MTA March 2018_Web

18 CHANGES TO THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
conferences, so that they’re keeping up with what the future
holds and how quickly the technological changes are being
introduced.”
Simon adds that members should “keep your eyes open”, “be
nimble” and increase their focus on finding “aspects of valueaddding
rather than expecting traditional profit margins and
workflows in fixing car engines and changing oil to exist forever –
because they won’t.”
He points out that society has always had to adapt to major
changes: “When the last steam engine was being built, steam
train drivers were not expecting their children to plan the same
career as they had pursued. Transport was evolving, and new
opportunities emerged to replace the old. It has happened before
and it will happen again.”
Forecasting the move to a reinvented transport system, he
recommends taking a leadership role. “Into that realm where
95% of automotive servicing costs have disappeared, where
there are no oil changes because there is no oil and where
‘driver’ is a weekend hobby, not a necessary life skill, the
automotive industry needs to embrace this change with both
hands, and to lead it.”
“As for the massive shifts inherent in the end of the manufacture
of complete cars in Australia, the point isn’t to mourn (or
aggressively act to preserve) old professions – it is to work
diligently and continuously on looking out for, and training people,
for new opportunities.
Both Anthony and Simon agree that Governments play a key role.
“The best way Government can assist is by considering the
changes in advance, as they need to take advice from industry
experts and come up with the laws,” says Anthony. “Some
European countries have said that by 2040 they are phasing out
internal combustion engines, so anyone in that industry whose
livelihood has survived on internal combustion engines will know
that by 2040 that’s come to the end of the road. The earlier they
can flag changes and brief industry, the better.”
Simon is equally clear: “Ideally the Government would actively
move to incent the faster take-up of electric vehicles in Australia,
versus the current policy and incentive vacuum – we are the only
developed country of significance that fails to provide any real
incentives in this realm.”
“The point of accelerating the take-up of electric transport in this
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