No More Cars From China, Stellantis Succession Plan, Gemini In Your Workspace

Paul J Daly: 0:02

All right, good morning. It's September 24 I'm in jail cell C here. Actually, I got bricks behind me. I'm at the big queue conference in Kansas City. Kyle's holding down the fort. We got things to talk about

‍Unknown: 0:17

this. Maybe AI all up in your workspace,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:22

all up in your workspace,

Paul J Daly: 0:24

just a Tuesday, just to know, just the Tuesday,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:28

just a Tuesday. We talk about China's to Lantus and Gemini, you know,

Paul J Daly: 0:32

some I was just talking so I'm here in Kansas City, Missouri, not Kansas, if you're chiefs fan, this is, you know, you know where this is, well, and I'm at the VIN queue unleashed event, and Vin queue is doing a great job with the event. Let me just say that Danny, Angela, the team, Michael Hopkins, they just have done a great job, really, just embracing the hospitality mindset. So whenever somebody does that, well, you know, you're going to get kudos and props from us and snaps. We're just talking with a dealer. His name's Rudy's director of Toyota of Berkeley, out there in California. And he was just talking about how you have to get the heart of the person if you want to keep them working at your store for a long time. And and found out, no no surprise, that he looks up to people like Patrick, a bad for some inspiration, and the crew naturally, right? So, so it's awesome. You know, when you find when you find the others, when you have people that are thinking in those ways, you go to places where they congregate, and you realize you're like, these are my people. So I'm already feeling good.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:32

You know, what's interesting? Like, I had a, I had a similar conversation in a completely adjacent vertical but yesterday, we're prepping for a soda con, right already, we're, we're months out, if you don't know con, May of next year, you can go to the website, be the one of the first to know when we drop all the all the news. But we were talking to actually a coffee provider, because we just want to step up that part of our hospitality. And it was so cool because they said, tell us a bit more about you, because we really only do events with people that believe the things that we believe about hospitality and care for community and all that type of stuff. So, like, the middle of that conversation go real theoretical and theological and all that kind of stuff. It was really, really cool. So, yeah,

Paul J Daly: 2:18

yeah, never do this. Oh, I'm sewing. When someone asks you that question, it is like, it's like, a dividing line. Yes, when you get that question, you're either like, Ah, maybe this isn't going to work out, or you're like, we have to do something together exactly. Well, that's great. So we're going to have upscaled coffee at a soda Con this year. That's the goal. That's the goal. Yeah, we got mothers if you want to open your calendar right now, if you have an old paper calendar and just circle the week after Mother's Day, it's going to be in there the middle days, right? Yeah. Not going to mess up your sales flow, not going to mess up any of that. You can go. So go to a sodacon.com sign up for that. We have a webinar tomorrow. It's an asotu Edge webinar. These are a quick shot, 2030, minute. Kyle and I moderate. We ask questions, take questions from the audience. We have a lot of fun. We're talking about how unresolved complaints could turn into compliance nightmares. It's not something that you want to happen with our friends at dealer resolve. And these things might be happening and you don't know about it. And I'm telling you what, there's any, ever anyone that can make compliance fun. It's going to be the four of us that's right. Just say it.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:21

That's right. Hey, speaking of getting something that you may not know about, little segway into the first story you know,

Paul J Daly: 3:31

the US Commerce Department is considering a new rule that could block automakers like GM and Ford from importing vehicles from China. The move is part of a broader effort to curb the use of Chinese technology, particularly software and hardware due to national security concerns. Basically, GMs, Buick, envision and Ford's, Lincoln Nautilus, both assembled in China. Well, I didn't know that would be directly impacted, and the rule could also affect other automakers who doing the same kind of thing, including Volvo and BYD. BYD. No surprise. GM sold about 22,000 envisions. Ford sold 17,500 Nautilus in the US during the first half of 2024 and basically, automakers would need to move production outside of China or apply for specific authorizations continue to continue selling those models. Liz cannon, from the Commerce Department said, quote, any vehicle manufactured in China and sold in the US would all fall within the prohibitions. Oh, prohibitions.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:28

