Category: Technology

ARC360 conference draws leading sector wide interest 

More than 20 major insurance brands and over 50 of the sectors leading repairers have already confirmed their support of ARC360’s 2025 conference which takes place on Thursday 22 May at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon. 

Set to deliver the most engaging and interactive automotive incident repair/motor insurance claims focused event of the year, ARC360 will discuss the business-critical areas to impact the industry bringing together industry leaders to share experience, insight and knowledge. Full story

The NBRA is working with the administrators of the EDAM Group, Interpath, to support any bodyshops impacted by the announcement on 6 January that the business is closing.

Komoo has opened its latest site located in Stansted. This is the first opening of 2025 and the 17^th in total.

Mustoe’s Specialist Vehicle Body Repairs has unveiled Fix Auto Bristol Central, which will be Stellantis and Suzuki approved. Meanwhile, the business has also secured Renault/Dacia approval for the Caldicot, Monmouthshire area.

Activate Group has announced its Hampton site passed its initial stage 2 BS 10125:2022 audit last week.

ECF Accident Repair Group has retained BS10125 2022 structural aluminium approval coupled with another successful ISO 9001 audit.

Steer Automotive Group has made donations to six incredible initiatives through our Steer Community Fund. They include the St Mary in the Marsh Project Fund, The Association of the Veteran’s Hub Newport, and the Honeypot Children’s Charity.

FMG Repair Services has introduced cutting edge ADAS recalibration equipment from Repairify at all of its UK-wide bodyshops.

The Independent Garage Association (IGA) is urging independent garage owners to prioritise succession planning after noticing an increasing number considering closing because no one is in place to manage the company in the future.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) in Northern Ireland is launching a consultation to seek views on changing the frequency of MOT testing from one year to two years (Biennial) for some private cars, motorcycles and light goods vehicles.

Volvo Cars takes full ownership of Novo Energy

Volvo Cars and Northvolt AB have signed a share purchase agreement relating to Northvolt’s shares in NOVO Energy AB, leading to Volvo Cars taking full ownership of NOVO Energy AB, subject to approval by relevant authorities. Full story

JLR invests £65m in sustainable expansion of luxury paint operations for bespoke vehicle personalisation

JLR is investing £65m in sustainably expanding its special paint facilities globally to meet growing demand for personalised luxury vehicles and reduce the environmental impact of its most carbon intensive manufacturing processes. The company has seen demand for personalised colour options, where clients can choose from hundreds of Bespoke Paint and elevated palette options across its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, more than double since FY22. Full story

Mitsubishi Motors opts out of Honda-Nissan merger

Mitsubishi Motors has decided not to participate in a proposed merger between Honda Motor and Nissan Motor. Instead, the company will focus on increasing collaboration with both firms in technology development, particularly in software, EVs, and other advanced technologies. Full story

BYD UK continues rapid growth in 2024

BYD is celebrating another year of phenomenal growth in the UK. The company, which officially launched in the UK in March 2023, increased its volume by 658% to over 8,700 cars in 2024 – making it the UK’s fastest growing car brand. Full story

European new car market growth in 2024 driven by hybrids and Chinese brands

Europe’s new passenger car market grew by 0.9% last year. This is according to new data from JATO Dynamics, which found that 12,909,741 new passenger cars were registered across Europe-28 in 2024. Despite the slight uptick in registrations, 2024 was the fifth year of muted registrations figures when compared to pre-pandemic levels. Europe’s car market has shrunk by almost 2.9 million units since the arrival of the pandemic in 2020. Full story

Secure Gateways: Unlocking their role and impact on the automotive industry

In the automotive industry, a secure gateway is a system designed by the vehicle manufacturer to protect a car’s internal systems from unauthorised external access. It also prevents aftermarket tools from gaining entry to sensitive data and software within the vehicle. From a technology standpoint, secure gateways are becoming commonplace in vehicles and access to them is being made harder by the manufacturer. Full story

Copart UK becomes a Silver Partner of The Carbon Literacy Project

Global leader in online vehicle remarketing and recycling Copart UK has announced that it has become a Silver Partner under The Carbon Literacy Project’s Partner Scheme. By becoming a Silver Partner, Copart has demonstrated its commitment to tackling climate change through supporting the vital education and action delivered by The Carbon Literacy Project. Full story

Apprenticeship Central gears us for National Apprenticeship Week

Apprenticeship Central is urging bodyshops to tackle the skills crisis in the industry by tapping into the apprenticeship talent pipeline. The industry recruitment specialists focuses on helping repairers fill the skills gaps in key roles, from Paint Technicians, Panel Technicians, MET Technicians, Multi-Skilled Technicians, Vehicle Damage Assessors, and Business Support Administrators. Full story

