Tesla's Pivot, VinFast Expansion, Dealership's Kind Deed

Paul J Daly: 0:00

Good morning, everybody, it's Wednesday, April 24. Kyle dropped into the call today with a little headlines had sleep deprived, but still here. That's the auto industry showing up every day. Today we're talking about Tesla's earnings vinfast expansion. And one dealerships very kind, deep love seeing that Automotive News,

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:36

man. This is this, this right here is like, what have you Yeah, that's kind of the show. That's like the that's the noise. You know. But I got it, I'm

Paul J Daly: 0:51

calling you. I'm calling you. I spent, I spent this morning sending emails. You know, you and I both kind of do this. We get up really early, we start rocking emails, we start building shows, we start getting ready to go this morning, I was in contact with some New York State dealer associations, both in New York State and Syracuse. And I'm so excited that at this year's ASOTU CON, we're gonna have no less than six, maybe up to like 10 dealer Association representations. Because this has been always been something we've wanted to do for the last couple years. Now we're finally getting to do it. And so if you didn't hear a soda con, it's kind of this big event happening may 15 14th, through 17th. You're probably starting to see these billboards all over LinkedIn and Facebook, if you're on there. If people I got to text this

Kyle Mountsier: 1:35

morning, like yo, when am I getting my billboard? So everybody wants one? Basically a billboard that

Paul J Daly: 1:41

says whoever the person's name is, I like Kyle, when you posted yours on Monday, you're like, it's a little weird referring to yourself and the third person, but this is worth it. Because the billboard basically says your name, and it says it advertises the fact that you're going to asoto con, you'll be in a soda con. And that's the reality of it at this event. The attendees are the reason that you go to the event periodically it

Kyle Mountsier: 2:01

Yep. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about that this morning, because and you can kind of go through I've got a post on LinkedIn. But yesterday, someone was like, Man, you guys have a lot of speakers. They were like, it's got to be over 30. And I was like, it's actually over 80. And the question is always why? What's the reason for having that many speakers and the real reason for us is not just because like we want to flood the speaker list is because we know that when you get that many people having that many different conversations across two days, the participation level is already enhanced. They're thinking about it. They're talking about it in the halls, they're questioning other people, people feel more comfortable going up and going. I had a thought about that, too, because it was already a conversation. There was no, there's no like dramatic exposition. Yes, well, that's

Paul J Daly: 2:53

a great way to put it. That is a great way to put it. So if you haven't checked it out yet, go to a soda con.com Our friends at Reynolds and Reynolds, Google Google presenting sponsors, helping us put this on along with a huge list of industry partners, that I won't start listing them because if I do, I'm going to easily forget somebody. But this is a true collaboration. This is not a place to get sold at this is a place where people are actually trying to build better products, integrate things in a meaningful way. And you'll see when you show up because you're going to show up that the culture and the environment there is immediately different than any other automotive event you've ever been to. I promise money back guarantee. Go to sorta con.com Check it out. Get a ticket, get a plane ticket. BWI is right there. It's a Southwest hub. You can get there cheap, you can get there fast. And so much so much more coming on this

Kyle Mountsier: 3:44

morning told me the flights from Colorado are so cheap to BWI. Let's go it's just a time

Paul J Daly: 3:49

of year when we're like traveling to that part of the country like DC area Annapolis Baltimore. It's just not busy. So we picked a good one and right in the middle of the month too. Oh, my beginning of the month and we may have to do it.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:03

Do it quickly.

Paul J Daly: 4:05

Well, let's speak at some strategy here. All right, sandwiched between GMs stellar financial report yesterday or two days ago, and Ford's upcoming earnings this evening are actually probably like a quote when the market closes for it's going to give their earnings today. Tesla's q1 earnings call happened yesterday to show a 55% decline in income falling to 1.1 billion. It's a backdrop of a slew of growing challenges. Supply Demand. They had arson in Germany like they have some issues despite setbacks. Tesla is now planning to fast track the introduction of new vehicles utilizing both current platforms and integrating some next gen platforms. And they're saying they're going to use existing production lines to do it. So they're like not going to be a big expense for doing them with what we already producing these cars with what we already have a company shift in strategy includes a focus on we knew this was coming a big focus on autonomous vehicles and their Robo taxis not just the car, but their Robo taxi service. They said they're gonna love an app that's going to compete against Uber and Lyft for ride hailing big part of the strategy. First company make a couple of bucks. So when speaking about the much anticipated lower cost Tesla Elon Musk said in terms of a product roadmap, there's been a lot of talk, we've updated our future lineup to accelerate the launch of new models. And he said, we might see vehicles in early 2025, if not later this year in 2024. He also stressed that, you know, they would be managing existing product production lines. So, you know, everyone's saying they're bailing on the low cost models, Elon saying, No, that's still in the plan. They're going to unveil the robo taxi in August. And it made some investors happy the stock bounced 11% in after hours trading. But we'll note it's still down. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 5:56

just still crazy to me. Like, yeah, we're 55% down. Y'all still in?

