EV Adoption Woes, Honda - Sony Collab, Peek Behind the Recent Tesla Update

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Paul Daly  00:20

Kyle, I have one recommendation for the audience today. And that is if you ever want to make sure you have to be on your game every single day without exception without fail, you know what you should do, you should run a morning show.

Kyle Mountsier  00:40

Look, if you want to wake up at 435 o'clock every single morning and know by Well, at least central by 745, you got to be able to run. You got to you got to do it thing,

Paul Daly  00:54

there's an element to like forcing yourself into like, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to pay attention to what's going on in the news, I have to pay attention to my team, I have to be ready to rock I have to have the lights on I have to have the sound ready. And then like you're off to the races right once begun is half done. And you know us doing this show has really changed the way we approach the day for the better.

Kyle Mountsier  01:15

It easily has because everything you know, we had a conversation with someone yesterday, it was like, so how many podcasts? Do you guys do a day? Like three to seven range? And then like

Paul Daly  01:27

even hearing that back? Like everything that happened yesterday happened plus three to seven podcasts? Well, there was four I think yesterday.

Kyle Mountsier  01:36

Exactly. And really what it is, is it's just like timing, understanding the content production schedule, getting the team aligned, like we've got an epic team the behind the scenes, you know, we got Nathan and Isaac on the on the in the back end right now. And then we've got other content producers that are pushing things backwards and forwards and and it's just it's becoming a machine. But it all is is predicated on this like morning energy. And no matter what time you get up that morning energy is really really important.

Paul Daly  02:03

You know, there's something there's, there's, there's like a saying in survival like mentality where it's, it's not that I'm always prepared right here that, hey, you always be ready for what's coming. It's actually the mentality that you're never prepared. I've never prepared and that's how I feel that paying attention to the velocity of what's going on in the automotive industry, you have to adopt the mentality that you're never really prepared. You just have to go out there and play the game. So we're trying to play the game as best we can every day trying to play, play a game that includes as many people as possible and helps us all move forward together. We have a soda soda con coming in hot we say it every day. We still really want you to be there. The hotels are filling up first one's full. Second one's got a lot of capacity still. So get your tickets out of soda. con.com we are less than three weeks away actually. I think it's like 19 or 18 days, which seems completely bonkers. But we're fired up to make this the best event you've ever been to in your entire life. Yeah, so we are. We'll see. Right we'll see.

Kyle Mountsier  03:06

I think it's gonna be someone. I don't know if you saw this but someone compared this to like the Woodstock of automotive and I don't know, that's exactly agree they're

Paul Daly  03:15

gonna be a few elements. We will not have a sort of con that they did have

Kyle Mountsier  03:23

that energy that that shift and super excited about it

Paul Daly  03:27

comes down south west of automotive what's called the ego.

Kyle Mountsier  03:30

I'll take the South by Southwest of automotive Perfect. Well, today we've got a couple other things happening outside of just the daily daily news that we'll roll into in just a second. We've got two more auto collabs podcast launching at

Paul Daly  03:44

really great ones today. I mean, yeah, really great plays on the same day, Eric Hall

Kyle Mountsier  03:49

of classic Chevy and then and then Tim Cox of car now just like out and out practical things that you can take away from each of those in your business. And so whether you listen on the podcast or watch live on any of the streaming platforms at noon, and three, it's a great way to spend the time also. Drumroll please. I don't think we have one of those your pitch tank is back today. And yeah, one full throttle, we've taken the summer off. The way we're going is this is a pitch tank championship. So we've got six companies the next two weeks competing to pitch live at a soda con. So the top two places each week on pitch and product will be live at a soda con to pitch their products and get that feedback and get the energy around the room. So if you're interested in just learning about some of the best tech in automotive, the newest tech, you should be there it's an hour that is well worth your time whether you're a dealer or industry partner to understand the way that industry partners and dealers can connect more to leverage those relationships and create a better consumer experience, that's what we're doing with pitch tank and it's gonna be fired.

Paul Daly  05:07

I can already hear the chanting coming from inside the pitch tank live at a soda con. Like, I feel like someone's going to drop something where I was

05:16

like, oh, right, like I hope so I hope it gets sideways.

