The automotive industry is navigating more uncertainty than at any point in the past five decades. Electrification timelines keep shifting, autonomous driving promises remain unevenly realized, ownership models are evolving, and post-pandemic supply chain issues have exposed vulnerabilities that manufacturers and suppliers are still working to resolve. Whether you manufacture vehicles, manage a dealer network, supply parts, or operate repair shops, the decisions you make today will determine your competitive position for the next decade.
Automotive market research from Meraki Research gives your organisation the data and strategic clarity to move forward with confidence — not with recycled industry reports, but with custom research built around your specific challenges and market context. We work with OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, dealership groups, aftermarket companies, and mobility startups to answer the questions that matter most.
Our automotive practise has delivered research across the full vehicle lifecycle — from pre-purchase consideration and configuration through ownership experience, service interactions, and eventual disposition — for clients ranging from regional dealer groups to Fortune 500 manufacturers. That breadth of experience means we understand the connections between upstream product decisions and downstream customer issues in ways that single-focus research firms cannot match.
Our Approach: The Drivetrain Intelligence Method
Automotive decisions carry enormous capital risk. A wrong bet on powertrain technology, a misread of customer behaviour, or a flawed dealer experience strategy can cost hundreds of millions. Our Drivetrain Intelligence Method is purpose-built for the stakes and complexity of this industry — delivering research that is thorough enough to justify major investment and fast enough to keep pace with a market in transition.
Phase 1: Industry and Competitive Landscape Assessment
We begin by building a comprehensive picture of your competitive environment. This goes well beyond market share numbers to examine brand positioning, pricing strategy, technology roadmaps, distribution network strengths, and emerging competitive threats from both traditional players and new entrants.
For OEMs and suppliers, we map the full competitive set — including non-traditional entrants from the technology and mobility sectors whose approach to the market may fundamentally differ from established players. For aftermarket companies and repair shops, we analyse local and regional competitive dynamics, service pricing benchmarks, customer satisfaction patterns, and the growing impact of connected-car data on service relationships.
Our team draws on proprietary databases, public filings, patent analysis, supply chain intelligence, and expert interviews to build a landscape assessment that reveals both obvious and hidden competitive issues. We also monitor regulatory developments — emissions standards, safety requirements, EV mandates — that shape competitive dynamics across the industry.
This assessment establishes the competitive context for every subsequent research decision, ensuring that primary research questions are framed against the realities of the market rather than internal assumptions.
Phase 2: Customer and Stakeholder Research
Understanding customer behaviour is the backbone of every automotive research engagement. The automotive purchase journey is one of the longest and most complex across any consumer category, and the methods we use must account for that complexity. Depending on your business question, we deploy a range of methodologies:
- Purchase journey mapping that tracks how buyers research, compare, configure, negotiate, and decide — from the first online search through final delivery, including the digital-to-physical handoff that defines modern automotive retail
- Ownership experience studies measuring satisfaction, loyalty drivers, service expectations, and defection triggers across the full ownership period
- Aftermarket behaviour research examining how vehicle owners choose service providers, select parts brands, respond to maintenance recommendations, and decide between dealership service departments and independent repair shops
- B2B stakeholder interviews with fleet managers, dealer principals, supply chain decision-makers, and OEM procurement teams
- Technology acceptance research measuring consumer readiness for EVs, advanced driver assistance, connected features, and subscription-based vehicle services
We recruit real automotive buyers, owners, and industry professionals — not general population panels. Our recruiting capabilities include access to recent purchasers by make, model, and powertrain type; fleet decision-makers by company size and vehicle class; and aftermarket professionals from both franchise and independent operations. The specificity of our recruiting is what makes our data reliable enough to base major investment decisions on.
Phase 3: Market Sizing and Demand Modeling
For clients evaluating new markets, new technologies, or new service models, we build ground-up demand models that go well beyond top-down industry estimates. Our analysts combine primary research findings with registration data, economic indicators, demographic shifts, labor market trends, infrastructure buildout projections, and regulatory timelines to produce forecasts your finance team will trust.
We model scenarios — not just point estimates. Given the uncertainty in today's automotive landscape (EV adoption curves, charging infrastructure pace, regulatory changes, battery cost trajectories), scenario-based planning is the only responsible approach. Each scenario includes clear assumptions, sensitivity analysis, and trigger points that tell you when to adjust course. We typically deliver three to five scenarios that bracket the range of plausible outcomes, with specific strategic implications for each.
