Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us.
Unlike mass-market automakers, Ferrari’s profit margins rival luxury titans like LVMH and Hermès, having posted a 27% operating profit margin last year.
In contrast, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi hover around a 7% margin, Ford is close to 3%, and even rival Porsche only aims for 20%.
While Ferrari is one of the world’s most desired brands, this position has a downside: attempts to create counterfeits.
It turns out that there are many folks out there that create a variety of knockoff products illegally for economic gain.
As you can imagine, protecting the brand is a battle that is fought daily at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy.
And believe it or not, each year a few fake Ferrari cars are discovered that are then confiscated and then crushed.
With each passing year, the counterfeiters are becoming ever more capable. There are those who use real Ferrari chassis to construct over it the body of a model of greater value. Some vehicles are recreated so well that they end up going to auction and are bought by affluent collectors.
Ferrari employees scour auction listings to identify these fakes and then identify them to the auction houses so that they be taken off the market.
Ferrari’s objective is always the same: it is not always enough to take these fake vehicles off the market, but they want all the fakes to be destroyed.
Above: the decisive, bitter end of a counterfeit Ferrari 360.
The problem? Sometimes they don’t discover the fake until after the auction has taken place, and the collector that just bought the car isn’t too keen to give up the car.
At that point Ferrari rigorously applies their rules and makes the buyer understand the legal consequences that they face if they don’t hand over the car.
In addition to the attempts at fake cars, there are also individuals who think they can deceive unwitting buyers by simply adding a Ferrari badge to an object, even when the kind of item involved has absolutely nothing to do with Maranello. For example, the Ferrari symbol was recently found on a refrigerator.
The most frequently counterfeited objects are the more ordinary, less expensive ones. Think about the clothing and merchandising sector covering accessories, hats, sunglasses, and replica Formula One T-shirts.
To this end, last year Ferrari established what they call the Anti-Counterfeiting Reward Project. This project is aimed at encouraging the reporting of instances of counterfeiting. Whoever registers with the Anti-Counterfeiting Reward Project can send in reports of suspected fakes. Once Ferrari checks confirm it, they will receive from Ferrari an official thank you and a complementary Ferrari gadget. The program has been very popular – reports of counterfeits arrive daily and verification is a major job for the Ferrari corporate folks.
By Ferrari’s accounts, hundreds (if not thousands) of Ferrari employees and fans are actively reporting fakes.
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is DoorStep.ai.
Doorstep.ai provides AI powered doorstep guidance: a first-of-its-kind visual guidance system built to transform the way doorstep deliveries are made.
In the US last year, more than $4 billion was lost due to failed last-mile deliveries.
These failures resulted in countless customer complaints, stemming from issues such as inaccurate drop-offs, delays, and mishaps during the final leg of the delivery process.
There is a pressing need for an alternative to the traditional GPS navigation systems, particularly for the critical last step of the delivery process, which is ensuring precise drop-offs.
Traditional mapping systems aren’t able to pinpoint exact entrances, elevators, or doorsteps, let alone give the drivers a seamless visual guidance system to follow easily.
doorstep.ai, harnesses AI-powered visual guidance to enable seamless, 100% accurate, and significantly faster delivery drop-offs, right up to the customer’s doorstep.
The enhanced accuracy in drop-offs not only improves customer trust but also directly impacts companies’ bottom line by decreasing return-related costs.
If you’d like to learn more about DoorStep.ai you can check them out at www.DoorStep.ai
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
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Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
