Recomotor says requests for electronic components rose 38% in two years. Recovered parts cost 30% to 50% less on average, although fitting and any required calibration are extra.
A new electronic control unit costs about €1,400 in examples analysed by Recomotor; a recovered unit is around €140, a difference of roughly 90%. The price gap comes as Spanish workshops face more requests for electronic components and longer waits for some replacement parts. Recomotor's analysis, reported by Europa Press on 21 October 2026, found that recovered electronic components cost 30% to 50% less on average than new ones.
Recomotor says requests received between October 2024 and September 2026 rose 38% compared with the previous two years. Electronics now account for around 22% of all references workshops request through the platform. In the control-unit example, delivery takes 10 to 12 days for a new part, compared with 24 to 48 hours for a recovered one.
Finding the right part can keep a diagnosed car off the road. Cameras and radar units linked to ADAS can be difficult to source. So can control units; LED headlights and sensors also appear among the hard-to-find components. For some models, locating a specific reference takes between seven and 14 days. Availability of a recovered component depends on matching the part reference to the vehicle.
That shortage shows wider changes in the car industry. Spanish manufacturing has also faced challenges as Chinese vehicle output expands, a shift covered in China's production surge. For repairers, the immediate issue is more practical: securing the right part before a vehicle occupies a workshop space for days.
Two factors are driving the change. Spain's car fleet had an average age of 14.6 years in 2025, according to ANFAC and Ideauto data based on figures from the traffic authority DGT. The EU's General Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2019/2144, introduced requirements for certain driver-assistance systems in stages: for new vehicle types from 6 July 2022 and for all new cars registered in the EU from 7 July 2024. The rules apply to new vehicles, not retroactively to the existing fleet. A repair may involve replacing a component, then carrying out diagnosis or programming; some parts also need calibration.
Recomotor gives the example of a complete LED headlight, priced at €1,450 new and €500 recovered. A front ADAS camera falls from €750 to €120 in its examples, an 84% reduction. Calibration for that camera can still cost between €150 and €300, depending on the model.
The company puts the average saving on recovered electronic parts at 30% to 50% compared with new ones. That figure covers the part alone and excludes fitting. It also excludes any programming or calibration. A recovered control unit may be available within 24 to 48 hours, compared with a 10-to-12-day wait for a new one in the cited example.
Customers are also asking for alternatives more frequently. Workshops in Recomotor's network report that this happens in nearly four out of ten repairs costing more than €500. Some drivers defer work on faults they consider less urgent, such as a parking sensor or a rear-view camera.
