VinFasts Optimism, 40k Toyota Incentive, Dealer-Governor in WV?

Paul J Daly: 0:21

Hey, everybody is Friday, February 23. We have special guests host Daniel, go bear with us today. Finally rounding out cars finally coming back from Disney birthday, we're going to talk about vinfast and Toyota incentives. And a dealer governor in West Virginia, who is in who maybe it's kind of a maybe, DJ, what's up today?

‍Daniel Govaer: 0:41

Man, I just reorganized all my Asia inventory alphabetically. During that intro, I was

Paul J Daly: 0:48

a little tiny Inventory

Daniel Govaer: 0:50

Report. I'm reporting live from Beaverton and coming Georgia. As you very accurately stated in one of the most special places in automotive, I would think this is almost required. Can we make a suggestion to NADA, and this should be, this should be a required field trip.

Paul J Daly: 1:05

And you know what the thing is, Patrick would love it.

Daniel Govaer: 1:09

I mean, but you'd have to convince him at first to get cloud guys come on. Yeah, you know, it's like, no, no, like, this is special, unique. People need to come here. Without

Paul J Daly: 1:17

a doubt. Without a doubt, it is special. Well, it is Friday, we have 81 days until a soda con not that we're counting, releasing more speakers on the website every day. If you haven't gone to a soda con.com yet and clicked on the speakers tab or scroll down and see the speakers you're gonna see all the things that you missed. We had a conversation yesterday with someone who said, I go to a lot of events. And so I don't really feel like I miss out on much. But last year and a soda con, I can legitimately say, I felt like I missed something big. I was like good then we did our job right. But this year's total con is going to be something very, very special. We have over 50 speakers coming in representing over 1000 rooftops for sure, maybe maybe even more. Once we lock it in. We're gonna have dealer Association presidents all over the place. We're going to have a wall Canada's doing a breakfast event on day one. We have will get Dara New York Times best seller of unreasonable hospitality as our main keynote speaker and all types of things. You can still get early bird tickets if you go to ASOTU con.com Daniel's and plus, we're only going there all of us to see you sir.

Daniel Govaer: 2:20

I mean, avoid the FOMO right, it's really you're doing a public service avoid the FOMO you know, you don't want to be left out of the conversation. And that's actually you know what honestly different at a soda con you be part of the conversation go there actually part

Paul J Daly: 2:30

legit wise and I hate the fact that community has become a buzzword because everybody uses it. But the reality is like a community is when people talk and listen to one another care about one another's opinions decide to like hey, let's let's like do something together. And that's that's what happens at a soda con. So want you to be there. Just

Daniel Govaer: 2:49

don't don't don't save yourself the heartache now. And then, and then I mean, what and it's, it's such a cool venue to. So like, if you suddenly the last time you want to see how people are actually doing something, you want to talk to a company that will show you how they're helping somebody not just the idea of a pitch. Yep, just the best atmosphere to do it in.

Paul J Daly: 3:07

Well, hopefully no one's gonna get to the point. I'm not even thinking about like when they decided not to go. But like when we're like tickets are sold out and you're like crap, I'm just gonna wait to that last three weeks to buy my ticket. Just don't do that. Don't do that. Just get it out and save some money. Right? Everyone loves to save money. Speaking of saving money, good. Tell you the Segway game has been a little off this week because Kyle's not here. New EV and Trent OEM vinfast We've been talking about them, they are confident that their path to profitability is going to stay true despite a widening q4 loss. So they have ambitious goals for 2024. But basically, their q4 losses deepened by three and a half percent, quarter over quarter totaling $650 million quarterly loss, signaling a 1.3% increase over 22 to 2022. So they're saying this year 2024, they're going to triple their sales to 100,000 units in 2024, despite missing their $50,000 50,000 unit mark in 2023. So they sold I think 34,000 And they were targeting 50,000 They are expanding globally. They're opening this new plant in North Carolina and state Chairwoman lay through thoy says this year since we're expanding globally, we're confident we're going to achieve the guidance we're giving now. And I think the little thing in the back pocket why I think they might hit it if they can make the cars is because they've brought dealers into the fold in the US. It's like

Daniel Govaer: 4:38

yeah, I'll take the dollar that you were gonna give me for for promoting ASOTU CON I'll take $1 and bet it would have been best would be successful rate. And none of this none of this is surprising anyway like this is first of all their loss compared to everyone else's losses that they're announcing in that Okay, first of all, let me say this because this is I don't take any joy in saying this. Still less than rivian

Paul J Daly: 4:58

Yeah, rivian We talked about it. You Yesterday, it was like 1.3 billion billion right down from 1.5 billion. Right.

