Concerned about Electric Vehicles
The growing presence of electrified vehicles has triggered a transformation in our industry. This shift revolutionises after-sales and workshops, demanding new skills, knowledge and specialised equipment. Certainly, maintenance and repairs differ significantly from traditional vehicles. Although the change presents challenges, it also opens up opportunities for the growth of specialised services. But should we be concerned about these electric vehicle challenges?
In 2021, hybrid and electric vehicles accounted for only 0.8% of the European Union’s automotive fleet. As we can see in the following graph, Norway is the only country with 15.5% of electric vehicles in its automotive fleet. In contrast, in most countries, electric vehicles do not even exceed 1% of the fleet.
Sales of electrified vehicles and their arrival at the workshop
Sales of electrified vehicles are rising sharply year after year, as we can see in the following graph. In most EU countries, in 2021, sales increased by almost 80% compared to 2020. This means that, in the coming years, the percentage of electrified vehicles in the automotive fleet is expected to increase significantly. So, in a few years, we can expect them to start arriving at the workshop for maintenance and repairs. In a few more years, they will become widespread.
If we look at the registrations in 2023, electrified vehicles are clearly gaining ground. In August, registrations increased, reaching an astonishing 21% market share in the EU, thanks to a 118.1% increase in sales compared to the previous period.
That is more than double compared to August 2022! Electrification is gaining momentum.
Given all this, workshops should not be worried about electric vehicles right now, but it is better to be proactive and receive proper training to be well-prepared.
The reality of the workshop today
So, are workshop professionals concerned or not? How are they experiencing the challenge? Are electric vehicles arriving at multi-make workshops?
Through EinaContact, our multi-make call centre, we receive over 250,000 requests for technical information and diagnostic and repair advice every year from more than 8,500 workshops in Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. A very significant sample.
Let’s analyse some statistics from our call centre. In the first half of 2023, 100% electric motors, with only 0.33% of queries, are still far from the systems that raise the most questions for workshop professionals. The most consulted technologies continue to be diesel engines, accounting for 34.20% of queries, electricity and electronics at 16.23%, and petrol engines at 13.59%.
Conclusion
If we consider the previous statistics, in which electrified vehicles represent only 0.8% of the automotive fleet and considering that the vast majority of these vehicles are newly acquired, we can understand that their arrival at the multi-make workshop is still very limited. In other words, in most workshops, electrified vehicles do not arrive. Consequently, our advisors receive almost no queries about this type of vehicle.
Therefore, workshops, for the time being, should not be worried about electric vehicles, but they should prepare themselves in order not to be worried in the future.
What exactly do the technicians in the workshop ask us for?
Let’s delve a bit deeper into electrified vehicles. Most of the queries about 100% electric motors are about the traction battery, representing 0.19% of all queries to EinaContact. In other words, these queries account for 60% of specific queries about 100% electric motors.
Let’s continue examining the detailed statistics. Let’s see what happens in terms of propulsion systems: diesel, gasoline and hybrids.
In fact, hybrid vehicles with diesel engines are insignificant in the current market, practically non-existent. In other words, the vast majority of hybrids are gasoline-powered. That being said, the percentage of queries about these two systems is negligible compared to other technologies. Let’s remember that we only have 0.8% of electrified vehicles in the EU and their arrival at workshops is insignificant for the moment. Therefore, these low percentages should not surprise us.
As we mentioned, workshops should not be worried about the electric vehicle, but we insist that they should be trained to be ready.
Last-minute surprise
However, we discovered an important piece of information by analysing the statistics from our call centre, highlighting the technological evolution of our industry, although it has nothing to do with electrified vehicles. A surprising 16.23% of the queries are related to electricity and electronics.
Since 2018, queries about vehicle electricity and electronics have been on the rise, experiencing a substantial 31.38% increase in just 5 years. Clearly, we are talking more and more about electromechanics rather than traditional mechanics. Our vehicles are becoming like household appliances.
Vehicle electricity and electronics
If we return to the analysis of the overall EinaContact statistics, we see that 56.81% of the queries are related to electricity and electronics! Over 18% of queries are about electricity and electronics of diesel engines and their emission control. In comparison, only 6% of queries refer to the electricity and electronics of the gasoline engine and its emission control system.
On the other hand, almost 5.5% of queries are requests for wiring diagrams and assistance for diagnosing and repairing vehicle wiring. We could go on because many subsystems are affected by the vehicle’s electricity and electronics nowadays, for example, electronic management of suspension or steering. Obviously, most safety systems: alarm, anti-theft, tyre pressure, etc., as well as vehicle programming and resets.
We leave you with the statistics of technologies directly related to vehicle electricity, which account for 13.59% of the total queries to EinaContact. As mentioned earlier, queries about wiring represent almost 5.5% of the total queries but make up 40% of the queries about electricity and electronics.
More statistics
At Grup Eina, we always analyse all the data from our services to better assist the workshop professional. We identify knowledge gaps, industry trends, common failures, the most consulted makes and models, the most searched keywords, the most used diagnostic tools, problematic technologies and more.
This way, we can also provide our clients with a value-added service that allows them to draw their own conclusions about the needs of the workshop. In other words, we offer them data to devise strategies and increase their sales, attract new customers and retain their current clients.
Do you know which technical course was the most demanded last year? Which engine had the most failures? What fault code was the most searched for? Which make and model generated the most queries to EinaContact, our call centre? Which technical bulletins were the most viewed in EinaVTS, our database of failure repair information?
What would you like to know? Write to us here.
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