Building the EV operating ecosystem before the market existed
Field Insight | China EV operating-model transformation
Experience attribution: This Field Insight draws on a China-wide EV aftersales and operating-model programme developed in 2012 for one of the world's largest automotive groups, operating through multiple local joint ventures, international brands and national network entities. Sebastian led the work in a regional operating role before founding at.Pointe. The experience now underpins at.Pointe's approach to EV readiness, aftersales transformation and operating-model design.
In 2012, one of the world's largest automotive groups, operating in China through multiple local joint ventures, international brands and national network entities, faced a problem for which neither the organisation nor the market had an established blueprint.
Electric vehicles were still peripheral to the mainstream automotive business.
Electric vehicles were still peripheral to the mainstream automotive business. The products were emerging, but the operating system required to support them was not.
There was no coherent China-specific model for high-voltage training, battery diagnosis and repair, roadside assistance, charging installation, body and paint, battery transport, warehousing, recycling, customer support or the financial implications for aftersales.
Sebastian was tasked with developing that system across the relevant brands, group functions, joint ventures and network layers.
It did not prepare one workshop for one vehicle.
The project created a China-specific EV operating blueprint before electrification had become a mainstream organisational capability. It did not prepare one workshop for one vehicle. It defined how a major automotive group could support electrification across China and across the full vehicle lifecycle.
At the time, EV preparation was often treated as a technical extension of the existing aftersales model.
Prepare a few specialist workshops.
Train selected technicians. Add high-voltage tools. Prepare a few specialist workshops. Define basic safety procedures.
Those measures were necessary, but they were not sufficient.
An EV customer does not interact with a single workshop process.
An EV customer does not interact with a single workshop process. The ownership journey cuts across sales, charging, roadside assistance, logistics, customer care, repair, warranty, parts, battery handling and eventually recycling or second life.
Each part of that system introduces new operational questions.
Who installs and maintains the charging equipment?
Who installs and maintains the charging equipment? Who remains accountable when a third party performs the work? How should a damaged vehicle be recovered? Where can a battery be stored? Which repair can be performed at dealer level, which requires a specialist centre and which must be escalated to the manufacturer? How is a battery assessed for warranty, repair, transport or disposal? Which employees require which level of high-voltage qualification? How does the network recover the investment required to support the new technology?
These were not isolated technical questions.
These were not isolated technical questions. Together, they defined whether the market could support electrification safely, consistently and economically.
The programme was structured through a series of interconnected work packages. Each addressed a specific part of the future EV operating model, but the value came from connecting them.
A China-specific qualification architecture was developed across three levels of high-voltage capability: electrically instructed personnel; high-voltage technicians; high-voltage experts capable of battery-related work. The framework defined roles, prerequisites, content, authorisations and examinations, the split between dealer-level and importer-level capability, and the qualified headcount, tools and demonstration equipment required by site. This was not simply a training catalogue. It was a capability model tied to the future service network.
The roadside-assistance work addressed the practical consequences of EV incidents before the market had operating experience with them. It covered range and safety concerns, towing and recovery, call-centre processes, service levels, legal liability, KPIs and the division of responsibility between brands, dealers and external providers. The work recognised early that a technically safe vehicle could still create a poor customer experience if the assistance network did not know how to respond.
Charging was treated as an ownership process rather than a standalone accessory. The work covered AC and DC options, installation and home checks, the sales and maintenance cycle, ownership and business models, and the responsibility split between dealers, electrical partners, utilities and the manufacturer. The resulting logic connected vehicle sales with infrastructure, installation, aftersales and customer support.
The programme examined how high-voltage systems changed body and paint operations. It covered drying and spray-booth requirements, welding and soldering restrictions, battery-related amendments and China-specific supplier considerations. The point was not that every bodyshop needed to become an EV specialist. It was that the repair model had to distinguish between routine body repair, high-voltage risk and battery-related escalation.
Battery handling was one of the most complex workstreams. The work defined assessment logic and hazard classification, storage, quarantine and transport conditions, repair and warranty processes, battery-service-centre concepts, recycling and second-life options, and the responsibility split across dealer, importer and OEM, all against China-specific regulation. The assessment matrix connected visual, functional and thermal condition with the required handling, storage, transport and repair response. This converted an emerging technical risk into an operating decision system.
