Tesla's Pivot, VinFast Expansion, Dealership's Kind Deed

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We’re mid-week and talking about Tesla's strategic shift amid falling profits.. We also cover VinFast's aggressive U.S. dealership expansion and the heartwarming story of a Dealership serving a single mother in South Dakota.

• Sandwiched between GMs stellar financial results yesterday and Ford’s upcoming earnings later today, Tesla's Q1 earnings were released yesterday and show a 55% decline in net income, falling to $1.1 billion, amid a backdrop of global demand challenges 
  • Despite setbacks, Tesla plans to fast-track the introduction of new vehicles, utilizing both current and next-gen platforms, aiming for production on existing lines for efficiency.
  • The company's shift in strategy includes a focus on developing autonomous vehicles and a robotaxi service, anticipated to transform the future of mobility including a new app that is set to be an Uber/Lyft competitor
  • When speaking about the much anticipated lower cost Tesla’s Musk said, “In terms of a new product roadmap, there’s been a lot of talk. We’ve updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models.” Musk said we might see the vehicles in early 2025, if not later this year. He also stressed that new vehicles would be made on existing, functioning production lines.
  • Amidst speculations of the canceled low-cost vehicle project, Tesla remains committed to its autonomous driving ambitions, with plans for a "robotaxi unveil" set for August.
  • Tesla stock was up 11% in after hours trading but is still significantly down this year
    
    
• On to another EV maker who is leveraging the dealership model as its path to success, Vietnamese manufacturer, VinFast is rapidly growing its U.S. footprint, announcing 12 new franchised dealerships across several states
  • VinFast now boasts 18 dealerships across seven states, complementing its direct sales in California with a stronger dealership network including new sites in Florida, Texas, Kentucky, and Connecticut.
  • The Vietnamese automaker looks to enhance its market position, despite initial slow sales, expecting a significant contribution from these dealers in the latter half of the year.
  • With a major factory underway in North Carolina, VinFast plans to meet U.S. production criteria to leverage a $7,500 federal EV incentive for its models like the VF 8 and upcoming VF 9 crossovers.
  • Amid expanding global operations, the company is reporting a 400% increase in global vehicle deliveries compared to the same quarter last year.
    
    
• One South Dakota Dealership, Vern Eide Motors,  restores both hope and a 2008 Chevy Impala for free after its owner, a victim of a repair scam, shared her ordeal publicly.

Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.

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Episode Transcript

Paul J Daly (00:00):
Good morning, everybody, it's Wednesday, April

(00:20):
24. Kyle dropped into the calltoday with a little headlines
had sleep deprived, but stillhere. That's the auto industry
showing up every day. Todaywe're talking about Tesla's
earnings vinfast expansion. Andone dealerships very kind, deep
love seeing that AutomotiveNews,

Kyle Mountsier (00:36):
man. This is this, this right here is like,
what have you Yeah, that's kindof the show. That's like the
that's the noise. You know. ButI got it, I'm

Paul J Daly (00:51):
calling you. I'm calling you. I spent, I spent
this morning sending emails. Youknow, you and I both kind of do
this. We get up really early, westart rocking emails, we start
building shows, we start gettingready to go this morning, I was
in contact with some New YorkState dealer associations, both
in New York State and Syracuse.
And I'm so excited that at thisyear's ASOTU CON, we're gonna

(01:11):
have no less than six, maybe upto like 10 dealer Association
representations. Because thishas been always been something
we've wanted to do for the lastcouple years. Now we're finally
getting to do it. And so if youdidn't hear a soda con, it's
kind of this big event happeningmay 15 14th, through 17th.
You're probably starting to seethese billboards all over
LinkedIn and Facebook, if you'reon there. If people I got to

(01:33):
text this

Kyle Mountsier (01:35):
morning, like yo, when am I getting my
billboard? So everybody wantsone? Basically a billboard that

Paul J Daly (01:41):
says whoever the person's name is, I like Kyle,
when you posted yours on Monday,you're like, it's a little weird
referring to yourself and thethird person, but this is worth
it. Because the billboardbasically says your name, and it
says it advertises the fact thatyou're going to asoto con,
you'll be in a soda con. Andthat's the reality of it at this
event. The attendees are thereason that you go to the event
periodically it

Kyle Mountsier (02:01):
Yep. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about that
this morning, because and youcan kind of go through I've got
a post on LinkedIn. Butyesterday, someone was like,
Man, you guys have a lot ofspeakers. They were like, it's
got to be over 30. And I waslike, it's actually over 80. And
the question is always why?
What's the reason for havingthat many speakers and the real

(02:21):
reason for us is not justbecause like we want to flood
the speaker list is because weknow that when you get that many
people having that manydifferent conversations across
two days, the participationlevel is already enhanced.
They're thinking about it.
They're talking about it in thehalls, they're questioning other

(02:42):
people, people feel morecomfortable going up and going.
I had a thought about that, too,because it was already a
conversation. There was no,there's no like dramatic
exposition. Yes, well, that's

