Vehicle remarketers will get a deeper view of future trends next month at the Automotive Remarketing Alliance’s Summer Roundtable that will cover the spectrum of expected changes ahead.
In an Aug. 21 session, “A Look into the Future,” automotive industry expert and forecaster Steve Greenfield will delve into and tie together key themes driving vehicle remarketing: New and used vehicles sales patterns, electrification, vehicle connectivity, repairability and costs, technology advances in the auction process, and anticipated auction volumes.
“Vehicle technology is getting more advanced with each passing year,” said Greenfield, the founder and general partner of Automotive Ventures and author of The Future of Automotive Retail. “This will have implications on depreciation — who will want a three-year-old vehicle when the new ones have much more advanced technology? — and repairability — as vehicles become more like iPhones/laptops who will be qualified to work on them?”
Greenfield has presented widely at ARA conferences as well as at the Conference of Automotive Remarketing.
The session will also confront hard questions and uncertainty about batteries within EVs: What happens at the end of the OEM-warranty period, and will EVs continue to retain their value as they age?
Looking ahead a decade and beyond, the remarketing industry will see even more change launched 20 years ago when the internet brought upstream selling and hybrid digital online sales tools, Greenfield said. “Will the physical auction model be relevant and defensible into the future, as technology inevitably evolves?”
The annual ARA Summer Roundtable will take place Aug. 20-22 at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas north of Dallas. The discounted hotel room block has been extended to Monday, July 29.
