Out of sight, but out of mind?

Neil Pattemore looks ahead at the host of legislative challenges the aftermarket faces over the coming months and years

Published: 01 February, 2019

Some people listen but they don’t hear, others are disbelievers, while others consider that if it worked yesterday it will still work tomorrow. Many of us don’t like change, but I am sorry to inform you, but change is a’ coming!

I was recently discussing with a workshop owner about the legislation that helped his business, but when I mentioned ‘the third mobility package’ his eyes glazed over like I was Kaa the snake from Disney’s Jungle Book and I was trying to hypnotise him!

However, this is not a work of fiction, but the serious issue of how you need legislation to support your business. Currently, there is a lot of discussion during the remaining tenure of this Commission in preparation for the next European Commission in September 2019, concerning how a whole variety of ‘mobility services’ around vehicles will be provided and what legislation will be needed, which will impact the future of the European aftermarket, but also the UK after Brexit.

Sorry to be the messenger of doom and gloom, but the automotive industry is changing and with it, the aftermarket. It may not be too long before you become aware of just ‘how good you have had it’ and to use another colloquialism, ‘you will miss it when it’s gone’. So, what’s going on in Brussels?

Vehicle technology is changing at an ever-increasing rate, but most critically this includes the connected car, where a vehicle and its data can be accessed remotely. This is great news for the development of new services, new diagnostic and repair methods, the vehicle has become part of the internet of things that enables traffic flow management, the implementation of intelligent transport systems to reduce accidents and ultimately, autonomous vehicles. In legislative terms this creates a whole new raft of challenges – but most critically, how to handle the safe and secure communication with the vehicle.

The third mobility package seeks to address some of these aspects, one of which is fundamental – who controls access to the vehicle and subsequently data. In simple terms, simply plugging in to a vehicle to conduct diagnostics or repair and maintenance will be controlled by the vehicle manufacturer unless the legislator does something. To most of the UK aftermarket, this is an ‘out of sight and out of mind’ scenario. However, we are at a crossroads and the only way forward is legislative action.

So, what else are the jolly Eurocrats in Brussels working on that may impact the aftermarket?

Although this may be an excellent example of how slowly the wheels of legislation can turn, one of the most important ‘left overs’ from the Euro 5 legislation that came into force in 2007, is the inclusion of a reference to ISO 18541, which standardises the access to repair and maintenance information via vehicle manufacturers’
websites. Additionally, and linked to the ISO 18541 implementation, will be the inclusion of the SERMI scheme – the Secure Repair and Maintenance Information which will provide accredited access to vehicle anti-theft information, data and parts for independent workshops. Both of these should significantly help in avoiding having to refer your customer’s vehicle back to a main dealer to finalise a repair job.

In another recognition of increasing vehicle technology, there will be the finalisation of the access and data requirements to test electronically controlled safety systems via the OBD port in Roadworthiness Testing – the MOT test to you and I. However, there is much discussion, both in Brussels and in the ISO standardisation, about exactly what the test methods will be and what data the vehicle will provide. There is some risk of the vehicle just testing itself without the ability to have independent functional testing. Oh what fun we can look forward to with older vehicles when inventive ways are found to avoid that pesky little MIL light coming on!

Multi-faceted
This also leads into another discussion around how access to the vehicle will be possible. The beloved OBD connector and the corresponding data for diagnostics, repair and maintenance is now referenced in the revision of the Euro 5 legislation (EU 2018/858), but it is by no means clear exactly what this means in technical terms, or indeed how the access may be controlled by using electronic certificates. No firm proposals are yet on the table and the corresponding menu of whether it will be a feast or just some crumbs will be a major subject of discussion. This is yet another example of how connecting to an object that is part of the internet of things is a multi-faceted topic that will impact the aftermarket. This moves into another sphere with the inclusion into legislation of remote diagnostic support (RDS) – originally from heavy duty vehicle legislation implemented in 2009 (!), but under the new EU 2018/858 it will also apply to passenger vehicles as well. This is intended to allow the remote diagnostics of a vehicle, but it is certainly not clear how this may be achieved independently of the vehicle manufacturer, as they would then know you and your customer, as well as charging you for this RDS service.

To better understand the vehicle manufacturers’ extended vehicle model that would be used to provide this RDS service, the Commission are currently monitoring a proof of concept that seeks to assess what is possible. From the outcome of this proof of concept, the current Commission are likely to make recommendations for the incoming Commission for future legislation. However, a recent study conducted by the aftermarket associations in Brussels showed that this extended vehicle model provided very limited data, with further costs and contractual restrictions, making it unusable for truly competitive services. The battle lines have been drawn.

