How much money shops lose when sending away ADAS work

Jim Fish of Innovatrium speaks at the AASA Vision Conference 2022. Behind him is Matt Ballard of Blue Mind.

Many vehicles are coming into automotive mechanical and collision shops equipped with advanced driver-assistance system technology these days. The problem is that most of the work concerning ADAS is being sent over to the dealer, according to new research.

This is costing aftermarket shops business and money, according to Jim Fish, partner at Innovatrium which prepared the report ADAS Aftermarket Ecosystem 2030: The Coming Wave of Aftermarket Opportunity.

According to its findings, one million vehicles in the United States required ADAS service in an aftermarket shop in 2021. Yet, 90 per cent of that work was outsourced to dealers. Collision shops outsourced US$177 million worth of ADAS calibration work.

So shops better get on board, Fish urged. If you’re questioning whether it’s a real market opportunity, stop.

“It’s happening in the aftermarket today. This is almost an invisible economy. There’s a lot of activity going on out there,” he said at the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association Vision Conference in Detroit recently.

Furthermore, ADAS services are set to experience at least a 17 per cent increase through 2030.

“So this is singularly the highest growth opportunity in the aftermarket,” Fish said. “And it’s not from a necessarily low base.”

Matt Ballard, business development consultant at Blue Mind, noted that getting ADAS repaired outside of the warranty period isn’t a priority for vehicle owners. These systems don’t stop the vehicle from being operated so there’s no impetus to get repairs done.

“Right now, about 82 per cent of Year 1 [issues] outside of warranty are going to be repaired. But it decays out to zero in the far-out of years,” he noted. “So in far-out years, people are just not going to get these repaired.”

If shops want to grow, they need to offer services and encourage vehicle owners to get their ADAS systems repairs, the presenters observed.