Expert study on the state of finished vehicle logistics in Europe with ready-to-implement action fields for ECG-Members

Expert study on the state of finished vehicle logistics in Europe with ready-to-implement action fields for ECG-Members

Infront Consulting — 2023-08-08

Automotive Industry

The disruptive waves of the automotive industry are affecting the finished vehicle logistics (FVL) market. Growing transport volumes and an intensifying focus on sustainability promise great potentials, but players are facing unknown structural changes that demand action. Changing consumer demand as well as the severe lack of capacity, assets and drivers across all transport modes emphasise the dual role of logistics as pivotal competitive advantage and predominant bottleneck.

In order to support market players during times of change, we conducted a study on the current state and dynamics in the finished vehicles logistics market. Validated by industry executives, we derived action fields for future growth. These action fields include the following:
 
Dynamics resulting from changing OEM and Service Provider behavior require market players to reevaluate their roles in the ecosystem and increase their flexibility by balancing asset strategies with a focus on integrated business models. Evolving strategies focus on selectively increasing the level of control in managing transports by leveraging emerging asset and resource pools, along with strategic partnerships and new IT-solutions. Neutral asset and resource pools offer interesting potentials to increase flexibility and asset availability while decreasing asset risk and investment requirements. 
 
In terms of transportation modes, rail proves to be the most promising transport mode solely offering both great mass performance and suitable responses to sustainability trends. However, intensive investments are needed that cannot be covered by the existing landscape of players. Thus, new (investment) partnerships and neutral resource pool models will gain importance in the FVL ecosystem.

At Infront Consulting & Management GmbH we aim to find suitable ready-to-implement strategies for market players by leveraging the potentials of a changing ecosystem according to their specific needs and objectives. 

An easy-to-read study combining market insights with an outlook to new options, which could support ECG members in their strategy planning.” - Mike Sturgeon, ECG

If you want to dive deeper into the subject, you can access our study by clicking here.