There you go. To which GM said, Ha, that's why we're getting rid of Apple CarPlay in the beginning. Anyway, got him? Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. I mean, you know, this is obviously a broader play. This is particularly about the automaker impact, but this is, this could be, like a crazy impact. And I just, you know, it's something to be aware of, especially if you are a GM or Ford or Lincoln store. But not, not crazy, because the. Things like software and hardware created in China. Hello, Apple iPhone, you know. Hello, Nvidia chips that power, like pretty much all of everything's ecosystem, data ecosystem. So still a really like early development, but it does beg the question like, What does the automotive landscape over the next five to seven years as question marks continue to arise on importing anything, right? We've already seen things like tax incentives for batteries produced on US soil now. Now you see like hardware and software getting challenged. I don't think this is the end of the road for what gets challenged from the things that we're importing, and how that impacts pricing, how it impacts competitive matrix. It's just something I think, to be aware of, especially if you're a growing Auto Group, to have diversification within the OEMs that you're supporting. Just say you are not, you know. So if you are growing thinking about diversifying your portfolio of OEMs is extremely important. I

Paul J Daly: 6:05

think, yeah, that's going to continue to be that way. It's interesting that it's two different areas. Like, one is materials and focused on economic impact. The other one is security and focused on national security impact. Just, you know, I've heard some conversations this was going on the last 90 days, about like, Hey, do you know? Like, we have these giant computers that can start and can drive and are heavy and can move into things and coordinate and all these things. Start to think about that, where you're like, I don't really want

Kyle Mountsier: 6:34

to think about that too. Don't need to think about it, don't I know.

Paul J Daly: 6:37

But whatever, whatever it is, right? Auto dealers were always going to adapt. And whatever the rule is that comes down the pike, we always find a way. Speaking of finding a way, stellantis announced it's begun the search for a successor to CEO, Carlos Tavares that's going to be mixed met with some I don't know which button to push for that one, because we'll get in trouble no matter what button we push with his, with his contract expiring in january 2026 while Tavares has led the company since 2021 and made it highly profitable, recent issues in the North America specifically are driving the company to refocus. It's kind of a routine CEO search, but the company is facing pressure due to the declining American sales and profits there. We got a great meme up there. This is fine. So basically, they are, in response to the drop in sales and profits, they're slashing vehicle inventories by 100,000 units by early 2025 and has already reduced it by 40,000 vehicles. CFO Natalie Knight said, inventory and pricing discipline are key strategies to weather the EV transition, with some models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the compass seeing big price cut, price, price, price cuts. Tavares did implement aggressive cost cutting measures, including a lot of job cuts, which we've talked about, and a plan source 80% of its parts from low cost countries by 2028 This is a quote from the CFO Miss Knight. She says, We're living in a very difficult times where they're going to be winners and losers. And a lot about being the winner is being the last man standing. All right, oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 8:14

there's a so this was the producer's note. I got to call this out because I want to like, this is, this is legit from your boy, Paul, sitting right next to me

Paul J Daly: 8:23

last Oh, I said this last

Kyle Mountsier: 8:25

August on the wheelhouse, hosted by Daniel Gover, there was a question, is off the wall, question, which of the big three CEOs would be the first to not be a CEO of their company anymore? And you sir, confidently, just said Carlos, like you knew, you know it was a guy. Remember that? What loans? Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 8:45

that's great. Great job producers, though, for remembering that

Kyle Mountsier: 8:48

epic producer note. So here's the thing I think, if you're still Anna stealer, you've known and been hoping that this has come in, there's obviously been bumpy road, high inventory supply. It's no wonder they're trying to cut 100,000 units from the in stock inventory. That is, we're seeing that in price cuts, in hefty rebates, hefty dealer incentive programs, trying to move this inventory that is extremely aged compared to some of their competitors. And a lot of people are pointing to the leadership's lack of leadership in in allowing that to get out of control post covid times and post inventory stringent times. So, you know, I'm not enough of a pundit to kind of call who they may or may not be looking at, but it's clear that there's a disconnect between the dealer and the OEM and and I would be I would be remiss if I didn't say, look for someone that the dealers love, because that's probably going to be the best place to go. Oh

