To kick things off, we were keen to get into the passenger’s seat to find out a bit more about Jason Cranswick, who’s been Commercial Director at Jardine Motors since 2015. We know his favourite car is a Porsche 911, but what keeps him ticking on those long journeys?
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Without a doubt the most challenging thing about my job is keeping up with the pace of change. The automotive industry is shifting in so many ways, whether it’s electric vehicles coming to the fore, working out how to make use of all of the data and insight we have, regulatory changes or shifts in consumer demand.
If you were a car, what make and model would you be and why?
An Audi e-tron. Because it’s future looking, it’s environmentally friendly and has a hint of luxury.
What are your road trip essentials?
My ‘must have’ when I’m in the car is a good podcast, I’m a big ‘House of Rugby’ fan. I also can’t function without caffeine so that’s definitely an essential in the car.
It’s important for me that there’s a reason for being on that road trip. I drive around 1000 miles a week for work, across the country visiting the Jardine teams so if I’m adding to those miles, for me it’s important to know why I’m on that journey.
If you could take a road trip anywhere, where would it be and why?
Definitely up into the mountains in Europe, probably driving through the Alps with the family. Spending time with them enjoying the snow and the scenery is always great quality time with the family. That’s one of the things the Europeans have definitely got right, the balance between work and family time.
Who would be your favourite celebrity passenger?
It has to be Eddie Jones - the legend.
What’s the biggest challenge facing the electric vehicle industry right now?
That’s quite an easy one. Today we sell a petrol or diesel car, we neither know or worry about how the customer will fuel it. It’s not part of their decision making process as we know it’s so readily available. With electric vehicles, how and where you charge is a fundamental part of the proposition.
The challenge we face as an industry is understanding the broader ecosystem and being able to give customers the best advice. We have an educational role to play for the foreseeable future. When buying an electric vehicle we need to understand so many new aspects, and that’s where the role of the dealer changes slightly. It’s even more important that we build trust and give our customers confidence.
With advancements in battery technology, and around another 200 electric models expected to come into the market over the next 18 months, our choice is only getting wider. EV is now, not the future.
We are at that early adoption stage though, which means people take longer in the decision making process with EVs. There are more considerations. If you equate it to a mobile phone, if you lost your charger two years ago you were in trouble. Now they’re mostly inter-operable, and the anxieties have gone over time because everyone has that charger readily available. That’s where we need to get to with EVs.
At the moment I have a Porsche Cayenne hybrid. It’s the first EV I’ve had as an everyday car, and even for me as someone in the industry it took a couple of weeks to get used to. It’s nothing that’s insurmountable it’s just an education piece.
