The Center for Automotive Research (CAR), in partnership with the UHY, has released new research examining how the automotive supplier revenue acquisition (RA) process has evolved over the past two decades. The findings, presented at the 2025 Management Briefing Seminars (MBS), highlight growing complexity and persistent inefficiencies across supplier quoting and business development practices.

Key findings include:

• Suppliers are now processing over 800 RFQs annually, compared with 495 in 2002.

• The average time spent per RFQ has increased from 134 to 157 hours, as more internal functions—including engineering, finance, cost engineering, and plant management—are now involved.

• Hit rates have improved, but often at greater organizational cost and complexity.

• Persistent challenges include the loss of institutional knowledge, fragmented data systems, and uneven technology adoption.

• While AI and automation show promise, integration barriers continue to limit their effectiveness.

The report concludes that while suppliers are investing more resources and coordination to compete for business, efficiency gains have not kept pace. To remain competitive, both suppliers and automakers must focus on system integration, knowledge retention, and process feedback mechanisms that enable continuous improvement.