THE PARTS ARE ON BACK ORDER!
Historically the taxi industry expects to buy a new asset and be able to utilise that for five or six years at a minimum. Many of us wouldn’t even consider a vehicle as being run in until it has six figures on the odometer. Longevity isn’t a nice-to-have in our industry, it’s an expectation.
This philosophy doesn’t translate all too well to parts of the world where vehicles are treated as disposable white goods. Reports suggest that the average EV ownership period in China is around 1.8 years and that vehicles are facelifted and superseded at a pace that would make mobile phone manufacturers blush.
And that’s the rub.
What does the parts supply chain look like for a five- year-old Chinese EV that is now two facelifts, four software revisions and an entirely new architecture from the new model that’s launched this week?
Will the parts still exist? Will the software still be supported?
Will the brand even have a UK dealer network in five years’ time?
More importantly, will the manufacturer care enough to consider the vehicle commercially relevant?
It sounds like an outlandish concern until you remember we’re already struggling with mainstream European manufacturers, as previously mentioned. We run our vehicles harder, longer and further than almost anyone else and that makes our industry uniquely exposed to one simple question:
Can you still get parts once the manufacturer has moved on?
A taxi isn’t a mobile phone or a washing machine. You can’t simply throw it away every two years and get the latest shiny model. And if the future of fleet vehicles for our trade really is disposable motoring, perhaps the biggest threat to the trade isn’t Uber or AVs, it’s finding out your five-year business plan only comes with twenty-four months of manufacturer support.
PHTM SEPTEMBER 2026
27
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