By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — November 9, 2018 — The TalkAUTO conference, hosted by J.D. Power and Canadian Black Book, an automotive dealer website, attracted around 600 representatives from various OEM’s, dealers, and suppliers to hear insight on the where the future of the automotive industry lies.
Collision Repair caught up with James Carter, owner of Vision Mobility, to capture some of the highlights from the event held in Toronto.
He said one of the takeaways was the anxiousness he had seen from automotive dealers about what their future looks like, which was evident during the Dealers Panel.
With participants from BMW and Ford, the discussion revolved around the fact that dealers are moving towards new mobility but only on command of their OEM. “The growth of manufacturers command towards electric vehicles is still something mandated by OEMs,” he said.
The panelists made the point that dealers are very much relying on OEM’s to guide them into a direction and they are reluctant to take a step and make a move. “Their lack of support initiating by OEMs to help guide dealers into their future is surprising and I can understand why they’re a bit worried,” Carter said.
In terms of forecasts for the Canadian automarket, Jeff Schuster, president of Americas operations and global vehicle forecasts for LMC, presented the companies predictions. Schuster said they believe that electric vehicle new car sales will be 18 percent worldwide by 2030. But Carter notes that this type of forecast “tends to be on the conservative end of things,” Carter said.
In Carter’s opinion, the most interesting presentation was Sheryl Connelly, global trends manager for Ford Motors, speaking about the ten trends changing the world. Carter explained that the way she presented her ideas was unique in the sense that she didn’t speak directly about the automotive trends or industry, but “she painted a picture.”
“She talked about things like, gender inequality in terms of pay, she spoke about differences in income, urbanization, aging populations. She spoke about these social economic trends and then started to apply it to how it would affect our mobility,” he said.