Implementation
On a more tangible note, there is a request for a better implementation of the Machinery Directive. ‘Yeah’ I hear you say, but a recent study showed that out of 47 lifts inspected throughout Europe, 11 (23%) were found non-compliant with a total number of 24 non-conformities. The European Garage Equipment Association (EGEA) has therefore called on the Commission to stop dangerous and non-compliant workshop equipment being sold in the EU by imposing stricter and more effective market surveillance and thus avoid further deaths and serious injuries, as well as ensuring fair competition in the marketplace.

Although Brussels is ‘out of sight and out of mind’ to many UK workshops, there are many critically important discussions currently being held, leading to future European legislation that will be needed to ensure the continued ability to independently access, diagnose, repair, service and maintain objects that are part of the internet of things – which for the Aftermarket means vehicles. Much to think about and much to fight for!

xenconsultancy.com

Past, present and cars of the future
Neil, we worked literally alongside each other in the RMI press office for years. What do you remember most about those days?
Oh, where to start? We used to joke that nobody ever leaves the motor industry, and here we both are 20 years and several kids later. I joined in early 2003. You were already the Press Officer and I was Website Editor. I also worked on Forecourt magazine and the fuel protests were huge news at the time. The poor petrol retailers took loads of stick, quite unfairly because they earnt very little from fuel sales. Imagine the outrage if the protestors had known what a gallon would cost today. There were a lot of strong opinions about Block Exemption, authorised repairer status and emissions too, so in some ways we’ve made incredible progress, and in other ways it’s the same old industry tensions.

Then one day you left to go freelance…
Yes, sorry about that. I completed my NCTJ journalism course by passing the 80-words-per-minute shorthand exam, admittedly at the second time of asking, and launched Featurebank in 2007, offering journalism and PR services. From the start the trade titles were brilliant. I got writing gigs with Aftermarket, among others, and ticked a few items off the bucket list – writing race reports for Autosport, interviewing legends like Sir Stirling Moss and covering a consumer court victory for Auto Express.

The PR side picked up nicely too. The Mail on Sunday naming MyCarCheck its “No.1 cash-saving app” was an important early win, and I worked for Euro Car Parts for years, back when Sukhpal was in charge. I wrote all sorts for them – internal and external comms, ad copy –press releases about landmark moments like becoming part of LKQ and buying up all those Unipart sites. Those were big deals which made international headlines. I’d admired ECP since a press tour of the old Wembley site – they had teams of people with headsets on selling like something out of Wall Street.

I hadn’t seen that in the aftermarket before – it was next level.”

Speaking of the silver screen, at some point you got into TV
The Dispatches? Superb experience. It was called Secrets Of Your Car Insurance, but really it was about the bodyshop industry. The heavy lifting was done by another old RMI contact, Andrew Moody, a panel beater who became a solicitor and barrister specialising in automotive law – quite a unique skillset. In 2012, he sent me a hefty bundle of paperwork outlining how some approved repairer networks were operating to the detriment of both bodyshops and consumers. I suggested it was either a book no-one would read or a TV programme, so we took it Channel 4.

It made waves and we ended up at the House of Commons with Andrew presenting to an All-Party Parliamentary Group. We stood up for what was right even though it involved taking on some seriously powerful organisations. I’m still very proud of that. To make you feel old, I’ve recently started doing PR for Andrew’s son, John. He’s 21, a qualified pilot and he’s built this fantastic In-House HR system, an online human resources solution developed specifically with repairers in mind.

We can’t go any further without getting into driverless cars. I can’t believe you haven’t mentioned it already.
What can I say? I’m obsessed. I was writing more and more about ADAS and in 2018 I wrote a cover story for the IMI, ‘Autonomous now: the shift to self-driving’, which was a gamechanger for me. The response was overwhelming and it convinced me to launch Carsofthefuture.co.uk to raise the standard of debate. So much of the coverage is misguided, overly simplistic or plain wrong, with driverless cars frequently presented as the harbingers of a Terminator-style apocalypse. I set out to promote informed voices of reason and now I’ve written over two hundred thousand words about it.

It’s a shame, given everything Tesla’s done for electric cars, that so many hyperbolic headlines are caused by its confusingly-named Full Self-Driving (FSD) package. It simply isn’t self-driving as the rest of the industry understands it. Conflating assisted and automated is dangerous, because it risks drivers misunderstanding what their cars are capable of. Things are coming to a head in America with a group called The Dawn Project taking out a full-page advert in The New York Times with the tagline “Don’t be a Tesla crash test dummy.” They’re offering $10,000 to “the first person who can name another commercial product from a Fortune 500 company that has a critical malfunction every eight minutes.” Ouch!

