The second day of AutopromotecEDU2015, a venue for widening the after-sales and service activities, opened with the IAAM (International Automotive Aftermarket Meeting 2015) Congress. An international appointment that has characterized the event for the last 5 editions, always taking a close look at innovation and this year titled “Connected vehicle - connected business: opportunities and challenges for the Aftermarket”.
IAAM15 offered in-depth analyses and strategic perspectives on the most innovative technological aspects of the car industry to companies and professionals in the sector, with particular attention to the theme of information and communication technologies applied to vehicles, the relevant regulations, and the numerous challenges that these pose for the various operators.
Josef Frank, former Aftermarket Director of CLEPA (European Association of Automotive Suppliers) and Chairman of IAAM, commented on this choice of focus: "The car industry represents an epicentre in the strong trend towards connectivity currently underway around the world, with vehicles featuring ever more advanced electronic components and connected with the external world. For the aftermarket community IAAM15 is thus an important opportunity to consider the themes, trends, and options in relation to this rapidly evolving scenario".
The congress opened with an address from Gianmarco Giorda, Managing Director of ANFIA, focusing on the slight market recovery underway since 2013 and the importance of telematics for increasingly intelligent and sustainable mobility. This was followed by the participation of numerous experts and operators in the sector: Luca Montagner, Associate Director of ICDP Italy (International Car Distribution Programme), provided an update on the volumes, operators, and market shares in the European aftermarket, also offering an interesting forecast for 2020.
What is the outlook for 2020? The demand for services linked to car repairs and maintenance will probably decrease in terms of volumes on average by 8% compared to 2012, somewhat less in terms of value. As regards vehicles in circulation, the forecast is for an increase in age, caused essentially by
the drop in sales of new cars.
According to the forecast part of the workshops in manufacturers' networks are destined to be further reduced in numbers, as are the number of independents, which should however increase their market share, although their overall business is also expected to decrease. Finally, Mr. Montagner investigated the behaviour of European customers online. Here a significant increase is foreseen in visits to Internet websites for the purpose of booking service appointments; an increased sale of tyres online (currently 20% of motorists buy on Internet); an increased sale of spare parts online (around
30% buy on Internet), which could have a dramatic effect, to the detriment in particular of the independent market.
Alberto Bernini, Regional Director of South Europe Automotive Aftermarket Bosch, provided an interesting insight into the concept of the Internet of Things, the world in which computer terminals and objects connected to Internet are programmed to operate autonomously and to be increasingly more
efficient. One of the main sectors in which the ever more digital world is having impact is precisely the car sector, which sees mobility in the near future characterized by three prerogatives: electric cars, self-driving cars, and connected cars. It is calculated that at present there are 7 billion (7,000,000,000) devices connected to the worldwide web (in the order of one per head, considering that the world population is 7.3 billion). This figure is expected to double over the next 5 to 7 years, to 14 billion networked devices.
Bosch's contribution is a range of electromechanical sensors that enable connection between things, the turnover for which is already as much as 1.3 billion euros. These sensors serve specifically to capture data from the connected things: for example, a parking sensor indicates in advance where to park to connected cars, or helps the owners of an electrical car to find a free recharging column. The vehicles of the future will not just be increasingly connected, but also electrical and automated, and in this area the aim of Bosch is to halve the cost of batteries (just as was achieved years ago for Diesel fuel, making it accessible to everyone). Finally, connectivity can be used to monitor the driving behaviour of motorists to create more customized solutions for customers as regards, for example, vehicle hire or insurance, on the condition that the flow of information is secured and privacy is respected.
With IAAM15, Autopromotec confirms its strategic role as a high level point of encounter of international standing in the world of aftersales and support for professionals in the sector, offering interesting in-depth analyses of what will soon be the new and revolutionary European scenario, in the prospect of the appearance of connected vehicles and the opportunities and challenges that these create in the vehicle assistance and repair market.
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