Trump Meets Barra, Tesla Searches Plunge, Back To (Onsite) Work

Paul J Daly  0:01  
Welcome to a beautiful Friday morning, March 14. It's kind of a day of countdowns. We have like nine episodes to Episode 1000 of the show. We have like 61 days until ASOTU CON. We have like 12 minutes until the show's over.

Kyle Mountsier  0:18  
I just want to let you know it is 60, which is 60 days till ASOTU CON. It's actually like, you could say 59 and a half. You could say, welcome. How you like the count days? You know, it's like I always, you know, you mess with the people that count days, days till Christmas. The wrong way. We probably do the same thing for

Paul J Daly  0:39  
I like the higher number. Listen, you know, ASOTU CON. ASOTU CON, presented by our friends at Reynolds and Reynolds and goo goo is coming in super hot. We found out yesterday that we probably have, like, in the open block, like, 20 hotel rooms

Kyle Mountsier  0:55  
left. Oh my goodness, it's, it's not like a mess.

Paul J Daly  0:58  
And we were actually, we did a webinar, and we're doing a bunch of things, and somebody is coming to so I can't remember, and they were coming to a soda con. We said, did you book your room? And they're like, No. And we're like, we have like, 20 left, or like, oh my gosh,

Kyle Mountsier  1:12  
don't say we didn't tell you. Just don't say we didn't. Don't want to hear it.

Paul J Daly  1:16  
But you do need to be at a soda con. It is going to be a full, packed event full of people you want to hear from panels. You want to learn from people you just want to be around and be with hundreds and hundreds of them. And may 13 through 15th, main days, 14 and 15 in Hanover, Maryland, so easy to get to from BWI Airport, it's not even funny. You need to be there. Go to soda con com, check it out. And there we go.

Kyle Mountsier  1:41  
There we go. Hey, we got a webinar today. You talked about that a second ago. I'm really excited about this webinar because we got it. We got a little fun planned for it, a little like, you know, messing with Paul. Maybe here is going to show up his house, yeah. So we're gonna be with Robert blessing, renew energy, and talking about just what sustainability looks like when it comes to charging at home, charging and the potential for solar power to be involved in that. And I think it's a really unique topic, especially for different pockets of the country that are trying to serve their customers with charging opportunities in their home, and not making it like a cost on top of the car that's going to hurt them, and

Paul J Daly  2:24  
I'm so jealous. Can you imagine if you had the last name blessing? What a blessing. How much easier life would be,

Kyle Mountsier  2:32  
Mr. Blessing. We actually like random side story. We named my oldest daughter's middle name grace. And I think, like, it's, it's one of those things where it's like, every time you say the kid's middle name, you're like, oh, golly. You know her middle name was Grace. Yeah, Brooklyn middle name is Grace. Of course it is naturally, okay.

Paul J Daly  2:55  
Oh, the things we figure out on this show, let's talk about some news. Because, boy, it's been like several days, and we said we are not going to talk about tariffs or anything like that, and we took a little breather. But, I mean, we just have to talk about it today. An interesting angle, though, President Donald Trump met with General Motors CEO Mary bar at the White House to discuss the automaker's commitment to US manufacturing. The meeting, which took place amidst ongoing industry discussions about domestic investment and job creation. Highlighted, GMs plan to expand its US operations. They signal plans to invest, guess what, 60 billion in the US manufacturing and production ecosystem. Trump and bar discuss ways to enhance domestic auto production and bring more assembly jobs to the US. The meeting following, obviously, discussions with Forbes, Ford CEO Jim Farley, stellantis, Chairman John elkman, and industry wide about their industry wide investments. So GM is like watch this. Auto makers are looking for some policy stability, obviously on tariffs and vehicle emissions before making major long term commitments, because it's the worst when you invest all that money and then something changes four years later, batteries, GM praise Trump. Praise GM efforts and a GM spokesperson reaffirmed their support, saying, we share President Trump's goals of a strong and competitive American manufacturing base.

Kyle Mountsier  4:12  
Nathan, do you have the photo of Sean Fein on vacation in the Bahamas right now? Celebrating is that, is that, did we? Did we get that right?

Paul J Daly  4:21  
We're setting up the live cam right now. Live cam.

Kyle Mountsier  4:24  
Sean Fang, yeah,

Paul J Daly  4:26  
I heard you can see the farmers. Tan from space.

Kyle Mountsier  4:35  
I'm not gonna be able to write commentary after that. Oh, that hurts. Yeah, clearly, we're seeing a lot of shifts over the last 24 months from you know this like heavy all in on EVs and then a move to manufacturing. Still a lot of EV stuff in in this conversation. However, you know the the majority of of it around manufacturing stateside. I. Obviously tariffs this week having a big impact on potential future planning. You know, it seems like some of this stuff is going to be mainstay at least a weekend. We didn't, haven't seen much movement of the sort differently. So, you know, you got Jim Farley out there meeting with the President, you got Mary bar talking to the president. All these stateside manufacturers are definitely buddy and up at this point because they recognize the looming threat of not doing that. We'll see how what the impact of like, you know, manufacturers outside of the US and you know what their plans for some of this manufacturing stuff is, I think they'll probably be some more news on that in the second half,

