Inventory Highs, VinFast Pickup, Commercial Moonshots

Paul J Daly: 0:00

It's Thursday, January 11. Kyle, we both have backwards hats on right now. We never really know what's going to happen. But that always means we're about to get some done talking about new vehicle sales a new. I wasn't gonna get a due

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:31

date of times it happens.

Paul J Daly: 0:32

Also going to talk about a new truck revealed at CES from vinfast. And yesterday we said where's the NASA article? Today is the NASA article.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:42

Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna talk about space for a minute. Just get over it. Yeah, that

Paul J Daly: 0:47

is called Fix your hat. It's cricket and you're gonna be like, my hat was cricket. There you go. There's my hat is I'm always self conscious that my hat is crooked because they know. A little, little sideways. Good morning. Good morning, everybody on the Livestream. Thank you so much for joining us and being part of our morning. We hope you leave the show a little bit energized. If you're just listening on the podcast version. We live streaming every day. And if you're watching on the live stream, head over to Spotify. Head over to Apple Music and search the automotive troublemaker just search asoto it'll come up subscribe to the show. Leave a comment let people know what you think. That's how community and the Internet work.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:25

That's how the internet you have to leave comments. When you're at work.

Paul J Daly: 1:31

You kind of do. We do? We do have a new episode of our Auto Collabs podcast auto co ll ABS it's called charging forward. Yes, that's upon with Elena chicken tele this has been one of my favorite episodes in a long time. Because first of all, we just kind of all connected right out of the gate. There was a little roast going on and we were like hey, we only roast the people that we like

Kyle Mountsier: 1:57

there was there was some good jabs. The interview got flipped a couple of times I think it was fell out of our seat and started laughing you know for a minute it was great. Lena she

Paul J Daly: 2:08

has her own podcast called EVs for everyone so like when cost says it got flipped. She starts asking us questions. We're like Wait, who show is this anyway? Exactly. Oh, well, let's get into some news today. So your report came out the US new vehicle inventory saw a significant surge in December hitting a three year high while EVs are seeing long predicted slowdown. This was a Cox automotive report so basically new vehicle inventory in the US rose by over 200,000 in December pumping out more than 2.7 million units obviously a big increase from last year when all the talk was you know the deal but this is the highest inventory level in three years so not just the last two low inventory years or chip shortage years this is actually a three year high. So it's a 71 day supplies with that remember the seven day supply seven

Kyle Mountsier: 2:58

day supply with some that hadn't flies remember that back in the

Paul J Daly: 3:03

day? It was like literally like 10 months ago.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:07

Unbelievable. Crazy. Well, last year holy scrapped. A 71 day supply isn't the worst, right? It feels like you're being dragged down by responsible it feels responsible there's enough inventory I talked to a couple of dealers the first half of this month and they've said like hey December new cars was good because we just had them to sell it was easier to just go from I want this car to I have this car and so that there is a benefit to having some level of de supply but I'm watching because I bet you that we get them q1 reports and it's going to be like

Paul J Daly: 3:46

well, Evie inventories also have increased in supply more rapidly than ice vehicles, ending the year at 113 day supply show compared to 69 days for combustion models. So total 317,000 EVs were sold in q4 compared with the 313 in q3 only 1.3% increase EVs constituting 7.6% of the US market up from 5.9% in 2022. So still growing,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:14

that's almost we'll see percent market share, like that's pretty good for a year. You know,

Paul J Daly: 4:18

it'd be interesting to see what happens in this next year, right? Because last year, the curve was growing quickly. This year, a lot of talk about the curve leveling off. However, there's just a lot more EVs to buy. We're gonna see some incentives, we're gonna see some, you know, motivators, we'll call it. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:33

I'm interested to see what the real impact of putting the money on the hood of so many of these vehicles is here in q1.

Paul J Daly: 4:39

Is it putting it in the frunk? No, yeah, putting

Kyle Mountsier: 4:41

it in the front. Yeah. We'll see if there's like an actual impact to you know, do consumers know about it? Is it easier for the dealer to drive these things off their lot? Do we lower the market day supply? Or is it just like, hey, there's not enough buying demand out there. And so all of a sudden, we're, you know, still in the same position, just Just the dealers are waiting on the money from the feds. I didn't say

Paul J Daly: 5:05

we're gonna find that out really soon I'm sure there'll be there's

Kyle Mountsier: 5:08

gonna be a lot of talk about that at

Paul J Daly: 5:09

NADA without involves Vegas Speaking of things happening in Las Vegas a CES is still going on if you didn't hear us mention it 3000 times. Evie manufacturer vinfast revealed a pickup concept slated for potential 2026 us launch alongside their VF three microcar talking about you know expanding their Evie lineup the Pickup we we alluded to it earlier in this week, but I don't think we knew about it before then. So it's called the VF wild and the VF wild concept is a midsize pickup think you know nissan frontier with a flexible bed that can be extended into the rear of the cab through a power folding bid gate. That's a cool feature. It is really cool. Yeah, and maybe produce that their North Carolina plant likely near their first dealer by the way. vinfast Chairwoman lay lay through thoy said that was the VF wild is still only a concept and design may change based on input from us dealers. They also confirm the VF three microcar, that little micro machines way cooler than a swatch car. Yeah, sub$20,000 Productions expected to begin later this year. So that's

