American EV Interest Polled

TOGETHER WITH

Yesterday, we spoke with an almost 40 year veteran of the automotive industry that now works in one of the largest groups in the country. Here is what we know:

It is not just new entrants and younger generations that are pushing the envelope on customer experience, employee experience, and community care. The auto industry is vibrant from top to bottom and legacy to fresh starts.

Thanks to each of you for playing a valuable part in serving those around you every day!Keep Pushing Back-Paul, Kyle, & Chris

AUTOMOTIVE

American EV Interest Poll

According to a recent seven-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, over one-third of Americans would consider buying an electric vehicle as their next car.

• 34% of all respondents would consider purchasing an EV.

Positive responses broken down by political affiliation:

• 50% of Democrats 🐴

• 26% of Republicans 🐘

• 27% of independents 🦅

• 56% of respondents would be willing to pay no more than $49,999 for an EV

• 35% would want an EV that offers 500 or more miles of electric driving range per full charge

The EPA plans to propose more stringent vehicle emissions rules in the coming weeks to support the White House's push for 50% of new sales to be EV/PHEV by 2030.

Telling it like it is - Have your own opinion? Please, check yes or no. 🤠

AUTOMOTIVE

Carvana Stocks on the Rise

Carvana shares surged this week after the struggling used car retailer pre-announced stats from their first quarter and released plans to restructure some of its $9B debt. Here’s what we learned:

🌹 The company’s stock rose nearly 30% on Wednesday morning before leveling off at around a 20% increase.

💸 They are expecting a first-quarter loss of around $50-100M, which is actually a drastic improvement when the $348M loss it reported the previous year is taken into account.

📝 As a solution to its debt issue, Carvana is giving noteholders the opportunity to swap their unsecured notes for new secured notes at a premium to the present trading prices.

Telling it like it is - Most companies hang their first dollar on the wall. Carvana hung a Negative One Dollar bill on the wall back in 2012 and cannot WAIT to throw that sucker away.

TOGETHER WITH QUANTUM5

Education and Good Vibes

Education (and good vibes) move us all forward!

Quantum5 has updated their Fixed Ops Mastermind podcast & group to 5 to Thrive!

5 for Thrive will bring guests from around the dealer network to discuss the processes, technology, and people that make automotive one of the world’s strongest and most innovative industries today!

Listen and join the community now!

AROUD THE ASOTU-VERSE

Join David Long and the All Things Used Cars community for another week of growing into the best operators we can be! This week we will talk about the accountability/culture conundrum! A problem we are all eager to solve!

Congratulations, Dealer Image Pro for being this week's Pitch Tank winner! Join us next week as finalists compete again to see who will win the March Finale. Have a product you'd like to pitch? Apply now.

AUTOMOTIVE

Geely’s Profits, Stellantis Investments, and Tesla’s FSD Update

2022 earning reports have not been kind to everybody. In fact, they were downright saucy to many.

Geely, however, beat its revenue expectations with a 45.6% surge compared to 2021 and saw profits jump 8.5%. New energy and electric sales increased 300%, reaching approximately 328K.

*Sensible and sincere golf clap* The brand's market value spiked 7% before settling around 3% higher than its previous close. This year, Geely has targeted a whopping 1.65M sales, with a secondary target of doubling the share of new energy and electric units.

Nobody will catch Stallantis putting all its eggs in one basket. Maybe two, but never one!

The company has a $140M investment planned for its Eisenach plant in Germany. The plant will produce the Opel Grandland company SUV later this year as part of the group's plan to go all-electric in Europe by 2028. While the automaker has a similar all-electric goal for the US, we found no details about how or if these German-produced SUVs will appear in the North American market anytime soon.

Just down the street (over the Mediterranean) in Algeria, the company has a $214M plan to expand the Fiat brand into the market. Six Fiat models will be introduced into the North African country's market, with four being produced locally as soon as December.

Maybe you don't live in Algeria or Europe, but that's ok! Stellantis is asking 10th-12th grade students to sketch out their dream Ram EV pickup. For the 11th year, the company's Drive for Design contest will welcome designs and select a winner to receive an internship in the Ram Exterior Design Studio, a Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 Tablet, and have their winning sketch shared across the group's social media presence.

Tesla cars are driving themselves, but they aren't building themselves (yet).

The company is showing off a second 9,000-Ton Giga Press in Texas that will transform any piece of metal that enters into a Cybertruck (there are more steps we are sure, but we don't know them).

The Full Self-Driving Beta v11 is rolling out and connecting the dots between Autopilot's highway driving and FSD's everywhere-else-driving abilities.

It doesn't seem like any issues could occur of course, since whatever Elon is selling, people seem to buy. Last month Tesla hit a 50% growth in European registrations, which accounts for 20% of the EU's total EV market.

TL; DR- Geely smashed its revenue expectations, Stellantis is smashing the invest button, and Tesla is smashing metal into the shape of Cybertrucks.

CULTURE

Major Companies Partner Up with Veteran Mentors

Sixteen major companies, including Google, Hilton, and Starbucks have teamed up with a trio of non-profits to facilitate some clever partnerships.

🎖️🤝🇦🇫

Their program pairs employed US military veterans, military spouses, and allies with Afghan refugees and aims to provide one-on-one career support and training to at least 1500 refugees over the next three years.

⛺️💗🏆

Chobani CEO, Hamdi Ulukaya, has long been a leading force for these types of campaigns and founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees in 2016. The mentorship program is part of Tent's initiatives to connect refugees to work and veterans to leadership. Veterans say that opportunities to help resettle Afghan allies would improve their mental health, while businesses are likely to find loyal workers. Our favorite — a win-win-win!

Telling it like it is - It’s always encouraging to see companies and organizations think outside the box and work together for the benefit and betterment of everyone involved. What creative, win solutions has your company or organization come up with recently?

Quick Hits

• Classic FPS “Counter Strike” gets a long awaited sequel!

• Bitcoin slides back down toward $25K.

• Satellite internet providers are making light pollution worse.

History

• 1839: The initials “O.K.” are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into everyday speech.

• 1903: The Wright brothers first file a patent for their fancy flying machine.

• 2021: A massive container ship, the Ever Given, gives us all a collective headache after wedging itself into the Suez canal.

Motor Madness