Dealerships Should Become Vehicle Experts

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It’s “Robotaxi Eve!” I considered waiting until after the Tesla announcement but decided against it, because the reality is not much substantive will come from it. There were supposed to be 1 million robotic taxi cabs from Tesla on the road by the end of 2020. It’s nearly the end of 2024. It’s more of a stock pumping scheme at this point. But I digress.

In This Issue

• What’s In a Name?

• The Anecdote for EVs

• You Know That Whole Paying for Recalls Fisker Thin …

• From Around the internet

• More Goodies

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What’s In a Name?

This week, GM announced that it’ll no longer be using the name Ultium to brand its EV battery technology. This does come as a bit of a shocker to me, because one thing GM does really well is branding. Other automakers are out there doing as interesting of stuff with their tech, but it doesn’t get as much public play as GM does with Ultium.

I have a friend at a rival automaker who lamented how much press Ultium gets for efficiency when other automakers are doing just as much or more with their setup.

It’s also good branding. It’s a catchy name. It’s a name that could easily be picked up by the general public. It really is a marketing success, even if the tech stumbled on its way out the door. Ultium-ly it probably won’t make a difference in sales, but it still a surprise to me nonetheless.

The Anecdote for EVs

Speaking of Ultium, I have a story to tell. I live in a fairly conservative part of Ohio. For example, up until the latest redistricting at the beginning of the year, I lived in Jim Jordan’s congressional district. This isn’t the place you’d think EVs would be taking over. And while I see more than I’d expect to see, there still is a lot of opposition to the tech.

I had a dentist appointment this week and my hygienist was telling me she recently purchased a Chevrolet Equinox EV in RS guise. Her commute to the office is around 60 miles each way, and she charges her battery to 85% each night and has more than enough range. In a lot of ways, that commute makes her the perfect candidate for EV ownership.

With some negative equity in a trade, she was still happy with the deal she received for purchasing (not leasing) the Equinox. The $7,500 federal tax incentive helped absorb the negative equity in her pickup truck they traded in, and she says she “came out ahead” in the deal as a result.

Her extended family called her crazy for buying an EV. She’s had people tell her all the negative things that EV misinformation campaigns spread, but she says she’s happy with the car. She’s still getting used to it, and isn’t sure about taking road trips yet. I told her as she gets more comfortable with it, she’ll be more willing to trust it on longer trips. She wasn’t aware of the fact her car could now use the Tesla Supercharger network.

I’m telling this story because she still has questions. While she liked the dealership she purchased it from, she wishes the she could “go in after the purchase and have someone take an hour and explain everything to me.” We have to be doing better at onboarding new buyers.

Education is such a key to EV adoption, and automakers (and their representatives who read this newsletter – and the do) need to do better. We as content creators and reviewers and journalists also need to do better. People are thirsty for this information, and the more education content out there the better.

She adores Super Cruise and likes the integrated Google Maps. She’s not sure why her phone doesn’t charge on the wireless charging pad, but that could be for a litany of reasons. She also, interestingly, didn’t mention not having Apple Car Play as being a problem at all.

It’s nice to see people in areas you wouldn’t expect be willing to switch to EVs. There’s likely even more people out there just like her that just wish they knew a bit more about ownership before pulling the trigger. This is a real opportunity for dealerships and automakers alike to improve the customer service experience, drive more sales, create positive word-of-mouth advertising, and create repeat buyers.

Don’t just hand them the keys and send them out the door with rust proofing. Actually help them understand their car and the technology, and you’ll make a lifelong customer.

You Know That Whole Paying for Recalls Fisker Thing?

As it turns out, you can’t make your customers pay out of pocket for recall work. Which, if you work in the industry, shouldn’t surprise you, but that didn’t stop Henrik Fisker from attempting that in his Fisker bankruptcy filings.

According to TechCrunch, the DOJ filed a motion in the bankruptcy case with a big “Nope” to Fisker’s plans to make customers pay for the labor in performing recall work. This isn’t good news for the failure of a car company, considering the SEC is involved and that Fisker’s team left his building in “complete disarray.”

Speaking of the SEC, what the heck happened to Alabama? Of course, the SEC is contractually obligated to have 8 spots in the 12 school playoff so it’ll all be ok. Wait, wrong SEC.

This is a 100% complete cluster of a mess. I feel for the early adopters who spent a ton of money on these vehicles. There’s always risk with early adoption, but a $70,000 SUV is different from a $1,000 smartphone.

If you’re going to start a car company you should probably not. But if you decide to go forward, make sure you understand the legal ramifications of your failure if it doesn’t work out so you can be prepared.

But maybe (unlikely) before this is all said and done, Fisker will need to Ghosn his way out of the United States?

From Around the internet

• Submarines In Space – Would an Ohio-class nuclear submarine survive in space? Surely you’ve thought about that, right? RIGHT?

• Beat Time App – Remember when we were all going to use Swatch internet Time, also known as .beat? Well, there’s an app you can get for your iPhone to show the current @ time whenever you want, including a widget for your Home Screen! Wait, am I old?

More Goodies

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