Profitable Stellantis EVs, GM Back to Office, Elon’s Schematics

Paul J Daly: 0:35

It is Thursday, December 7. And is it a I thought you said eighth. I thought it was correct. In my date. We are outside in Houston, Texas, it is 49 degrees. And as usual, we're the first people up to talk about some automotive. I think we're the first people I'm talking about automotive, at least on the airwaves, at least

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:53

in Central Time. central time minimum.

Paul J Daly: 0:55

Actually, I don't know if there's anybody else that is awake, doing a live show about the automotive industry earlier than earlier than you and I every day in the world.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:04

I would I would argue that's, that's, that's true.

Paul J Daly: 1:06

I think that's I'm proud. I'm proud of us to let's just be proud of ourselves. A lot going on today. A lot going on this month. Obviously Christmas holiday travel. We're starting to hear people start to make that holiday week exception and all of their plans. Well, it is holidays and things are you know, so that means we're there. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:24

I'm loving to see. I'm starting to see the like drip feed on LinkedIn of Christmas party starting to hit Oh, yeah, the dealers and for the industry partners. Everyone's gathered around eating good food. Think all

Paul J Daly: 1:37

of our Uber drivers had Christmas music on so far. And I'm just gonna say it's weird still to be down south, where there's no snow and no cold weather. And it's Christmas. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 1:48

49 That's cold breath.

Paul J Daly: 1:50

We're doing all round proud of you. You do. You grew up in Ohio, you're fine out here. Today we're talking about a few things. The first one to talk about our new Auto Collabs episode with Alex Lawrence. This was a really fun conversation. So Alex evey cars and let's see other company talking about two links. There's so much fun. You can check this out Auto Collabs just search it on Apple Spotify all. Kyle myself, Michael Cirillo interview Alex and I just had a really fun conversation. And we also have our year end extravaganza coming up. Speaking of Christmas,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:24

he Yeah, December 20. It'll be 1pm on December 20. So we're doing few things at 1pm is kind of like the art jam. We get you on the lunch hour, but it'll be a fun, action packed hour. Looking back at the year of 2023 and looking forward into 2024. We'll have some fun guests. Can't wait to share that time with

Paul J Daly: 2:44

you. Yes, it's alright, let's talk about some news. So it's the Lanta CEO Carlos Tavares. We don't talk a lot about Cilan I realized that we put the story in this morning, he announced that the company's EVs were profitable Whoa, both the US a your SP the money. I know. I know it so you said that and they are closing the gap on the profitability between their EVs and their ice vehicles. He emphasized the necessity of sharp cost management to stay profitable and keeping vehicles affordable for the middle class. He said the gap between the two are closing because more quickly in Europe than it is in the US obviously because they started earlier in the US they're going to be expanding their Evie lineup planning get this 75 New Evie models by I wish we had the trigger button the year 2030 2030 Still in style with a focus focus on models like the ram promaster that makes a lot of sense. Facility

Kyle Mountsier: 3:43

business commercial commercial Yep.

Paul J Daly: 3:47

The Jeep Re and the Jeep recon in the US I don't know what vehicle that I have

Kyle Mountsier: 3:50

no clue what that is. Sounds cool. Sounds cool. Sounds Yes. I think a lot of times people don't recognize the sciences is now headquartered in Europe and so it's clear why they are seeing accelerated pace there in filling that gap. And then also the the fact that scientists house a ton of brands so when you separate that high volume over 30 over 2030 You're looking at Mall dads and springing

Paul J Daly: 4:17

that's a good good point to remember Tavares did also note that's the Lantus is fighting head on that says quote, with Tesla in Europe, and Slynt the CFO Natalie Knight sets the Lantus is now Europe's number two Evie seller, beating out Tesla. Wow, number one. BYD right in Europe. Yeah, yesterday we ran that.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:41

Got him that's why we got it.

