Super Capacity EV Batteries, Reinstating the Frontline Retailer, Chatbot Drive Thru

Paul Daly: 0:26Tuesday, everybody already Tuesday. We're so excited our team is on their way to Atlanta as we speak. But today First we're going to talk about Super capacity Evie batteries, frontline retailers and chatbot drive throughs I didn't think I was gonna land that

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:41

Wow. Strong he was I was like, you hit capacity and I was like, There's no way

Paul Daly: 0:49

we're gonna make this happen. Oh, we have that pregame team feeling

Kyle Mountsier: 0:54

converging. We had. Chris, his, you know, our lead writer. He wrote in with his family yesterday. We got Nathan and Danielle rolling in the day. We got my family's rolling in the day to Atlanta.It's literally we figured we were like early early on in this project. Oh, we're only going to need half of the asoto team down in Atlanta. Welke happens. Oh,crews come in. So if you're in Atlanta, you cannot miss it.Because when our whole crew gets in town, the whole attitude that whole energy totally gets amplified. And it's going to be a tunnel. A ton of fun tomorrow night. So if you don't know, uh,so do x.com You can get tickets tomorrow night at the Buckhead theater, just north of downtown Atlanta. We're doing another more than cars screening. And we're doing the live tonight show. So if you haven't seen more than cars on our big old screen, never seen the live tonight show you gotta catch up.Because we're we got a full band, and giveaways. And some of the best guests you've ever heard of this side of the East,

Paul Daly: 1:55

and Kyle's gonna let me pick out his tie. So, so I was like, I think I was like, I think I'm doing a blue tie. This time. We did black ties for all the last shows. And he was just like, when do I have time to get that? He goes, and I don't mean in a way like, oh my gosh, what do I have time to do that? He's like, No, literally, when do I have time to do that? I was like, I'll get you one. He's like, don't get me one of those big old fat ties that you like to wear. I don't know where he got that from. Because if you look at every picture, my tie is maybe even thinner than this.But I was like, okay, no fat tie for Kyle. And here's how we're going to do this. Ready? How I'm gonna go. I'm going to pick out two. And I'll let you choose which one you want. It's the old like the kids. Okay, your cookie. The one kid cuts the cookie. The other

Kyle Mountsier: 2:37

color tie, like I so I've been in the car business, Paul for a hot minute.day when it was ties and white shirts every day no matter what.So yeah. So I can rock a tie.You throw up pressure on me.We'll be

Paul Daly: 2:52

we're going blue.We're going. Blue boards floors,still. I know. I know. Okay, so we're heading into Atlanta. We hope you join us. We got we looked at the registration list.And there's probably gonna be several 100 people there. And we have technicians, accounting office, marketers. Salespeople,like reset. We have the whole representation of the industry up in this place. Wait, we got NBC people coming? We got what's just cool. I hope that MPs MVC people see more than cars because there's a little bit of synergy there. I don't know a lot going on. But for today, we have to talk about some news. We got to get to it, and maybe why you're here. Maybe not. But maybe you are. Hey, bonjour,Tony. I love it when people in the live stream comment in French,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:35

Tony. So Tony was I know this. I got little insider news. Tony was just in potty.

Paul Daly: 3:43

He's still feeling it.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:47

He hasn't come off the high.

Paul Daly: 3:48

I understand. I understand. All right, let's talk about some news. Amidst the turbulent season. We talked about this yesterday following its annual shareholder meeting,Toyota dropped some details on their upcoming battery technology outlining their plan to become a leader in the Evie space. The carmaker plans to launch new battery technology and refine its production system for efficient manufacturing.This is super impressive. I was like leave it the Toyota. They revealed its plan to develop solid state batteries for EVs capable for as much as get this900 mile range as well as software systems that just auto update.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:25

This is exactly what I was I said this like two weeks ago is Toyota is just kind of do the apple thing. They're just like Yeah, everybody's doing a thing. Don't worry about it, then they're just gonna come in and just hit everyone we should arrange solid

