Ford Pumps The Brakes, Dealers Pump The Brakes, Teens Don’t

Paul J Daly: 0:24

Good morning, Tuesday, December 1212. Talking about Ford pumping the brakes, dealers pumping the brakes and teens not pumping the brakes. To have to teens haven't been known to pump the brakes. Isn't it? Nice? You've never met

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:42

someone all gasp no brakes situation. Tell me what you thought

Paul J Daly: 0:45

it would be really interesting to be able to go back and get teenage Caliente age Kyle together and see how that interaction went. I have no idea what you were like it as a teenager.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:55

All right, I'll give I'll give it I'll give you the simple stuff from like, when you become a teenager 13 to we'll call it 15, which is sophomore year, you'd have found me in a corner not talking to anybody I know. completely surprising. Like, you would have never actually interacted with me. Okay. And then all of a sudden, junior year, you would have come back to high school. And you'd have been like, Who's this Kayo kid that all of a sudden started coming to our school?

Paul J Daly: 1:21

Oh my gosh, did you play music in high school?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:25

No, actually, I did not learn how to play the guitar until until my junior year in high school. Gotcha. Interesting. I was not a musician at my early age. So high school, I

Paul J Daly: 1:37

was still pretty much very personable. I was very personable, and like I had in my sophomore year is when I found the guitar. And that from then on, it was like bands and concerts and, you know, get my driver's license.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:53

I never I never had the Garage Band thing.

Paul J Daly: 1:55

I know, we didn't have a garage. But we had a garage band. Yeah, I mean, like, like it was nirvana. It was I was in high school in the mid 90s. So it was like some type of pilots. But you know, all that stuff. Either way, we're gonna put on a little show of our own though, hey, this trip has been back from high school to now to how can we put on shows for people. So on our third annual year end extravaganza is coming up quickly on December 21. It is going to be an hour ish of industry recap. Looking ahead, we're having a ton of guests come on the show. If you've seen any of the other two, you realize this is just a time to have a little fun to hear to learn a little bit to get a little insight and to really like just a little family time let's celebrate the people or if the comments on the LinkedIn lives usually get lit up. So it's so much fun to just be in the comments. So go to our LinkedIn page asoto just search ASOTU on LinkedIn, click on Events and you'll see it right there. We hope you can attend the event check the live stream it'll also be on YouTube and stuff like that. If you're it's gonna be so if you're new to person, but we really hope you can join us because it's kind of like our little year end gift to the industry. Yeah, we'll call it that. Oh, tomorrow. What do we got going on? We got a fast pace webinar tomorrow.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:08

He got a really good webinar tomorrow. They're only it's only 2025 minutes. We get in get out. Make sure you get some information that can help you in the store. This one is with upstart and it's all about transforming car buying the power of connected auto retailing. What I love about this is we have Karen Berger, the GM of colonial VW and Subaru along with Oksana Campbell to do this assessment or for upstart kind of working together to talk through this. So it's a real practitioner talking about exactly what they're doing in the store, challenging and changing the consumer experience. So I can't wait to have this conversation. It's always good. You should join go to a soda.com Scroll down just a little bit.

Paul J Daly: 3:48

You can't miss it. Yes. So he's going to hear what the dealer is doing on the front line. I think that's always what it is. Oh, we have a fun announcement. We're gonna skip it for now. But Kyle and I have been asked to moderate a special dealer only thing in NADA this year. I'll talk about that another time. But for now, let's get into some news. Here we go. We're gonna talk a little bit, Evie from the OEMs what the dealers are saying on the front lines. So Ford is slashing its F 150 Lightning product in half in 2024 as the market demands and the Eevee narrative are rapidly shifting, so the new target is around 1600 vehicles per week at the rogue electric vehicle center in Michigan. According here's how we found that this up here's how Jamie butters put on a burglar costume. No, no, no, that's not how this happened. So basically this is according to a subpar supplier memo that was obtained by automotive news. So you know the supplier roll back in the memo before it's like hey, we're cutting production back. That's how we found this out. I'm sure Ford will have a statement on it. Soon, Ford delayed about 12 billion in evey investments and have adjusted their production targets even as November sales of the lightning hit an all time high. Meanwhile, of course worse the production of their gas powered F 150s in Michigan and Missouri, remain stable across the board. No surprise there. And here's a quote from the Ford CFO John Lawler says what he said in October, he said, the narrative has been has taken over that EVs aren't growing, they're growing. It's just growing at a slower pace than the industry. And quite frankly,