Minister rules out graduated driving licence for young drivers

The Government has again ruled out introducing a graduated driving licence for young drivers. Speaking in a debate in Parliament, Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood told MPs she is “determined” to take action to cut the number of young drivers, aged between 17-24, killed or seriously injured. “Improving road safety is one of my department’s highest priorities,” she said. Full story

FISITA welcomes Thatcham Research as a Corporate Member

Thatcham Research has joined FISITA as a Corporate Member. FISITA iscommitted to promoting excellence in mobility engineering by cultivating international engagement and peer group collaboration within a pre-competitive environment, bringing businesses together to ensure mobility remains sustainable and accessible to all. Full story

Somerset Bridge extends alliance with AX as exclusive outsourced claims handling and repair management partner

Somerset Bridge Group has extended its partnership with AX Automotive three years after the accident management specialist gained exclusivity for its entire non-fault outsourced requirements. Delivering an innovative insurance provision focused on underwriting, broker and claims handling services, the partnership now incorporates its seamless provision of claims handling, vehicle rental, repair management and total loss expertise. Full story

New Generation in Claims survey – the story so far

ILC’s New Generation in Claims programme in collaboration with Consumer Intelligence and UCAS is ready to ‘go live’ with one of the largest surveys of its kind, focusing on early career perceptions of the insurance claims industry, in the coming weeks. Full story

Public warned misleading claims adverts could cost them thousands

The public must be vigilant when searching for their insurer online, warns the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), as it’s revealed that victims of paid ad spoofing scams could be facing up to £13,000 in unsolicited fees. Paid ad spoofing scams involve unscrupulous firms paying for search engine ads that mimic those of genuine insurers. Full story

Ten plead guilty to £320,000 ‘crash for cash’ fraud

An organised crime group that pocketed over £320,000 through a ‘crash for cash’ scheme have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Raju Patel and Kamlesh Vadukul, the ringleaders of the group, submitted claims on insurance and to a vehicle repair finance service, for road traffic collisions that were deliberately induced or had never taken place. Full story

A study on real-world effectiveness of model year 2015–2023 ADAS

Automatic emergency braking (AEB) continues to improve as it cuts rear-end crashes in half. The latest study by the Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS), pairing auto manufacturer equipment with police crash report data covering 98 million vehicles and 21.2 million crashes, is the largest and most comprehensive study of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to date. Full story

Car owners can save more than £300 with one Aldi product

Whether it’s from a parking error or a roadside bump, denting a car can be a stressful and costly mistake with repairs costing drivers £335 on average. To help shoppers save on costly repairs, Aldi has announced it is launching its latest range of must-haves for motor repairs.

Among the new products, its £6.99 Dent Repair Kit has been developed to help drivers fix dents themselves. Full story

Cogent Hire has appointed Darren Entwistle as Business Development Director.

Harps Joseph has been named Head of Product at cinch.

Lookers has appointed former VW Group UK boss Alex Smith as new Chair.

Leading repairers set for ARC360 2025

Many of the UK’s leading repairers have already confirmed their support of ARC360’s 2025 conference which takes place on Thursday 22 May at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.

Titled ‘A new era – the changing dynamics of a sector’, the event will deliver the most engaging and interactive automotive incident repair/motor insurance claims focused event of the year. Full story

Implementation of ADAS technology continues to improve, as Thatcham Research announces safest car of the year shortlist

Automotive Risk Intelligence company Thatcham Research has revealed the contenders for the 2025 What Car? Safety Award, with this year’s shortlist representing the safest vehicles available on UK roads. The vehicles were chosen by Thatcham Research, Euro NCAP and What Car? judges based on Euro NCAP safety test scores alongside other criteria such as expected market volume. Full story

Euro NCAP boosts capacity with approval of DEKRA and TRANSPOLIS test centres

Euro NCAP has announced that DEKRA and TRANSPOLIS have been accredited for Euro NCAP active safety testing, formally joining its network of approved testing facilities around Europe. These facilities will build on existing expertise to successfully deliver consumer testing of passenger cars, vans, and trucks. Full story

JLR and Tata Communications to deliver smarter, data-driven connected cars

JLR has announced an enhanced partnership with Tata Communications to improve its connected vehicle ecosystem through the Tata Communications MOVE platform. The collaboration will empower JLR’s next-generation software-defined vehicles with continuous connectivity and access to intelligent services even in the remotest locations across 120 countries. Full story

