Durham’s Get Spiffy already makes getting a car wash or oil change pretty easy—you book them on the Spiffy app, and they come to your parked car while you’re at work or home and do the rest. But there’s been one nagging element: you need to physically hand over your keys.
That’s why Spiffy’s announcement today that it’s partnered with the connected car programs of 13 major auto brands is such big news for the company. Eliminating the “key exchange” removes a significant pain point and is a big step toward Spiffy’s goal of zero-friction car care services.
“Our North Star is making our customers’ lives more convenient,” says Spiffy CEO Scot Wingo. “That’s what we’re always anchored on.”
The 13 car brands are—deep breath here—Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, GMC, Jeep, Lexus, RAM, Tesla, and Volkswagon. That’s about 40% of cars, Wingo says, and Spiffy is currently in talks to lock down another 10-12 brands with the aim of eventual 100% coverage.
In addition to improving the customer experience, these partnerships mean that the car brands will also help introduce Spiffy to their customers, with about half of them doing so more aggressively than the others. The car companies are incentivized to do so by a revenue share agreement with Spiffy, as well as the chance to offer an additional service to their customers to enhance the value of their own connected car initiatives.
Wingo doesn’t believe that any of Spiffy’s mobile car wash/car care competitors currently have an agreement like this with the car companies. The closest equivalent might be Amazon’s Amazon Key service, in which the company accesses your car to deliver packages to your trunk, and then asks for a huge tax break. (Kidding on that last point.)
Connectivity is one pillar in Wingo’s Vehicle 2.0 vision for the digital future of the automotive industry. The others are Electrification, Autonomy, and Ownership. You can read more about Wingo’s Vehicle 2.0 thoughts here.
