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 this week.
National “right to repair” legislation was reintroduced in Congress in early February by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers.
The Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair (or REPAIR) Act said it would preserve consumer choice, a fair marketplace where independent repair shops can compete with dealerships, and the continued safe operation of vehicles on the road across the country.
Similar bills were introduced in Congress in 2022 and again a year later but languished in subcommittees and never brought to the House floor for a full vote.
Voters in Massachusetts passed a “right to repair” bill in 2020. Maine voters did the same in 2023, but an alliance of automakers and suppliers filed suit in U.S. District Court challenging the state on enforcement of the law.
The bills require automakers to make diagnostic repair information available to vehicle owners so they can choose to have their car serviced at an independent shop instead of having to bring it to a dealership.
Where do I think this ultimately ends up?
The automotive aftermarket has a very strong lobbying effort and I believe will ultimately protect the right for aftermarket repair shops to get access to vehicle telematics and schematic data.
Having said that, I think that over time, franchised car dealers will see dramatically more loyalty in their service shops, despite national right to repair legislation.
The reason?
As vehicle technology becomes much more complex, required technician skill becomes more advanced, and the complexity of tools each make and model will demand increases, the independent repair shop just isn’t going to have the capability to keep up with being able to service these increasingly complex pieces of technology on wheels.
For all of these reasons, I think that, Right to Repair acts or not, franchise dealers are going to be busier than ever in their service lanes.
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 we take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is Elevāt.
Elevāt offers the off-highway market end-to-end business IoT solutions that unlock the full potential of IoT technology.
Elevāt specializes in delivering IoT solutions for OEMs in the mobile and off-highway machinery sectors. Their platform allows OEMs to connect their machines, their company, and their entire ecosystem, empowering key stakeholders to make data-driven decisions in real time.
In today’s off-highway market, many companies can digitally connect your machines, but few offer end-to-end business IoT solutions that unlock the full potential of IoT technology.
Elevāt understands the IoT landscape and works to drive the evolution of connected OEM ecosystems. They provide more than the tools for machine connectivity — they offer a carefully crafted IoT roadmap tailored to your business objectives.
If you’d like to learn more about Elevāt you can check them out at www.elevat-iot.com
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our DealerFund.
Don’t forget to check out my first book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” and my brand-new book, “The Future of Mobility”, both of which are now available on Amazon.com.
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!
