NEWS

Autorola Belux director Erwin Coesens discusses how Belgium has fallen out of love with diesel and fleets are moving to a one stop shop approach
After decades of diesel dominance, the Belgian market has virtually switched its allegiances overnight. Thanks to government fiscal reform which includes lower registration and road tax for petrols, hybrids and EVs plus an equalisation at the pumps of the price of diesel and petrol fuel the Belgian motor industry has fallen out of love with diesel virtually overnight.

For companies the more environmentally friendly the car the more it is tax deductible and for employees’ company car tax is lower.

New petrol, hybrid and EV cars are now popular
“For many years Belgium was nearly 95% in favour of diesels based on their fuel consumption, reliability and strong running costs. This has changed quickly with car makers now offering a strong range of petrol, hybrid and EV options that are proving very popular,” explained Coesens.

The biggest industry challenge is that consumers now want to buy only used petrols. When the Government introduced its new green road policy it affected cars already on the road as well as new cars so private motorists are moving towards petrols as they wait for hybrids and EVs to reach the market.

Consumer demand is high for used petrol cars
“Our used car traders and franchised dealers are desperately looking to buy used petrols to satisfy demand. Consumers are willing to pay more for petrols, but there simply aren’t enough to go around and there won’t be until the substantial number of diesels are flushed out of the system,” said Coesens.

The result is that thousands of used petrols are being imported through Autorola’s online portal into Belgium. This cross-border activity is helping some way to balancing demand and supply.

Fleet Monitor grows as OEMs and leasing companies prefer one stop shop
Leasing companies and national sales companies are also changing the way they manage their vehicles by switching to a one stop shop supplier such as Autorola to take care of their assets. Autorola has seen growth for its Fleet Monitor product which manages a car from its inception in the factory to the day it is sold online.

Companies like JLR and Mazda have extended this one step further with Autorola now running the tender process for the refurbishment of ex company cars and rental cars. The work is offered out to authorised bodyshops and the most competitive price wins the repair contract. The refurb process is vitally important as these cars are being offered to dealers in a ready to retail condition up to six months before they are due to come back to the manufacturer.

Pre-selling is now popular up to six months before the car is defleeted
This pre-selling process is being offered through Autorola Branded Sites where dealers can bid on OEM stock in a closed auction environment. The dealer can bid on stock and a final defleet inspection by Autorola means the price the dealer pays is modified slightly depending on the car’s final mileage and condition.

“By selling used cars so early in the life of a car on a buyback agreement the manufacturer is managing its assets more efficiently. They know what pipeline of used stock they have sold and what cars they can then offer out to the wider market. This approach is proving very successful and is a dream come true for many remarketing strategists who have been talking about this approach for many years. Now this has become reality,” said Coesens.

Autorola’s online portal is influencing the corporate used car industry in Mexico says country manager Alfredo Hernandez
Autorola has started to influence the market and change buying and selling trends in the 18 months it has been in existence. Corporate vendors, particularly the premium OEMs have bought into the benefits online buying and selling brings to them and their dealers.

Buyer trust is growing online
Autorola is now helping many car makers sell their ex- management and rental cars directly online to their dealers via its online portal. This adoption of the online buying and selling process has been based on the understanding that buyer trust can be achieved with accurate vehicle descriptions supported by images.

Buyers know if there is a problem it will be sorted quickly and that buyer funds automatically go into an escrow fund and are only released to the vendor once they have taken delivery of and are happy with the car.

Young drivers don’t always aspire to own a car
Car makers are now approaching Autorola now to understand how we can roll out online auctions for their dealers.

While the older car buyers tend to prefer buying and owning their car and selling it physically to another driver the younger members of society in their early 20s are choosing to utilise the growing number of car share services that have sprung up, particularly in Mexico City in the past 12-18 months.

Young drivers don’t always inspire to own a car
The younger generation seem to like the flexibility of being able to call up a car as and when they need to make a journey rather than automatically aspire to owning a car. There are tailored car share services in existence run by women for women passengers such is the demand for mobility services.