Paul J Daly: 6:02

Cool, didn't feel good feeling who's feeling good, who's

Kyle Mountsier: 6:06

feeling good, you feeling I'm feeling good, we're gonna launch the new stuff, let's talk about 11% increases, it is still wild that Tesla can demand that from the market. But like the things that they're talking, you know, this is where Tesla is so diversified in the options at which they can come to market that a downturn in like sales doesn't necessarily still change because they have so much going because they have so much going on. And so this is where like, for them being an automaker is like playing in the sandbox, right? Because they're just dipping into all these things. You've got this robo taxi service, which is a completely fully verticalized service that you retain all the revenue on like, that's why you start to see this Tesla stock

Paul J Daly: 6:58

still up not being valued like a traditional manufacturer. Exactly. You know, he did, he did say this was funny. In the earnings report. He's adamant that Tesla is going to solve autonomy. And he said, If he goes, we're on such a path right now. If I were kidnapped by aliens tomorrow, he said, I like my aliens, they would still solve Tesla is still on track to solve autonomy, which as an investor, right, that has the spark confidence.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:23

Well, that's I think that's huge, because everybody kind of like sees Elon out there. And we know from our conversations with Jimmy Douglas, who used to be in charge of like the entire remarketing remarketing as well as used car market for a time at Tesla is like, the, the size and the breadth of Tesla at this point has so many smart people in the room. Yeah, with Elon being a face of it. But like the decision matrix, the amount of data that they have to put behind what they're doing the amount of smart developers writing code like it at this point, that that thing is a frickin tanker just rolling

Paul J Daly: 8:04

through. That's true. That's true. Speaking of rolling through segway, you have another another angle on Evie manufacturer from one to another. This one is leveraging a dealership model as its path to success Vietnamese manufacturer vinfast is rapidly growing its US footprint. We know this, but they've just announced 12 new franchise dealerships across several states, bringing the total up to 18 across seven states complementing their direct sales in California. So new sights, Florida, several in Texas, Kentucky, Connecticut, you know, so they're trying to, you know, despite the slow Evie sales and like the market, they're like, Hey, we're leaning in, we're bringing on dealers, they have a major factory underway, it's well on its way in North Carolina near their first vinfast dealer. You know, they want to leverage that $7,500 credit, so they will be making batteries and vehicles in the US. So they are saying their 400% increase year over year in global sales. You know, that

Kyle Mountsier: 9:07

makes sense. Yeah. Because I mean, globally, they're doing really, really well. A lot different. Yeah. So what I'm excited about is I know some people at h Gregg. I know some people had to Motrin, and we actually know someone at the Motrin that's going to be speaking at a soda con that's actually very close to this matter. Well, I'm your friend da I was given a little bit of a tip on this a little bit a little bit earlier. So it's cool to see it finally get announced that dimension. You know, I know. I know the crew over there, Ashley Cavazos is going to be at ASOTU CON. And so just just really cool to see this, you know, we've we've kind of like the Fisker has come under a lot of scrutiny. They're working on the the dealer model, but then fast, you know, still kind of flying under the radar but also being super successful and adding another 12 rooftops. And I think

Paul J Daly: 9:57

I think it's I think with vinfast It's really going to come down to come quality. It has to I really do. I mean, I think a lot of these conversations are going to come down to quality. This is something Brian Binstock was pretty adamant about and he'll be speaking at a Soto con keynoting the end of day one that's going to be a firecracker of a session but he was talking he sees test driven, driven and seeing a lot of these. I mean obviously he's a major Honda dealer so he's you know, been paying attention to Prolog but he said quality is going to be a major factor because a lot of these just don't don't have what it takes to compete. So we'll see there's a little thing called price to that people happen to be since rice

Kyle Mountsier: 10:31

Yeah, when they're $20,000. Yeah, you're

Paul J Daly: 10:35

willing you're willing to you know, like sacrifice a little of materials you don't say,

Kyle Mountsier: 10:40

speaking of a sacrifice rates. One South Dakota dealership Bernard motors definitely leaned in and sacrificed a bit. They restored hope and a 2008 Chevy Impala for free after its owner, a victim of repair scam shared her her ordeal publicly. So Amanda Galloway was moving cross country with her four year old son following a divorce when her Chevy Impala broke down in South Dakota. She was scammed by a local repair shop which charged 1000 bucks up front and then suddenly went out of business. Her car became impounded. She had an impound plus interest Bill kind of went public and shared all of this. And then an employee at Vernon motorcars in Sioux Falls, saw her story on the news and arranged to have the car towed to their dealership for free. Following that, the dealership then repaired the Impala installed a new engine, new tires of full detail, all for free, over$4,000 in services where they took care, this young lady Amanda, and you know

Paul J Daly: 11:54

who was next in line to do that there was another company that was just ready to do that it was Tesla. I'm just kidding. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 12:03

I see what you know, this

Paul J Daly: 12:05

is exactly what we talked about. When we talk about the impact of the local franchise dealers. They're paying attention locally. They're serving locally, they are able to just have an empathetic ear to what is going on around them and they are always willing to help. I love the story. 2008 just hearing the other 2008 Chevy Impala that just brought back all kinds of memories, right? I like to see

Kyle Mountsier: 12:31

the car driving down the road. Like I know what that car looks like it also I like a white Chevy Impala is always that, you know, like yes, it's so yeah, it's,

Paul J Daly: 12:42

but I didn't mention the employee. But if you know who it is, or you know it was please send their name to us DMS on LinkedIn or send it to crew at a soto.com We would love to do something special for them. But we need to find out who it is first. So if you know who that is, please send it our way. And we'll make sure we show them a little more than cars love. I guess I think that's a show. That's a show. Everybody's got something to do. It's Wednesday, that midpoint of the week we're like okay, let's huddle up. Let's get ready for the rest of the rest of this week. We're doing that. We hope you do that for a soda con, go to a soda con.com and join us

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