DMSC Wraps, NADA and State Associations grill VW, 100 Year Battery

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Paul Daly  00:24

Yo we are rounding the corner to Diary of a troublemaker kind of day round on the corner, third base Thursday, talking about DMS wrapping up, and some other things when they got all distracted that diary of a troublemaker one of my favorite pieces of swag is one

Kyle Mountsier  00:47

of my favorite pieces of swag. Actually, I sometimes I forget about it, it sits over here on my desk I have I have it when I like really need to write something down and have it you know, etched in memory. Right. And Don Brady shared, he was like I write in this thing every day the other day. And I was just thinking like, if you took the automotive industry as a whole, and, and kind of captured the diaries of the intentionality around every day, the business practice of the stories that are deeply entrenched in the automotive industry on a daily basis. And just like putting it and not just that, not just that, but like, put all of that there, plus these grandiose stories of kind of fun and ridiculousness, right, I was reminded that we're planning a soda con, right. And we're having a lot of great conversations around like collaboration around that. And I was reminded that, you know that and we were reminded that so much of what happens in automotive is standing around a bar at an after party, and all of the sudden, right to companies, their CEOs are standing there. And historically, they've been like at odds, and then all of a sudden, they're having a beer, they're having a soda or whatever they're doing. And all of a sudden there's a spark, that that becomes a story that changes the trajectory of automotive services, right? And that the ridiculous that happens around how that works in the automotive and how that's constantly churning and energizing. And events like dmsc, we, you know, we heard about so many of the insights and the engagement, the dealers and

Paul Daly  02:38

caches right now actually just said he just said hello. Hey, Glen. Glen patch would talk about dmsc in just a second. Exactly.

Kyle Mountsier  02:47

From hit him and Brian putting on events like that, that encourage our industry in that way. Well, the diary of the automotive industry is rich. Let me just say that is an interesting show open. It is I don't know why I got excited about that. But the diary of automotive is rich. So that's an open, that's a quick boom, and we'll get going but I got an I don't know, I was like in the 32nd countdown. And that was oh, when that happened.

Paul Daly  03:18

So, Brooke, good to see you. We missed you at DMSC too, just so you know. It wrapped yesterday, we actually have a great little tie back. Chris, our senior writer wrote a little summary of the DMSC we've been hearing nothing but great things. By the way, seeing the pictures experiencing some massive, massive, massive FOMO. That little piece you can click to get through to it in the show notes or just get the daily newsletter at a soda.com He pulled up four themes adaptability, courage, right like Brian passed from the stage apparently he's just like one of the reasons that we're not innovating is because when things are changing, everybody gets afraid. And we hold on to things I'm so interesting perspective on courage. Being proactive and being human. I heard there's an awesome session about video content and connection so near and dear to our hearts. Just want to give shout out to our friends that put on dmsc Brian patch Glen patch the whole team there for just really making some trouble at the dmsc conferences for a long time. And that is the conference where I can't man. Imagine if we could quantify how many things happened around around some drinks and some wine afterwards. And some just casual conversations that turned into serious transformation in the auto industry. That's exactly what we're talking about. We've been talking all week about asoto con plans ramping up full speed. We've had, I don't know we probably 20 calls deep we have about 20 more calls to go. And like we have been pitching a soda con to everybody. And the more we talk about it, the more excited we get. Because we realize pulling in together these elements of education but more collaboration and fixing problems in an environment that's more like South by Southwest. That is actually how the She's going to innovate. And I'm really excited for the synthesis of some a major transitions and auto happening at a soda con, you can't get really much information now except for what you get here. But you can go to asotu.com Little name on the crappy website right there. So that once the great website is out, you will

Kyle Mountsier  05:17

get it to be amazing, we promise and you will see Italy promise

Paul Daly  05:21

Oh, and Glen Glen just wants us to mention and I'd love to mention that you can get a virtual pass still to dmsc. And watch all the content. If you missed it, I am going to try to check out the content that I missed as well. We get mentioned yesterday in the morning that we wanted to do something if anyone had any idea of how we could kind of band together as an industry and give it a meaningful way to the families and the victims of the volley massacre. How we could do that together. And Kyle, your your wife kind of came through with with what we've added kind of out as the best place to do that collectively. And we link it up in the show notes. It's a GoFundMe account, you can just search by the name to get to this specific one.

