#671 - 🚗 Thoughts on Toggles

TOGETHER WITH

At any given moment you may think “ugh, this is the worst,” but then you should remind yourself of how many bear traps you are currently trapped in.

2? Could be three.
1? Could be two.
0? What are you even complaining about?

I’ve already forgotten what I was stressed about. Have you?

Keep Pushing Back
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

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BUSINESS

You Got Wednesday

Ok, today we got news, we got context, we got some opinions, and of course, we got ASOTU CON 2024 coming up in just a few weeks.

Got your ticket yet?

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The Tesla toggle

Elon Musk recently tweeted that the Model Y price will start below 30k. You can even see the price on their website. 

Here's the catch: the advertised price included calculated fuel savings based on an assumption of use. The conversation is heating up. 

Elena Ciccotelli, a friend of ASOTU and creator of EV's 4 Everyone, recently discussed this on her podcast. And you can see a video of the toggle at work on this LinkedIn post.

• Could Dealers get away with this?

• Are they violating the rules?

• Will they get in trouble?

US Holds 10% of Global EV Market

A new International Energy Agency report reveals that the US holds just 10% of the global EV market, with China and Europe leading. Global EV sales are increasing, but cost, infrastructure, partisan-proxy-wars, and just good ol' consumer preference are playing roles in the pace of adoption despite automaker commitments.

For context: 

• 4.23% of the human population lives in the US

• 16.8% of global passenger vehicle sales were in the US. 

Average those two numbers, and you get 10.5. So it seems like it's right on course to us. #WeArentStatisticians 

GM Raises Profit Forecast

GM surpassed quarterly financial targets and revised its annual profit forecast upward, reflecting robust demand for gas-engine vehicles and stable pricing. Here are a few details summarized for easy-peasy reading.

• Profit Forecast: Raised to $12.5 billion-$14.5 billion from an earlier estimate of $12 billion-$14 billion.

• Quarterly Financials: Net income rose 24.4% to $3 billion, with revenue increasing 7.6% to $43 billion.

• Earnings Per Share: Adjusted earnings were $2.62 per share, beating the Wall Street expectation of $2.15.

• Challenges Ahead: GM faces significant hurdles in China and with its robotaxi unit, Cruise, which recently cut costs significantly.

• Strength in Gas-Engine Vehicles: Gas-engine trucks continue to be a major profit driver, helping offset concerns about the costs of transitioning to electric vehicles.

• Market Position: Gained over 3 points of market share in the full-size pickup truck segment, outperforming rivals such as Ford and Stellantis.

Ohio is for Lovers Honda

Honda is advancing its EV production by investing $700M to transform three key Ohio plants into an EV hub starting in 2025. This move, aimed at boosting Honda's presence in the North American EV market, includes hiring 300 new associates and up-skilling 300 existing workers. These facilities will produce Honda electric cars, batteries, and components, marking a major shift from internal combustion engines to EVs.

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The level of automaker EV investments in the US does not match the amount of global EV market share available to grab up there.

But imagine this: Tomorrow, GM could burn $5K in a microwave and then do that again every day for 500 years and only lose 1 of the $12.5B they estimate to make this year.

We don’t think they regret possibly over-investing in the US EV market as compared to its proportion to the global market.

TOGETHER WITH SPACE AUTO

Franken-Van

OK, so at Space Auto, they get the mini-van looks cool, but let’s face it, it wasn’t built for efficiency or too much of a plan, was it!?

You wouldn’t sell a car that looked like this because it wouldn’t work very well. So why should you have to buy different pieces of dealership software that fit together as badly as Frankenstein’s minivan?

What you need is a single piece of high-performing software that makes the customer experience a pleasure. That’s what Space Auto does for multi-rooftop, BMW, Ford, Kia, and Nissan dealers.

They make all the software you need to sell more cars and make customers happy. It all works together smoothly and helps dealers reconnect sales with humanity, which is a way better story for you to tell than Frankenstein!

Visit them online or in person at ASOTU CON — they can’t wait to meet you!

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

ASOTU CON 2024: 20 Days Away

CULTURE

Order Up

Somewhere between the dystopian idea that robots will take all the jobs, making products none of us can afford to buy, and the utopian idea that robots will do all the work and humanity will equally benefit, is a bunch of reality and "right now" to consider. 

A place in Manhattan called Kernel is bringing humans and robotics together in a harmonious swing as a win-win method for growing into the robot-future.

Founded by a Chipotle exec and a foodie, the spot serves vegan fast food cooked by humans but "handled" by a single robot arm. 

• The robot is from Kuka Robotics and brings speed and precision to the table

• The people all make $25 an hour and get to be friends with a robot arm. 

How's the food? We don't know; we aren't vegan, don't live in Manhattan, and they don't seem to be selling food just yet.

Quick Hits

• US New Home sales rebound to a six-month high. 🏀

• Whoa… this AI can tell if people are conservative or progressive from a single selfie. 🤖

• Taylor Swift’s new album set a record for vinyl sales with 700K in just three days. 🪕

History

•  1918: The first tank vs. tank battle occurs in a war 🪖

• 1984: Apple releases the Apple IIc portable computer 🖥

• 1990: NASA launches the Hubble Space Telescope 🚀

Thanks for reading, friend. We’re hoping your day is good and doing what we can to ensure it is. As far as we can tell, optimism without action is kinda unhelpful.