A major contribution to a country’s GDP comes from the automobile after-sales industry which includes servicing and spare parts production. While both the sectors continue to grow there has been a rising concern regarding the production of counterfeit automobile parts which consumers often fail to identify and the service centers readily use because these parts give them huge profit margins.
It’s not Cheap If it costs you a Life!
It is no secret that the counterfeit auto parts cost 15% to 20% less but the associated threat is threefold.
Firstly, these parts are produced using non-standard production methods and often skip much quality testing which ensures consumer safety. These parts do not undergo the right engineering simulation to analyze the stress, strain, fracture point, and factor of safety of the parts. Thus, it takes much less time for the manufacturers to produce a counterfeit part than the genuine one as dictated by the automaker.
Secondly, these parts do not perform ideally since they lack precision and accuracy guaranteed by sound engineering practices. For ex: A counterfeit clutch is cheaper but it may lag while transmitting power from the engine and ultimately burn very quickly hence having a shorter shelf life.
Furthermore, counterfeit parts also pose threat to the performance of your vehicle and may fail at critical points leading to accidents. According to a study, nearly 20% of all the road accidents are due to the use of counterfeit auto parts which also negatively affect the brand image of automakers.
Thirdly, there is a consolidated report published by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) which states that the counterfeit spare auto parts industry is valued about 30% to 40% of overall auto components market. This stands as a challenge for the govt. because these industries do not come under the tax bracket which means the country is losing a lot of money already.
How to Tackle this mess?
The solutions may be far-sighted but it is possible to eliminate the counterfeit parts production. The automakers need to ensure that they supply enough genuine parts in the country so that availability is not of concern.
The industry and govt. intelligence agencies must work together to run anti-counterfeiting strategies. Most importantly the consumers have to be made aware of the situation and motivated to buy only the genuine parts.
