Under the new legislation more than a fifth (22%) of new cars sold by each carmaker must be fully electric in 2024, with the quota rising each year to meet the government’s target of 100% by 2035. Under the rules manufacturers face a £15,000 fine for each non-compliant vehicle they sell over the quota.
Mercedes-Benz agency dealer group, which has locations across the south of England, worked with Marketing Delivery to identify 5,558 vehicles with an apparently unresolved recall that were owned by customers who had not visited a Sandown site within the past 18 months. Marketing Delivery then managed a personalised email campaign encouraging each lapsed customer to visit the government website to check their vehicle’s outstanding safety recalls and book an appointment with their local Sandown service department, using a tailored link.
Zenith, the UK’s leading independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business, is the first to sign up for a garage quality audit and has appointed Fleet Assist to audit its garages to ascertain the range of services on offer, standard of premises, location, and workforce. This includes whether the garage is BEV ready and to what degree, if they can provide Class 4 and or Class 7 MOTs and can physically accommodate large high roof long wheelbase vans as Zenith runs a large fleet of LCVs.
EMaC reports demand for maintenance plans payable by monthly instalments have risen by over 1000% in the year to date and are on course to overtake one-off fixed term payments for the first time. The automotive retention solutions provider believes its dealer partners are increasingly offering this payment method due to the ongoing impact of the cost of living crisis, high inflation, Consumer Duty and an increased focus on customer retention.
Five year Hyundai Promise warranty proposition is available for all vehicle types, covering petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric vehicles, with the latter featuring Assurant’s EV One℠ warranty programme, which launched in the UK market in 2020.
In January 2020, the average time between when a company car or van booking was created to when the vehicle went in for work was 8.11 days - but today stands at 12.76 days. This data is taken from epyx’s 1link Service Network platform, which is used by car, van and truck fleets totalling more than four million vehicles to manage and process SMR.
Tjekvik looked at aftersales department opening and closing times for the 100 largest dealer groups across the UK, and found that just over half (52%) closed their doors at 6.00pm during the working week, while 28% shut up shop at 5:30pm. While most aftersales departments were open on a Saturday, 29% closed at 1.00pm, and 22% closed at 12:30pm. Just 5% stayed open until 5.00pm on a Saturday.
New proposition includes assisting OEMs appoint and manage their aftersales SMR network, setting up and running an online work booking service for drivers and incorporating work direction coupled with ethical authorisation to control maintenance spend.
Insurance comparison site found that just under a third (32%) of British drivers never perform their own car maintenance checks. Instead, they rely on getting the necessary checks done at a garage, by professionals. When servicing or repairing their car, more than a quarter (28%) of UK motorists surveyed spend between £200 and £299 every year. This is especially true for millennials (people born between 1982-99), with over a third (34%) spending within this average.
EMaC believes this year’s improved supply of new vehicles could see a return to pre-Covid sales volumes for the September plate-change but warns this is already stretching workshop operations, an issue heightened by the industry-wide shortage of technicians.