The entire Mexican market has not stopped changing for sure, with Autorola’s range of online inspection and auction services continuing to support those changes and helping to keep increasing the professionalism of the used car industry.

For more information on Mexico contact Alfredo on ahh@autorola.com

France is beginning to change its mindset to online selling says Autorola France country manager Pierre Emmanuel Beau
Autorola France has seen a change of approach by some OEM vendors with them looking at new ways of reaching used buyers, particularly through online channels. The EAuction was new to the market when it was launched in early summer. Vehicles are offered for sale on the Autorola portal at a pre-advertised time, with online offers being made by remote buyers across France and beyond. The auction is over in around two hours and the vendor is on hand to make quick decisions on vehicles during the auction.

One of the first brands to sign up to EAuction concept was Mercedes Benz Vans and is already reporting great conversion rates and is building a reputation and buyer base all over Europe.

Mercedes Benz Vans are being innovative and adventurous
“Like so many countries the French used industry is quite fixed in the way the market sells used vehicles but we have seen more vendors look at new ways of selling their used stock in 2017. They are being more innovative and adventurous which as an online remarketing provider excites us. We are working with some great vendor partners who understand the power of online selling. I like to think of it as a change of mindset,” explained Pierre Emmanuel Beau.

Mercedes Benz is selling two out of every three used vans at EAuction. In the last EAuction 60% of bidders were in France, including most of the country’s Mercedes Benz dealer network, while 40% of buyers were from outside France. Buyers from 15 countries bid on the used vans stored in compounds in Paris and Marseille with cataloguing and images taken and then uploaded online prior to the sale being marketed to buyers.

Mercedes stock has created a wide geographic interest
“Mercedes Benz is rightfully very proud of being an innovator in the market and has been a little surprised that its stock has generated such a wide geographic interest. Mercedes Benz dealers and independent buyers have been competing side by side for the used vans, and our administration has been set up so if a Mercedes dealer buys a van it is automatically invoiced to them from head office and it counts towards their annual sales target. They also receive access to wholesale stocking finance for 60 days,” said Emmanuel-Beau.

Autorola UK announces new Marketplace and INDICATA contracts
Autorola UK has seen a growth in demand for its remarketing platform signing up both LeasePlan and Audi, while a Lancashire based Nissan dealer is one of the first dealers to opt for INDICATA.

Weekly sales are run online for LeasePlan
LeasePlan UK is the latest leasing company to sign up with Autorola UK to run a weekly used vehicle auction through its online remarketing platform.

A range of good quality 2-4 year old ex-fleet stock are on sale each week. Weekly sales run for two days and all stock carry photographs, detailed descriptions of the condition and specification of each vehicle and confirmation of any supporting paperwork such as service history and MOT.

Audi trades stock via the Autorola platform
Audi has appointed Autorola to help promote trading of used Audi stock between its centres through its online remarketing portal.

The partnership will encourage Audi UK’s 120 centres to trade stock between each other and by keeping more of it within the network help protect residual values.

They can also upload unwanted part exchanges onto the platform to put in front of Autorola’s 2,000 active buyers.

Fred Coupe Nissan signs up to INDICATA
INDICATA has now launched in the UK and one of the first to go live with the new system is family dealer Fred Coupe Nissan based in Lancashire.

Fred Coupe Nissan signed up to INDICATA to provide its sales team with real time insights into the demand, supply and pricing of used cars in its geographical area to help grow sales and reduce stocking days.

The dealer is also using the data to decide how its overall inventory is positioned against competing stock in the marketplace, helping it buy the used cars it knows are in high demand in their locality and trade those that are in poor demand.

Kia Motors Europe partners with INDICATA used vehicle intelligence platform
INDICATA has been selected by Kia Motors Europe to provide its business intelligence and advanced analytics solutions on a European level.

The selection of the INDICATA cloud-based solution is the result of an exhaustive study of business intelligence solutions providers by Kia’s management team.

INDICATA is a highly valuable tool for Kia’s European network
Kia Motors Europe has implemented INDICATA in its corporate management and operations and sees it as a highly valuable tool for Kia’s European network.