Paul Daly: 4:38

state battery. On this. They outlined actually five new batteries that will debut by the end of the decade starting with Next Generation lithium ion power pack to be released in 2026. Later versions get this this is my favorite.It's a bipolar lithium ion phosphate battery. Sounds like it needs a little counseling.Also a nickel based bipolar lithium ion. Oh wait had that in there twice? No. Oh yeah, the same thing without the phosphate VM with nickel. Yep, there you're dealing with phosphate,as well as two other solid state batteries. There are deploying aerodynamics for their next gen EVs, that deploy literal rocket science is pretty fun to say.And they're overhauling their production system, big surprise there to reduce costs and improve efficiencies with new techniques, including Giga casting, self propelled production, and other innovations. So, I mean, if I think there are probably a few people that were at the shareholder meeting, maybe like,piling on the rabbit for a minute that are just like, Ooh,

Kyle Mountsier: 5:37

maybe like,probably. There it is, we got to plan. I, you know, I ended up kicking the coverage. It doesn't surprise me at all, you know, if you've been around the auto industry at all, for the last,what is it? 40 years at this point, you know, whether or not you love the Toyota car, or the brand or the drive or anything,doesn't matter, their approach to manufacturing, to research and development, to consumer insights, to driving brand through through their dealer partners. All of those approaches are just measured and accurate. And there they may seem late to the game sometimes.But literally, Paul right now,I've talked to three Toyota dealers this week, meaning yesterday that are still selling through 70% plus of their inbound inventory, right. Right.Believe can't keep ground stock barely. And their customers love them.

Paul Daly: 6:40

They're happy Jim Elliot chimes in on a live stream. Toyota is never the first mover but ultimately, the best mover. I don't think we could have said it better ourselves.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:49

Yeah. Couldn't have said it better myself speaking to movers.

Paul Daly: 6:53

Hey, segway. So they had strategize, cutting off frontline retailers and going direct to consumer instead who were talking about not an automaker, know, Nike, Nike is now reversing course and reintroducing wholesale partners back into their business model of the decision comes after Nike significantly reduced its number of retail partners in 2017.Through 2022, we had talked about this story several times last year, as they were backing off saying our direct to consumer sales are strong, we're going vertical. And they cut ties with DSW, sporting goods stores, Urban Outfitters Zappos,they cut ties with all these folks. And now they're acknowledging the importance of providing multi channel options for customers who'd like going into the store, and like seeing the product and like talking to a person. And so they're also working on improving their relationship with footlocker who they didn't really disrupt that much. But they did pull back some of the leverage. So I thought this was an interesting story to come in there just to kind of go along with the narrative we've been seeing that people actually want to come into stores Gen Z wants to come

Kyle Mountsier: 7:59

and store and then not just want to come into any store, they they're still like, where optionality and shopping actually makes a lot of sense. And so you look at this,and that, you know, Nike has stores, Nike has brick and mortar, but they get the opportunity now to have a more a wider distribution, more people in more places can can browse their brands. And they they, I mean, I don't know if you notice this, but in a lot of these different like sub sub brands and wholesalers, they actually produce different product lines to meet like, yep, marks

Paul Daly: 8:35

for that just for that brand, right, exact price point and hit the style

Kyle Mountsier: 8:39

preferences.Yeah, so it makes a lot of sense, when, especially when in those marketplaces, you already have all of your competitors listed there as well. It's really interesting, because this was something that back to, you know, like an apple reference,they initially didn't have a lot of distribution partners, but it figured out how to work with their distribution of wholesale partners to still maintain a lot of brand equity, but also play in the spaces where, where everybody else is like, for instance, used to never see Apple at a Best Buy, right? But now they've worked with BestBuy to craft an experience inside their retail model, especially the brick and mortar retail model. And that's what Nike has done so well with brands like footlocker where it's like they actually have dedicated space,their retail branding is synchronous with everything that they do from a direct to consumer side of things in the footlocker so, I think that this is really important, especially when, when we think about like,okay, franchise retailers have bunch of us cars, multiple different options across brands,but also have dedicated retail space for their primary brand.How do you how do you navigate that? How do you navigate the communications are all like important things that we need to be thinking about and talking about and it's cool to see one of these big brands lean back into wholesale partners,

