ARC360 Back to the Future showreel
Register now to watch the edited showreel from ARC360’s Back to the Future event which took place yesterday at the British Motor Museum. This 30 minute showreel (1.30-2.00pm Wednesday 1 December) will bring together some of the key takeaways shaping the industry today and into the future.
Ageas expands green parts programme
Ageas has announced it now uses green parts in between 20% and 25% of its repairs. This follows the expansion in March 2020 of its green parts programme to combine its salvage operation with its green parts supply.
As such, the undamaged parts of customer cars written off are fed back into Ageas’s green parts supply chain, creating a circular economy.
VM models meet Thatcham Research gradings
Thatcham Research and Euro NCAP has passed all seven vehicles recently tested according to its new Assisted Driving Gradings, introduced last October to support the adoption and clear marketing of assisted driving technology.
The seven vehicles were the BMW iX3 (169 points), the Ford Mustang Mach-E (152), Cupra Formentor (144), Polestar 2 (135), Hyundai Ioniq 5 (126), Toyota Yaris (109), and Vauxhall Mokka-e (101).
Matthew Avery, Thatcham Research’s Chief Research Strategy Officer, said: “Assisted Driving technology must strike the right balance between offering a meaningful level of assistance and ensuring that motorists don’t sit back and let the system do the driving.”
EV uptake leaving ecosystem behind
Thatcham Research has warned that the electric vehicle ecosystem is unprepared for the expected shift to electrification. The number of battery electric vehicles (BEV) registered in September fell just short of the total sold in 2019, accounting for 15.2% of the market, but uptake is expected to accelerate with Thatcham Research predicting that by 2050 BEVs will make up 95% of the UK car parc.
To ensure these cars can be well-serviced, it has urged vehicle manufacturers to build repairability into design and ensure that the independent repair sector can access specialist EV equipment.
Fix Auto Slough confirms expansion
Fix Auto Slough is relocating to a new, larger site less than a mile away from its existing location. Owner Ranjit Gill, who also owns Fix Auto Uxbridge, believes the new 6,000sqft unit will support an increase in capacity.
The investment is expected to form a template for other Fix Auto UK franchisees looking to relocate.
Motofix marks two-year Trustpilot anniversary
Motofix has announced that its Trustpilot rating score climbed from 4.4 to 4.8 in the last 10 months despite the challenges posted by the various lockdowns.
The group has just celebrated its two-year anniversary since appointing Trustpilot as its preferred platform, and to maximise the insights it receives has appointed Sam Spencer as the group’s new central customer services manager.
BGL and Auto Windscreens strengthen partnership
BGL Insurance and Auto Windscreens have enhanced their relationship by launching a new digital claims portal that will allow customers to report a glass claim via their motor insurance portal, with all relevant data transferred to the Auto Windscreens booking system in real-time.
This will enable customers to book an appointment with a glass technician directly.
Auto Windscreens and BGL Insurance have been in partnership since 2013.
Silverlake launches new charity initiative
Silverlake Automotive Recycling’s fundraising initiative has teamed up with Global’s Make Some Noise to accelerate and enhance the support it gives to charities.
Relaunched as UDonateacar, the initiative enables customer to get a valuation for their vehicle and choose how much of that they wish to donate, 100% of which goes to Global’s Make Some Noise. The UDonateacar team will then collect the car for free, handle all the DVLA paperwork, make the payments to the owner and the charity and provide a donation receipt.
Ezi-Methods breaks three-million download barrier
Ezi-Methods has announced the three millionth download of its intuitive vehicle repair methods, just over a year after it celebrated its two millionth download.
Ezi-Methods offers more than 68,000 repair methods spanning 57 makes of vehicles, 1,005 models encompassing 1,414 body styles – statistics which evolve and increase daily as it continually adds to its library.
ARC360 celebrates return to live events
ARC360 made a welcome return to physical events at the British Motor Museum on Thursday, 25 November. ‘Back to the Future,’ held under the ARC360 banner of Gaining Ground Together, saw industry leaders from all sectors meet to discuss the challenges of 2021 and the potential solutions that might help to ensure a successful 2022.
Underlining the difficulties still faced by the automotive incident repair aftermarket, a live poll of delegates found that nearly four in 10 businesses (38%) are still operating with less than 40% of work colleagues back at work full time.
