The future of the car industry was decided a long time ago
The future of the automotive industry has never been clearer. But as always, depending on who’s looking, it’s good or bad news.
A few years ago, some students of mine who owned a family business with several car dealerships asked me what they should do with them, considering the trends I was pointing out in my classes and articles. I told them that, from my point of view, car dealerships were going to be a very bad business, and that although there are always possibilities to obtain interesting returns in declining sectors, we were undoubtedly dealing with a sector in decline.
Years later, I have no regrets about my recommendation. Six months ago, Ford started talking about restructuring its dealer network to encourage sales of electric vehicles. It is not the only thing it has restructured: it has separated its electric vehicle division, Ford Model e, and the profits earned by the old-fashioned (sorry, petrol and diesel) vehicle division, called Ford Blue, are dedicated to financing the former. And Renault has done exactly the same.
Five days ago, Stellantis, the conglomerate responsible for brands such as Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Jeep, Citroen, Fiat, Dodge, Lancia, Opel, Maserati and several others announced a similar move. And while they don’t say they’re eager to get rid of the dealer…