Paul Daly: 10:00

I think bringing this the wheel getting the wheels to the ground on automotive, it's just retail buying behavior and to see indicators like this should have OEMs leaning in and saying like, okay, and granted the rhetoric on going direct to consumer has died down quite a bit apps in the last six to nine months, right it was all people were talking about a year ago.And so it seems like it's quietly making a shift as the case for dealer network as the case for people being able to be served by local people who understand the product and put all of their time and energy into it. But this should just be another another tick in that side of the consideration matrix. Where I think the retail customers are just telling us what they want and like he happens to be paying attention to the order speaking of ordering segway

Kyle Mountsier: 10:50

well so you know, if AI is going to dominate all of humanity, they first need to do one simple task that every teenager is tasked with and that's to figure out how to take an order for burger and fries correctly. It's been tested in various facets, teenagers know how to do that. Some of them some of the best ones. They all work at Chick fil A. As my kids say they take away major fast food chains like White Castle,McDonald's, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts are all testing AI chat bots to take orders through the drive throughs. And they have they've been designed to streamline operations reduce workload, customers have started to have a little bit of varied responses, actually, in particular with white Castle's new bot, Julie, even, even with like her prompt politeness ability to take the order. Three out of 10 customers right now are still requesting a human on the other side of that exchange,after things are not going exactly as they would have planned. White castles VP of Operations, Michael Glennon said, unlike a human, the chat bots are never shy about selling more. Nor do they need a break.Or to get distracted by other business. He's like basically,they don't have iPhones

Paul Daly: 12:08

are one airpot in their ear? Exactly. I could never understand that. John Lewis, a retired carpenter from nearby Lowell had to repeat his order for onion ring several times. And he called the system quote, a pain in the butt. I can I can I think they should have named the jewels. First of all,I think Julie is too buttoned up for White Castle. I think it should have been jewels. That's definitely definitely should have been Oh, no, I've

Kyle Mountsier: 12:34

seen some bite buttoned up white castles. So

Paul Daly: 12:37

you know, not I haven't. You'll bring me to watch. And so but I think that it'll just get better. I think that I would prefer a bot based on my drive thru ordering experiences, not a Chick fil A but everywhere else. And upselling kind of skimmed over it in this article. But the upselling capacity of a bot.Just thinking like how not McDonald's did those 99 cent apple pies or whatever, that always will ask, Would you would you like to upsize? Would you like to add a chocolate chip cookie to your order for just 99cents, like you think of just the the at bats that it's going to get to upsell on those high margin items that are just tacked on for $1 $2. At the end of the meal, I think that's going to probably be one of the biggest impacts of the it'll be

Kyle Mountsier: 13:23

one of the biggest impacts the bottom line but I suspect that there may be a move away from Drive Thru ordering systems where that becomes so much of a part of of the system. Like we've been talking a lot about, you know,the tip, the tipping like a coffee shop or any local restaurant that uses like Square app or anything like that. And this like slight level of anxiety when paying that happens wondering whether or not you should be tipping based on like how so how you would typically at a regular restaurant, I think that same anxiety is going to creep in like initially it's going to be fun, it's going to be cool. But I think they're going to have to balance, like how they engage with customers and how often they're asking the questions because I personally,I can imagine I would just quit going to these places every time I'm like, No, I don't want the apple pie. No, I don't want the apple pie. No, I don't it's I feel

Paul Daly: 14:15

I feel less pressure when it's a bot. Oh, man. Do you want to know like, yeah, you know, like some people are just super rude to bots. I'm not gonna I can't even be super rude the bots and I've, and you're the same way James Jolie? No,no, not even that because I've we've we've been kind of like screen sharing while each of us had been using live chat GPT and both of us still use the word please. That's like, will you please feel terrible about it?You should you should it. I think it says something about your character. Like they just have that level and I think it's good to build that and look. The last thing I want to do is teach my kids to just boss things around like my three year old bosses enough around that three So it's like, you know, be polite to the bottom. People like to the bottom like because he says,

Kyle Mountsier: 15:05

a way to end our day.

Paul Daly: 15:06

If you're applying to the bot, let us know. Or if you just bark orders at it, that's cool too. Let us know in the comments if you're gonna be in Atlanta or Soto x.com or the live stream will be on Thursday.You can catch that there as well.

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