VinFast Goes Full Franchise, Slate Reveals $20K EV

Shoot us a Text.

Episode #1028: Today we talk about VinFast ditching direct sales for a full franchise model, Slate launching a no-frills EV pickup that’s shaking things up under $20K, and the growing movement toward skills-based hiring over college degrees.

Show Notes with links:

• VinFast is officially out of the direct-to-consumer game in California, shifting gears to focus solely on franchised dealers across the U.S. The pivot comes as the Vietnamese EV maker wrestles with rising costs, sliding U.S. registrations, and mounting losses.
  • VinFast is closing all 15 of its company-owned California showrooms in favor of a full franchise model.
  • The brand currently has 38 dealer locations either open or on the way across 16 states.
  • U.S. EV registrations dipped to just 367 in Jan–Feb 2025, an 18% year-over-year decline.
  • The VF 8 accounted for 321 of those, while the three-row VF 9 saw just 46.
  • The company posted a $3.18B net loss in 2024; despite revenue growth, operating costs surged.

• After months of mystery and speculation, Slate, the American EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has made its first big move—introducing an all-electric, highly customizable pickup that ditches luxury frills for practicality and affordability.
  • Slate is taking a “clean slate” approach by skipping high-end trims and focusing on accessibility.
  • It will be built in the U.S., comes with over 100 optional accessories, and starts below $20,000 after federal incentives.
  • The flagship model is modular, converting from a 2-seat pickup to a 5-seat SUV with optional flat-pack kit.
  • The interior is stripped-down with HVAC knobs, crank windows and a universal phone mount—your OS, your way.
  • Specs include a 52–84 kWh battery, 150 kW RWD motor, 8-second 0-60, and up to 240 miles range.
  • Slate will sell directly to consumers with a $50 reservation; first deliveries are slated for Q4 2026.
  • CEO Chris Barman says: “The definition of what’s affordable is broken. Slate exists to put the power back in the hands of customers who have been ignored by the auto industry.”

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.

Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/

JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

Episode Transcript

Paul J Daly (00:00):
Jeff, good morning, Friday, feeling april 25 This is

(00:04):
the automotive State of theUnion. I'm Paul Jay Daly. It's
Kyle Mountsier Today we'retalking about Vin fast. Remember
them, slate, the other carcompany by Jeff Bezos. And
conversation of skills overdegrees. And just like old
school days, you and I are gonnarock it out of this show and go
right into the All Things UsedCar Show. Whoa, remember this
place clubhouse?

Kyle Mountsier (00:25):
That's crazy. I to be really clear. I had gotten
rid of the app because I waslike, I can't do it anymore, but
I've downloaded the clubhouseapp again because apparently the
community there is stillthriving, bro, you still that's
community. That's what happenswhen you build community. You

(00:46):
know, David

Paul J Daly (00:46):
Long has done an amazing job. Just cultivate
cultivating community is like avery old garden, right? It takes
long. How do you get those Can Ibuy those plants? You can't buy
those plants. You can only growthose plants and cultivate them
over years. That's right, that'sright, that's all.

Unknown (01:00):
You can't buy those planes. You can't buy them at
Home Depot. You can't look thatstrong. Yeah, no,

Paul J Daly (01:05):
no, I love it. You can't, you can't look agenda is
live for ASOTU CON dealer.
Tickets are coming in likecrazy. Now I'm so excited
watching all the people that aregoing to be there in person. You
should be there in person,because we're going to talk
about all the topics. We'regoing to get all the best
practices, we're going to getall the mindset shifts, and the
innovators who are doing theprogressive things that you need
to learn from and you need toshare with, because I think it's
the obligation of innovators toalso share what they're doing.

Kyle Mountsier (01:30):
Yeah, I like the thing that's so amazing to me is
it's not just the people on thestages are events that are doing
the amazing things, no, like,no, no, no. You hear these
questions and conversations inthe halls that someone actually
asked us we were talking to JoeOverby. We watch out for our
podcast with him coming out. Butthe thing that like as we talk

(01:52):
about it more, I'm like, No, thespeed of conversation, the Speed
of Trust that happens in anevent when you start with the
why of being there isincredible. And so I would say,
like, that's the opportunity.
It's the chance to rub shoulderswith Phil Gill, it's the chance
to rub shoulders with Patrick abad with Dan banister, with Jeff

(02:13):
Ramsey. And go, what are youworking on? What are you working
on? How are you You know, andand all the industry partners.
Because what I love is like,when you get together like that,
it doesn't matter what type ofbusiness you're running, it's
just that we're all runningbusinesses to further the
performance of the retail, autoindustry, of the industry,

Paul J Daly (02:38):
and the performance, not just the
financial performance, but thecultural performance, the
community performance, the jobtrajectory performance. So you
should go to ASOTU con.com Getyour tickets now, get your
flights now, because you knowthe auto industry, until you're
in the month that it's in, youdon't think about it, but the
next month is only a few daysaway, so just do it now. Save

(02:58):
yourself a couple bucks onflights and make sure you're
going to join us in just a fewweeks from now. Let's talk about
some news. Vin fast, remember,then they are officially out of
the direct consumer game. Do wehave the applause button? I
don't think we have it anymore.
In California, they're gettingout there Shifting gears to
focus solely on franchisedealers across the US. Can't say
we don't do so the pivot offcomes as Vietnamese EV maker

(03:21):
wrestles with rising costs,sliding us registrations and
mounting losses, they're closingall 15 of their company owned
California showrooms in favor ofa full franchise model. They
currently have 38 dealerlocations, either open or on the
way across 16 states. US EVregistrations dipped to just 367
Wait, that's not right. Oh, ofthe VIN fast, they only