Alternative service architectures were developed for standard repair, high-voltage repair and battery repair. The work assessed centralised battery-repair centres, mobile specialist support, dealer-level capability, OEM support, diagnostic flows and domestic versus international battery processing. It also considered battery state-of-health certification as a basis for warranty, residual value, used-vehicle transparency and customer communication. That was particularly forward-looking. Battery health is now widely recognised as a critical commercial issue in used EVs, but the operating requirement was already being built into the service concept.
The programme did not stop at technical readiness. A financial model was developed across the full lifecycle, from pre-launch investment, training, tools and facilities through logistics, warehousing, warranty, wallbox and service operations to recycling and battery afterlife. It was designed to show the cost implications at importer, sales-company, dealer and battery-repair-centre level. This mattered because EV readiness was not one capital item. It was a distributed investment programme across organisations that did not yet have a shared financial view of the transition.
The technical content was substantial, but the harder problem was organisational.
The group operated through multiple brands, local joint ventures, imported-vehicle entities, group functions, dealers, external providers and international support structures.
Each had different responsibilities, levels of readiness and commercial interests.
The programme therefore had to determine: what should be standardised at group level; what should remain brand-specific; what should sit with the importer; what should be performed by dealers; what should be outsourced; where specialist capability should be centralised; how international standards should be adapted to China; how investment and responsibility should be allocated.
A fully centralised model would have ignored brand and network differences.
A fully decentralised model would have duplicated investment, fragmented standards and created inconsistent customer outcomes.
The required answer was governed alignment: common operating principles, clear responsibility boundaries and market-specific execution models.
The significance of the project sits partly in what was built, but also in when it was built.
This work was undertaken before EV scale had generated mature benchmarks, established supplier ecosystems or extensive operating history.
Many of the questions now considered standard in EV aftersales had not yet been resolved at market level: battery repair versus replacement; state-of-health certification; specialist-repair footprints; wallbox lifecycle ownership; roadside response to high-voltage incidents; storage and transport of damaged batteries; recycling and second life; the economics of reduced routine maintenance; capability requirements across dealer networks.
There was little precedent to copy.
The operating model had to be developed by connecting group standards, early vehicle programmes, emerging regulation, supplier capability, local-market research and future-volume assumptions.
That required judgement rather than benchmark replication.
The project established a coherent China-specific framework across the relevant EV aftersales and ownership functions.
It created: a multi-level high-voltage qualification architecture; roadside-assistance concepts and operating requirements; wallbox sales, installation, maintenance and responsibility models; body-and-paint guidance for high-voltage vehicles; battery assessment, handling, storage and transport logic; service-network and battery-repair-centre concepts; battery state-of-health and residual-value thinking; recycling and battery-afterlife models; lifecycle financial modelling; group, brand, importer and dealer responsibility structures.
The importance of the result was not that every element remained static.
Any EV operating model designed in 2012 would need to evolve with technology, regulation, product scale and market maturity.
The value was that the group had a structured operating foundation from which that evolution could take place.
The programme was working through those questions before the industry had settled them.
Many of the questions the programme had to resolve—state-of-health certification, damaged-battery logistics, wallbox lifecycle ownership and the economics of reduced routine maintenance—have since become standard elements of EV aftersales planning. The programme was working through those questions before the industry had settled them.
The lesson remains relevant because many organisations still prepare for structural change function by function.
Technology defines the product.
Aftersales prepares the workshop.
Training prepares the technicians.
Logistics prepares transport.
Finance reviews the investment.
Customer care prepares scripts.
Retail prepares the launch.
Each workstream may be individually competent, while the operating system between them remains undefined.
That is where transformations fail.
How are technical decisions translated into commercial and network decisions?
The questions senior teams should ask are broader: Who owns the complete customer journey when the failure crosses functions? Where does specialist capability sit? Which responsibilities belong to OEM, importer, dealer and external partner? How are technical decisions translated into commercial and network decisions? What must be standardised and what should remain market-specific? How is the transition funded across the value chain? Which parts of the model must exist before launch and which can scale later? What happens at the end of the asset lifecycle?
EV readiness is not a checklist of technical capabilities.
It is an operating-model decision across the full vehicle lifecycle.
The project did not prepare a limited network for an individual EV launch.
The project did not prepare a limited network for an individual EV launch. It created the operating blueprint for how one of the world's largest automotive groups could support electrification across China before the market, the organisation and the supporting ecosystem were mature enough to provide the answer.