Paul Daly  05:20

I think the chances of not getting sideways are slim to none. Right knowing all the all the all of the incredible marketers in automotive and from dealerships, all the incredible industry partners all crammed together in one kind of room that let's let's face it, the room that the pitch tank live is in at a soda con is actually one where the bull riding happens. It's the professional bull riding Loser on the board as well. Right? So the venue is just like everything is around the center circle, and it's going to be something something really to remember and we're gonna catch it on video, you know, that's gonna happen. Alright, let's talk about a little news today. Today is a little bit of an Eevee focus, some Evie related things going on from around the country. First story after the passage of the recent climate bill, the task of convincing drivers that EVs are a good idea is more daunting than ever is now the federal agencies have to make all those benefits that they just stomped on for the last three months. They're like, we actually have to convince people that that's a good idea. Now, like we got to pass high fives going around. Definitely mixed opinions on whether or not that's good for us. And Gregory Pierce, co director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California at Los Angeles says affordability is paramount. He said it's going to be a tough few years, there's just a shortage of EVs that most people can afford, even after you stack. All the incentives. That's the first one.

Kyle Mountsier  06:46

Okay, this is what I'm thinking about here is, if you like the last major change in automotive was when the car came to be. And it was going from horses to combust Oh to carriages, right motor carriages. Like the adoption curve. And the level of education that was necessary at that time was way slower than the adoption curve that we're expecting is possible with EVs in the push from the government and the manufacturers asking customers to get educated enough to adopt this level of technology. You even think about the adoption curve. And if you've ever looked at like the curve of purchasing within the iPhone, or smartphone devices, like it was it's actually a long time before there was a large scale mass adoption, right? early adoption, forget that in those first five to six years was actually pretty slow. The hockey stick curve took a much longer time. And and so I think, you know, this is really this is really key. It's like, Okay, now we've got all these things in place. We've got this bill, we've got every manufacturer, well, most manufacturers, and this is gonna happen now. Can the education catch up with the consumer in order for the mass adoption to take place at scale?

Paul Daly  08:04

So the education right, this guy just talks about the affordability then next is convenience. Robert fernet, who Han who heads up the state's West Virginia's chapter of electric auto Association, when asked if you can drive across West Virginia and an Eevee. He said, it's just really tough. He said, Actually, we advise people travelers to avoid West Virginia if they're in an Eevee. Because the hill Wow. The hills and the lack of chargers, right, right. He said, There's there's there are some Tesla superchargers. But if you're not in a Tesla, and you're just in another Eevee, you're out of luck, right? Or you have to park for like two or three hours to find somewhere to park. So I mean, the article goes on, we quote, I think the Washington Post article goes on to cite numerous everyday consumers from all walks of life. It's very interesting, if you go to the show notes, read it, because there's a lot of consumer commentary in there a lot of different perspective on why consumers are hesitant. They're like, I don't know if it's for me. And actually, when the one of the people says when you say we're going to save the environment, that actually triggers a lot more skepticism that the product or the solution is going to be convenient or affordable. Right. So it's nice to say it, it's nice to tweet it, it's nice to put a banner or badge up on your social media platform. But these consumers are like yeah, well when I hear that ality actually we're like, yeah, that's for someone else to do. I'll keep recycling my bottles.

09:29

Wow, that's nuts.

Paul Daly  09:30

So hey, wild words are easy. It's easy to sell something but when it comes time to delivery, we'll see what actually happens. Speaking of things actually happening, segue. So aka Sony collab, we're going to call it a collab, we'll be bringing a new Evie offering to the high end Evie market by 2025 and they call it very uniquely Sony Honda mobility

Kyle Mountsier  09:58

and manage someone Someone's spent some time on that.

Paul Daly  10:03

I bet there was some time spent on like, which name goes first? Rather they decide that, like, was there, you know, like to Japanese? I wonder if there's, which was, yeah, I was like, Ah, dang Sony's first right. So Sony Honda mobility is expected to plan designed to develop and sell EVs, but the organization will not own or operate manufacturing facility. So it's like these two formed a conglomerate or not a conglomerate like a side business and this business is going to design and develop, Honda is going to manufacture the models, Sony is going to develop the platform, which is really exciting, right? Because Honda Honda knows how to build stuff really well. And Sony knows how to make stuff. Awesome. If you don't believe me, then you don't have any kids. Because you know what the Playstation has done for your household?

Kyle Mountsier  10:46

Right? Exactly. Yeah, no, I think that thinking about Sony as the experience side of this, like we talked about with I think it was GM last week and the infotainment systems. Yes, automotive like that's not automotive strong suit. So to see an an entertainment system and entertainment company coming into automotive in this way, I think is extremely key for the way that people engage these large devices, which is what the car is becoming, which is just a large device. Another name you got, you get this name, you got the pronunciation? Yeah, zoom, how

Paul Daly  11:23

many she there it is Japanese once I can do

Kyle Mountsier  11:27

a son, a Sony Honda mobility representative, the director and President and CEO of executive vice president of Sony. That's a whole long title. But

Paul Daly  11:35

that is a real long title. I was like there's a translation thing there

Kyle Mountsier  11:38

said, by combining the many strengths of Sony and Honda, we intend to accelerate development and lead the evolution of mobility by realizing mobility as an emotional space rooted in safety and security and the related services. I love.

