WHERE WILL THE ROAD LEAD US?
E-MOBILITY
How will e-mobility affect the aftermarket?
A forecast.
At present, Europe has a fleet of some 270 million vehicles and every year approximately another fifteen to twenty million are newly licensed. Owing to the fact that this latter figure exceeds the number of vehicles that are taken off the road, the total of vehicles increases annually by around two to three million. Furthermore, it looks likely that this trend will continue in the coming years.
Franz Märzinger
Head of Sales and Marketing
In the coming years, the sales of high-potential technologies such as stop-start systems will increase dramatically.
THE COMBUSTION ENGINE STILL DOMINATES
At present, over 99% of all vehicles have a conventional combustion engine as a powertrain. Roughly half of this figure (the younger 135 million) possesses a start/stop system with AGM or EFB battery and the current vehicle fleet serves as a basis for the estimation of the battery requirement in the coming years. However, changes to the batteries in new vehicles only affect the battery aftermarket in Europe following an extremely long delay of at least five years. Therefore, although every second car in Europe has an original start-stop battery on board, the share of start-stop batteries in retrofitting business only amounts to approximately 10 to 15%.
START-STOP BATTERIES ON THE INCREASE
An enormous increase in the sales of start/stop batteries is awaited in the next five years. Soon, every fourth or third car battery sold will be an AGM or EFB type and hence on average larger and more powerful than was previously the case. Moreover, a lead acid battery (mostly AGM technology) is installed in each newly sold e- or hybrid model for the supply of the 12V electrical system. These batteries are slightly smaller than the start-stop versions used at present and in a few years will also require replacement via the spare part business sector. Consequently, a slight, overall increase in demand for lead-acid batteries in the aftermarket is predicted for the coming decade in Europe and whatever the case, with its extensive range of AGM and EFB batteries Banner is ideally prepared for any of the changes that are expected to occur.