Kyle Mountsier: 5:20

we expect it. Yeah, I think that that's that's the, the dichotomy in the conversation right now. I hear a lot of people and a lot of news sources and a lot of citing and we're about to get to what dealers have to say about it. But there's a lot of this well, EVS nobody, nobody wants an Eevee. And I think that or not as many people want any v as we expected would be the case at this point. It's it, you know, just the the note that they had an uptick in sales in November for their all time high of the lightning sales shows, hey, this is still progressing up. It's, it's just not the big old, you know, exponential curve that maybe the manufacturers and the government were expecting at this point. So don't I wouldn't totally get out on EVs. It's just that there's a more measured approach coming from these OEMs. I mean, you mean production in half? Well, yeah,

Paul J Daly: 6:17

other than just the lightning, though, they have other stuff. That's true. They have other stuff. But you mean to tell me that when the narrative on one side is everyone wants an Eevee? And then the narrative swings to the other side that no one wants to Eevee that it might just be possible that we're wanting to be

Kyle Mountsier: 6:35

believable? Something about measured approach? General things?

Paul J Daly: 6:40

Speaking of measured approaches, yes. All right. So let's hear what dealers have to say about this issue. This from a Wall Street Journal or journal article today, talking about what Evie adoption is looking like from the front lines. And we're gonna give you a series of quotes from some dealers and also a quote from Mary Barra, CEO of GM. So first one is from I don't have their first name. The thing is Steve or show, love our show. Basically, he is or she I got this all messed up. I don't have it in the notes. Vice President of she he auto sales said we thought we could build all of our show Hall our show, how can I forget that we thought we could build a million of them and sell them said PowerShell, Vice President and she stores with sells vehicles from a dozen different brands in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, their Evie supply day supply is currently six to 12 months, when obviously the gas is way lower, he continued, we have a steady number of clients that have attempted or flat out return their car. So that's one dealer's perspective, right? Pretty big group to like, they have a little experience. We're not talking about a little rock rock lot. Here's another one. This is from Mary rice dealer principal at Toyota of Greensboro in North Carolina. She says I'm not hearing the consumer confidence in the technology. People aren't beating down the door to buy these things. And they have a different excuse. They all have a different excuse, why they aren't buying rice continued. I start to think, you know, maybe we should just all pump the brakes a little bit. Maybe we should maybe we should. A final quote is from GM CEO Mary Barra. She says although the rate of growth has slowed recently, Evie demand is clearly moving in the right direction. She said this in a recent conference call with analysts. A combination of more affordable options, and better charging infrastructure would help encourage more people to buy electric vehicles.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:31

Yeah, absolutely. I think there is so much fear in where and when am I going to charge this thing? And how much do I have to pay to get into this new technology? It's like, I mean, you remember when OLED TVs came out? Nobody was running to Walmart to buy those things. But now it's just that was a cost issue. Right? That

Paul J Daly: 8:52

was a cost issue. I mean, I want an 8k TV. I don't want to spend six grand, right?

Kyle Mountsier: 8:57

I mean, you want to Navy, you don't want to spend 90 grand, that's a good point. That is a good good point. Also, you want an Eevee you don't want to spend an extra $1,000 Installing the thing you want an Eevee you don't want to have to wait 30 minutes to charge it in a non non standard location like a gas station which is on a corner so there's these barriers to entry that will be overcome I believe in the near shore to five years but it just takes time experience to

Paul J Daly: 9:27

like people saying like right like back to your you want an Eevee but if you live up where I do in upstate New York, you don't want to wake up drive your car outside and realize that your gas tank is or your fuel tank is a third less full just because it's cold out Yep.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:40