Paul Daly  11:52

I know I hate to say it in the afternoon, when I read that the first time you're

Kyle Mountsier  11:56

just yeah, you're like, oh my goodness, so that so the vehicle where you spend a significant amount of time of your of your day, like some people 45 hour hour and a half and their vehicle is a potentially like emotional space that they're thinking about the type of safety, the type of security, even the type of engagement that they have with that vehicle and the technology in it is important to the way that you assume brand, you know, like your your level of attachment to the brand, or the feeling that you get when you're inside the car, that I think thinking of a vehicle in that way is going to be so sticky. And for a company like Honda to do that in, in, in a brand that already has a very, very high retention score is lights out,

Paul Daly  12:44

you know what I thought of when when he said you know, safety, security and emotional space, two things. Number one, God creating a very different version of an emotional space, right with their with their new one, right. But he's talking about safety, security. And what it got me into is video game mode. You know, when you're on the menu screen, whether it's like the Nintendo Wii, or the PlayStation, and it's got this kind of ethereal mentality to it, the music's kind of, you know, just, you just feel like you're kind of like in this space, right? I can choose. If you imagine if car had like Menu Screen mode where you get in, and it kind of puts you in a thing. I was like, no one's ever done that. But I think Sony's gonna pull it off. The bottom line to all of this is that cars are no longer just cars, we have to rethink them very, very differently. Thinking speaking of rethinking things segue. Okay, we thought we would give you a peek behind the curtain of Tesla's new update that we were talking about the other day, we focused the other one covered it on the price increase of the full self driving mode from 12,000 to $15,000. However, there are some other things that came out with the update that we thought were really you know, good to mention, just to expand your horizons on what is happening in the Eevee infotainment system mode. So the whole thing the whole update, it really was like a big code update to full self driving along with the pricing increase, you know, and the subscription for that as the same still 199 A month however, a bunch of the other updates were really customizable, you know, upgrades to the Tesla owning experience primarily cloud based profiles. So right now if you're driving at that

Kyle Mountsier  14:24

price alone because you're like if I'm going to stay with this vehicle, then I don't have to do the whole reset the whole like redo of all of my settings or all the apps that I've included in this thing Yeah, that's

Paul Daly  14:37

if you have multiple Tesla's or we don't Tesla has a recent agreement with hertz for a bunch of rental cars hertz bringing you know, Evie rentals to the front line of the rental space. Now a lot of those are Tesla's so again, getting your Tesla just knows that you and all your seats, your settings, your mirrors, everything goes your driving behaviors, your patterns, probably some tweaks that happened with the drive train base. On patterns, so that's cool. It also added the ability to customize several features in the car like the blind spot mirror. Now you can put it anywhere in, in the vehicles onboard displays that you want. Also, silent sentry mode. If you don't know what sentry mode is, it's pretty awesome. And you know, it basically protects itself, the car defends itself. I want people around it, it'll haunt you to give light flashes, it'll turn all the cameras on. And now that can be quiet. So really great point.

Kyle Mountsier  15:28

The point is the same. I want to I want to real quick there was a comment on our post on social regarding the this original update. And just to add some context to like the way that Tesla users are experiencing this is they're actually getting these, you know, if you get like an app, and it's saying you got a free app, and you got the option to upgrade it to the premium for 399. Right? Tesla is pushing these notifications into the car. And this person was like, I get that like minor anxiety like should I do it every time I get in the car, right?

Paul Daly  16:07

Like you're getting prompted for for a $15,000 they just added they just added a Nine 399 Nine it's unbelievable. There's he's saying you know, as opposed to the last year we're Sony is saying hey, that's it's the safety, security emotional experience. That comment is like it's the wrong kind of emotion. I'm getting prompted. Like, I don't want anxiety. Should I do this? Am I going to FOMO like where is that line between too much? Not enough? However, like the heated seat thing. It's like, hey, it's three degrees out. You want to warm but boom

Kyle Mountsier  16:43

done. Oh heated seats on?

Paul Daly  16:45

Oh, the point of this is all comes back to the same cars are no longer just cars anymore. So I mean, there's one more thing Oh, it wasn't something just came and went from my mind. I thought it was relevant. I guess it wasn't really. But there you go. There's your shot for the morning. Hopefully it got you going like it got us going. We have a lot of work to do. Hey, if you haven't follow us on LinkedIn, follow us so to on LinkedIn, lots of good conversation there.

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