Paul J Daly  5:41  
for sure, speaking of news, news, data, information, this has been a great report the last few months of February, 2025 cars, commerce, industry Insights report is highlighting how potential tariffs are affecting shoppers in the midst of slower demand, basically as the tariff threats began, between February 16 and 22nd searches on car shopping website, card com, jumped 9% from the week before. So a bunch of people got in the market. 52.1% get this of inventory vehicles that's vehicles in new car inventory did have their final assembly point in the United States, while 18% in Mexico, 4% only 4% were assembled in Canada, at 1.4 in China. So that's just showing what the tariffs could possibly affect. Overall new car inventory is up 8% year over year, but the trends are definitely split. Forward is up 24% Hyundai, Chevy, Kia and Honda expanded their supply, while dodge is down 70% that's something else. The used EV market is growing, with nearly 20 more models available year over year. Used non Tesla EV searches are up 25% so people are searching cars that are in Tesla, Tesla searches? Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier  7:01  
8% Yeah. Well, we've talked a little bit about, like, I think it's market share declines. 4% market share decline for for Tesla, and like, 22% market share increase for non Tesla, EVs in the in the entire market, right? And, you know, obviously we've known this. Atlantis brands are way over. Stocking in inventory looks like they're trying to change what their stocking plans are there by producing less. I think that the most interesting thing here is just the studies around how much impact we may have on these tariffs and and the real conversation, and we've always known this conversation is not so much about the final manufacturing point and the tariffs on the entire vehicle, but the parts out tariffs, specifically steel, aluminum and some of the parts manufacturing that gets imported from these countries. But I've been like you said, I've been enjoying this report. I think it's highlighting some unique data points that we just haven't, haven't considered, and I love seeing like shopping behavior reports. That's the best part of it, first party, yeah, well, and shopping behavior reports just know, like your your shopping behavior on third party marketplaces have a 60 to 90 day impact on real on showroom changes. So you know, if you're seeing that much, you know, intent on non Tesla EVs right now, in April, May, you're going to see non Tesla EVs be a big part of the market. Yeah, that, I think that's the biggest takeaway, right? If that's the delay, and look, if the tariffs are still in in play, it's definitely going to be a boost to the market in the short Yeah, well, especially tax time, it's actually a great combo. I mean, I don't like all the tariff uncertainty, neither do the markets. No, they clearly haven't. They clearly hate it, right? Yeah, speaking of clearly hating it, oh,

Paul J Daly  8:54  
we're gonna say the word

Kyle Mountsier  9:00  
so the pandemic was right about five years ago. If you don't know that, a little over a week ago, there was actually some posts about the basketball games that shut down, that that that dreaded night. But the pandemic clearly reshaped the workplace. Remote work was at an all time high, but it's been steadily declining, while hybrid and on site arrangements are gaining ground in late 2020 46% of workers were fully remote. Today. That number has dropped to 26% hybrid work has grown from 12 to 16% but on site work still dominates at 55% looks like companies are beginning to shift back to in person work, citing things like collaboration culture and productivity. It seems like there are a lot of companies still saying flexibility is going to be built into the overall work environment, but they got office setups coming back into the marketplace. It's interesting

Paul J Daly  9:53  
how the auto industry is truly a blend between these two. Because if you're in a store, it's like you're $99 Percent, 99% in person never stopped. Maybe changed a little bit. I do think that some people have, in certain situations, have adopted the opportunity to bring someone in remotely for specific tasks, but then you have the industry partner side who has probably, I really wonder what the number is, because you and I both operate a remote work company, right? And with congruent the agency, there's a big in person component. But when I look around at industry partners, without a doubt, COVID changed the industry partner in automotive dynamic forever, with a lot more remote work adopted and cars. I mean, a lot of companies took the opportunity to not be limited by their geography, to get talent. And we saw that attack and downsizing office spaces, having one floor instead of two floors, and all those things. So I think the market always wins, right? And we've seen this like what people are willing to do, what business management leaders are willing to do, as they monitor productivity, monitor culture. And so it's no surprise to me. I think we'll always have some kind of split, but I think in person will always be the dominant one, without a doubt.

Kyle Mountsier  11:08  
Yeah, I will. And because, well, one you have so many brick and mortar businesses, but I think that so many people are learning that those water cooler moments are just so important. I know that it's, you know, having, you know, built these remote companies after 13 years of being in person, it becomes increasingly difficult, the larger you get, to maintain some level of culture connectivity to to the entire team. So, you know, it's a it's not an easy thing. Super rewarding when you can go find talent anywhere. But, yeah, interesting to see the growth back to the office space. I like

Paul J Daly  11:45  
it. We like being in person. You know? We do? Yeah, we do. I love it. Well, look, I think called it, where's the music? Where's the music? You

Kyle Mountsier  11:53  
did call it? Call the 12 minute show today. No idea,

Paul J Daly  11:56  
but I didn't call it 12 minutes, and this show was over because we all have work to do. Hey, check out ASOTU on LinkedIn. We're gonna have some really fun posts coming out this week.