Page 6 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine September-October 2022

Editorial
6
PAINT&PANEL SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
EDITOR
Sam Street (02) 9213 8334 samstreet@yaffa.com.au
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Lynette Rochford (02) 9213 8331 0407 241 554 lynetterochford@yaffa.com.au
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THE STEAMROLLER
OR THE ROAD?
“O
JOIN US FOR THE 2022 BODYSHOP AWARDS GALA DINNER
• Places limited reserve yours by visiting paintandpanel.com.au/bodyshop awards and join us on 11 November at the Aerial Function Centre, Melbourne.
NCE A NEW TECHNOLOGY ROLLS
over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.” I like that, thank you Stewart Brand —
writer who I have never heard of.
Now you might find more than the odd page this issue imparting information about electric vehicles because they are genuinely the ‘next big thing’. Yes tedi- ously long heralded but actually now both a reality and an opportunity. Back when I started out at Paint & Panel, au- tonomous vehicles were going to be the end of our industry; the car parking in- dustry; vehicle ownership; ... the list went on. Today Mr Musk at Tesla reckons he’s cracked level 4 autonomy and mum and dad cars are loaded with acronym al- phabets of accident avoidance technolo-
gy – and have you ever been busier?
I know there are a number of factors contributing to the accident volume boom but as electric vehicles start to be- come a significant force in the Australi- an car parc it looks like they could be a
bottom line booster.
Electric cars are involved in 50% more
traffic accidents than their petrol and
diesel counterparts, according to a study by insurer Axa. Apparently it is mainly the fast and sharp acceleration that sur- prises drivers, especially those new to the cars, and leads to accidents – and be- cause EVs weigh more than their ICE counterparts they do a lot more damage. Over in the US CCC Intelligent Solutions’ data found that the average cost of re- pairs was almost 3% higher for electric vehicles. So when it comes to EVs are you going to be the steamroller or the road?
You will find that a lot of the finalists for this year’s Bodyshop Awards are al- ready set up, trained and repairing elec- tric vehicles as they tend to be the early technology adopters. There are over 50 finalists this year but there will only be 14 winners announced on 11 November in Melbourne. Congratulations to the fi- nalists, we look forward to celebrating with you.
Sam Street – Editor
If your company has any exciting new products or is involved in any innovative projects, contact Australasian Paint & Panel editor Sam Street on samstreet@yaffa.com.au.