The automotive retail group "Emil Frey Deutschland", based in Stuttgart, is the digitalization champion of the German automotive industry. The trade journal "kfz-betrieb" recognized the multi-brand dealer as the overall winner of the "Digital Automotive Award 2021". The Digital Automotive Award was presented for the second time together with the three partners Bank Deutsches Kraftfahrzeuggewerbe (BDK), mobile.de and TÜV Nord Mobilität.
Emil Frey Germany received the Digital Automotive Award for its platform offering and its online car trade-in strategy. These are part of the Group's comprehensive online sales strategy, with which Emil Frey Germany aims to offer customers user-friendly processes for buying and selling their cars online.
As one of the largest car dealers in Germany, Emil Frey Germany combines entrepreneurial objectives with a market-political claim with its offer to buy vehicles online. The retail group wants to establish itself as an alternative to online purchasing platforms, which have grown in recent years but have in part established themselves as competitors to the traditional car trade. The dealer is also aiming to become less dependent on other sources in the used car business, from which the Group's vehicle stock has been fed to date.
One of the reasons why the platform is so user-friendly is that it gives customers various options as to how they want to trade in their car with Emil Frey Germany. Among other things, customers can document the condition of their vehicles in detail online and receive a purchase offer on this basis. Alternatively, appraisals can be carried out at Emil Frey Group dealerships - by vehicle experts or by remote appraisal via smartphone.
After the purchase, the vehicles are remarketed, for which Emil Frey Germany has created a complex system: The vehicles either go into the Group's own stock, are sold to its own network of partner dealers or they go to third-party providers, who in turn try to sell the vehicles.
With the Digital Automotive Award, the industry medium "kfz-betrieb", together with the award partners, honours the best achievements of trade and service companies in the automotive industry in the field of digitalization. The focus is on the companies' digital lighthouse projects. The companies apply with these. The award is aimed equally at brand-affiliated and independent car dealerships and workshops.
This year, "kfz-betrieb" presented the Digital Automotive Award to a total of eleven companies in the automotive industry, which were shortlisted from a larger field of applicants. The jury then selected Emil Frey Germany as the overall winner from among these eleven winners.
"kfz-betrieb" honored various digital solutions with the Digital Automotive Award 2021. These included the use of artificial intelligence in workshop processes and claims processing, innovative hardware solutions for remote car diagnostics and fleet management, the use of software robots to increase efficiency in the dealership and high-reach social media marketing.
Wolfgang Michel, Editor-in-Chief of "kfz-betrieb", praised the projects of the eleven award-winning companies: "This year's awards show that companies of different sizes can act innovatively and develop new solutions to problems in the industry. The companies are working on using digital tools to make it easier for customers to contact the dealership or workshop - right through to complete online transactions. And they are also working internally on the processes for the business of tomorrow."
The ten winners of the "Digital Automotive Awards 2021"
Overall winner:
Emil Frey Germany, Stuttgart (online purchase of cars)
Other winning companies:
Ralf Christ Kfz-Meister-Fachbetrieb, Nersingen (OBD dongle for remote diagnostics)
Hahn Group, Fellbach (3D online platform for camper vans)
League of Performance/Gottfried Schultz (successful social media brand)
Autohaus Lessingstraße, Oberhausen (software for sales management)
Mofuma/Tölke-&-Fischer Group, Krefeld (online training platform)
Restemeier, Osnabrück (artificial intelligence in the workshop process)
Autoschmitt, Frankfurt am Main (digital workshop process)
Autohaus Stoppanski, Ettlingen (social media marketing on TikTok)
Voets Automobilholding, Braunschweig (information portal on electromobility)
Autohaus Weeber, Weil der Stadt (robotic process automation in the car trade)
"kfz-betrieb" is the most widely read trade magazine in the automotive industry and has been informing the automotive trade and service sector for over 100 years. "kfz-betrieb" is the official organ of the German automotive trade (ZDK), the professional interest group for around 38,000 car dealerships and workshops. News from the entire automotive industry can be found at www.kfz-betrieb.de and in the daily newsletter.
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