Early in April, I attended the Equipment and Tool Institute’s ToolTech event. The day 1 keynote speaker, Steve Greenfield of Automotive Ventures, spoke on many key topics in the automotive industry, including vehicle repairability.
Greenfield walked the audience through how the future of vehicle repairability could pan out from the manufacturers’, consumers’, and technicians’ sides.
The manufacturer
The manufacturer is constantly looking for ways to improve the production process. They’re looking to cut costs and produce a better, more efficient vehicle.
Take a Tesla, for example, in earlier iterations of the Tesla, its frame was composed of 150 components. Looking at newer models, the frame consists of three components. They’ve moved toward mega- and giga-casting, explains Greenfield.
On the one hand, consolidating components like this can make for a lighter vehicle, and in electric vehicles, lighter means more efficient, which is more desirable to the consumer. On the other hand, if this vehicle gets into an accident, the cost of repairs goes up because there’s no longer just a quarter panel of the frame to pull off and replace.
The consumer
For the consumer, this seems like a good idea because lower production costs mean a lower cost for the vehicle, and greater efficiency on top of that is just a bonus. However, the potential insurance costs on a vehicle that must have the majority of its frame replaced if it’s in an accident could negate the initial cost savings. Additionally, paying for the repairs if that vehicle is in an accident could be just as costly as replacing the vehicle altogether.
The technician
Following this example, shops will end up spending more time performing the repairs, and the cost of the repairs will increase due to the longer repair times and the higher cost of the replacement part. Overall though, this will likely lead to shops writing the vehicle off entirely. After the accident, it will be a total vehicle loss.
“So the punchline here is insurance rates have started to accelerate …” Greenfield concludes, “… there has to be a reconciliation at some point when [the manufacturers] feel the pain that their cars are no longer competitive at the dealership because consumers are coming in and they’re like ‘I can’t afford the insurance on this car,’ then [the OEs] will have to go back, and that will reflect on the manufacturing processes.”
It's a bit of a vicious cycle, and it’s too soon to know for sure how this will all pan out. What are your thoughts on the future of repairability?
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