Paul J Daly (02:53):
a great way to put it. That is a great way to put
it. So if you haven't checked itout yet, go to a soda con.com
Our friends at Reynolds andReynolds, Google Google
presenting sponsors, helping usput this on along with a huge
list of industry partners, thatI won't start listing them
because if I do, I'm going toeasily forget somebody. But this

(03:14):
is a true collaboration. This isnot a place to get sold at this
is a place where people areactually trying to build better
products, integrate things in ameaningful way. And you'll see
when you show up because you'regoing to show up that the
culture and the environmentthere is immediately different
than any other automotive eventyou've ever been to. I promise
money back guarantee. Go tosorta con.com Check it out. Get

(03:35):
a ticket, get a plane ticket.
BWI is right there. It's aSouthwest hub. You can get there
cheap, you can get there fast.
And so much so much more comingon this

Kyle Mountsier (03:44):
morning told me the flights from Colorado are so
cheap to BWI. Let's go it's justa time

Paul J Daly (03:49):
of year when we're like traveling to that part of
the country like DC areaAnnapolis Baltimore. It's just
not busy. So we picked a goodone and right in the middle of
the month too. Oh, my beginningof the month and we may have to
do it.

Kyle Mountsier (04:03):
Do it quickly.

Paul J Daly (04:05):
Well, let's speak at some strategy here. All
right, sandwiched between GMsstellar financial report
yesterday or two days ago, andFord's upcoming earnings this
evening are actually probablylike a quote when the market
closes for it's going to givetheir earnings today. Tesla's q1
earnings call happened yesterdayto show a 55% decline in income

(04:31):
falling to 1.1 billion. It's abackdrop of a slew of growing
challenges. Supply Demand. Theyhad arson in Germany like they
have some issues despitesetbacks. Tesla is now planning
to fast track the introductionof new vehicles utilizing both
current platforms andintegrating some next gen
platforms. And they're sayingthey're going to use existing

(04:52):
production lines to do it. Sothey're like not going to be a
big expense for doing them withwhat we already producing these
cars with what we already have acompany shift in strategy
includes a focus on we knew thiswas coming a big focus on
autonomous vehicles and theirRobo taxis not just the car, but
their Robo taxi service. Theysaid they're gonna love an app

(05:12):
that's going to compete againstUber and Lyft for ride hailing
big part of the strategy. Firstcompany make a couple of bucks.
So when speaking about the muchanticipated lower cost Tesla
Elon Musk said in terms of aproduct roadmap, there's been a
lot of talk, we've updated ourfuture lineup to accelerate the
launch of new models. And hesaid, we might see vehicles in
early 2025, if not later thisyear in 2024. He also stressed

(05:36):
that, you know, they would bemanaging existing product
production lines. So, you know,everyone's saying they're
bailing on the low cost models,Elon saying, No, that's still in
the plan. They're going tounveil the robo taxi in August.
And it made some investors happythe stock bounced 11% in after
hours trading. But we'll noteit's still down. It's

Kyle Mountsier (05:56):
just still crazy to me. Like, yeah, we're 55%
down. Y'all still in?

Paul J Daly (06:02):
Cool, didn't feel good feeling who's feeling good,
who's

Kyle Mountsier (06:06):
feeling good, you feeling I'm feeling good,
we're gonna launch the newstuff, let's talk about 11%
increases, it is still wild thatTesla can demand that from the
market. But like the things thatthey're talking, you know, this
is where Tesla is so diversifiedin the options at which they can
come to market that a downturnin like sales doesn't

(06:30):
necessarily still change becausethey have so much going because
they have so much going on. Andso this is where like, for them
being an automaker is likeplaying in the sandbox, right?
Because they're just dippinginto all these things. You've
got this robo taxi service,which is a completely fully
verticalized service that youretain all the revenue on like,

(06:55):
that's why you start to see thisTesla stock

Paul J Daly (06:58):
still up not being valued like a traditional
manufacturer. Exactly. You know,he did, he did say this was
funny. In the earnings report.
He's adamant that Tesla is goingto solve autonomy. And he said,
If he goes, we're on such a pathright now. If I were kidnapped
by aliens tomorrow, he said, Ilike my aliens, they would still
solve Tesla is still on track tosolve autonomy, which as an

(07:19):
investor, right, that has thespark confidence.

