Toyota’s Profits, Tesla’s Paywall, GM’s Intern Plan

Paul J Daly: 0:18

Wednesday, May 8, if you're wondering why the show's running a little later than usual is because we're running a little harder than usual. From like the early, early hours of the morning, we've been up for like four hours already. We're gonna talk Toyota, Tesla, GM, ASOTU, CON, culture, whatever else comes up into our heads between now and then.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:41

Anything I mean, six days a number of things running around in my head right now our team put together like the, like we, what are we calling? It's called what's on the table? Is like a running list of things to do before. Tuesday evening, next week? Yeah, there's 90 things on that list. So

Paul J Daly: 1:03

just a couple of it's a full table. There's stuff that doesn't even make it on here. Right? Like, Oh, absolutely. Oh, wow.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:11

Something like remember asleep? No, no, well,

Paul J Daly: 1:13

that's the thing. That's the thing. I mean, we I'm actually thinking we're gonna get pretty good sleep at ASOTU CON this year. Rooms are comfortable. I mean, but you know, like when your event if you can, if you can, like, crush a good six hours, like fine, you get the dreaded hours and event with all the adrenaline is more than planned. It's not like it's not like NADA, it's not like a five or six day venture, right? A couple nights, two, three nights,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:38

and you haven't made the rooms like even my wife was reminding me like the rooms and the beds are nice in this hotel. So very good fam. They're

Paul J Daly: 1:46

very nice. If you haven't gotten your tickets, or you're still deciding whether or not you can make it if you're in with like a three hour driving radius of the southern part of Baltimore, North Annapolis, whatever we want to call it, you should go to ASOTU con.com. And check it out. Tickets have been coming in a lot of tickets every single day. We're getting a lot of text message requests lately, yesterday was full for both of us. A lot of text message requests. Here's the deal. I think this is just gonna the energy is all focused like a lightning bolt on that venue. Next week is going to be Tuesday night through the end of Thursday. And we have 90 plus speakers and we'll get Daris coming in. We're giving away a car and we have a custom guitar being made. We have the best practitioners in the industry sharing secrets. I had the panel yesterday panel prep call for mobile fixed ops yesterday mobile, sir. Oh, no.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:37

That one I don't think I can make I'm so mad about it. Oh

Paul J Daly: 2:40

my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So we have Jeremy Stephens fixed up service director, mobile service director for Bozar Ford. Rick Reichert, you know who he is he runs the whole complex. They're doing mobile service. We also have Matthew Hakan, who's self proclaimed, we'll say, we have a really nice van. But we're still trying to figure out how to be good at it. So we have people in all sections all journey, which is really what we need, because like, we're not going to learn how the very best person who's like multiple years and like multiple vans into it, we need people that are saying I've been thinking about it. I'm not good at I need help. And we actually concept, the conversation came up about pay plans. And Jeremy Stephens, who has been doing this the longest, and they had, they're pushing almost over 20 vehicles. He's like, Yeah, we've messed up a pay plan or two. So that's exactly the guy you want to learn.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:33

Exactly. Right. You got to have the mistakes to get the the successes. Yeah, so

Paul J Daly: 3:38

that's just one of the many, many sessions we have that are going to teach you very practical, practical things, you can go back and implement and we have a feeling you're gonna leave feeling a lot more passionate about the,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:49

the industry you're in. Exactly. Hey, I want to I want to point out this, you sent this through this morning, and I think this is just good for the community, that Seth Godin, basically, he has a daily kind of blog, email. And there was it was all about like the continuity, the staying power of not just flash in the pan things. So he was specifically talking about, like creative things like what you create, and then what gets output. So the difference between like a long form album that you sit next to a record player, and a tick tock scroll of the latest six seconds of a hot song, right? And you reminded our entire team that asoto is really like four years in a month old at this point, like a lot of people are just finding out about it. But it is the long effort of continuing to bring together a community of people that are light hearted and like minded, that actually begins to make a real impact on our industry. And so like for all those that are a part of this community, whether you just found it a month ago, or four years ago If you're a part of that long term effort to make a massive impact on our industry and coming to a soda con, or listening to the daily podcast, or engaging people on social media are all a part of that effort. So I just want to remind everyone that

