As automotive suppliers worldwide prepare for upcoming MMOG assessment cycles, the MMOG assessment tool—developed jointly by Odette and AIAG—continues to serve as the de-facto standard process automotive companies rely on to assess logistics capability, operational performance and supplier readiness.
As the EU's VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiative moves towards implementation and Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) continue to evolve, automotive companies face a rapidly changing e-invoicing landscape. Recent discussions within the Odette invoicing community highlighted key developments in European standards work, national implementation programmes and ongoing efforts to maintain interoperability across diverse invoicing environments.
The Odette TG has agreed that DDS reference numbers should be transmitted within the ASN message at line-item level, providing a practical approach for automotive supply chains preparing for the EUDR, which will apply from 30 December 2026.
As implementation deadlines under the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) draw closer, automotive companies are now focusing on practical compliance solutions rather than legal interpretations.
As electronic invoicing requirements continue to expand globally, an increasing number of companies are required to receive invoices in structured electronic formats, often based on the CEN EN 16931 standard.
In line with Odette’s objective to support the automotive industry with practical tools to support day-to-day tasks, a new release of the Odette GTL Generator is now available. Provided free of charge by Odette International, the GTL Generator is widely used across the automotive supply chain to generate compliant Global Transport Labels (GTL) without the need for dedicated labelling systems or additional infrastructure investment.
The deployment of standard
digital messages to support communication across all Finished Vehicle Logistics
processes continuesacross the industry
with more implementations planned. Odette and ECG are also planning the next
steps to help automotive companies and finished vehicle LSPs streamline their
invoicing processes and meet the upcoming ViDA regulatory requirements.
An increasing number of EU member
states are obliging their companies to be able to receive invoices in a
structured electronic format (often according to the EN16931 standard invoice).
Use the Odette Invoice Viewer
& Converter if you need to accept UBL and CII invoices from your business
partners but are not ready to process them. The tool is available free of
charge.
The European automotive industry fully recognises the benefits to be gained from eInvoicing. After all, we have been doing it for the past 40 years! We also recognise the desire of EU tax authorities to introduce a single eInvoicing standard in an attempt to close the so-called ‘VAT Gap’ but we must strive to ensure that current, well established automotive eInvoicing practices continue to be accepted. We are pleased to report that progress is being made on this front.
The European automotive industry
fully supports the introduction of more sustainable practices to minimise the
negative environmental impacts of non-optimised packaging and non-recyclable
packaging waste. At the moment, however, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste
Regulations (PPWR) present the industry with an unclear roadmap which is
hampering our collaborative efforts to develop solutions which are both efficient
and legal. We therefore continue our attempts to influence the law makers to
modify aspects of the legislation to make it more readily applicable to
automotive packaging practices.