Honestly, I find Tesla’s approach so frustrating. It’s not only ill-advised, it’s counterproductive, because news of so-called driverless car crashes dents consumer confidence. Why gild the lily? True self-driving has seismic potential and it’s coming soon. If adopted sensibly it will dramatically improve safety and combine with zero emissions, mobility-as-a-service and active travel to completely transform road transport.

Notice the “if” there. None of these outcomes are guaranteed and now is a crucial time in terms of public perception. These are safety-critical issues and utmost clarity is vital. For the near future at least, the best advice is that drivers need to be alert at all times. To promote that message, I’ve just signed a new media partnership deal with Reuters for their flagship Auto Tech 2022 event. I get to interview Sammy Omari, vice president of autonomy at Motional, and Xinzhou Wu, head of Xpeng Motors’ Autonomous Driving Centre.

Now you’ve got me started! I’d like to emphasise that I still love cars and driving. However, I firmly believe that self-driving will be utterly transformative. It’s a fascinating area with unique selling points, increasingly distinct from traditional automotive, and it forces us to face some uncomfortable truths: that 95% of the time most cars are just taking up space and depreciating; and that well over a million road deaths occur worldwide every year. Connected and autonomous vehicles will need maintaining and repairing, of course, so the aftermarket absolutely needs to be part of this conversation.

Which brings us nicely to your new Aftermarket of the Future column
Indeed! From next month I’ll be bringing you all the self-driving news with implications for the aftermarket. This is such a fast-moving sector. Over the last few weeks alone we’ve had: the announcement of a major driverless trial in Milton Keynes, which on closer inspection turns out to be not quite as described; An opinion poll of 1,000 UK adults by BSI finding that 70% see benefits in connected and automated vehicles, but 59% would feel more confident with an onboard safety operator; Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, reiterating that he wants the UK to be a world leader in driverless; Lastly, Mercedes becoming the first automotive company in the world to meet the demanding UN-R157 standard for a Level 3 system.

We’ll look at the latest cutting-edge tech, some frightening proposed changes to the Highway Code and much more.

Alex Wells: “That’s great Neil. We are sure our readers will be fascinated. See Aftermarket of the Future in our next issue and for any queries please email neil@self-drivingpr.com”
New CTO for Intelligent Motoring
Intelligent Motoring, which provides warranty and insurance services as well a digital garage platform through its MotorEasy and Warranty Assist brands, has appointed Jonathan Anthony as Chief Technology Officer.
A tale of the UK market
part two
All change for the market?
While more companies look to support the growing EV segment, and users look to formalise the etiquette around charging, VMs are making hard decisions about their offering, with beloved long-lived vehicles set for the chop.

Funeral party for Ford Fiesta?
The Ford Fiesta, the biggest selling car in the UK between 2009 and 2020 and a common sight in garages for decades, could soon be discontinued as its manufacturer continues its move towards EVs.

The Sun first reported that Ford is looking to scrap the Fiesta, which has been in production since 1976, as it has no plans for an all-electric version to allow the model to travel past the 2030 ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles. Ford already has a number of electric vehicles on sale in the UK, including the Puma EV and Mustang mach-e, among others.

The decision will be keenly felt, as AA Cars CEO James Fairclough observed: “News that production will end for the enduringly-popular Ford Fiesta is a watershed moment in car manufacturing. The Fiesta has been one of the UK’s favourite vehicles since its introduction, and has consistently been among the most popular and searched-for cars on the AA Cars site. The transition to electric vehicles, and changing consumer preferences, means that manufacturers are making tough decisions about the cars they produce. Many British drivers, however, will be disappointed to hear that Ford is calling time on this iconic model.”

James added: “Thankfully for Fiesta devotees, the car will have a strong presence on the second-hand market for many years to come. And when the very last Fiestas roll off the production line they are likely to be much sought-after.”

Murder, she wrote? Driver Charge Rage on the rise
Amid all the discussion over the need for EV infrastructure, do we also need to consider establishing what the etiquette should be at chargepoints? According to LeaseElectricCar.co.uk, a code of conduct is needed to prevent arguments from breaking out between EV drivers. bickering at charging points.

The company has cited the experience of new EV driver Jessica Fletcher, who used Facebook to express her unhappiness over a recent experience at a charging point in a supermarket car park: “I’ve had the car a week, never had to queue for a charger but tonight I think, if the shouting bloke is to be believed, I inadvertently jumped the queue. There seems to be so many unwritten rules and so much anger toward those who get it wrong.

