WestPoint Software Solutions

Ford fixed a recall on 4.4 million vehicles this year, and most owners never had to go near a dealership. The fix was a software update sent over the air. And it’s becoming normal. More than 23 million vehicles were recalled in the first half of 2026, about double the year before, and more and more of the fixes are software. It’s a strange situation when you think about it. The car can now update itself overnight, but the systems behind it often can’t keep up. We still see recall data copied by hand between manufacturer, dealer and service systems, and customer records that don’t carry over when someone changes dealer. Some dealer platforms are older than most of the cars on the forecourt. The instinct is often to plan one big replacement. In our experience those projects take years, cost far more than planned, and freeze everything else while they run. Picking one painful workflow, fixing it properly and then moving on to the next one tends to show results within weeks, and the business keeps running throughout.

Stellantis signed up for more than 100 AI projects with Microsoft this year. Tucked into the same deal is a plan to shrink the group’s data-centre footprint by 60% by 2029. That’s a huge infrastructure job, and in our view it’s what will decide whether those 100 AI projects deliver anything at all. We see the same pattern again and again. A company launches AI pilots, the demos look great, and then everything slows down when the model needs data from a 20-year-old system nobody wants to touch. The pilot works, but scaling it means untangling plant data, dealer data and finance data that were never designed to talk to each other. AI does work in automotive. Forecasting parts demand, processing warranty claims and scheduling service are all good examples. But the companies getting real value tend to treat AI as something that helps their people make better decisions, not something that replaces the decisions. And they usually spent a year or two fixing their data and platforms before any of the AI headlines appeared. The interesting question isn’t how many AI projects a carmaker announces. It’s how much of its plumbing it’s willing to rebuild first.

KPMG’s recent survey found that by 2035, 51% of automotive executives expect software and digital technology to become the industry’s main competitive advantage. Established automakers bring decades of engineering experience and the resources to build at scale. Companies like Rimac and TIER IV have shown there’s also room for smaller players with different approaches to automotive technology. We think smaller teams have an advantage when it comes to experimenting and adapting quickly. They still have to meet the same demands for reliability, though. In automotive, speed alone won’t get you far. As software becomes more central to the business, established manufacturers will need to turn their experience and resources into technology they can deliver and improve quickly. Size gives them a lot to work with, but it doesn’t guarantee a lead.

Volkswagen Group is reportedly considering using its Chinese-developed software architecture in European models. XPeng could have a bigger role in VW’s future than many expected. Chinese cars are already gaining ground in Europe. Chinese technology could soon be running inside more European brands, too. There’s a practical argument for it: if a partner can develop the technology faster and at a lower cost, why build everything yourself? Still, we’d be wary of becoming too dependent on a partner for software that could define the business for years to come. The savings are attractive. How much control VW retains over its technology will matter just as much.

Today, at the Mondial de l’Auto - Paris, Volkswagen Group CEO said the uncomfortable part out loud: Europe’s mass-market carmakers are under “enormous pressure.” Looking around the show, it is easy to see why. Chinese manufacturers are arriving with more affordable EVs, faster development cycles and real momentum. VW, Renault and Stellantis account for more than 60% of European vehicle production, so this is not a small warning. The response has to go deeper than the next EV launch. It is about how quickly product, engineering, suppliers and production can work from the same information and make decisions. The manufacturers that remove that friction will have room to compete on price without compromising the product.

Yesterday, Stellantis, owner of Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Vauxhall and Maserati, announced it is developing small EVs with Chinese EV maker Leapmotor. Its engineers are working alongside Leapmotor’s team in Turin, learning how to develop a new car in around two years. That should make Europe uncomfortable. A major European automotive group is bringing Chinese vehicle-platform technology and Chinese product-development speed into Europe because it needs both to stay competitive. Because they cannot always build them fast enough or cheaply enough? Collaboration is sensible. But at what point does collaboration become industrial dependence?