Paul J Daly: 9:54

my gosh, it'd be amazing. You imagine it's a great setup for a comeback. Yeah. A great setup for a comeback. And we

Kyle Mountsier: 10:02

love come back. You know, we love we should do? We sure do. I

Paul J Daly: 10:06

wish I had a segue for this one. I

Kyle Mountsier: 10:07

don't know that story, Google is making its Gemini AI. If you're in Google workplace, you know that you get basically pinged every 37 minutes wondering if you want to, can I help? Can I help? Can I help? Can I help? It will, instead, in business ecosystems, move from being a paid tier upgrade to being a central part of its workspace productivity suite, a move that can significantly boost the chat bots user base across various industries. It'll now be included in as early as q4 in workspace business enterprise and Frontline plans, eliminating the need for the separate add on. Google asserts that Gemini won't use organizational data to train its AI model, and complies with enterprise grades privacy standards like SOC one, two and three and ISO 27, 701, so they're going to keep it tight the storage and generated responses and user prompts will be able to be administered by the workspace administrator administers. And then Google's also introducing the security advisor tool to help IT administrators protect against malware and phishing within Gmail, Chrome and Google Drive. So some security updates alongside the AI introduction across the board. I'm excited to try it out, because I can't, you know, I can't think about the the additional $30 per user, but hey, if it's going to be baked in the to the platform, yeah,

Paul J Daly: 11:34

right up. You know, it's a smart, it's smart play to grow the user base and just continue to train these bots. I wonder what that is going to be like, you know, with when you have chat GPT and you have, you know, like a business account, it doesn't use what you're typing to train its models. So Google is obviously going to pay a lot of attention to that. I think this is just more of the steps into integrating AI with regular parts of people's lives. In automotive we're seeing this more and more as industry partners are starting to implement these tools and integrate them with what they're doing, and so that, you know, things are moving so fast, it's hard to keep up with it. Is what the change actually is. But however, I think just looking back, if we were able to take a snapshot back six months at a time, and now that six months is going to be a massive difference in use, in AI, and it's going to hit, it is already hitting automotive, but it's going to, like the next 12 months, we're just going to see these tools everywhere and become a normal part of life. I just, I'm on the did you get the apple intelligence beta?

Kyle Mountsier: 12:36

No, I don't have the 15. So my new phone's coming. Okay, I'll see it here soon. Okay, yeah,

Paul J Daly: 12:42

and so and so. I mean, it's, like, the beta has a few features, but you can also the, you know, it's got, like, some, like, photo things. But I think one of the the smartest things that it has, and it's just a tiny little bit, it's just its ability to summarize notifications across the board. It just smartly takes, and usually when you have a page full of note, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. And, you know, use car managers, inventory managers, know what that's like, right? You have all these things going on. You have things going on in your BDC. The smart ability to summarize is cooler than I thought it would be from for my notifications. And so I'm just gonna put that there. I've only had it on for like, two days. Yeah. So regardless,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:21

I think either way, like the integration of this into all of life and into the ecosystems, especially in business, just requires that you be a student of it. That requires that you understand it through if you if you've just said, Ah, it's not for me. It's not for me to understand. And you're in business, that's the lie you're telling yourself, and whether or not you use the heck out of it. You should understand its capabilities. Why or why not? It does certain things, how to interact with it when it does come up, like the study of the art of use of AI is important for all business operators, from a frontline employee to an executive, every single person should, at minimum, be aware of its capabilities.

Paul J Daly: 14:06

Roll the music. I We can't add anything like that. It sounds a lot more like dealers doing the same things they do, which is, pay attention to what's going on and try things. Fail, try, fail, try, succeed. Care about the people. You're gonna be just fine. We'll see you tomorrow.

Unknown: 14:41

You.

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