“I pulled in the car park and saw a bloke in a little smart car waiting for the chargers. I thought I’d done the right thing by parking up in a bay out of the way so when the smart car had a space I moved into his space.

“Only then I ended up with some bloke in a huge Audi jumping out of his car jabbing his finger and shouting at me that I’d jumped the queue - he’d been waiting and I’d just pulled up. I soon realised that there was no point in trying to explain that I’d been parked in a bay and just begged him to leave me alone. Is this what it’s like? Did my first charge lull me into a false sense of friendliness because the guys using the chargers were lovely. How do you know what order to wait in? Or is it best not to bother waiting and not seek out supermarkets, gyms or restaurants with charging? I’m wishing I’d stuck with petrol right now if I’m honest.”

Tim Alcock from LeaseElectricCar.co.uk commented: “Sadly the story Jessica shared on Facebook is just one of dozens of similar incidents our customers have shared with us. We’ve even heard of drivers coming to blows over whose turn it is to plug their car in. These problems are likely to get worse in the short term as the number of EVs on our roads continues to rise and the number of charging points continues to lag behind.

“We need better infrastructure to keep up with demand but we also need a clear code of conduct around the use of public charging points and what is and isn’t acceptable. Clearly it is never acceptable to become aggressive and intimidating and what happened to Jessica sounds very frightening.”

Tim added: “Until the number of charging points significantly increases and a code of conduct is adopted and integrated into the Highway Code, we fear incidents of Charge Rage will only increase.”

London ULEZ expansion to boost EV take-up?
Electric vehicles may be set to get a boost in the capital from late summer 2023, as they become among the small group of vehicles not required to pay £12.50 a day to travel within London’s soon-to-be-expanding Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). It is now confirmed that London’s ULEZ will expand to cover all London from 29 August 2023, and motorists will be required to pay the charge to drive inside the boundary, unless their vehicle is exempt.

Apart from battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, (PHEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) these are set to include Euro 4-compliant petrol cars, generally produced after January 2006, as well as Euro 6 diesels from after September 2015.

Commenting on the move, Andy Marchant, Traffic Expert at TomTom, said: “The London Mayor’s plans for keeping London at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution is a sure step towards his ambition for the UK’s capital to be a net zero-carbon city by 2030. The wider adoption of EVs is central to reducing the carbon footprint of the transportation industry, yet it is still a decision tinged with anxiety – most often linked to a lack of charging infrastructure.”

More infrastructure is key though he believes: “If London is truly to become an EV hub, it needs to think about how to build an on-street charging network that really matches the capital's urban layout. As fewer people have access to a driveway or garage than in smaller cities, an infrastructure of on-street charging capabilities is needed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing EV fleet.”

In terms of the impact on Londoners, according to NFDA Chief Executive Sue Robinson, while air quality will improve, there will be a price to pay: “Whilst NFDA understands the importance of tackling air pollution in the capital and to combat climate issues, we still believe that this ULEZ expansion proposal is flawed. This £12.50 daily charge will hit businesses, key workers and less affluent families the hardest and the additional cost to some of London’s poorest communities will push some families over the brink and force a reduction in their access to private mobility.”

She added: “This move is during one of Britain’s worst cost of living crises, rising inflation and steep energy prices. We do not believe that this has been fully considered by Transport for London and looks more and more to be a money-generating scheme for TfL.”

EV brochure launched by Arnold Clark Autoparts
Arnold Clark Autoparts has launched a new EV Consumables brochure, that covers a wide range of products, categories and brands. Items included range from EV safety equipment, clothing and signage, to testing tools and accessories.

Craig McCracken, Group Factor Manager at Arnold Clark Autoparts, observed: “As we see sales of electric cars increase exponentially year on year, there is more demand for EV maintenance products. Whilst these are readily available from vehicle manufacturers, we’re one of the only aftermarket suppliers currently offering such a broad range of EV essentials.”

Hard copies of the Arnold Clark Autoparts EV Consumables brochure is available on request from Autoparts branches. The brochure is also available online: https://ourproducts.co.uk/autoparts/ev-brochure/
GEA warns on MOT equipment calibration rules change
The rules around the calibration of some MOT equipment is changing, and from 1 April, Vehicle Testing Stations (VTS) will no longer be able to self-check roller brake testers (RBTs), plate brake testers (PBTs) or headlamp aim checking equipment (HBTs).