David Punter, President of the Institute of Automotive Engineer Assessors, draws on his extensive career in engineering, insurance, salvage, and insurtech to highlight the challenges of integrating green parts into the automotive industry. Despite their promise for sustainability and cost savings, practical complexities often hinder widespread adoption. Through personal insights and real-life experiences, David explores the “glitches in the matrix” that must be addressed to achieve a greener, more efficient future.
Having been very privileged in my career, I have been involved in Engineering, Insurance, Salvage, Governance and Insurtech around the overall market and have been privy to a lot of things, so my insight sometimes leaves me to see through the fabric of the matrix and identify the obvious flaws that some appear to gloss over, don’t understand or sometimes are just unaware takes place.
So, over the last year, I have been asked to speak at a number of conferences around the insurance industry, engineering, and green parts and recycling.
What has become very clear is that there is a real wish to make green parts readily available and usable in all markets. This would drive a greener economy with less waste for the planet and clear financial benefits for the stakeholders, driving a user-driven outcome.
However, it all becomes a bit confusing when you strip back all of the individual directives to market to drive the above and actually step on the bus of that journey.
Here is a real-life experience:
During the course of my daily business, I had an altercation with an object damaging the front bumper of my vehicle (let’s not get bogged down with who did what to who and why), resulting in a bumper which could be plastic repaired by my local competent repairer for £250, but he advised that if it impacted again, it would obviously crack. “Why don’t you get a second-hand one? It’s a straight swap then,” he said.
Obviously, yes, as this supports the above economy, and I can be part of the change we all desire.
Off I went on my journey, contacting my source of known agents to find this part, and two came back straight away with one in the colour I wanted and one in a colour that needed to be painted.
The one in the colour that needed to be painted had some marks on it from its previous life and, indeed, its afterlife, and given the complexities of modern bumpers, masking is not really an option, so stripping was required.
The price tag for this unit was £400 with no VAT, plus shipping.
So I started to do the math, and yes, it was more, but it wouldn’t split if impacted, but it had to be painted.
As the unit was removed from the vehicle completely, it came with all, including the grilles, trims, daytime running lights and indicators, which is great if you need all of those parts but not great if you don’t, and you generally don’t need everything.
So the first part of my dilemma was that I needed to strip the unit, discard the parts I didn’t need (perhaps sell them second-hand myself via an auction site) and then have it painted and fitted up.
So, what is the time to strip a bumper? After researching this model, removing, stripping and fitting would take approximately 1 ½ hours and would cost around £104 (using ABP rates).
The new price of a bumper cover is around £320, Non-OE is £185, and eBay has them for £83.
So again, I scratched my head a bit, so it was technically £24 to carry out a repair with a new part more than the green part, and it was much more cost-effective to buy none OE over the new or green.
This also happens with Doors (and I know a man who loves doors). A complete unit is sent over with fittings and sometimes partial trim, but when it arrives on site, the shop must spend time stripping and making it fit onto the vehicle to return it to its pre-accident condition.
Now, there is a need for complete assemblies, but not in every case, so we as an industry need to define the need a little better, what is required for that specific user at that time, as I can see this being a bit of a turn off to users/insurers who drill down to the logic and determine there is no cost benefit but there is a green benefit, and perhaps that is the angle, but its worth reviewing what the customer needs, and what we need to supply.
Meanwhile, I will continue ahead with my eyes open this time and await the return of my vehicle (with green parts, of course), completing the ethical way ahead.
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