Plug-Ins Not Winning, Cybertruck Reservation List, Credit Card Debt Climbs

Paul J Daly  0:05  
Hey, what's up? It is Wednesday, October 17. Nathan had the date wrong in the notes. I got it right. I just want to put that out there. He's right there, and he's the one time I'm gonna get it right every I just have to savor this moment. Kyle

Speaker 1  0:20  
and I just love that, like you just fully shut down the whole normal intro pieces

Paul J Daly  0:27  
together. It was like Christmas. Kyle, the four of us. Kyle, myself. JC, Nathan, we are all in charlottesburg, Virginia, because we Charlottesville, Charlottesville, charlottesburg. It's not where everything's a Burg, lots of bariums were charlottesburg, Charlottesville, Virginia, and we were here. We're here because we celebrated the 100th year of Carter Myers automotive last night and but today we're talking about plugins and hybrids and cyber trucks and credit card debt and the things that we talk about, yeah, try not to be too crazy loud, because we're in this beautiful, this really cool feeling, hotel, wild hotel, and there's a couple of bozos now making all this noise in the side out of nowhere. Oh, but look, we want to let you know and remind you that the new podcast now we're here. It's a name Ed podcast is now available on all podcast platforms. This is a podcast that ASOTU has produced for name Ed and Damon Lester is hosting lots of conversations with some really great people in the industry that are kind of new to our ecosystem. So the first one someone from within J and A we have a couple that are coming in hot, and we just want you to check it out, because they're putting on an amazing, amazing podcast that's talking about some really successful dealers across the country. You can search it ASOTU. Now we're here and you'll find it or name it. I think, yeah, you search nada,

Kyle Mountsier  1:46  
I can grab it all right, yep, yep. We're

Paul J Daly  1:48  
getting thumbs up, thumbs up. Look, we have some news to talk about today. And Kyle's got an Uber. I got an Uber, and we're just chilling, but we're just watching you sweat today. Many have pointed to the plug in hybrid as the ideal transition vehicle from the ice to Bev. But a new study from JD Power is suggesting that the plug in hybrid EVs may not be the electric vehicle solutions that customers are looking for. Plug in hybrid satisfaction scored 669 on 1000 point scale, lower than BEVs, which was they scored 760 I mean, just say 76% and so Bev's 716 premium. EVs a little higher, or the highest at 738 out of 1000 plug in hybrids account for just 1.9% of all US vehicle sales, while battery electric vehicles hold 9.4% and conventional hybrids 10.7% high purchase and maintenance costs are the major drawbacks. With compact plug in hybrids averaging $48,000 compared to battery, which is 36,000 that's kind of wild. Whoa, it's more than $10,000 difference. If you want to plug the car into wonder, no one's buying them. As of August 2024 there are 41 plug in hybrid models compared to 39 just straight hybrid models. Here's a quote from Brent Gruber of JD Power. He says dealers are the front line educators in the EV space, encouraging them

Kyle Mountsier  3:09  
to bridge the knowledge gaps. Yeah, you know. So when you look at this, really, as a P, as a plug in hybrid, like that jump, if you're willing to make that jump, I think you're willing to make the jump all the way to battery. You know what I mean, like? So it's almost like, you know, people are saying that the middle session thing, but I think really, the trends the hybrid and then going all the way battery, like that, plug in hybrid is going to be tough. And, you know, the reason why the price point is so high is because you do get a ton of gas mileage and, or at least range with that thing, because that battery starts and then you get the full, you know, it's a lot different than the range of, say, like a hybrid. But, yeah, this is, this is still, this is, I think this is the same story as, like, the BV is, like, what time of the market is right for it and and is the one for it. But still, with hybrids winning out, as far as you know, market share, I

Paul J Daly  4:05  
think that if plug in hybrids were the same cost, people would pick a plug probably every day of the week. Yeah, right. Why would I not want the option? Yep, right? Because you don't have to plug it in. That's

Kyle Mountsier  4:14  
true, right? Ever, yeah, but 10 grand more got him. Yeah, it's