Well and I think like things like the rental car companies continuing to commit to EVs. Yeah, if dealers even are providing EVs and their loaner fleets can be an opportunity to get people into these vehicles and get them experiencing them. I would say if you have that put Some sort of experience coordinator in that role where they can actually train that person on how to like, prepare your customers for the next purchase 234 years down the line right now with their loaner fleet, or with rental vehicles, so that that way when they get in to actually own it, they have some level of education on actually driving the

Paul J Daly: 10:21

fan experience. Yeah, it just takes like one time to realize like, Oh, this is what it's all about. You know, I've driven a few I don't own one and I have a lot of friends that are starting to own them. I wonder like, what is what is the first Evie our own? Right like, because even me like I'm pretty much a normal commuter, but I do take my share of like, road trips, visiting clients, this and that. And it's the long range stuff and Evie would be great for me my everyday life. I don't know. I like the key even nine. I'm waiting to see. Well, I think I like it. I think I like it.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:50

It looks nice.

Paul J Daly: 10:51

It looks nice. But the 350 mile range is just like it's got to just be a little higher for me ittle bit. Speaking of things that are ticking up, segue

Kyle Mountsier: 11:04

prepare to be surprised here we go. According to a new Pew Research research study, teams prefer YouTube to Tik Tok is a growing number, say there on the platforms almost constantly. Approximately 90% of teens use YouTube on a regular basis, making it the most popular platform and the Pew Research Center survey with tick tock, second at 63%. Snapchat at 60% Instagram at 59%. So a little tight race for number two. So what we see is that the platforms are shifting actually, in 2014, and 2015. Facebook was used by over 70% of teens. And it's now down to 33%. Twitter has also seen a significant decline. Twitter renamed to x. This is this was the wild one, nearly one in five teens report using YouTube and Tiktok in combination, quote unquote, almost constantly. Third of teens use at least one of the five sites.

Paul J Daly: 12:08

Yeah, if you put them all together, it's a third of teens saying I use it almost constantly. So look, we could definitely get into the conversation of what is this doing to the teenage mind and all that. But I think the reality is there are a couple surprises in this we'll have that's for a different podcast, but but I think a few of the surprises for me number one, that YouTube is that far above the other platforms. At first that shocked me, but then I thought of like the teens I have three teenagers in my house or two teens one preteen and they do use YouTube well they don't have Tik Tok. So kind of not an apples to apples, but they are all in on these YouTube creators and YouTube ecosystems in the comment sections. It's actually very interactive. Yeah. And my my oldest, my 17 year old son told me just yesterday, last night, we were having a conversation. He goes, You know what, what's really trending up as people are getting sick. There's so much polished content out there, people actually starting to gravitate toward these very low production, real life, real life people. And that makes a lot of sense. You see, I saw another study about depression rates and all that coming out of COVID. Like people are more depressed and feeling more lonely and more by themselves. It's because there's no more shared experience the people out there doing real regular life, and the people just having life on their phones, big disparity there. I think we can all pay a little bit more attention to where what content we're making as an industry and where we're putting it because I gotta tell you, if you're trying to get teenagers that are getting their licenses and the young Jen's ears are the old Jen's ears. Are you really working on YouTube? Probably not. Well, and

Kyle Mountsier: 13:43

and here's the other thing is, it's it's a signal that longer form content is actually coming back, right? Like, if yes, there's YouTube shorts. And that's extremely popular, but there's more desired, longer form content that feels real. And so why not start to press into slightly longer form content as a dealership or dealer group? Because this is what always happens. The trend always is begun by the emerging generation. Whatever the digital trend is, is always like you think about 10 years ago, it was all what are millennials doing? Well, that's what essentially everyone starts doing right now. It's what is Gen Z doing? What are the teenagers doing? That's going to be over the next two to three years, it will be the macro trend. And so if you start to focus on what the trend is there, you'll be capturing the broader more macro trend a little bit earlier than a

Paul J Daly: 14:39

beachfront property, speech from property each month. Gotta get that first row, not the second SEC rose. Okay, first of all is better. Look, it's Tuesday. It's sunny and a lot of places get out there, sell some cars, serve some people, check out the urine extravaganza, go to our LinkedIn soda.