November 17th: Automotive Digital Transformation, a year later
Digital Car: annual conference
In 2021 NiEW launched an event which, on an annual basis, evaluates the state of the car’s transformation into a digital platform.
The theme we have chosen for 2022 is that of “variable geometries”; we think that this is crucial because of the multiple evolutionary forces coming from many directions to break up the automotive sector without any ideological visions: we’ll talk about this with Francesco Naso, Segretario Generale of Motus‑E, the association representing the main stakeholders from the Electric Mobility world and Gianni Catalfamo, CEO of OneWedge.
We will then focus on the concept of the right of use, since it is now clear that the exclusive property of the good is no longer the only form of acquisition of usage rights: our guest will be Stefano Oliva, Chief Designer of the Geely Group who, through the company Lynk & Co, offers its products according to a hybrid formula of ownership and sharing.
We will then analyze the actual product, exploring the possibilities offered by the real-time unlocking of features already included in the product which can be activated as needed and perhaps for a limited period of time; Michele Rossi, Global Product Director of CNH Industrial, will talk about it, because in the field of agricultural machinery and freight transport this is a commercial implemented practice while in the Automotive sector we’re taking the first steps.
One of the interesting consequences will be to observe the sales aspects’ evolution and one of the hypotheses could be a clear bifurcation (already happened in other fields): on the one hand the automation of consumer sale — importance of pre-packaged feature sets, no discounts, increase of the online channel- and on the other hand the advent of a much more sophisticated consultancy sale, made not only of quotes but also of the ability to understand and even anticipate customer needs, upselling and cross-selling even after the topical moment of the car delivery.
This could be particularly important for the fleet target and we will ask Lorenzo Groppo, Fleet & Mobility Director of the Pietro Fiorentini Group to talk about it; he will explain what skills and what kind of advice he would like to be offered by the sales structure of the future.
What all these variabilities have in common is that they are enabled by robust layers of software and therefore we interpret them as not-so-weak signals that the market evolves in that direction.