Kyle Mountsier  06:01

Yeah, it's actually it's not a GoFundMe account, specifically, but GoFundMe has done the hard work of finding vetting it all out vetting the ones that are like legit being raised by the right people, there's actually like a general fund that's been put on that raised over $2.7 million at this point. So if you search on GoFundMe, or if you link in our show notes, you can find kind of those top top options on GoFundMe. They've vetted it done the research done the work to make sure that your money is going to the right places. And it's just a really simple way to kind of give back wherever you're at in the country, for those affected by that loss. So just just a really neat find by my wife and shout out to her. I know she listens every day. And if you do have the capacity to give, make sure you go and find those places to do that.

Paul Daly  06:55

They go we also just posted it in the comments. And unfortunately, LinkedIn, we can't post the comments from stream yard come on stream yard, give it the program, or maybe it's LinkedIn. That's not what the program I don't know. Y'all need to play nicely together. We're following this story about VW is announcement that they're going to release a pickup electric pickup an SUV under the brand name Scout, saying it is going to be a standalone brand and not related to the dealers. We started this out. This is kind of our third iteration on this. We brought it up when it came out. The VW rep in the elevator seemed to know nothing about it. And then we figured out why because VW said we're releasing it as an independent brand to which every VW dealer was like what is going on. So, automotive news article says in a letter dated Tuesday to Scott Q, CEO of VW group of America at the NADA a CEO Mike standard, who we all know address the lack of information from the scout announcement and urge Keo to quickly and clearly communicate their distribution plan to your dealers who have made significant investments to support VW as business model, the transformation to electrification. He's like look, Keo has historically been a he said, a full throated advocate of the auto dealer network and said, the longer you let dealers go without information, right, the more speculation and potentially misinformation is going to fill the void. So we have a little bit of our very own Real Housewives episode here

Kyle Mountsier  08:23

in automotive. Well, here's what I love about this is a lot of times, you know, there are, you know, varying opinions as to what nada is doing on a day to day basis. And I think if you ask him polled, the executives in dealerships, the owners, the partners, the people that are involved in nada, they understand the lobbying, they understand how, how that's working with the dealers to continue to build bridges, both politically and with the OEMs. And I think, you know, for the people that are listening to this across the industry listening to this across the dealer network, is just recognize that these organizations are the reason why the franchise dealership network is so strong in the US, and that it doesn't get thwarted by just OEMs just deciding to do things similar to what Mercedes Benz is doing in Germany right now. And in Europe. These are organizations, the state organizations, and a DEA that are making sure that everything that we believe that the retail auto dealer network is the best possible way to deliver and service vehicles continues to say the truth within the OEM relationships. And I think that the OEMs are actually well served by that because it's, it's a listening voice in a way that is maybe not the way that happens on dealer councils or indirect relationships. It's an indirect third party that allows that conversation to continue to happen in a positive way.

Paul Daly  09:53

They're one of the elements of the story that I like, is that the state associations all of a sudden stepped up in mass as well. And on behalf of their VW dealers, I don't know if it's all the state associations, but a lot of the state associations penned their own letters of, you know, varying tones. And you know, because obviously, you have like a lot of different people communicating, you know, their interests and frustrations or whatever it was. And I kind of got reminded, you know, the fight scene and Anchorman. Yeah, so they all kind of came up in the alley, it's like nada, the state associations come up. And, and I know, it doesn't have to be I mean, look, there's some contention in the relationship right now. Because obviously, there are like the dealers have been what made Volkswagen what it is in the United States communicated the needs for the pickup truck probably helped push a lot of the Evie movement through VW dealers talking about the future of electrification in VW. And then especially VW, especially Oh, yeah, and especially one that, you know, it's thinking of our friend John Luciano, in Amarillo, Texas, because that's a huge pickup truck market. Right? He He dominated with VW in a pickup truck market in West Texas. And so to finally think golf are gonna get a pickup, we're gonna get a pickup. Maybe not. So, VW if anyone's listening. I mean, they have refused to comment, and I don't think this show is going to make them comment. But but my my guts telling me right now, they're figuring out like, what are we gonna do with this one? What are we gonna do with this one?

Kyle Mountsier  11:31

Yeah, and this, this is the every, every time something new happens, you know, from GM to Ford to VW, it starts to set a precedent for what all the other OEMs in the US start to recognize they should or can be doing?