Paul J Daly: 4:44

Yeah, so how about that Tesla all of a sudden be number three in Europe so a lot to watch out for their

Kyle Mountsier: 4:49

Tesla is also struggling in Asia to read I read a couple things this week where they're steep discounts trying to gain back market share. So

Paul J Daly: 4:57

feel like wow, this is like the team that everyone loves to hate me on those things like the Patriots back in, like North Carolina, like who wants Tom Brady to win anymore? Right. Sorry. That's Carolina. Oh, I don't have a segue for this one. Not. Yeah. Speaking of coming back, come back there. General Motors has ended its flexible, quote unquote, work appropriately policy mandating office presents for three days a week, marking a significant change from the pre pandemic era approach seat GM, CEO, Mary Barra and now it's the end of the flexible policy requiring staff within 50 miles of GM to attend in person Tuesday to Thursday meeting, right.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:37

So

Paul J Daly: 5:39

I don't know what you're about to say, whatever area is 51 miles from the GM offices is about to get really popular really rentals. effective January 8, so they're giving people a little bit of time. They say, hey, we need to do this to meet critical business needs maintain company culture, they initially allowed department specific policies due to staff pushback, but now have just said across the board, you gotta come back,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:03

you gotta come back to work. You know, we've seen many other like large tech companies especially move this way a lot quicker. So interesting to see now GM, make this move that there's a location bias to it with the 50 miles. The weird thing for me is most of this move back to a hybrid work policy is requiring it kind of just the days that you pick, but for them to say, hey, Tuesday through Thursday, well, that makes more sense to me. It's fine, Lauren, that actually yeah, just coordinating meetings, coordinating, like, and just company culture. We, we see this all the time. It's hard for us like we have a fully remote culture. And that puts specific demands on the team

Paul J Daly: 6:44

demands and discipline. I mean, there's some advantages but demands and disadvantages as well. Yeah. I'm no, this is the auto industry. And if you need help understanding how to build culture while you're together every single day, even through a pandemic, you can ask an auto dealer. There

Kyle Mountsier: 6:57

you go. Speaking of understanding, segue parently, our good friend Elon Musk and his friends and all within Tesla have decided they need the legacy automakers to understand something so they've distributed a nice little free 123 guide on 48 volt architecture to other car companies, CEOs, especially legacy companies challenging them to enhance their electric vehicle manufacturing process. The guide details the implementation of 48 volt systems, key for advanced features like a steer by wire four wheel steering, and making a significant leap from traditional 12 volt systems within the vehicle. Their move democratizes knowledge in the Eevee industry, which is typically been kind of an industry that's mostly guarding your secrets. Here's the kicker. Yesterday, Jim Farley tweeted and reply. You know, of course, he tweeted this point. He said they weren't joking. We received the document today dated December fifth. Thanks Elon Musk, great for the industry.

Paul J Daly: 8:02

That's actually how we came across it write the story. Like usually we search the you know, the headlines, and we have all our publications that were subscribed to. But last night, we like just scrolling. We just saw Jim Farley tweet this out. I did anywhere else on the media except for like one absorbing obscure story. And so called torque news. Shout out the torque news. There you go.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:21

You know, our good friend Ben Hadley. He's always like, you know, the news is happening on Twitter. It's just so happens that everybody else picks it up.

Paul J Daly: 8:27

Yes, exactly. So look, a lot of people say what they want about Elon Musk, but the thought that you would share in a manual and a formal documentation and documentation technology that you've spent a lot of time energy and money developing, making mistakes on like even in in like the cybertruck This technology is deployed, there has been taken a lot of flack and a lot of heat and just saying like, look, I'm all about us developing this technology, faster, easier, more profitable, even in the midst of competition and you mentioned is sending the manual given the cheat sheet given the chicken the clip,

Kyle Mountsier: 9:00

it's a counter narrative to it. I think a lot of people say about Tesla and Elon Musk in in that he's like guarded. And we've also seen this in his efforts with AI. So you know, kudos to a car guy. We've seen him show up at things that are car specific, especially with automotive news and, and others and so, you know, the counter narrative to the earlier in the week stuff around the platform X is kind of interesting, and I love that Jim Farley and and Elon are kind of trading blows on on Twitter

Paul J Daly: 9:32

feels like the Christmas spirit to me. Whatever you're doing today, this Thursday, we hope you get out there you serve some people and put your heart and soul into what you are doing. Hey, and sign up for our email newsletter we have soto.com every day in your inbox. You have a lot of fun. If you don't like it, we'll give your money back