Andorfer Andreas, president of Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Greater China, believes the current market aftermarket conditions and car owner habits in China offer great potential for new business models, and Bosch is also adapting to the fast changing aftermarket accordingly.

　　“The world is changing therefore we have to become more and more user focused and user-centric,” said Andreas. “We are monitoring and joining the so-called customer journey. Where are the touchpoints of a vehicle owner or driver with components, workshops and services. We want to make sure we provide the respective support and services to the business partners who are active in this field.”

　　Bosch, according to Andreas, is essentially transforming from a so-called “parts & bytes” supplier, which used to be the benchmark in the industry providing equipment and diagnosis, to a total solutions provider.

　　Some of the solutions that Bosch has already launched in China include the Franchise Bosch Car Service where hundreds of workshops are contracted to provide all kinds of support, dealer equipment turnkey solutions for the independent aftermarket and OES or 4S shops, O2O businesses for fast moving goods such as batteries, brake pads and maintenance services through Tmall.com and JD.com (offering more than 1,000 parts numbers and 110 authorized workshops) and connected cloud services to provide customers predictive maintenance services.

　　The fact that the average age of a passenger car is only 3.6 years in China (instead of the more than 10 years in the U.S. or Europe) creates huge growth potential for the independent aftermarket, more so than the OES business, according to Andreas. But the big challenge for independent workshops is efficiency.

　　“The efficiency of the independent workshops has to increase because the average work shop visits per car is decreasing as well, from 3.4 going down to 2.9 visits per year,” said Andreas. “We see a consolidation. Traditional OEMs are also stepping into the independent aftermarket working together with internet companies. This combination creates a very high dynamic in the aftermarket. We also have to make sure are we a part of this.”

　　Both Chen and Andreas welcomed the changing policy and regulatory environment, which will provide a more transparent and liberal market environment benefiting car owners. “It gives you more freedom and provides more choices. Competition will be good and at the end of the day it’s beneficial for the customers,” said Andreas. “Most of the policies will be good for the internet platforms like us. The parts channel will be more open, customers do not have to go to 4S shops and they can go to independent repair shops,” said Chen.

　　Asked about the future prospects of the 4S dealership model, Chen predicted that it won’t disappear anytime soon but its market share will be smaller as they face increasing cost burden. “The independent aftermarket network will have about 70 percent of the aftermarket in five years,” said Chen.

　　“They will not disappear, but they have to change their setup. The transparent ones will survive,” said Andreas.

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