Daniel Govaer: 5:05

And that's that's from that's from a CEO that said like, can you imagine owning a gas station in five years? Like, what is that about?

Paul J Daly: 5:11

Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. Oh, we lost Daniel. Egon. He dropped out. He'll come back. But yeah, I mean, that's the realistic picture, you know, vinfast soliciting the dealership model. Understanding that the way they're going to get cars in customers hands where they're going to sell them properly, merchandise them properly, get people to be exposed to them is through the dealer network. I know they have lots planned I think I can't remember them or Fisker has 70. They have 70 dealers lined up, or they're talking to 70 people I know some of the earliest vinfast dealers, the leaf group had is the first vinfast dealer. And then like others, but the leaf group is right down the road from the factory. So we're going to try to get them out to a soda con. But you know, the dealer network is the way

Daniel Govaer: 6:01

to make smart moves. And they they're going about it. They're you know, they tested the market, they looked at the market, they're making smart moves about it. I don't think their goals are unrealistic. And if you look at what they missed their target by Yeah, comparatively speaking. That's that's actually pretty close.

Paul J Daly: 6:14

Yeah. And I think it's, I think it could legitimate come down, like, can we produce vehicles enough that have enough Initial Quality enough range that the US consumer is going to say, All right, yeah, let me give it a try. Well, we're gonna find

Daniel Govaer: 6:26

out and a financial payment, which is really what I'm just becoming more and more convinced them. It's about what can I work just in my garage? Absolutely.

Paul J Daly: 6:34

Speaking, speaking is something you can put in your garage for a significant discount. And you're in a Toyota store right now a large one, maybe we'll have you walked a lot to see if you can find one of these. But Toyota is slashing$40,000. off its hydrogen powered marae. The MSRP. As shell recently announced, shell hydrogen announced that it's closing some hydrogen fueling stations in California, which are kind of complicating that, letting Toyota say like, Hey, we need to sell these cars. The offer is exclusive to California, also includes not only $40,000 on the hood, but also $15,000 in fuel savings. So like basically, you can spend that on hydrogen fuel, if you can find hydrogen fuel, including also 0%. Financing on top of that. So if you add up the $40,000, the $15,000 in fuel, the savings on financing when the rates are we know what they are now, that's over$60,000 in savings, the MSRP on this vehicle is 67. Oh 95. So basically with the $40,000 I mean, you could drive this really nice car home if you can get hydrogen in it for like, low 20s.

Daniel Govaer: 7:49

And finally, good news for California. Right? Come on. Plus, California. Yeah, right. Oh, where you get hydrogen, this Costco sell it

Paul J Daly: 8:00

in California? Yeah,

Daniel Govaer: 8:02

I think it's, I think if you live in California, you should at least go try it and tell us how it is.

Paul J Daly: 8:07

Have you ever driven a hydrogen car or heard one or been around one? Not

Daniel Govaer: 8:11

to my not knowledgeably not? Well, you would probably know it if you were, I

Paul J Daly: 8:15

think I like them. I mean, it's like a combustion engine, it sounds a little cooler. Sounds a little more reasonably starting news

Daniel Govaer: 8:22

is because Toyota, this sort of, that's their thing is going to be hydrogen, right. And once they get, you know, and they are improving on their technology for it and making it more accessible, I think the reason this is news, other than just the fact that this is such a massive savings, giving us a bit of a sneak peek into what manufacturer margins are, and they manufacture these vehicles. Oh, there's no margin there that they they're losing money on these. This is interesting, because this is what their strategy is right? And so like, I don't, but I also don't want this to be the sacrificial goat to be like, Why hydrogen isn't viable just because of this one particular model. Yeah. So I don't know how much you're gonna learn about this for the future of hydrogen. But I do think it's definitely a deal worth worth looking at, for sure. Because that puts it less than a Corolla and right if it's 67, less 40 grand. Oh, yeah, it's

