Right to Repair in the Age of the Digital Car. What Is the Independent Aftermarket Really Fighting For?

Until recently, the right to repair a vehicle was primarily associated with access to spare parts, technical documentation and diagnostic equipment. Today, the situation is far more complex. Modern vehicles are becoming connected IT systems, and the ability to service them increasingly depends on access to data, software and digital vehicle functions. For independent workshops, this is becoming one of the key challenges of the coming years.

Right to Repair once again took centre stage in the automotive industry during this year’s Automechanika Frankfurt. In September 2026, representatives of aftermarket organisations from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania met at the Global Right to Repair Meeting, organised by FIGIEFA and the Auto Care Association.

A central theme of the discussion was preserving motorists’ freedom to choose where their vehicles are serviced and ensuring that independent operators have access to the information and tools required to carry out repairs.

However, the issue is evolving together with the vehicles themselves. Today, it is no longer simply a question of whether an independent workshop can purchase the right part and obtain instructions on how to replace it. Increasingly, the question is whether, once the part has been installed, the workshop will be able to perform all the digital procedures required to complete the repair.

The car is increasingly becoming a computer on wheels

Digitalisation is transforming the way the entire automotive service market operates. Modern vehicles use dozens of electronic control units, sophisticated ADAS systems, telematics solutions and software-controlled functions. Updates can be performed remotely, while an increasing amount of information about a vehicle’s condition is generated and transmitted during everyday use.

For workshops, access to data is therefore no longer merely an addition to traditional mechanical expertise. It is becoming one of the prerequisites for providing a complete service.

Such access may be required when diagnosing a fault, configuring a new component, calibrating advanced driver assistance systems, updating software or servicing the battery of an electric vehicle.

The European Commission emphasises that access to vehicle repair and maintenance information is important for maintaining competition in the automotive market. Vehicle manufacturers are required to provide independent operators with access to specified repair and maintenance information on terms that do not discriminate against them compared with authorised repairers.

In 2026, EU regulations in this area were further updated. The changes concern, among other things, standardised access to OBD and vehicle repair and maintenance information, as well as rules governing secure access to diagnostic data.

From the OBD port to real-time vehicle data

This brings another challenge.

Traditional diagnostics have largely relied on physically connecting diagnostic equipment to the vehicle. The development of connected cars means that vast amounts of information can now potentially be accessed remotely.

Data concerning the condition of individual components may make it possible to predict a failure before it occurs. A workshop could use this information to contact a customer in advance, order the required parts and schedule the repair. Similar solutions could be used in fleet management, component wear monitoring and the development of predictive vehicle maintenance services.

The key issue, however, remains who has access to this information and under what conditions.

FIGIEFA, which represents the interests of the independent automotive aftermarket, points out that as connected vehicles develop, access to in-vehicle data is becoming one of the fundamental conditions for effective competition. The organisation advocates, among other things, allowing vehicle users to share their data with a service provider of their choice and creating interoperable and secure solutions that enable independent operators to access vehicle data and functions.

Information alone may no longer be enough

This is one of the most important changes in the Right to Repair debate.

In a traditional vehicle, access to technical documentation and the appropriate spare parts was often sufficient to carry out a repair. In a software-defined vehicle, the situation can be very different.

After a component has been physically replaced, it may need to be coded or activated. Following repairs to a vehicle equipped with ADAS, the relevant systems may require calibration. In other cases, a workshop may need access to protected diagnostic functions or software updates.

As a result, today’s discussion about the right to repair is no longer limited to parts and technical information. It increasingly includes data, software, vehicle functions and the ability of independent operators to use them securely.

During the Global Right to Repair Meeting at Automechanika Frankfurt 2026, industry representatives highlighted the growing importance of telematics, parts coding and the effective enforcement of existing repair rights.

Cybersecurity versus access to the vehicle?

Opening access to a vehicle’s digital functions also raises legitimate questions about security.

A modern vehicle is a connected device, and uncontrolled access to its systems could create genuine risks. The right to repair therefore does not mean that every operator should have unrestricted access to every system within a vehicle.

The challenge is to develop a model that simultaneously ensures vehicle cybersecurity and fair competition in the repair market.

This approach is also reflected in current European regulations. On the one hand, they establish requirements concerning independent operators’ access to diagnostic and servicing information. On the other, they provide procedures governing secure access to protected information and functions.

For workshops, this means that the future of independent vehicle repair will require not only new equipment, but also new skills, security procedures and forms of digital authorisation.

What does Right to Repair mean for an independent workshop?

Discussions taking place at the level of European institutions may seem far removed from the everyday reality of a small automotive workshop. In practice, however, their consequences can be extremely tangible.

They come down to several fundamental questions:

Will the workshop be able to perform a complete diagnosis of a new vehicle?

Will it have access to the information required to carry out the repair?

Will it be able to code a newly installed component?

Will it be able to perform the required ADAS calibration?

Will it have access to data enabling remote vehicle diagnostics?

And ultimately – will the customer still have a genuine choice over who services and repairs their vehicle?

As the number of electric vehicles, connected cars and software-defined vehicles increases, the importance of these questions will continue to grow.

New skills for the workshop

Right to Repair is therefore only one side of the transformation taking place in the market.

Even the best regulations concerning access to data will not be enough if workshops lack the appropriate equipment and personnel trained to work with new generations of vehicles.

Mechanics increasingly need to combine traditional mechanical expertise with knowledge of electronics, computer diagnostics and software. Added to this are ADAS systems, high-voltage systems in electric and hybrid vehicles, and new procedures related to cybersecurity.

It is therefore not only the vehicle that is changing. The definition of a professional automotive workshop is changing as well.

The future of the aftermarket will also be digital

Europe’s independent automotive aftermarket remains a major part of the automotive sector. According to figures cited by FIGIEFA, the EU market for automotive parts alone is worth approximately EUR 118 billion, of which around EUR 73 billion is attributable to the multi-brand independent aftermarket. It plays a particularly important role in servicing vehicles more than four years old – approximately 195 million such vehicles are currently on European roads.

This is why access to the technologies used in modern vehicles is not merely a technical dispute between vehicle manufacturers and the independent market.

It concerns the future operating model of the entire vehicle servicing sector.

At a time when an increasing proportion of the vehicle is shifting from the world of mechanics to the world of software, the right to repair is increasingly becoming a right to access data, diagnostics and the vehicle’s digital functions.

And the way this issue is resolved may determine what the independent automotive workshop of the future will look like.