For aftermarket-focused clients, our sizing models incorporate vehicle parc analysis, average vehicle age trends, parts replacement cycles, and the growing impact of connected diagnostics on maintenance timing and provider selection.
Phase 4: Strategic Synthesis and Activation
Research that sits on a shelf helps nobody. Our final phase translates findings into a strategic roadmap with prioritized actions, investment recommendations, and clear success metrics that your team can begin executing immediately.
For product and engineering teams, we deliver specifications-level insight on feature priorities, willingness-to-pay, and technology readiness. For marketing and sales, we provide messaging frameworks, audience segmentation, and channel strategies grounded in actual customer behaviour rather than assumed personas. For leadership, we produce board-ready briefings that connect research findings to financial outcomes, competitive positioning, and long-term strategic options.
We also identify the early-warning indicators your team should monitor going forward — the data points that will signal whether market conditions are tracking toward your target scenario or shifting toward an alternative that requires a strategic pivot.
When Automotive Market Research Applies
This service is designed for organizations facing decisions where the cost of being wrong is significant:
- New vehicle or model launch planning — understanding target buyer profiles, competitive positioning, feature prioritization, and pricing elasticity
- EV and alternative powertrain strategy — gauging consumer readiness, infrastructure expectations, adoption barriers, and the total cost of ownership comparisons that drive switching
- Dealer and retail experience optimisation — identifying the moments that drive satisfaction, loyalty, and referral across digital and physical touchpoints
- Aftermarket and service growth — mapping how vehicle owners choose repair shops, select parts brands, respond to service marketing, and decide between dealer and independent service providers
- Market entry or expansion — sizing opportunities in new geographies, segments, or service categories with ground-up demand analysis
- Supplier strategy — understanding OEM procurement priorities, technology roadmaps, partnership dynamics, and the labor market constraints reshaping manufacturing decisions
When it is NOT the right fit: If you need ongoing vehicle registration data feeds, real-time inventory tracking, or automated dealer performance dashboards, those are operational tools rather than strategic research. Our work is designed to answer the "why" and "what next" questions that raw data alone cannot address. For foundational research questions that span beyond automotive, our market research services provide broader strategic frameworks.
What We Deliver
Every automotive research engagement produces structured, actionable outputs designed for the way automotive organizations actually make decisions.
| Deliverable | Format | Typical Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive Landscape Report | PDF + interactive data workbook | Week 2–3 |
| Customer Research Findings | PowerPoint + video highlight reel | Week 5–7 |
| Market Sizing / Demand Model | Excel model + methodology document | Week 6–8 |
| Strategic Roadmap | Executive presentation + action plan | Week 7–9 |
| Raw Data and Transcripts | Secure digital delivery | With final report |
Most automotive engagements run 8–12 weeks depending on scope and methodology. For time-sensitive decisions — competitive response planning, M&A due diligence, or rapid market assessment — we offer a focused 4–6 week program that prioritizes the single most critical business question.
All engagements include executive presentation, stakeholder Q&A sessions with the teams who will use the findings, and 30 days of post-delivery support for follow-up analysis and clarification.
Industry Applications
OEMs and Vehicle Manufacturers: Purchase driver analysis, brand health tracking, feature prioritization research, EV readiness assessment, and ownership experience optimisation across consumer and commercial vehicle segments in the South Africa and global markets.
Parts and Component Suppliers: OEM relationship research, aftermarket channel analysis, labor and technician preference studies, competitive benchmarking, and technology adoption tracking for Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers navigating the transition to electrified and connected architectures.
Dealership Groups and Retail Networks: Customer experience optimisation across sales and service, digital retailing readiness assessment, F&I product acceptance research, service department growth strategies, and employee satisfaction research addressing the labor challenges facing modern dealerships.
Aftermarket and Repair Services: Service provider selection research, customer satisfaction and loyalty program design, parts brand preference and switching studies, pricing strategy optimisation for independent and franchise repair shops, and technology adoption research for diagnostics and connected-car service tools.
Fleet and Commercial Vehicles: Total cost of ownership modelling, fleet electrification readiness research, uptime and reliability benchmarking, driver satisfaction and safety perception studies, and procurement decision-maker research for fleet management organizations.
Mobility and Transportation Startups: Market sizing, concept testing, willingness-to-pay analysis, competitive positioning research, and investor-ready data packages for new mobility business models including ride-sharing, subscription ownership, and last-mile delivery services.