BMW Group scores circular economy win with high-voltage batteries

The BMW Group has launched a pan-European partnership with SK tes, a leading provider of innovative technology lifecycle solutions. The special recycling process recovers cobalt, nickel and lithium from used batteries before returning them to the value chain to make new batteries. This closed-loop system is set to expand to the US-Mexico-Canada region as early as 2026. Full story

Polestar targets profitability in 2025; Polestar 7 will be a premium compact SUV from Europe

Polestar has unveiled an updated strategy, targeting compound annual retail sales volume growth of 30-35% for 2025 to 2027 and a positive adjusted EBITDA in 2025. Gaining commercial and operational momentum, further margin, fixed costs and working capital improvements are expected from 2026 onwards, with a positive free cash flow after investments expected in 2027. Full story

NWVA introduces new Stolen Vehicle Recovery division

ARC360 Corporate Partner, NWVA (Nationwide Assistance Group) has introduced a new Stolen Vehicle Recovery division to tackle the rapidly increasing levels of vehicle theft across the UK. Having successfully supported police forces across the country for a number of years in the recovery of stolen vehicles, NWVA has now introduced its own all-encompassing service. Full story

Drivers neglecting basic vehicle checks

Research from eBay has revealed a significant number of drivers are neglecting basic car maintenance tasks. The data found that one in four (25%) drivers only checked their tyre pressure on a quarterly basis, while 11% admitted to only checking their tyre tread on a yearly basis. Full story

Trend Tracker – trends to look out for in 2025

Following on from the publication of its The UK Motor Claims and Body Repair Report 2024-25, Trend Tracker has been sharing predictions for 2025, a year that will deliver a raft of changes, some challenges but, promisingly, several opportunities for those willing to embrace the changes.  So, what’s on the horizon for 2025 in the vehicle repair and motor claims sector? Full story

Ben shares ways for automotive people to improve wellbeing

With Blue Monday approaching on 20 January, Ben is sharing ways it can help automotive people improve their health and wellbeing in 2025. January is also a time when people consider setting new goals, and Ben’s free Life Coaching service supports automotive people to make positive changes, whether at work or home. Full story

Zenzic and IMI launch CAM skills survey

Zenzic has launched a new Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Skills Survey to better understand the recruitment and skills challenges facing the sector. The survey, which is being run in partnership with the Institute of the Motor Industry, is divided into four categories: current pain points, sources of hiring, activities for skills scouting, and company values and culture. Full story

Apprenticeship Central publishes white paper on apprenticeship reforms

Apprenticeship Central has published a white paper highlighting the reforms taking place within UK apprenticeships, and considering what they mean for automotive employers. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall initiated the reforms last November with the publication of the ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper. Full story

Automotive industry leaders set for Ben’s Sahara Desert Trek

A total of 11 automotive leaders will feel the heat next month in Ben’s Industry Leader Challenge Sahara Desert Trek, which is taking place from 26 February to 5 March. Divided into five teams, they will spend five days trekking across the Sahara Desert in Morocco to raise a minimum of £20,000 per team for Ben. Full story

BASF Coatings enters into a strategic partnership for the aftersales market

BASF’s Coatings division announces that BMW Group has selected the premium refinish brands Glasurit and R-M among their preferred paint brands for its aftersales network. This strategic partnership includes 50 markets where BMW Group is not present with its private label. Full story

IMI launches employment engagement survey to drive automotive talent forward

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) has launched a new Employment Engagement Survey to gather critical insights that will help tackle the growing skills gap in the automotive sector. This 15-minute survey invites input from employers, educators, and industry professionals to identify recruitment challenges, highlight essential skills, and improve training and education. Full story

Copart’s 2024 ESG Report highlights sustainability progress

Copart has revealed it has avoided more than 12 million metric tons of CO2e during the past financial year. Its 2024 ESG Report has revealed that the company’s global operations achieved the figure by extending the lifecycle of vehicles and harvesting green parts. Full story

People 

Eddie Longworth, Founder and Director of JEL Consulting Ltd, has been named CEO of e2e Total Loss Vehicle Management.

SYNETIQ, an IAA company and one of the UK’s leading vehicle salvage, dismantling and recycling companies, has appointed Jonathan Pervin as Managing Director.

Stellantis has announced a number of key changes to its UK management team. Nicola Dobson has been appointed as Peugeot Managing Director, Giuseppe Cava as Managing Director for Fiat, Fiat Professional & Abarth, Nick Richards as Pre-Owned Vehicles Director and Tom Ray as B2B Director.

National Windscreens has appointed James Reynolds as Director of Commercial and Finance for all Cary/National Windscreens sales and revenue interests in the UK.

Auto Windscreens has appointed Mima Rybanska as new Head of Strategic Partnerships.

Garage Hive has announced the appointment of Tom Langridge as Head of Training.