The Automechanika trade show is set to take place in Frankfurt next week and it will bring together companies from across the automotive aftermarket.
Ahead of the show, we caught up with Michael Johannes, Messe Frankfurt’s VP of Mobility and Logistics, to learn more about the company’s recent industry survey and how he sees the sector developing in the coming years.
What are the key findings of your recent survey?
The key findings are that the automotive aftermarket is changing and we learned which topics and key factors will appear in the upcoming years. Roland Berger presented different scenarios and how fast the automotive aftermarket will change, which relates to the changes of the car manufacturers. So, we have different scenarios and I know that by the 2030s, most new cars will be electrified.
What are the key trends you are most excited about in the automotive and mobility aftermarket?
We will see different and new concepts for mobility. Having said that, we also know that the changes for the aftermarket will be tremendous because the technological impact on the car of the future will affect the aftermarket. But of course, we know that in Europe, we will mostly have electric cars, but different parts of the world have different speeds of electric car adoption.
What are the key challenges faced by OEMs and suppliers when it comes to supply chains?
We know that at the moment, the supply chain is not as effective as it used to be. We know that we can get the goods from Asia as fast as we would like to have them in Europe or in the US.
It’s very important that the right chain Supply Chain Management will be developed especially for the automotive aftermarket. It is not only the transformation but it is also about finding new resourcing markets for Europe and the US because at the moment we have a lot of issues.
When do you expect the automotive aftermarket to be completely electrified?
It’s very difficult to predict. We see that due to the new rules and regulations of the European Union, we will face this electrification sooner than later.
But we have to take care of older cars. We have 1.3 billion cars and the percentage of the total electrified cars is very small and will be until 2030-2035.
Why is it so important for this event to be in Frankfurt?
I think we can demonstrate that we deal with the main topics, which are innovation and trends and sustainability. We are talking about knowledge transfer and to find the right talents for the automotive aftermarket.
I believe that personal encounters matter to companies, not only from Germany and Europe but from around the world. We have companies from more than 65 countries coming to Frankfurt, and on the visitor site, maybe 150 nations visiting. So, it means that you will meet companies from all over the world and most of the business will be done in between different countries.
It’s not just the German companies or the European companies doing business with each other. There are also companies from South America and the US doing business with Europe. So, we have the whole world coming to Frankfurt to see the good content which we will present at the show.
How has your event changed in the post-COVID world?
We had to develop the exhibition Industry and the trade show business.
We learned that, if our business model is getting people to meet physically, we’d have to add a digital arm. So, we invested in our digital products and the websites and made it more effective for visitors coming to Frankfurt and getting the knowledge transfer and latest developments, and therefore we decided that we push our innovation forwards.
At the end of the day, the industry and the aftermarket would like to see what changes are coming up in the industry, what the new ideas are, and how they can do business in the upcoming year. But they also want to know how the business models for the aftermarket are changing. So we have to show you how the world will look like the aftermarket in the coming years.