(03:45):
registered 367 cars January andFebruary, which is an 18% year
over year decline. The VF eightaccounted for 321 of those, so
just about all of them, whilethe three row VF nine saw just
46 the company posted a $3.18billion net loss. 2024, despite
revenue growth, their operatingcosts surge. So they're getting

(04:07):
in, getting into the dealergame. Now, I mean,

Kyle Mountsier (04:12):
here's the thing, like, do you want to be a
real estate company or No,dealers are being great at real
estate. Is a great head andthey're great at management, and
they're great at buyingwholesale cars to drive your
revenue up. And they don't wantto keep them around, so they
sell them, right? Like,

Paul J Daly (04:29):
oh, that's just, that's so model

Unknown (04:31):
kind of where you Lord

Paul J Daly (04:33):
of standard business thinking of like, oh,
well, it's expensive to have adealer network. It's like,
actually, it's expensive to nothave a dealer network. And I
think, Oh God, right now. Imean, they're finding out right
now. They didn't find it outright now.

Unknown (04:46):
Yep. Segue, we are run

Paul J Daly (04:50):
to another after months of mystery and
speculation. Slate, Slate auto,the American EV, startup. You
probably haven't heard of itmuch. We talked about a little
here on the show. Back to. Jeff,backed by Jeff Bezos, has made
its first big move, introducingthe all electric, highly
customizable pickup that ditchesluxury frills for practicality
and affordability. Look at thepicture that thing. It looks

(05:12):
like it's unbelievable. It lookslike it belongs in Roblox. It
does look like something

Unknown (05:16):
from Roblox, but it is tiny. Look at that thing. It's
tiny drive

Paul J Daly (05:20):
one slate is taking a clean slate approach by
skipping high end trims,focusing on accessibility. It
will be built in the US. Comeswith over 100 optional
accessories and starts below$20,000 I said that again,
starts below $20,000 theflagship model is module. You're
gonna see these in high schoolseverywhere. The flagship model
is modular, converting from atwo seat pickup to a five seat

(05:43):
SUV with an optional flat packkit. It's stripped down HVAC
knobs, crank windows and auniversal phone knob. I hate to
say this, I think they'reactually doing something for our
children with the crank windows.
That's exactly right. Oh mygosh. Tell them.

Unknown (05:58):
Tell them what it used to feel like to get

Paul J Daly (06:01):
nowhere going. Uh, specs includes a 52 to 84
kilowatt battery, 150 kilowattrear wheel drive motor, eight
seconds, zero to 60 and up to240, miles an hour range as a
comparison, small f1 50lightning, I'll be like 4.50 to
60, so I can still beat him in arace. Slate will directly sell
to consumers. Here we go with a$50 reservation fee. First

(06:23):
delivery slated for 20 q4 2026so we got 18 months. Chris, CEO,
Chris barman, says thedefinition of what's affordable
is broken. Slate exists to putthe power back in the hands of
customers who have been ignoredby the auto industry.

Kyle Mountsier (06:38):
Yeah. I mean, they're they obviously have to
come strong with this. This is,it is a really interesting play.
We've seen other manufacturerscome into the market. Actually,
Chris fatigue is commenting onLinkedIn right now saying,
Amazon racing to the bottom totake the Scion market share. It
actually, you know, like the boxthe old XD right has, it kind of

(07:00):
has some of, like, the the vibeof that. But again, like you
said, like high school collegestudents, you know, it's a great
opportunity. And Americans loveto accessorize. They want to
tell you what they want on theircar, instead of being demand of
what that is. 100 optionalaccessories, like, you're gonna

Paul J Daly (07:18):
be tricky to build, but, I mean, you can ask all the
other ones. But, I mean, maybethey figured, I don't

Unknown (07:23):
think it is. Amazon has a delivery network for
accessories. Oh yeah,

Paul J Daly (07:27):
but they gotta get them installed. I guess if
they're not factory installed,and you have to install Amazon
company. But our third story,this reminds me, just talk about
this for another minute. So thisis where I think Amazon could
crush I think, yeah, they buytick tock, and then they just do
a full influence or play onthese cars, and they sell

(07:47):
millions of them at that pricepoint. Like, dude, that's a wild
proposition that could that. Imean, good night. I mean, tick
tock costs a couple pennies,but, yeah, but like

Kyle Mountsier (07:58):
tick tock shopping network drives without
a doubt, Gen X, without a doubt.
Z. I mean, you

Paul J Daly (08:03):
think of the large at that purchase. I mean, you
think about it. And if they've,gosh, they know people's
shopping behavior, they'rebasically they know their
credit. They could finance thesethings at 20k and that's almost
like credit card levelfinancing. Oh, man, they might
have a thing. It's kind ofsilly. I don't appreciate the
swipe at the auto industry,though. But

Kyle Mountsier (08:25):
also, Fin fast tried it too, and we see what
the

Paul J Daly (08:30):
funny dichotomy of this has a ton of money too.
Amazon has a little more brandpenetration into every household
in the

Unknown (08:37):
US, yeah. But this is backed by Jeff Bezos. This isn't
an Amazon company. That's true.

Paul J Daly (08:41):
And you think that's true, and you think about
it this way, they also weregonna like open grocery stores
everywhere. Didn't work.
Hopefully they survived becausethey had a brand, the bookstore
thing failed, Barnes and Noblesexpanding bookstores now. So,
not so easy. Not not easy. No,not easy. Well, we're heading
over in the clubhouse, allthings used cars. Listen, go to
ASOTU CON com, get your tickets,be with us, and if you can't do

(09:04):
that, or even if you can't, headover to clubhouse, all things
used cars. We'll see you therein just a couple minutes. Talk
to you tomorrow.

Unknown (09:22):
You