Paul J Daly: 5:14

good reminder, there's an amazing blog, and I don't think I've ever sent our entire team like a company wide email in my life. As I was putting the email addresses in, I was like, there are people in our company, like, how do I type in there? There were some email addresses that I didn't even have like, I've never sent this person an email, because it's always like text or slack or something like that. That's what Yeah, I mean, the point, just the journey to get there is actually where you get the values like the punch line. I think he said in the email, he's like, aren't you glad I didn't say Apple again, has no meeting unless you go through the journey of the joke. He said, People who've run a marathon, the finish line is very rarely the most memorable moment of running a marathon. You know, I don't know I haven't read

Kyle Mountsier: 5:55

them yet. Because imagine like saying you run a random marathon and you only ran the last 100 yards and crossed the finish line. Isn't there this 1000s

Paul J Daly: 6:03

of steps leading up to it. Speaking of success being about the journey, oh, you know, it did Whoa. All right, Toyota's Kochi Sato celebrating a triumphant first year as his role as a CEO with record breaking profits, setting the stage for some massive investments coming in future tech companies operating profits soared 77% This quarter with plans to reinvest 11.2 4 billion into electrification, AI and software advancements and another $2.6 billion investment in shoring up their supply chain. So the investment is caused for Toyota is forecasting actual a dip in its profits for this fiscal year, which ends March 2025. Because they're going to prioritize stabilizing sustainable long term growth, they did achieve 10% operating profit margin this quarter 10% That's a record with revenue up 14% with sales of hybrids, which by the way, are as profitable as their gas models went up 32% hybrids now it up a third of all of their global sales. So a third of altos vehicles have a battery powered element to it. CEO koji Sato stated, We need this time, we need this time of plateau. For our long term future growth. We would like to make proactive efforts for sustainable growth in the

Kyle Mountsier: 7:25

future. The moment where Toyota says, Hey, we're up by 14, we're plateauing for just a second.

Paul J Daly: 7:34

I'm gonna take a minute and contemplate, chill, guys, we're

Kyle Mountsier: 7:39

just gonna go on 18% That's all.

Paul J Daly: 7:42

There's no chillin on over there. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 7:44

I mean, obviously, that's on total margins. You know? Like, this is just par for the course, in my opinion. And I, you know, I don't want to skip over the fact that 11.2 4 billion is led in the list with electrification, but bundled in the list with AI and software advancements, and shoring up in supply chain, which all of those three have 75% of the things that they're going to be investing money in. I think they're going to be just as impactful if not more impactful than the electrification plans, because they already know how to make money on hybrids, you know, so they good fam it first

Paul J Daly: 8:22

day, one of the first in the pool. Now I you know, I speak Toyota fans, you never bet against Toyota ever. A lot of people started to bet against them with a whole like a they're behind the curve historically. They were right. And they're going to be right again, just because they are disciplined and careful on everything they do. And they got a little bit of a bank role to make sure that continues on so congrats to them. And all the amazing Toyota dealers, we don't have to tell you, you already know why twit is an amazing franchise that

Kyle Mountsier: 8:50

you're already happy where you're at speaking of

Paul J Daly: 8:53

being happy where you're at, not at all happy where they're at. Tesla has introduced a pay to unlock feature for a rear wheel drive model why owners offering up to get its pay to unlock additional mileage range get that just sitting there waiting for you offer is beyond heated seats offering up to 60 additional miles. So this upgrade only applies to model wise that were made recently. And it's going to align the older model wise just not that old, though, like within the last year with the new 320 mile range of current models come to address the slowing of sales slowing of cash flow. So basically they set the price at 15 $102,000 to unlock additional range on rear wheel drive model Y vehicles, or it's between 15 $102,000 in vehicles eligible for the upgrade or those made actually only in the last few months with this that have the same nickel batteries and charging curves as the long range model why? So you know while explaining the strategy behind the new feature amidst like the current regulatory challenges, Elon Musk candidly quipped, we have to pay the bill sometime are somehow. So

Kyle Mountsier: 10:08

this is so about that like quintessentially Tesla. Yeah, right? quintessentially Elon Musk, quintessentially, like there will be a ton of people that can't afford a Tesla that will obviously pay that already have 102 grand to get the extra mileage out of it. You know, like, Is it logical to spend two grand on an additional 60 miles? Like what is that gets you over the long time? It's more like a it's a, it's a convenience thing at that.

