BUILDING THE BOARD
Simplicity Car Care has announced its newly appointed advisory board, along with its first two members: Bill Brower, who currently serves as vice president and head of auto claims strategy for a leading data and analytics provider, and Dan Cockerell, former vice president of Walt Disney Resort’s Magic Kingdom. According to Simplicity, the newfound Advisory Board will aim to “Build Simplicity Car Care into a leading global automotive brand; reimagine the automotive service experience for consumers and insurers; achieve the company’s one-to-five-year strategic and financial growth targets and assess strategic acquisitions.”
CARDS ON THE TABLE
Constraints in the Canadian supply chain continue to put the squeeze on automotive suppliers as Axalta said that they are expecting a $40 million drop in net sales for Q3 this year. With the microchip shortage and raw material inflation a daily reality for the global automotive industry, Axalta has decided to scale back its financial guidance to account for these obstacles.
UNDER ONE BANNER
Repairify Inc. has announced that it will be presenting a united front with its brands going forward, as the automotive industry giant plans to align all projects under the Repairify name. All existing brands, which include asTech, adasThink, BlueDriver, FleetGenix and Mobile Tech RX, will no longer operate as standalone brands and will instead fall under the Repairify umbrella. All future acquisitions will also do the same.
BEYOND THE VALE
New diagnostic technicians will be able to get their hands on Mitchell’s MD-500 technology now that the company has been selected as the exclusive supplier for the Vale PDR Technician Certification Program, via PDR Testing and Certification. PDR technicians interested in purchasing the MD-500, Mitchell Cloud Estimating or Mitchell TechAdvisor can contact the company for special pricing. For more information about the PDR Technician Certification Program, visit pdrtesting.com.
TIP TOP TESLA
Tesla surpassed a market value of US$1 trillion following a deal to sell 100,000 vehicles to car rental firm Hertz. Following the deal—which is the largest rental car order ever—of the electric automaker rose 12.6 percent. Hertz will pay US$4.2 billion for 100,000 Model 3s over the next 14 months, which amounts to about a fifth of the company’s rental fleet. Hertz will also build an accompanying network of charging stations.
AMPED UP AFTERMARKET
According to J.D. Ney, director of J.D. Power Canada, the $2.6 billion hit to the automotive service industry—and a shift toward aftermarket repair facilities as opposed to dealerships—appears to be a one-time event spurred by the pandemic. Ney said he’s waiting for another year’s worth of data before calling this a trend for each instance. The data was highlighted in the J.D. Power 2021 Customer Service Index Study. “We’ve run the survey every year for 25 years, and I’d say it’s the biggest shift of service market share, calculated in revenue, away from new-car dealers toward the aftermarket,” Ney said. “That reverses about a decade-long trend.”
