominate the EV ecosystem.
This strategic shift will mark an important step toward future-proofing the core businesses of industries that are becoming increasingly complementary, while leading global decarbonisation efforts.
Diana Torres
Senior Managing Director Teneo
Corporate Financial Advisory
Get in touch: tristan@autosunday.co.uk
ISSN 2977-6597