“We compared a range of solutions providers,” said Michael Cole, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Motors Europe. “INDICATA stood out for the detailed business intelligence and analytics it provides. Their solution allows us to receive excellent operational analysis and reports, which can help the efficiency of our used car operations.”

Delighted to support Kia’s used vehicle growth plans across Europe
Peter Grøftehauge, Chief Executive Officer of Autorola Group said: “We are thrilled to have won this new business and to be working with the teams of a world-class organisation like Kia Motors Europe. Kia is among the fastest-growing brands in Europe and around the world and we are delighted to support their own European used vehicle operation growth plans.“

Morten Holmsten, global sales director of Marketplace tells us how the business unit is growing as more countries embrace the benefits of the online selling and buying of used vehicles

21 years ago when Autorola opened its doors for the first time our CEO Peter Grøftehauge had a clear vision that used vehicles could be sold more efficiently online than in a physical auction.

Dedicated to making buying and selling used cars easier and more profitable
The results to Peter were clear – increased speed of sale, reduced transport movements and associated costs for vendors and ultimate convenience for buyers who could bid on and buy a vehicle from the comfort of their office desktop wherever they are in the world.

21 years on the vision has become reality with nearly 500,000 vehicles being offered for sale annually on our platform to over 70,000 registered buyers in over 35 countries with buyers being able to use their desk top or smart phone to bid on stock. Our vendors range from global OEMs and leasing companies to global rental countries and large dealer groups.

More countries are embracing online remarketing
The majority of our 19 subsidiary countries have built their businesses on the principles of online remarketing. With some it has been slower than others to educate them about the benefits of online compared with physical auction, while other countries have immediately embraced the use of technology in the sector and are growing very quickly.

Turkey grew by 162% last year helped by the fact that the country is very online savvy. The Turkish remarketing sector is still developing compared with other established European countries. Our team are working with vendors and buyers who are accepting online as a very efficient form of used vehicle disposal. Due to the size of the country reduced transport costs are also a massive benefit for vendors.

Growth in our online insurance salvage business in Australia
Australia grew by a similar amount in 2016 helped by the growth of its online insurance salvage business. Our business model of a salvage vehicle being towed to a local agent and being sold on behalf of the insurer to an online buyer makes sense bearing in mind the huge distances involved in Australia.

With the pressure on everybody within the automotive industry to reduce emissions to improve air quality particularly in urban areas, the reduced transport costs associated with online remarketing are making a big difference to our major vendors. They are signing up to Autorola to sell their vehicles more quickly and reduce the road miles associated with physical auction.

Premium car makers now working with Mexico
Mexico is another country where we are re-writing the rules of remarketing and three premium car makers are already starting to use our services less than two years after the country opened for business.

The UK has huge potential with the launch of weekly sales for LeasePlan and Arval, and Germany, Spain and France are all large countries where we are predicting growth over the coming years. One of our newest countries Brazil is starting to work with OEMs such as Audi who are committed to our online, transparent disposal route to help tackle the country’s poor reputation for corruption.

Cross border sales continue to grow via the Autorola platform
An area that continues to grow is the cross border sales through our online portal. Europe in particular is still trying to balance out its used vehicle supply following the most recent recession while a move to low emission vehicles virtually overnight is forcing countries to import or export vehicles to meet market demands.

Thousands of used vehicles each week are imported and exported around Europe via our online portal and we are helping countries like Portugal cater for the huge increase in consumer demand for used cars. French dealers are importing huge numbers of used cars, particularly Peugeots from other countries while OEMs and dealers in the Netherlands are exporting used cars following a recent government legislation change which has reduced the demand for used diesels.

Three business units set up to meet customer demands
A few years ago we adopted a business unit structure – MarketPlace, Solutions and INDICATA – to adapt our service proposition based on the demands of our customers. Our INDICATA real time used vehicle business intelligence system is now supporting OEMs and their dealers to increase the efficiency and profitability of their used vehicle sales operations. Solutions is helping larger vendors manage their assets more efficiently from the time a car is ordered to when it is sold, through its Fleet Monitor asset inspection and management system.