Driving innovation: Reflections from Future of the Car 2024

Future in name, future in nature

It’s rare that an event leaves you with distracting ruminations a week later. Yet, here I am, a week after the Financial Times Future of the Car 2024 , ruminating, late on a Thursday night. So, I thought I’d get my thoughts out to see if they resonate with others who attended the event.

The forward-looking nature of all the talks and panels gave great food for thought. Beyond inspiring big-picture-thinking, they also fed the collaborative openness of the event. Innovation buzzed in the air and all of the conversations were all about what big swings could be made to propel the industry forward. Here’s some of my key takeaways.

The need for speed

The one overwhelming vibe at the event was that the market is changing rapidly and there’s a need for all players to be moving at pace. Change is undeniable across the market as a whole, and it was invigorating seeing the innovation that this is driving. From Mate Rimac’s spectacular success story (I loved his admission that things at Bugatti-Rimac would be more anarchic if he had his way) to the recognition that the car is now an extension of the home and the tech experience needs to match that expectation, it was inspiring and thought-provoking in equal measures. The speed of execution by Chinese OEMs such as BYD was referenced throughout the event, but came through in spades during the keynote by Michael Shu, Managing Director for BYD Europe.

That said, one assertion that shocked me was that, as a whole, car software is lagging 20 years behind general software industry. This came from Ronen Smoly of Argus Cyber Security who said hacking car is 10 times easier than hacking a cell phone. If true, there is definitely a need for shoring this up as a priority.

Collaboration is key

Perhaps my favourite session was the fireside chat on the power of partnerships. This session featured great input from Thomas Dannemann, Director of Product Marketing at Qualcomm, Jeff Dodds, the CEO of Formula E, Alan Norton, Director, Electronic Systems & Controls at McLaren, and Annie Pin the CCO of Ayvens. The strong call to action from the group (and the subsequent audience questions) was for a unified approach to data. Annie Pin said it best: “If there’s a chance to unlock the power of data, we have to do it together”.

Alan Norton from McLaren also made the following point: “Collaboration is key to add innovative layers for user experience, that’s where you add value. Focusing on things that are unique to brand and customer, have to collaborate to achieve this.” His statement resonated with me in my role as CEO of Appointedd, a SaaS platform for scheduling. At Appointedd, we could not agree more, and are delighted to be able to collaborate to enable automotive brands to differentiate and tailor their customer journey quickly and in a streamlined way.

Agency model

One of the big questions of the day was, will the Agency Model ever truly come to fruition? Andrea Sorrenti, CEO, MSX International gave what I thought was the clearest and most concise description of the model and talked so eloquently about the benefits and challenges of it – a real a-ha moment for me. And I loved the panel discussion with Kristin Elvefors, Head of Global Sales at Polestar, Maria Grazia Davino, Group Managing Director UK for Stellantis, and Carlos Lahoz Pardo, VP Sales and Ownership Experience Europe at Kia. Yes, everyone was forced to do agency model during the pandemic. Although lockdowns accelerated the growth of this model, changing habits that are strong in the whole industry is hard. Are the advantages compelling enough to make it worthwhile?

Kristian Elvefors talked about the “true direct model” Polestar deploys. This model involves here the retailer doing everything from product launch, to test drive and with own after sales model. It’s undeniable that the likes of Polestar and Tesla are definitely impacting the market. The shifting constellations are fascinating to watch but the jury is still out on what the market will look like in the coming years.

It’s certainly an exciting time for all in the automotive industry! The Financial Times Future of the Car 2024 harnessed that excitement and brought it to life. As a team at Appointedd, we loved the chance to connect with so many senior stakeholders. We came away from the event buzzing about the potential collaborations we discussed. From embedding our service scheduling software into the car’s software to deliver one-click booking when the car needs servicing, to a huge scale test drive project for fleet vehicles that could save thousands of hours of manual scheduling and transform the user experience. Not only was innovation in the air, people were making decisions and truly collaborating. What a way to drive success (pun intended 😎)!