NEWS

It’s already over six months since we announced our Middle East partnership with Al-Futtaim Automotive. It is a very exciting partnership for both groups, and we have already had great success with working with Al-Futtaim dealers and its Hertz franchise in the region.

In this newsletter Ib Kimose, Autorola Solutions global business unit director tells us how our technology is helping 45 dealership locations in Dubai, Oman, Qatar, UAE, and Egypt with used car sourcing, pricing transparency and customer experience.

Celebrating 10 years with Fleet Monitor

Meanwhile, Kia Austria is celebrating using our Fleet Monitor workflow monitoring tool for more than a decade.

Katharina Williamson, Kia Austria’s Fleet & Used Car Manager shares with us how Kia continues to benefit from improved workflows, increased efficiency, and a lighter administration burden thanks to Fleet Monitor.

Keeping track of used EV trends

Our INDICATA team has now published 40 Market Watch reports which share used car insights from 13 European countries. It continues to keep the market informed about used EVs which are gaining sales traction now that prices have fallen, but the big challenge is the speed at which fresh stock is coming into the market.

We have also interviewed Pietro Sportelli, Head of INDICATA Italy on how INDICATA’s used car insights are helping dealers and OEMs in Italy manage a changing used car market which is slowing down as new car sales rise.

We hope you enjoy reading our latest newsletter and hope you all have a great summer.

Best regards
Peter Grøftehauge (LinkedIn)

The joint venture between Autorola Group and Al-Futtaim Automotive was announced in December 2022 providing us with our first presence in the Middle East. It was the result of many months of conversation between our two companies culminating after six months of setting up an entire integrated platform for used vehicle handling and running online auctions for Hertz in the UAE, a business owned by Al-Futtaim.

Sourced used vehicles were uploaded onto the Autorola digital platform, where key processes were efficiently managed to get the vehicles prepared for the Al-Futtaim dealer network to bid on with any unsold stock then offered to the open market for sale.

Simplifying processes

Autorola Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Holding Limited was set up to reinvent the region’s B2B used-car market through an integrated and end-to-end digital platform which simplifies every step of the vehicle lifecycle.

Six months after the partnership launch our Fleet Monitor platform is now providing a structured digital vehicle trade-in process for 45 Al-Futtaim dealer locations which represent Toyota, Lexus, Volvo and Polestar in Dubai, Oman, Qatar, UAE, and Egypt.

Centrality is key

Over 350 dealer sales staff have access to our inspection software via their handheld device which enables them to inspect customer cars accurately and consistently on the spot. Each inspection report is then automatically transmitted to Al-Futtaim’s central pricing team and within 15 minutes the used car is valued, and the price presented to the customer.

The customer can trade in the car against a new or used car, or they can sell it to the dealer for cash.

Transparent pricing and seamless workflows

The process is providing dealers with an easy and hassle-free way to source cars, to be able to vouch for consistent transparent pricing and to give an improved customer experience. The entire process is tied together seamlessly within one digital landscape which ensures a more efficient and secure value chain resulting in better trade-in ratios, faster stock turn and an overall improved performance.

Inspection numbers increase

The platform has only been live for a couple of months but already the processes are proving very efficient. Al-Futtaim dealers performed 1,800 inspections in May using our platform, which is likely to rise to up to 4,000 – 6,000 by June and onwards.

We continue to work with Hertz, which provides short-term rental and long-term leases to business and retail customers. They continue to use our inspection software and upload vehicles onto our online platform for sale to Al-Futtaim dealers first and then to the open market.

In future we will look to open up cross-border sales to other buyers in other Middle East countries, which will further support stock turn for Hertz.

About Al-Futtaim Automotive

Al-Futtaim Automotive, one of the main five operating divisions within the UAE based Al-Futtaim Group of companies, is a conglomerate of motoring-related businesses, franchising some of the world’s most-recognised automotive brands and services.

Operating in 10 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa and empowered by around 9,000 associates, the UAE-headquartered Group’s services span across distribution of new and used vehicles, manufacturing, leasing, and aftersales. 

Ranging from passenger cars to SUVs, commercial vehicles, industrial and construction equipment as well as motorbikes and quads, Al-Futtaim Automotive Group offers an integrative customer-centric experience for motorists, fleet operators and contractors alike, and strives to become the leader in tailor-made mobility solutions. For more information visit www.al-futtaim.com 

Follow us on LinkedIn 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/autorolasolutions/

Kia Austria was one of the first OEM customers in Austria to use Autorola’s Fleet Monitor workflow monitoring tool that supports vehicle fleet owners of all sizes to process their volumes in the most efficient and structured way – from acquisition to disposal.

Managing the whole vehicle life cycle

Kia has now been working with Autorola’s Workflow Management System for over ten years with the platform managing the whole vehicle life cycle and finally selling its used cars on a closed dedicated auction platform to its dealer network via a Branded Site.

When Kia Austria dealers visit the Branded Site to inspect and bid on vehicles online it has the look and feel of the Kia brand giving them trust and confidence to buy vehicles from the national sales company.

“We only work in one system”

“From the time a vehicle is specified and ordered with the factory we only ever work in one system, which is interfaced with all our other core systems.

“It is a huge advantage to handle our cars in an automated workflow which secures our processes and guarantees the best possible lead times for every part of the vehicle management process,” said Katharina Williamson, Kia Austria’s Fleet & Used Car Manager.

The online communication with third party suppliers is also part of the Fleet Monitor construction, when it comes to pre-delivery inspection, handover of company and press cars, changing of tyres and all other relevant services. Fleet Monitor has been designed to improve a vehicle fleet’s services and lead-times in all aspects of their in-fleet and de-fleet processes.

System integration improves workflows

The integration between systems allows Kia to combine a flow that supports their business model and allows them to plan and control all activities from one single access point.