Paul J Daly: 10:42

I wonder, I wonder how they're financing it to? Like, is it like pay over? Right? Are they monthly paying that joker? It's like, what do you have 30 payments left, let's spread out $1,500 over 30 months, $50 more a month for another 60 miles range that makes it a little easier? A little depends on Linux, it really depends, right? Like if you drive it short distances and you charge at home, you're never gonna pay for that you're never worried. But if you have to rely on like superchargers, and you're always mapping it out apps, or if you just have FOMO. And you need the best thing, right? You always lie comes out. That's got 320

Kyle Mountsier: 11:13

customer right now, right? The majority of the testimony customer is just I want the best thing and I want it now. And I want access to it. And so when you get access to it, I was with Jimmy Douglas last week. He was like, oh, no, there were multiple model years back like five six years ago, where they just they just straight up gated knowing that the future planning was to unlock more miles for revenue like they've been doing this isn't long time. This is

Paul J Daly: 11:43

Q imagine just tacking 1500 to two grand on right to the bottom line of of just slapping it to the bottom line a year later. Oh by the way, well that's the whole point of like selling software it really is very similar to that being able to control the vehicle

Kyle Mountsier: 11:56

they do it right which the FOMO and I want the best thing now right that's where like BMW asking for heated seats versus Tesla getting you more mileage, just the the playing that they're playing chess, not checkers. Yeah, that's

Paul J Daly: 12:09

the truth. We got to I mean, gosh, we know they can use a little bit money. Elon is right on point. Got to pay the bills sometime. Yep, somehow speaking of paying the bills, Subway.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:23

So GM is seizing an opportunity, one that is just so branded asoto I feel like they should be like bias. At the bottom of this. Amid Tesla staff cuts actively recruiting interns displaced by Tesla's recent downsizing efforts, offering roles and things like software to Mel development. And as in it's all a part of their strategic talent acquisition. Laura della, Mo from GM extended him invite via LinkedIn to those affected by Tesla's Internship Program cuts she stated, We believe in the strength of our automotive community, and are keen to integrate diverse talents into our team. Let's go Laura. GM has a history of hiring a bunch of Toyota Tesla execs really looking to enhance their battery and manufacturing operations based on what they've seen Tesla do in the past. No official comments have come out from GM or the Lord demo. So still still seeing what actually comes of it. But you know, good LinkedIn posts. We know what that's all about transferring? Bring along the others.

Paul J Daly: 13:32

I love this because everybody wins. Yep. Right. Tesla had a cut back. They did it. We have these interns that were just queued up to go into the auto industry or to Tesla I don't know if they seen it as the auto industry. But here we go. GM saying, Hey, we're on the hunt. We need some talent. Come on over here. And I love it that these people move one step closer to the franchise. Mm hmm. That's right. I make that always makes us feel warm and fuzzy makes me happy. I think we're gonna have actually some young young little column interns but they're going to be trying to turn the event. We have four students from Northwood University young leaders who are coming to the event in collaboration with Todd Caputo Takapuna consulting, sponsoring students from Northwood to be at the event to learn learn the ropes of some production, event management, and to be around a lot of dealers. So if you're going to be at ASOTU CON your dealership, you're an OEM, you're an industry partner. It's like look for this talent, there'll be clearly marked with Northwood badges. And, you know, let's, let's welcome him with open arms for the sort of cons all about, honestly. I mean, we have a lot of work to do. We're gonna get off this podcast. We're gonna get back to this opening list of all the things we have to do so we can be ready for you next week. Go to a soda comm.com Check out the agenda and the speakers will see you

Unknown: 15:00

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