VIN Basics Blog

DataOne Software’s blog this year has emphasized the impact of increasing vehicle complexity within a wide swath of the automotive industry, and we are not going to be short on topics any time soon. The latest innovation that has captured the investment dollars of the tech sector, “AI” (which in truth is a mislabeling of the technology – it should more appropriately be called a Large Language Model) is now making its way into OEMs’ development plans, and automotive risk assessment professionals will need to closely consider its ramifications to avoid unexpected losses.

The economic conditions of the early 2020s had a unique impact on the automotive industry. Dubbed trimflation by car culture website Autopian, the output in entry-level models was greatly reduced, while high-margin trims became more commonplace and MSRPs were increased across the board. UMass Amherst Professor Isabella Weber noted, “Companies in the automobile sector [amplified] price pressures enabled by a form of temporary monopoly granted by the computer chip shortages. This allowed car producers to focus on expensive models with higher margins and generally raise prices without having to fear a loss in market share.”

Over-the-air (OTA) updates are a growing trend in the auto industry and are expected to be standardized across OEMs by 2028. While OTA updates will greatly benefit OEMs, saving 1.5 billion per year in recall services as well as improving the customer experience with fewer trips to the dealer, how will they impact the rest of the industry? This article addresses some of the unknowns that could potentially benefit or negatively impact the retailing, servicing, and insuring of vehicles in the future.

All the different vehicle weight terminology can be quite confusing. While some are more obvious than others, the shear mass of information can be daunting. This article was written to take the weight off your chest…

A successful transportation business in today’s fast-paced and competitive climate requires the most efficient and cost-effective business processes. Advances in vehicle technology, including advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), telematics, GPS tracking systems, and dash-cam tech have revolutionized the way these businesses operate with the ability to lower vehicle risks and better maintain their fleets. Here are four ways in which advanced vehicle technology is improving transportation businesses.

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations are a novelty right now, but in the United States, they will become both ubiquitous and a necessity in the next decade. The 2030 National Charging Grid Report finds 2.3 million charging ports will be needed to accommodate the 28 million EVs expected to be on the road by 2030, but as of right now, only 160,000 exist nationwide. This will be an enormously expensive venture – grid analytics company Kevala believes that California alone will need $50 billion to accommodate its EV and emissions targets. 

Utility companies will have an unprecedented amount of financial capital, scope of work, and public pressure to adapt their service areas to the EV era. While not applicable to all the challenges inherent in this transition, curated, in-depth, and accurate vehicle data will be essential to develop optimal grid planning strategies. 

There’s a lot more to VINs, the 17-digit string of numeric and alphanumeric characters found on vehicles, and the vehicle data behind them than you may expect. In fact, VINs can be quite complex.

Legendary physicist Marie Curie once said “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy,” and the United States’ inevitable nationwide shift toward fully electrified vehicles (EVs) is the perfect example of that sentiment. Many states have set ambitious initial zero-emissions targets as early as 2025, which will require radical infrastructure change and an exponential increase in consumer EV adoption.

The Inflation Reduction Act, California’s Advanced Clean Cars standards (which are opted into by an additional 14 states), and other state initiatives are kickstarting that adoption by offering numerous rebates and discounted billing programs for EV owners. These programs will present unprecedented operational challenges for the utility companies tasked with implementing and managing them. These challenges include parsing and processing a massive influx of new data, inconsistencies within that data, and continual shifts in guidelines and regulations that need to be followed as both the government and auto industry landscape evolves.  This article will outline the core benefits of ongoing access to in-depth, 17-digit VIN data in ensuring a sustainable, productive response to the US’ electric vehicle transition.

Inflation has been outpacing wages for many years, which has created significant hardship for workers and forced them to extend the life of key necessities such as their personal vehicles. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) has found that the average vehicle life has now been extended to 12 and a half years, in an effort to avoid adding a new car payment to already strained budgets. Timely, cost-effective, and quality vehicle maintenance is necessary to attain this ambitious lifespan, and customers typically have many local options for servicing and repairs. The parts and services industry has become an enormous market ($137 billion in 2022 from dealerships alone) with intense competition, so how can these businesses generate the customer loyalty and positive experiences needed to thrive with repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations? 

In many cases, vehicle data and VIN decoding solutions are the foundation of your automotive product’s features and processes. You may have invested a great deal of effort to integrate with your current provider. Perhaps you've migrated to a different data provider in the past and have experience working through the headaches of disparate naming conventions and issues with style/vehicle IDs.  You likely have a customer base that relies on you for progressive development and new features, as well as a busy road map ahead.