Autocar Business’ annual Power List 100 is a run-down of the most influential people in the automotive industry, with Renault boss Luca de Meo in 2023’s number one spot. It’s based on six key criteria:
- Global reach and influence
- Spending power
- Share of voice
- Technological influence
- Future growth potential
- Market capitalisation
At a time of huge change for the automotive industry, with notable disruptors such as Elon Musk on the scene and a whole new market emerging in China, it’s a great opportunity to explore the 2023 list in more depth. Autocar has teamed up with Keyloop to create the Power List 100 podcast, a five-episode series where representatives from Autocar and Keyloop are joined by industry experts to discuss the issues that are at the top of the automotive agenda today. Here’s a rundown of the topics covered in each episode:
Episode 1: The top global CEOs and OEM leaders
Mark Tisshaw and Steve Cropley, respectively editor and editor-in-chief of Autocar, talk to the CEO of Keyloop, Tom Kilroy, about some of the biggest names in the industry, including Luca de Meo, Elon Musk and the new CEO at JLR, Adrian Mardell.
De Meo’s ‘Renalution’ – a name he came up with in the shower, apparently – has been extraordinary. In just six months, his plan to turn Renault around has seen the company go from losses of €40 million a day to pre-tax gains of around the same amount.
Over at JLR, Adrian Mardell’s House of Brands strategy also appears to be paying dividends. Mardell was CFO at the company before becoming CEO and his financial acumen means he’s widely trusted and he has successfully dealt with one of JLR’s key issues – losing money on warranty claims.
Elon Musk represents a very different leadership style. He’s a visionary, dedicated to the idea that everyone should be driving an EV. His certainty is the key driver behind the company – and, certainly, he’s done the end consumer a favour by driving down the cost of EVs.
Listen to episode one here.
Episode 2: The top automotive disruptors
Who’s shaking up the automotive industry today? In this fascinating episode, Mark Tisshaw is joined by the Financial Times’ global motor industry correspondent, Peter Campbell, and Chief Alliances Officer at Keyloop, Harvey.
Four big shifts – electrification, autonomy, connectivity, and new forms of ownership – are combining to cause huge disruption in today’s industry. Electrification is a fundamental change. Effectively, OEMs have got to run down one business and start another and, in the process, put millions of ICE jobs at risk. Battery technology is hugely complex – do legacy brands have the capability and resources to build batteries? Or do they buy them? Add to that massive regulatory pressure, and the entry of Chinese brands into the market, and you have a very challenging landscape.
So, what do the disruptors bring? In a nutshell, fresh eyes. The big manufacturers have been building cars the same way for decades. People with tech backgrounds, like Elon Musk, aren’t bound by convention or history – they question things. Musk looked at his kids’ diecast toys and said, why can’t I make a car that way, instead of having hundreds of small parts? Why not have a screen instead of a dashboard? It’s this kind of attitude that’s disrupting the industry and forcing it to change.
Listen to episode two here.
Episode 3: The rise of Chinese car makers
In this episode, Mark Tisshaw and Peter Campbell are joined by Keyloop’s Global OEM Director Jacqui Barker to discuss the impact Chinese car makers are having globally.
Historically, it’s fair to say Chinese cars didn’t always enjoy a good reputation. But as European manufacturers entered the Chinese market to work on joint ventures , the Chinese OEMs dramatically increased their quality. And today, in a world of EVs, they’re running the show.
If the engine is the soul of the car (according to Enzo Ferrari), then the battery is the soul of the EV. Knowing that decarbonisation was coming, the Chinese became expert in battery development and made sure they had the resources to do it. They now control 95% of all the world’s lithium processing. Their control of the battery market – and consequently the automotive supply chain as a whole – will have huge implications, particularly in Europe, and we may well see Chinese auto giant BYD achieving their ambition to be in the top three in the continent by 2030.
Listen to episode three here.
Episode 4: The top designers and engineers
In a world of almost constant technological breakthroughs, the automotive industry’s designers and engineers face challenge and opportunity in almost equal measure. Episode four sees Autocar news editor Felix Page and Autocar Business correspondent Nick Gibbs meet Graham Stokes, Keyloop VP Sales, UKI and APAC to discuss the key issues.
Why are designers and engineers so important today? Because what’s inside the car is no longer a differential. It used to be that consumers chose a car because of reliability. Today, all cars are reliable – so how do you create and retain brand loyalty? That’s where design comes in.
Take Gerry McGovern at JLR. His design experience has been the crucial driver behind their House of Brands strategy. Over at Renault, Laurens van den Acker is drawing on a back catalogue of classics to create a brand experience based on heritage – one of the key things that legacy brands have as leverage. And design must function seamlessly with engineering.
In an era of increasingly narrow profit margins, how can manufacturers cut costs but still deliver an experience that works? Tesla took the radical step of dropping stalks. Will they get away with it? Can legacy manufacturers take similar decisions? Add to this AI and the possibilities it presents around a car’s performance – auto-booking a service, for example – and we can see that today’s automotive designers and engineers are in the most challenging, creative space they’ve ever been.
Listen to episode four here.
Episode 5: Retailer royalty
The final episode of the Power List 100 podcast sees Felix Page, Nick Gibbs and Graham Stokes discussing all things retail. The phrase ‘closing the deal’ used to signify the end of a relationship – now it’s the start. Retailers need to communicate regularly with the customer during the aftersales journey to build brand loyalty and keep them coming back. And with EVs needing far less servicing than engine models, what kind of communication can retailers have with their customer in the future?
The other major change for retail – and the industry as a whole – is the move towards an agency model. Within the wholesale model a retailer, or retail group, buys vehicles from an OEM and then sells them. In the agency model, it’s the OEMs selling them and giving the retailer a fee. It’s radical and it’s risky. Mercedes have been the first brand brave enough to try the new model and one of the key learnings so far is that technology is key in making the customer journey work. You have to consider every touchpoint.
The other interesting observation is that, although initially the OEMs wanted the change so that they could have better visibility of data in order to ‘own’ the customer, they’ve now realised that in today’s world, you can’t do this. Instead, you need to create an experience that starts a long-term relationship.
The team also look at the influence that groups like Pendragon, Virtue and Sytner hold over manufacturers. These groups have become consolidated giants, wielding a lot of power – in effect, they’re brands in themselves, but they still represent other brands like Mercedes and BMW. To give the customer the experience they expect, they’ll need to start working together to create a seamless data flow.
Listen to episode five here.
Experience-First
In every episode of the podcast, the overall conclusion seems to be that customer experience is at the heart of the industry’s future. If you’d like to hear more and find out how and why Keyloop has shifted to an Experience–First platform, why not join the live webinar on the series with our CEO, Tom Kilroy, on Wednesday 24 April. In the final part of the Power List 100 series, Tom will be joining a panel of industry experts to debate the future of aftersales. Register here.