Kyle Mountsier (07:23):
Well, that's I think that's huge, because
everybody kind of like sees Elonout there. And we know from our
conversations with JimmyDouglas, who used to be in
charge of like the entireremarketing remarketing as well
as used car market for a time atTesla is like, the, the size and

(07:43):
the breadth of Tesla at thispoint has so many smart people
in the room. Yeah, with Elonbeing a face of it. But like the
decision matrix, the amount ofdata that they have to put
behind what they're doing theamount of smart developers
writing code like it at thispoint, that that thing is a
frickin tanker just rolling

Paul J Daly (08:04):
through. That's true. That's true. Speaking of
rolling through segway, you haveanother another angle on Evie
manufacturer from one toanother. This one is leveraging
a dealership model as its pathto success Vietnamese
manufacturer vinfast is rapidlygrowing its US footprint. We
know this, but they've justannounced 12 new franchise

(08:26):
dealerships across severalstates, bringing the total up to
18 across seven statescomplementing their direct sales
in California. So new sights,Florida, several in Texas,
Kentucky, Connecticut, you know,so they're trying to, you know,
despite the slow Evie sales andlike the market, they're like,
Hey, we're leaning in, we'rebringing on dealers, they have a

(08:49):
major factory underway, it'swell on its way in North
Carolina near their firstvinfast dealer. You know, they
want to leverage that $7,500credit, so they will be making
batteries and vehicles in theUS. So they are saying their
400% increase year over year inglobal sales. You know, that

Kyle Mountsier (09:07):
makes sense.
Yeah. Because I mean, globally,they're doing really, really
well. A lot different. Yeah. Sowhat I'm excited about is I know
some people at h Gregg. I knowsome people had to Motrin, and
we actually know someone at theMotrin that's going to be
speaking at a soda con that'sactually very close to this
matter. Well, I'm your friend daI was given a little bit of a
tip on this a little bit alittle bit earlier. So it's cool

(09:29):
to see it finally get announcedthat dimension. You know, I
know. I know the crew overthere, Ashley Cavazos is going
to be at ASOTU CON. And so justjust really cool to see this,
you know, we've we've kind oflike the Fisker has come under a
lot of scrutiny. They're workingon the the dealer model, but
then fast, you know, still kindof flying under the radar but

(09:51):
also being super successful andadding another 12 rooftops. And
I think

Paul J Daly (09:57):
I think it's I think with vinfast It's really
going to come down to comequality. It has to I really do.
I mean, I think a lot of theseconversations are going to come
down to quality. This issomething Brian Binstock was
pretty adamant about and he'llbe speaking at a Soto con
keynoting the end of day onethat's going to be a firecracker
of a session but he was talkinghe sees test driven, driven and
seeing a lot of these. I meanobviously he's a major Honda

(10:19):
dealer so he's you know, beenpaying attention to Prolog but
he said quality is going to be amajor factor because a lot of
these just don't don't have whatit takes to compete. So we'll
see there's a little thingcalled price to that people
happen to be since rice

Kyle Mountsier (10:31):
Yeah, when they're $20,000. Yeah, you're

Paul J Daly (10:35):
willing you're willing to you know, like
sacrifice a little of materialsyou don't say,

Kyle Mountsier (10:40):
speaking of a sacrifice rates. One South
Dakota dealership Bernard motorsdefinitely leaned in and
sacrificed a bit. They restoredhope and a 2008 Chevy Impala for
free after its owner, a victimof repair scam shared her her

(11:02):
ordeal publicly. So AmandaGalloway was moving cross
country with her four year oldson following a divorce when her
Chevy Impala broke down in SouthDakota. She was scammed by a
local repair shop which charged1000 bucks up front and then
suddenly went out of business.
Her car became impounded. Shehad an impound plus interest
Bill kind of went public andshared all of this. And then an

(11:25):
employee at Vernon motorcars inSioux Falls, saw her story on
the news and arranged to havethe car towed to their
dealership for free. Followingthat, the dealership then
repaired the Impala installed anew engine, new tires of full
detail, all for free, over$4,000 in services where they

(11:47):
took care, this young ladyAmanda, and you know

Paul J Daly (11:54):
who was next in line to do that there was
another company that was justready to do that it was Tesla.
I'm just kidding. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier (12:03):
I see what you know, this

Paul J Daly (12:05):
is exactly what we talked about. When we talk about
the impact of the localfranchise dealers. They're
paying attention locally.
They're serving locally, theyare able to just have an
empathetic ear to what is goingon around them and they are
always willing to help. I lovethe story. 2008 just hearing the
other 2008 Chevy Impala thatjust brought back all kinds of

(12:27):
memories, right? I like to see

Kyle Mountsier (12:31):
the car driving down the road. Like I know what
that car looks like it also Ilike a white Chevy Impala is
always that, you know, like yes,it's so yeah, it's,

Paul J Daly (12:42):
but I didn't mention the employee. But if you
know who it is, or you know itwas please send their name to us
DMS on LinkedIn or send it tocrew at a soto.com We would love
to do something special forthem. But we need to find out
who it is first. So if you knowwho that is, please send it our
way. And we'll make sure we showthem a little more than cars

(13:03):
love. I guess I think that's ashow. That's a show. Everybody's
got something to do. It'sWednesday, that midpoint of the
week we're like okay, let'shuddle up. Let's get ready for
the rest of the rest of thisweek. We're doing that. We hope
you do that for a soda con, goto a soda con.com and join us