• RENAULT RE-INVENTS SATELLITE SHOWROOMS
• SUPERMARKET, FINANCIER AND SUPERCAR RETAILER IN TOP 100 PROFIT GROWTH COMPANIES
• BCA SHOWS STRONG LCV MARKET
• iCONTROL RELAUNCHED AS RETAIL ACCELERATOR
• WORLD NEWS – Tesla Model 3 tops sector in Europe, car makers face CO2 fines, FCA pays Tesla to avoid CO2 fines says FT
• STOCKWATCH – BCA and Motorpoint up, Lookers down
• LAUNCH DIARY – Seat Tarraco, Jaguar XE and F-pace
• COMING UP – GDP figures, RICS housing survey, Auto Retail aftersales & parts conference
• MONEY MATTERS – pension contributions could double next year
• OUR BLOG – when did you last look at your own website?

Renault re-invents satellite showrooms

Renault is looking to set up 24 micro-dealerships on small plots of land of up to 0.5 acres near retail or business parks around the country.

A Renault spokesman said: “Renault Corporate have developed a concept call Renault Live which is essentially a ‘test drive’ customer contact point, already tested in France. The benefits are you don’t need the same land footprint, it is less expensive and potentially less arduous to achieve a ROI.  The ideal scenario is a mix of service, used cars, test drive or any mix of options. In larger dealer territories where coverage is an issue this could also be a solution.

“This is in the early stage of development and only today being discussed with potential partners – we have no planned deployments at this stage.”

Supermarket, financier and supercar retailer in Top 100 profit growth companies

A used car supermarket, finance provider and second hand supercar retailer have been listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 private companies with the fastest growing profits.

Yorkshire based Motordepot was ranked 17th, recording profit growth of 95% to £7.2 million. Last year it opened six new sites taking its total to 11.

CarFinance247 was ranked 77th with 62% growth and Ebitda profits of £6.6m. Run by the Rix family, its website gets more than six million visits a year and agrees £35m a month in loans.

Used supercar retailer, William Loughran, was ranked 100th with profits up 54% to August 2017 at £6m.

BCA shows strong LCV market

BCA’s specialist LCV Pulse report shows record values achieved for part-exchange and nearly-new vans during February.

The headline figure for all LCVs sold by BCA that month was £7,231, up £162 from February 2018 despite both average age and mileage rising.

Fleet and lease LCVs averaged £8,037 with retained value against MRP improving to 38%.  Part-ex values averaged £4,773, the highest monthly value on record and nearly-new stood at £17,339, the highest BCA has recorded in more than a year.

iControl relaunched as Retail Accelerator

Auto Trader has relaunched its iControl used car management software under the name Retail Accelerator as it introduces more services to the system.

Retail Accelerator now includes live market pricing, competitor information, live alerts on valuation changes and aging stock, advert performance and days to sell.

WORLD NEWS

Tesla Model 3 tops sector in Europe

Tesla’s Model 3 outsold every mid-size saloon in the Eurozone market in March, its first full month of sales. It took 3,630 orders, ahead of the Mercedes-Benz C-class (3,420), Audi A4 (1,710) and BMW 3-series (1,700) according to Jato Dynamics. Estate cars are not included in its figures.

Car makers face CO2 fines

Car makers have until 2021 to clean up their act to meet new EU CO2 emissions limits or face fines estimated at up to £9.6 billion.

Ratings agency Moody’s said half the leading firms would currently fail and the fines could lead to credit downgrades. A manufacturer’s average car will need to cut emissions from the industry average of 119 g/km in 2017 to 95 g/km.

Moodys said Renault-Nissan, Volvo, Fiat Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, BMW, Daimler AG, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and Jaguar are at risk.

FCA pays Tesla to avoid CO2 fines says FT

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is said to be side-stepping fines for breaching strict EU CO2 limits by paying Tesla hundreds of millions of euros so that the electric cars are counted in its fleet.

The Financial Times reported that the step will let FCA offset emissions from its cars against Tesla’s, bringing down its average figure to within permitted levels.

The FT did not give precise figures but cited a declaration with the European Commission showing that FCA formed an open pool with Tesla on 25 February.

https://bit.ly/2Ingal3

STOCKWATCH

Closing prices at 5 April and weekly movement

BCA and Motorpoint up, Lookers down

BCA 205.8p (+8.2p)

Cambria 61.5p (n/c)

Caffyns 395.0p (n/c)

Inchcape 576.0p (+5.0p)

Lookers 93.2p (-7.8p)

Marshall Motor Holdings 169.0p (n/c)

Motorpoint 189.5p (+9.5p)

Pendragon 25.0p (-3.0p)

Vertu 35.1p (-0.1p)

LAUNCH DIARY

Seat Tarraco. Seven-seater SUV. From £28,335.

Jaguar XE.  Refreshed interior, RDE2-compliant diesel. From £33,915.

Jaguar F-pace SVR. Supercharged 5.0 V8, 176 mph. From £75,335.

COMING UP

Wednesday. UK GDP figures announced

Thursday. RICS Housing Market Survey

15 May: Auto Retail Aftersales & Parts Conference. One day conference looking at best practice, threats and opportunities in aftersales. (W. Midlands). Click here.

MONEY MATTERS

Pension contributions could double next year  

Employers may have to divert cash earmarked for investment in the business and double their pension contributions from next year.

A new Code of Practice on Funding Defined Benefits due to take effect next year could add £100 billion to UK pension deficits and result in a doubling of pension contributions for a typical employer, according to a report by KPMG.

https://bit.ly/2Ieao4Q

Click here to read this week’s blog; when did you last look at your own website?

John Swift

Editor

Auto Retail Agenda