“You may see, only for a windscreen substitute, the complexity goes up, and the variety of components required and the ability that’s required, all of that. Try this for headlights, try this for radars and the quantity of components that logistics firms have to hold goes up massively.”
On high of this, steered Townsend, automotive makers are not stocking a big surplus of spare components, as a consequence of numerous elements affecting their funds.
“The most important ache level for the incumbent car producers is money stream,” he mentioned. “Due to the challenges coming from the likes of China and with [import] tariffs in America, Dieselgate, electrification and all of this, they merely don’t have the money stream to have hundreds of thousands of kilos sitting in inventory.
“They’re having to scale back their inventory holdings throughout Europe that might historically have provided the market, as a result of they merely can’t afford to have hundreds of thousands of kilos sitting in a warehouse not doing something.”
This level is especially pertinent at a time when the market is demanding broader selection, defined Townsend, as a result of with every sort of powertrain comes a unique assortment of components, dramatically growing the price of preserving a wholesome provide of spares.
He mentioned: “If we had been all shopping for electrical automobiles, the issue would go away, as a result of they might simply transfer from one [powertrain type] to a different. However the market isn’t fairly prepared, so producers should serve the market by producing plug-in hybrids, regular hybrids, electrical variants and many others. So it’s massively advanced at a time when producers are cash-constrained.”
The wait occasions additionally put stress on insurers to declare crashed vehicles a complete loss after they have suffered solely minor harm, defined Townsend. It is because the price of a courtesy automotive might outweigh the worth of a restore if the half will take weeks or months to reach.
He mentioned: “We had an incident with an EV in the midst of 2023. Someone purchased an EV model new in July for £35,000. Then it suffered a third-party hit. The door and the wing mirror had been broken. The car producer couldn’t present a lead time [for a replacement mirror], in order that automotive was written off for a wing mirror.”
