Stellantis speeds towards ‘agency model’ for European dealer network

Welcome to this episode of The Friday 5 with Steve Greenfield, Founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures, an auto technology advisory firm that helps entrepreneurs raise money and maximize the value of their companies.

Stellantis

This week, Stellantis announced that it would reorganize its European dealers’ network in July next year, starting with Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

As part of its efforts to cut costs and support investment for electrification, Stellantis last year said it would end all current sales and services contracts with European dealers for all of its 14 brands, from June 2023.

The plan is to move towards an “agency model” in which carmakers take more control of sales transactions and prices while dealers focus on deliveries and servicing, no longer acting as the customer’s contractual partner.

Stellantis said it ran a comparative economic simulation showing that, under the new planned distribution model, dealers would enjoy “at least equivalent profitability” and reduced exposure to risks.

While state franchise laws protect dealers back here in the U.S., we’ll be watching to see how things play out overseas as automakers like Stellantis and others evolve away from a franchise model to an agency model.

Companies To Watch

Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my monthly Industry Intel Report, I showcase a few companies each month, and we take the opportunity here on the Friday 5 to share some of those companies each week with you.

Today, we have two companies to watch: Highroad and BattGenie.

Highroad

Highroad acts as an automotive matchmaker. They have relationships with hundreds of purchasing dealers, both locally and nationally. Highroad brings the consumers, qualified buyers. They get to choose the one that’s right for them.

The reason that I love Highroad is the trust and transparency that consumers get when they see real offers from dealers side-by-side. The consumer gets dramatic transparency while the dealer gets to participate in sourcing trade-ins, in real-time.

You can check out Highroad at www.HighRoadX.com.

BattGenie

BattGenie provides efficient battery management solutions for lithium-ion batteries. They offer cutting-edge software that helps batteries charge faster and last longer.

The reason that I love BattGenie is that with the transition from internal combustion engines to EVs, we’re about to see a renewed focus on battery life, and how to manage the lifetime health of batteries based on weather conditions, frequency of fast charging, etc. 

BattGenie is positioned to help the industry ease the transition to EVs.

You can check out BattGenie at www.BattGenie.life

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So that’s your weekly Friday 5, a quick wrap-up of the big deals in the automotive technology space over the past week.

If you’re an auto tech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our new DealerFund.

If you’re a dealer who wants to invest in early-stage auto tech companies that benefit your business, let me know. We are still accepting new investors into the fund.

If you’re interested in joining our investment club to make direct investments into auto tech and mobility startups with small checks, let me know.

And don’t forget to check out my new book available on Amazon called “The Future of Automotive Retail.”

Thank you for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Friday 5, and we’ll see you next week!

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