“Selling the vehicles via our own branded auction is easy and with Autorola we are assured of always using an innovative and up to date version of a modern online auction environment,” explained Katharina.

Getting rid of Excel spreadsheets

“Before we started the partnership with Autorola our main target was to get rid of Excel spreadsheets completely, which was very soon achieved. Another huge benefit is the tailormade set of reports available to us,” she said.

Further developments, like the INDICATA used vehicle insights data integration which gives a live market overview in terms of pricing and market values, have made the system even more sophisticated.

INDICATA Italy saw a big increase in demand for its used car data insights during the Covid pandemic. That demand contributed to a good business performance in 2021 with many dealer group customers coming on board during that time.

Italian dealers use INDICATA to check how competitive their used cars are against local rival dealers. They know if their used cars are not competitively priced, they will not sell as consumers spend more time doing homework online to find the region’s most competitively priced used car.

Used car demand falls as new car supply improves

This demand for quality used car data has been accentuated by the demand for used cars falling in Italy now that new car supply is improving. INDICATA has become a valuable tool for dealers to help retain a high stock turn and profitability.

There are around 1,000 franchised dealers in Italy and INDICATA can provide the entire country’s used car data in a single dashboard which can be interrogated by make, model, age, fuel type, sales, and stock turn.

INDICATA Italy currently has eight OEM customers, and their needs are slightly different from dealers in that they like to understand how their used stock is priced against similar stock on a national basis.

INDICATA helps identify which cars to export

Currently 70-80% of used cars in Italy are sold locally by dealers, the rest are exported. INDICATA used car insights are helping dealers identify where in Europe used cars are worth the most money. The Autorola Group is also on hand to help the dealer with the export process including filling in paperwork and managing transport when required.

As INDICATA Italy received traction in the market it launched a successful webinar in December 2021 which regularly sees up to 200 people dial in to hear about the latest used car price trends and insights.

Hosting a successful webinar

“We continue to provide the Italian remarketing industry with insights into the used car market via our bi-monthly webinar. Since starting the webinar, it has grown into a powerful tool to build relations with the entire used car industry.

“It has all been about proving that INDICATA used car price insights can help dealers make more strategic decisions. We have also used LinkedIn to stay in touch with dealers. They know and trust the INDICATA brand,” he added.

Motor K partnership

INDICATA is also celebrating a partnership with automotive technology company Motor K which has grown over the last two years. Motor K develops integrated digital solutions to support the sales and marketing activities of automotive manufacturers and dealers, helping them create value for their end user customers.

They are using INDICATA Web Services which enables companies and end users to evaluate used vehicles in each market using INDICATA’s real-time market intelligence to analyse the vehicle’s market supply, demand, and pricing.

Web Services integrates with Motor K’s web platform

Web Services has been designed for larger asset owners such as financial institutions, fleet financing companies, automotive OEMs, membership-based organisations, and online automotive retail companies. The software easily integrates with standard IT systems such as Motor K’s web platform and is supporting the company which is now working in eight countries.

“We will look to work with more trusted technology partners in the future with our used car insights plugging into their systems and powering a wide range of website-based services for their customers,” explained Pietro.

Solutions Trade-In App launched

INDICATA Italy is to provide more used car data to leasing and insurance companies and banks in 2023 and 2024. It has also launched the Autorola Solutions Trade-In App which provides a full vehicle inspection platform for dealers which when integrated with INDICATA gives them a powerful tool to appraise the condition and value of their used vehicle trade ins.

“We will continue to see our customers use more Autorola and INDICATA services as they are all integrated with each other. We can help customers provide support at every stage of a vehicle’s life cycle,” said Pietro.

Used petrol and diesel cars dominated the European market in May taking 42.7% and 42.1% of sales with hybrids and EVs creeping up to 11.7% and 3.4% respectively.

But the most interesting trend currently is the balance of Market Days’ Supply (MDS), which represents available used car supply divided by its current sales rate.

Used diesels remain the fastest-selling powertrain, with an MDS of 59 days closely followed by petrols at 62 days. Hybrids are a little way behind at 81 days with EVs trailing at 110 days.

Used EVs are gaining traction

There is no doubt that used EVs are gaining sales traction now that prices have fallen as their MDS fell by 16 days in May alone, but the big challenge is the speed at which fresh stock is coming into the market.

EV sales are not keeping pace with stock levels, which is causing challenges for vendors in some countries as they try to optimise stock turn and sale prices. The one exception to the rule is Tesla with both its Model 3 and Model Y.

According to our latest INDICATA report the Tesla Model Y is Europe’s fastest-selling used car, even when compared to all ICE cars while the Tesla Model 3 remains Europe’s top-selling BEV.

Used Teslas have become more affordable

Tesla made the unpopular decision to drop new car prices, but it seems to have had the desired effect in the used market as the brand’s products are selling strongly as they have become more affordable.

This comes at a time when other mainstream brands have started to launch more used EVs into the market. This includes a raft of Chinese brands that are starting to arrive in Europe with a range of highly specified, high value electric cars.

As used EV prices reach their natural level over the coming years it will be interesting to see where OEMs set their own price levels to keep growing new EV car sales to meet their Clean Air For Europe (CAFE) emissions targets and to avoid costly EU fines.

Relying on a strong used market

The success of new EV sales relies on a strong used market. It will remain a balancing act to keep new EV sales growing whilst supporting the used market to cope with the growing number of EVs arriving at auction.

Rest assured our INDICATA Market Watch used car insights report will continue to track used demand, stock turn, prices, and sales trends for all fuel types on a monthly basis. Read the full INDICATA Market Watch report here: www.indicata.com

For a free copy of the latest INDICATA Market Watch report go to www.indicata.com