The 2020 CADA Summit will seek to bring to life the association’s report on the future of auto retailing that was released earlier this year.
Speakers at the Summit will explore five key themes from the report, Driving the Road Ahead: A View Into the Future of Canadian Automobile Retailing. These include: Influences from Retail and FinTech, Demographics and Privacy, Role of Brands, Consumers, and Dealers and Dealerships.
One of the speakers, Michael Robinet, Executive Director of Automotive Advisory Services, with IHS Markit, will touch on several of those themes. He will be road-mapping the future ecosystem that dealers will be operating in.
“The entire automotive ecosystem will change,” said Robinet in an interview with Canadian auto dealer. “Dealers that can get ahead of it, understand their customers, and understand the technology and the changes — will stay ahead.”
Autonomous and electric vehicles will be part of that change, but so will things like over-the-air updates for software — the latter of which is expected to significantly change the dealership world, since many updates won’t necessarily involve dealers.
Robinet said dealers will also need to focus on all the data generated and make sure they have access and opportunities. “The OEMs are expecting to make money on selling the data and selling connectivity,” said Robinet.
Michael Hainsworth, futurist and keynote at the 2020 CADA Summit, sees connected vehicles and the data that will capture consumer driving habits and preferences as “the 21st century’s oil.”
“That kind of valuable commodity is something that’s worth fighting for,” said Hainsworth, who spent 18 years at BNN as a senior anchor, and co-created the world’s first weekly television show dedicated to mobile technology and its impact on society.
Hainsworth said that at the dealership level, big data will inform artificial intelligence algorithms about the entire network of customers and how all of them are operating.
Big data will even exist on an individual vehicle basis based on an individual’s driving habits, and how that impacts things like the need for vehicle maintenance and service. “Being able to use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to predict failure before it happens is going to be something not just on a fleet basis, or a broad scale basis, but on an individual basis as well,” he said.
Hainsworth predicts a tug of war between dealers and their OEMs over access to real-world consumer and vehicle data. It’s all part of the shift that will impact auto retail.
Data aside, CADA also secured a speaker that will specifically speak to the theme of retail and consumers.
Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, Chairman of IKEA Group, will discuss how the company is staying close to customers, and competing against threats from online retailers like Amazon and Wayfair.
“I think customer demand has constantly been changing,” said Jarnheimer. “What is different today, from my perspective, is that change is much, much faster. It’s a totally different speed than what I have seen before.”
Big data will even exist on an individual vehicle basis based on an individual’s driving habits, and how that impacts things like the need for vehicle maintenance and service.
Companies don’t have as much time as they once did to adjust their value proposition. “You need to act almost instantly,” he said.
Jarnheimer said when it comes to adjusting IKEA’s online systems, for example, the company used to have a general update about every six to eight weeks. “If you compare that to ‘new kids on the block,’ like Amazon, I think they are adjusting their systems about five times a minute. I think that speed is of the essence…You need to act here and now.”
Canada’s relationship with other countries could also impact the dealer business. Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair of TD Bank Group, will be a keynote speaker at the Summit. He was the former Premier of New Brunswick and a former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. During the event next year, he will address Canada-U.S. political and economic relations.
“This relationship will have a lot of bumps in the road. It has over 100 years, and it will have more in the future. But it’s a very good bet in the long run to be present in both countries. The U.S. and Canada will, in the fullness of time be a single integrated market as we are today. The prize is worth the fight.”
It’s not just the United States that concerns McKenna. He said Canada is being “sideswiped” by China, and Europe and the U.K. in particular pose challenges.
“We are going to have to work hard at our advocacy to make sure that cooler heads prevail,” said McKenna. “We are going to have to be very nimble and very adaptable and determined as Canadian businesses.”
The 2020 CADA Summit is sponsored by TD Auto Finance and will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Ontario on February 12, 2020.
Registration is currently open; visit: www.cada.ca.