Kyle Mountsier: 6:18

that's it? That's good news. I think that we need to see that and just see like, does it you know, does it increase adoption? You look at the concept. It's actually a really cool concept. I would say that it's I like it tween. Yeah, it's kind of like in between full on concept and like actual vehicle. I can see it hitting every you know, it

Paul J Daly: 6:36

reminds me of what's that Toyota? Gosh, what's that Toyota that's got that rounded it's like a trucks got the rounded back. Looks very off. roadie is very eclectic. The Heck's that thing called? Um, mean

Kyle Mountsier: 6:50

the Chevy Avalanche? No,

Paul J Daly: 6:52

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it looks at the truck. The pickup truck might look like the avalanche. I'm talking about that little VF three.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:58

Oh, the VF three. I

Paul J Daly: 6:59

got you. What's the I'm gonna find that out while we're while we're going. It's the Toyota thing. It looks like it's got the rounded back. It looks like a little military vehicle. It's got the worst. Now it's got the worst blind spots in the world. It's pretty big on the outside on the inside. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 7:14

me. I got my Toyota game is off. I apologize. Oh,

Paul J Daly: 7:17

my goodness. I'm gonna figure that out. I'm figuring that out. Yeah, by the time we get there, but without a doubt, like, hey, this new type of small vehicle, especially a sub $20,000. Evie. I mean, we don't even have a sub $20,000 anything right

Kyle Mountsier: 7:30

now. Anything? Actually. Yeah, think about this. Is this gonna be the only passenger at a race this summer it was gone.

Paul J Daly: 7:38

is really going to be the only sub $20,000 passengers like your new starter.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:42

You know, you knew you knew your new team gets an Eevee for Christmas,

Paul J Daly: 7:47

you're gonna get back to it. And I'll never get back to a $99 month payment. No, that's not happened. That's when you have the $9,000 new car. Not getting there. I don't know have any idea how to transition things that aren't cheap? Segway I'm still trying to think of that Toyota car. But go ahead.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:09

NASA and a private company are setting its sights on the moon with a series of commercial lunar payload services designed to build Moon infrastructure through private companies. So the first lot, lander launched a board a brand new rocket from a company called the United Launch Alliance, which is owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The Vulcan rocket was successfully powered to orbit. It was really cool. I actually watched the the launch did. Yeah, yeah, they can probably watch the lie, though. Yeah, so the engines were built by Blue Origin, though the Bezos Amazon Amazon company, but it's Bezos.

Paul J Daly: 8:49

SpaceX isn't a Tesla company.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:52

Yeah, right. Unfortunately, the Peregrine lander, the actual lander from Pittsburgh company, Astrobotic suffered what's called a propulsion anomaly to to a stuck bow, making a soft landing on the moon impossible. So mission failed, but they didn't get the thing into orbit. It's just a learned a line that couldn't get to the wind needed to go to the ground couldn't go to the ground. So the thing is carrying physical Bitcoin, a memorial spaceflight human remains including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and I did

Paul J Daly: 9:26

hear about that interest that

Kyle Mountsier: 9:30

final frontier. There you go. Yep, they are. They are coming out with more. February 9, they've got a SpaceX Falcon headed out there. And no commercial company still has yet to land on the moon.

Paul J Daly: 9:45

And some people would argue no one has ever landed on the moon. But we don't talk about things like that on

Kyle Mountsier: 9:51

this show. Yeah, we don't talk about that. So I know I so. Random, but I know I've I actually know Buzz Aldrin's grandson. What's this? Oh? I just lost. You had to ask me that I played tennis in high school.

Paul J Daly: 10:08

No way. There you go give him a call. See what he thinks get them on the show. That's how we were here. Hey, Steve space is always one of those things that like, is just so to me. So like wonderous. You think of like all this space out there. I'm reading the Elon Musk book right now I've been posted about it a little bit. And what it takes to get a rocket out of the atmosphere is unbelievably complicated. It is way more complicated than any other planet and it's a miracle that didn't even happen so like when these things blow what do they have all these smart people on it? No, it's that difficult. Yep, makes sense. Right? Hence right

Kyle Mountsier: 10:41

if you have nothing else to do today you got something to talk about with your customers with your absolutely all that you got NASA to talk about.

Paul J Daly: 10:48

And I remembered what it is the vehicle FJ Cruiser Oh yeah, kind

Kyle Mountsier: 10:55

of gives that vibe off.

Paul J Daly: 10:57

While reminds me of a shrunken down FJ Cruiser. So there you go. I'm so glad I got that before the show because I wouldn't be able to hurt myself. Otherwise, Hey, get out there. Have an amazing day. And whether you're looking in space or looking at your customers, make sure you take care of people. Well yeah