At last year’s Mechanex, we got some of the industry’s best thinkers around a table to discuss the future of mobility. Here’s what they had to say…
Frank Harvey, Head of Member Services, IGA
Frank on vehicle ownership
“What we’re seeing come along now is “mobility as a service”, where people are joining car clubs for exactly this reason. The cost of vehicle ownership generally is rising and moving out of many people’s range.”
Frank thinks EVs are here to stay
“Certainly from an independent garage point of view, there has got to be a mindset change because they’re not going away.”
Colin Gleghorn, Managing Director, Autotech Training
Colin reminisces about outsourcing specialist work
“Not a million miles away from here, I remember outsourcing gearbox repairs, engine overhauls, skimming of heads etc. You’d outsource that work because you just wouldn’t do it in your own workshop. You might decide that battery repairs are not for you; and Matt’s got a very, very good, healthy business that will take that type of work. There might be more people who say ‘I will repair the batteries’, but others will just do the servicing, of which there isn’t a lot, and maybe just the diagnosis.”
Colin’s children lead the way
“I’m of the generation where you spent a long time buying a car, paying it off, owning the car and that just will not be the future, in my opinion. Of my children, three of them drive and I don’t think any of them has a desire to own the car they drive. They are perfectly happy with PCP, regularly looking to change the vehicle through two year, three year contracts if available… people will just rent a car for the duration they need to drive it for.”
Colin on hybrids
“I happen to think electric isn’t the final solution. It’s probably a hybrid option of some kind. We know ICE is going to wind down and finish – you won’t be able to buy new but we’ll still have to service combustion engines. So there’s still an opportunity for people to have a business, but it will decline.”
Tom Denton, Automotive Author
Tom bringing the positivity
“Once you get your head around it, we are still in a very exciting time for our trade, aren’t we? We really are, you know, some of the technology’s changing. Some of us can’t keep up. Some of us can, and some of us love it, but it’s still a good time. We wouldn’t be sat here today if we didn’t love it, would we?”
Tom on EV anger
“People contact me and often I have Mr. Angry who will write and say something along the lines of “this EV nonsense will never catch on, so I’m not changing what I do, it’s just a waste of time”. Interestingly, somebody has already said that to me today as well, because people seem to think the EV revolution is caused by me and Matt.”
All the times Tom inexplicably called Frank “Keith”
“Keith, the same question again really… Keith, do you want to answer that one? …for reasons best known to my left brain, I’ve been calling Frank “Keith”, so I just need to recharge that side of the brain really. I’ve known Frank for a long time, so I do apologise for that one.”
(Of course, after that, everyone was at it… Sorry Keith, I mean Frank!)
Neil Pattemore, UK AFCAR
Neil makes a very good point
“The politicians have been convinced that electrification is the only solution and I don’t agree
with that and many others don’t because it doesn’t fit. There’s no one size fits all approach. Historically, legislators have always said “this is what you have to do, how you achieve it is up to you”. Emissions is a good example: no one said you had to design an emission control system this way. It just happened to be that maybe it worked better on that vehicle than this one. What the UK government should have said is “we want net zero, how you achieve it is up to you.” The net result with the incoming ban on ICE vehicles is they’re forcing people rather than allowing them to choose and I think that’s a dangerous position from a political viewpoint.”
Neil on EV repair
“The biggest issue for me on electric vehicles is they must be repairable in terms of the battery; because when they’re 10 or 12 years old, halfway through their working life, they’re suddenly going to be very expensive to repair.”
Matt Cleevely, Owner of an EV Workshop and used EV Dealership
Matt on which EVs are popular
“When we created the second hand EV sales side of things, we knew that it wasn’t going to be high end Teslas, or 60 to 70 grand cars, that people were going to come to a used EV car specialist for. Rather, it was the second car in the family. Indeed, we still sell predominantly Renault Zoe e-techs and Nissan Leafs more than anything else.”
Matt electrifies the school run
“We get each buyer to consider what it is they want the car for. If it’s local trips, running around the town, the school run etc then a short range EV will save them a lot of money and be perfect for the job. For the odd longer distance trip we have a car they can hire which only costs the rental fee and nothing else.”
