Kevan Wooden, chief commercial officer, LKQ Euro Car Parts: The new kids on the block

Date: Friday 28 July 2023

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Which country manufactures more vehicles than anywhere else?

If you guessed Japan or Germany, then you’d have been wrong. It is China.

A particular strength is in EVs where BYD (Build Your Dreams) is the world’s biggest manufacturer (hands up who would have said Tesla?).

BYD is one of several big Chinese brands to recently launch in the UK market, as well as Nio, with Cherry – China’s largest car exporter – coming next year.

MG, owned by Nanjing Automobile, has already cornered the value end of the UK EV market.

It’s not just China muscling in on a global market once also dominated by the likes of the US, Germany and South Korea.

While those nations and Japan and Germany remain automotive powerhouses, India is now the fourth biggest producer of new vehicles. Mexico is just behind Germany in seventh.

But what, if you’ll forgive the pun, is driving this? Quite simply, it’s the irrepressible rise of EV vehicles.

Making an EV is less like traditional automotive manufacturing and more like a factory assembly process. This reflects the much smaller volume of mechanical components in EVs – 90% fewer moving parts, in fact.

This has lowered barriers to entry to other countries and China is not just the biggest vehicle manufacturer in the world but the biggest in EV production too.

Even though the EU has softened its stance on banning new internal combustion engine (ICE) sales from 2030, and even if the UK starts to get jittery about the same deadline, the direction of travel has been set, for now at least.

The impact is already clear in new car sales. In just three years from 2019 to 2022, the proportion of new vehicles sold in the UK that were petrol or diesel fell from 90% to 47%.

Understandably, the UK, like the EU, is an attractive market for China’s EV giants.

It’s too early to be definitive about what this means for the aftermarket. For instance, will the new entrants copy the Tesla model of operating without a franchise network or will they partner with existing operators, as BYD appears to be?

One thing we do know for sure is that someone will have to service these cars. This creates a major opportunity for the independent aftermarket.

But before the industry can show it has the necessary expertise to work on exotic new marques, it needs to show it can work on EVs.

Sadly, the industry is already missing out. According to GIPA, more than half of drivers have changed their repairer since getting an EV or hybrid. A quarter say they want a workshop with a specialism.

The sector doesn’t need to undergo any radical kind of transformation. You’re not talking about massive capex into new kit or workshops.

Training is the key thing, specifically on IMI accredited courses in areas like high voltage working, like our own.

As I’ve written before, there are more positives here than being able to stick the IMI certification on your website and in your office to advertise to yourself to EV drivers. Technicians, particularly from younger generations, want to be invested in so that they stay engaged with a career in the independent aftermarket.

The arrival of Chinese EVs doesn’t mean the sector needs to become fluent in Mandarin. But learning how to work around a high voltage battery would be a good start.

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