Paul J Daly  4:17  
a lot of gas. I don't think you can drive that much to make that up. No way. Not not in this not this year. Anyway. Speaking of driving these we drove. I got to drive. Nathan was a passenger. I asked him to drive it. He was like, I've had enough for one day. Because he drove an EV six. He was a little overwhelmed. But we've visited our friend John Foley at recharge, and got to drive a cyber truck. We'll tell you about that in a minute. But the news is that they've seen some impressive sales with the cyber truck. 27,000 units sold in 2024 that's a lot for a new vehicle. However, they appear to be running through their massive pre reservation list, which is wild, which was like a million trucks. They sold 16,000 in q3 alone, following 11,000 in the first. Half So, 11,001st half of the year, 16,000 just in q3 but they did say they had up to 2 million reservations, reservations,

Kyle Mountsier  5:10  
but you can now get one within 60 days. So which means people have been turning down those reservations like yourself. Yeah, I did. I did. I turned

Paul J Daly  5:16  
down my reservation. I reserved it like so many years ago that I just felt like, well, I put $100 deposit, and after inflation, that's the 100. I mean, it's probably like the equivalent of, like, seven, 7000 today's dollars. Just a few years ago, the base model, when they came out, originally said it was gonna be 39,000 Yeah, that was what they said it was gonna be. That is no longer available. I don't think it was ever available. With current models starting around 100 grand your six figures. So maybe my inflation factors right

Kyle Mountsier  5:47  
about the percentage, yeah. I mean, you know, I think the goals for the cyber truck of being 1,000,002 million reservations and having to sell through those, and people talking about it taking five years to get through those, we're starting to see like, oh, look no it within the first year, the real people that were going to buy that thing are buying that thing. And now if you want one, you can get one, and we're gonna use car lots. And now they're, you know, it was freaking

Paul J Daly  6:09  
awesome to drive out.

Kyle Mountsier  6:14  
There's no segue. There's no freaking awesome. A new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reveals that many Americans are growing more concerned about their ability to manage credit card debt. Here it is, the likelihood of missing a payment in the next three months has climbed to 14.2 the highest since April 2020. Delinquencies are on credit card accounts over 90 days past due reach 9.1% and US household debt now totals $17.8 trillion credit card balances have hit 1.1 4 trillion up almost 6% year over year. Middle Income houses are feeling the most squeezed, with 44% reporting more financial worries than last year. Bank Rate analyst Ted Rossman said, for people with good incomes and good credit scores, things are going well now the other half that can be a much more troublesome situation. So

Paul J Daly  7:07  
if you think back to April 2020, that was the time where the lockdowns had been about a month and a half in, yep, and we were starting to hear all the relief things coming out, like freezing credit card interest rate. So it's really tough to even like, compare it to those two, right? We have had a lot of years of government injection cash, and, like all these boom years, that's why inflation is high. And now we're starting to see the down tick, I think, like it, indicating the market is split, good incomes, good credit, everything's cruising along. That's it, but there's another half that it's not going so well, and that's where the debt starting to accumulate, payments starting to be missed on credit cards, which credit cards, which are kind of the easiest payments to make, right, right? You're like, oh, you spent this money. You have to pay $42 this month. Yep, right. So I think that's an indicator to just be more price sensitive and aware when consumers walk in that they're going to be highly stressed more credit challenge situations,

Kyle Mountsier  8:00  
like, there's not much we can do about price pricing or even interest rates right now, but what we can do is be aware of the consumers feeling about, you know, their ability to purchase or their debt profile, or you know what a monthly payment might mean to them now, as compared to what it was two years ago, and they might have been looking for a Car, aka mindset, no plug in hybrids for them, no plug in hybrid. Don't

Paul J Daly  8:23  
even try to sell it to them. Look, we hope you have an amazing day. Kyle's gonna go out his Uber drivers honking outside. I can hear I can't do that, but we hope you have an amazing day care about some people pay attention to what their real needs are. Typically speaking, it's a little deeper than the superficial one. We will see you tomorrow. Tomorrow, right? Always see you tomorrow. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

‍