Advisory · Automotive, M&A, applied AI
From thefirst numberto the lastsignature.
AutoMotion is an advisory boutique for the automotive industry. We work beside owners and management teams: on strategy, on M&A followed end to end, and on the places where AI actually moves a number. The newsletter is where the thinking is public. The work is what happens next.
Advisory
Three practices, one team
Not a service catalogue. Three areas where we take a mandate from the first question through to the decision that follows it, and where you deal with the same people the whole way.
- AM
Automotive
Strategy for a market that re-prices every quarter.
See the practice - MA
M&A
Whether you have been approached, or you are the one approaching. Followed to the last signature.
See the practice - AI
Applied AI
Used where it moves a number, not a slide.
See the practice
Not ready for a mandate? One question can be answered on its own.Commissioned research
How we work
On your side of the table
A boutique is not a smaller consultancy. It is a different arrangement, and these are its terms.
01The team is chosen, not inherited
A mandate is led by one person, who picks the specialists for it from a network built over years. In a firm the team is whoever is free that week; here it is whoever the problem needs. The person you meet is the person who does the work, and nobody is being trained on your account.
02We take a position
You will always know what we would do, and what it would cost us to be wrong. A menu of options is not advice.
03We stay to the end
The mandate closes when the deal closes or the decision is made, not when the document is delivered.
04We will tell you not to
If the answer is that the deal is bad, that is the answer. It is the only thing that makes the other three worth anything.
The newsletter
One piece of it, in public
One argument about the industry, with the numbers attached. It is not the business. It is how you judge the thinking before you hire it.
AutoMotion is run by Niki Donadio, who comes from strategy consulting, corporate finance and M&A, and has worked with manufacturers, suppliers, dealer groups and investors in Europe and in China.
He leads every mandate himself and builds the team for each one by choosing from a wide network of professionals: legal, financial, technical, industrial. A mandate is never limited by who happens to be free in-house, because there is no house to keep busy.
The newsletter came first, and it is still running. The advisory practice exists because readers kept asking the same follow-up question: fine, so what would you do about it?
24,000+
Professionals in the industry following Niki on LinkedIn
3,000+
Newsletter subscribers, published since February 2024
IT · CH · EU · CN
Italy, Switzerland, Europe and China: the markets we work in
Companies we have worked with
From the cell to the forecourt
Cells and supply
CATLBattery cells · China
Manufacturers
StellantisMulti-brand group
FiatVolume brand · Stellantis
JeepSUV brand · Stellantis
MaseratiLuxury brand · Stellantis
FerrariSupercars · Maranello
IVECOCommercial vehicles · Turin
FordManufacturer · United States
MitsubishiManufacturer · Japan
KGMKG Mobility · South Korea
MaxusLight commercials · SAIC
XPENGElectric vehicles · China
BYDVehicles and cells · China
CheryManufacturer · China
GeelyMulti-brand group · China
Importers
KoellikerImporter · Milan
ATFlowImporter · Autotorino group
Retail networks
AutotorinoDealer group · Italy
BrandiniDealer group · Tuscany
AuthosFord dealer · Turin
TomasiDealer group · Rome
Fleet and leasing
AyvensFull-service leasing · Société Générale
ArvalFull-service leasing · BNP Paribas
Auctions and remarketing
BCABritish Car Auctions · Europe
Startups
CSharkAerospace
GuidoioDriving-school group · Italy
Motorsport
Scuderia Ferrari HPFormula 1 team
KesselKessel Racing · Switzerland
Tony KartKarting chassis · Italy
At AutoMotion and in previous roles. The mandates themselves stay confidential.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you have to decide
The useful first email is short and specific. A deadline helps more than a brief. Write before you are ready: the later we arrive, the fewer terms are still yours to set.
We reply to every email, as quickly as we can.
- 01The decision in front of you, in one sentence
- 02The date it has to be made by
- 03What you have already looked at