Paul Daly  11:46

Yeah, without a doubt. So, you know, I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful that VW will realize and execute through the dealer network. And this just goes to show you why continually, we need as the dealer network as the retail dealership, you know, conglomerate need to consistently show and prove that we are the best way to sell service and deliver vehicles, whether they're EVs or ice vehicles, or motor scooters, whatever they are airplanes, quad copters, we are the best way because we are tied in we have to prove it every day, day in and day out. Can you imagine if

Kyle Mountsier  12:21

one of you know I want to throw this out there, we're gonna we're gonna get, there's only like, we get anywhere between 60 and 150 downloads on this podcast per day. But if anyone knows someone at the OEM level, that would be interested in attending and communicating with us at a soda con, open invitation to executives at OEMs, you have to be able to sit down and have those conversations do network in asoto. And so we just want to throw that out there like if you have those connections, but we want to make those inroads. And that's just a full on open invitation. Because the conversation happening in these at these levels. Absolutely has to happen faster, and more often. And so we want to help curate that.

Paul Daly  13:07

No, that's a great, that's a great mention. That's a great mention. You know, I drove by like a furniture store the other day, and you know how they're all like selling purple mattresses now? Yes. Right. The brand purple starters, direct consumer brand. And then before you know it, they were like, You know what, I think we know how to take this

Kyle Mountsier  13:24

little spots that do this thing all the

Paul Daly  13:27

time. I was thinking I was like, Would it be interesting if like a direct to consumer, Evie brand, all of a sudden, like the light bulb clicked on. And they went to the dealer network. And we're like, oh, actually, we can get these vehicles out really fast. And give a great customer experience. Like if we just leverage this not so hidden gem, right? So we'll see what comes with that. But, you know, hey, at the end of the day, if you don't fully communicate your intentions just in leadership, or communication, or team in general, guess what the lizard brain is going to kick in and everyone's going to assume that you're out to kill them. That's just how it works. That's how it works. Sorry, one more story here, a new paper that just was released a joint venture between Tesla and Jeff Don's Dalhousie University. I don't know that's not a familiar one. But you articles in today's daily pushback email, if you don't get it, a soda.com sign up for the email stuff like this is in there every morning. This isn't there today. And they they say that they've successfully tested technology that would give us a 100 year battery 100 years that would be just changing. Well, you think I mean, because everyone, there's a lot of questions around whether or not it's actually sustainable for actually doing anything good for the environment by lithium and metals, and then pushing out this lump of toxic materials that is just going to be here for the next 100,000 years because it's never going to break down. So if all of a sudden instead of like a you know a five to eight or 10 year battery life if all sudden we get a 10 time is the life on that that sounds a little bit

Kyle Mountsier  15:02

better change the conversation a little bit, right? Yeah, absolutely. I

Paul Daly  15:05

mean, the one the one thing, obviously was an initial and controlled experiment. 77 degrees Fahrenheit, you

Kyle Mountsier  15:12

got to live in San Diego. But to make it work, San Diego is the place it's gonna be perfect. We're gonna have everyone in San Diego, except we're

Paul Daly  15:22

not sure San Diego is gonna be here 100 years from now, because of that fault line thing. So all that coming together. But I think a really great takeaway is this, that things new technologies come out, new things start to shift and change. But honestly, when you're committed to innovation, something new always comes up. Right and new thing always comes up. That's like the triumph of the human spirit. Right? And that with all the attention on EVs, all the attention on battery technology, like I believe that human race is going to find a better way to do it. So I agree.

Kyle Mountsier  15:57

Yeah. And here's what's cool. A couple of days ago, I wrote in in the in the email kind of the lead of it, just like constantly be willing to take something that's working well break it down to nothing and figure out if that's still the best way. Right. And I think that if we continue to think that instead of just stopping it going like EVs that 100% Next way, what if we, in the middle of something that's working, well start to go break it down to nothing, and build it back up? Again? What actually is the best way? Is it that or is it something new or is it something you know, combined of the couple, and I think if we continue to do that, as an industry and as businesses, we're going to see innovation move quicker and quicker.

Paul Daly  16:36

Go from Kyle's lips to everyone's ears, may we all do that today because that is the constant March. We are on banding together, pushing back, pushing forward pushing in every which way they come a little trouble

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