Paul J Daly: 9:03

gonna be like, 20 Yeah, it's gonna be like low 20s He drives and it's like a luxury vehicle inside. I mean, I think hydrogen infrastructure, and I haven't looked enough into it. I feel like building hydrogen infrastructure would be a lot easier than building Evie and infrastructure, honestly. Because it's like, stored in a tank, like gasoline. And then you just have a filling station network, which already exists. So it's like, do you just like need another tank at the same location with some kind of pump? I don't know. It feels like simpler. But you know, I

Daniel Govaer: 9:36

put together my Ikea furniture. So I'm not I don't know. Either way,

Paul J Daly: 9:41

oh, are you the guy they modeled those little, little figures in the IKEA instructions

Daniel Govaer: 9:47

and exact amount of screws. Are there going to be extra like that? Mentally,

Paul J Daly: 9:52

there's nothing worse than the screws. I think I think general practices I think they put one extra in there

Daniel Govaer: 9:58

than I do. I'm very far off than if it's one. This is. Most of that's why most of the Ikea furniture in our house is secured to the wall. So you know, just just

Paul J Daly: 10:08

just in case just in case. All right, well, last door today is a fun one. Is it possible that the next Governor of West Virginia could be a dealer? Well, Chris Miller is southwest Virginia auto dealers stepping into the political ring with a vision to overhaul the state's economy. So, Chris Miller owns the Dutch Miller Auto Group, which he operates with his family. They have 13 stores, one in southwest Virginia town of Whiteville, and they also have dealers in Virginia, North Carolina and Kansas. So basically, with a focus on economic development, problem solving, solving, he wants to tackle the state's socio economic, economic challenges by running it like a business. He's got a personal journey from battling addiction to becoming a successful business owner, and now gubernatorial candidate he said, end quote, at the end of the day, if I ran my business, the way the government spends our tax dollars, I'd be broke. No, who do you think? Is the dealer gonna fix West Virginia?

Daniel Govaer: 11:05

I'm rooting for him. I mean, honestly,

Paul J Daly: 11:08

I think, yeah, that would be fun. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 11:12

Because this is, I mean, this is exactly this. To me. This makes all the sense in the world. This is someone who's going to look at it. We know car dealers are not only adaptable, we know that look know how to look at data we know on definitely understand the human connection element descent know how to read sentiment. Right? And this is someone who's had a successful business in a state that isn't yet so much known for having successful businesses. Yeah. So that and probably 10 More reasons I can think of off the top of my head. I think this is this is this isn't just the MRI of the West Virginia elections. This is actually a good idea. This makes sense from from a lot of different are really I mean, someone who's done it someone who's been successful, someone who knows the background, and car dealers in general, look at everything that we have to go through and everything that we have to adapt to be successful. Yeah, I think you could I think you can

Paul J Daly: 11:59

do a lot worse. Yeah. And you know, I think like dealers just in general have, number one, a significant resilience to change in climate change, business, climate, changing economic climates, all these things. But typically speaking, like you said, a dealer has a really good feel for the pulse of the community. And they have to write you have to if you're going to operate a successful dealership anywhere, he's got 13 successful dealerships, it'd be really cool to be like, hey,

Daniel Govaer: 12:24

there's gonna be the first car dealer and think right, that's it? No, definitely not. Definitely. I think that I think we should find out more about it. And I think that he should be able to reach out to us and see what resources we can offer to help back and even though we may not be West Virginians, but I think this is a pretty cool thing.

Paul J Daly: 12:39

Do you know what's close to West Virginia? Baltimore, north? Oh, yeah. North Virginia. Yeah, maybe we'll try to get him out to a soda con. We're Speaker We should be alright. Consider it a challenge. We're gonna see if we can get goober gubernatorial candidate Chris Miller out to a soda con in May. Maybe he can give us a little bit of a his his stump speech and I'm sure he'll meet lots of support and probably a lot of people like you said, like, what can we do to support this? All we can do? Yeah,

Daniel Govaer: 13:09

I mean, I think the best platform for him to be on is probably going to be the wheelhouse so I think we'll have an engaging discussion they're doing about it.

Paul J Daly: 13:15

Let's get him on the wheelhouse. Okay, perfect. gonna work on that. Well, DJ, thank you so much for filling in today. Always a pleasure. Hey, whatever you're doing, we know if it's Saturday, your dealer you're connecting with people you're selling cars, but make sure you make it about just a little bit more than cars.

Unknown: 13:46

So

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