Effect the push for EV's will have on automotive parts/accessories market

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Dec 10, 2014
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The push for electric vehicles is here, and by numerous entities in a big way. How will this affect the aftermarket automotive parts/accessories business as far as sales and market strategy?
Walk into any auto parts store and you will see a good amount of floor space dedicated to parts, accessories, and fluids strictly geared to internal combustion powered vehicles. I'm just trying to envision what the average auto parts stores might carry as far as merchandise 10 yrs. from now.
Anyone else envisioned this scenario?
 
Yes it’s scary. Heck my auto parts stores are practically stripped down bare right now anyway because they haven’t been able to get parts from the suppliers. At work we have had to wait or turn down some jobs due to lack of parts and being independent it’s really a struggle to have to turn down stuff. The customers have been pretty understanding though. I have a feeling we won’t be able to get anything though especially sprays and chemicals because of the push for the electric vehicles. And unfortunately I think it’s going to take a toll on the parts stores because a average DIY guy won’t be able to fix his electric car most likely without special programs or something like that. I have a feeling they will have to adapt to this and make their main concern trying to supply parts to shops.
 
10 years from now I'd guess auto parts stores will look pretty similar to they do now. With the average vehicle age being 12ish years, current-model vehicles will still be slightly newer than average at that time. Don't get me wrong, we'll see electric vehicles becoming more and more common in the coming years, reducing conventional ICE parts demanded. There just won't be a need to tinker with the cars in the same way - fluid changes, filter/belt changes, etc. But your local AutoZone or Advance is still gonna have 5w30 Mobil 1, air filters, and brake pads in a decade. Fortunately for them, electric car owners will still "need" stick-on chrome parts, license plate holders, and air fresheners shaped like coconuts, so I see that market staying for quite some time.
 
Having more than 1 car and current situation, I have not been inside any stores lately. I do all my shopping through the internet, the EV technology
is going to hit some folks real hard since they are set in there ways. I have some friends that still do not the difference between wiper fluid and anti freeze.


I wisf for community colleges to offer some good basic classess on EV's but there is always You Tube.
 
ICE cars will be around for a long time.
EVs generally require far less maintenance. Tires and cabin air filter is about all for our Model 3.
But as they age, long term durability reality will be revealed.

Every product has a lifecycle.
 
I'm sure it won't be long before someone offers a cold air intake and maybe a catback for EV's. Let alone muffler bearings and blinker fluid.
 
10 years from now the average auto parts store will carry much the same things as they do today. EV's are still a niche mostly luxury product reserved for well off folks, in a decade the average car on the road will be a 12 year old gasoline SUV not a new Tesla. The average person buying a $60K Mercedes ain't walking into Autozone to buy engine oil and filter, they're dropping it off at the dealer. The same new Mercedes buyer is just as unlikely to frequent their local O'Reilly's if their new shiny new SUV has an electric engine. Eventually EV's will surpass IC vehicles but in the mean time auto parts stores will adapt to sell the parts and (mostly useless) accessories that the market demands. EV's will still require brake pads, rotors, tires, window regulators, CV joints, etc and while the neighborhood NAPA probably sells one fuel tank a month the EV "gas tank" will be a massive profit driver for them in the future.
 
I wouldn't worry too much. I'm betting EV's will never make as main stream transportation because women won't plug them in to charge them up. At our house my wife's laptop is dead, the dustbuster is dead, the cordless vac is dead, and the two cars I don't drive show 50 miles to empty. If it takes more than a credit card and two minutes to be ready for the run to Target the bosses are not going to approve.:giggle:
 
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