Tax day is exciting enough, but what’s better than starting the second half of the month on a Monday? Today we’re talking about how the remaining Fisker Dealers are feeling as well as Ford and Tesla’s tennis match.
Show Notes with links:
Despite Fisker ongoing financial troubles and a significant drop in stock price, the few remaining dealers like Fisker Indianapolis and Fisker Albany are staying positive and continue selling the Ocean crossover.
Recent price cuts of nearly 40% on the Ocean model have spurred customer interest and sales, with Fisker Indianapolis reporting successful deliveries to out-of-state customers.
Remaining Dealers are hopeful for the future, citing the Ocean's affordability and positive customer feedback on the vehicle's performance and design.
Val Ranguelov, dealer principal at Fisker Albany in New York said, "As of now, we're still moving cars. Time will tell what happens. I love the car, it's very solid and very well-built. We just hope for the best."
Classic Fisker of Atlanta continues to list Ocean inventory online. However, other early partners like Mills Automotive Group and Ourisman Automotive Group are distancing themselves from Fisker, reflecting varied dealer confidence in the brand's future.
The OG empire is striking back as Ford introduces a $1,500 "Tesla Competitive Conquest Bonus Cash" rebate specifically targeting Tesla owners for the purchase of an F-150 Lightning or Mustang Mach-E to boost their EV sales.
Any owner of a Tesla vehicle from 2008 or newer is eligible for this incentive, without the need to trade in their current vehicle.
Ford is offering substantial discounts across various trims of the F-150 Lightning up to $12,500 as part of a broader strategy to enhance its competitiveness in the EV market.
An entry-level Mach E starts around $38k with the added Tesla incentive cash
"This incentive is available through July 8 for both the 2024 and 2023 model years, as we aim to attract Tesla loyalists and expand our customer base
Meanwhile, Tesla is deploying a dual effort of both slashing subscription prices and global layoffs in an effort to remain competitive as its Full Self-Driving subscription prices in half in the U.S. and Canada to $99 per month.
Simultaneously, Tesla has announced layoffs exceeding 10% of its global workforce, impacting potentially 14,000 employees as it aims to eliminate role duplications and prepare for future growth phases. This includes a reduction in production shifts and a strategic pause in some manufacturing locations.
Tesla is facing a rare year-over-year sales drop, particularly in China, where local EV makers are expanding rapidly.
I'm better than a mid month start on a Monday, homestretch on the homestretch halfway through April. Today, we're talking about Fisker dealer sounding off Ford striking back, Tesla adapting, and a little bit of a soda con swag. The people really want to know, is one of my favorite parts. Prius Oticon.
Kyle Mountsier:
Oh, I'm so excited right now. I love your little smile, like Yeah, yeah,
Paul J Daly:
so my favorite parts of any live event that we put on is that about 30 days out, the swag shipments start to come in. And I just get more excited. Like, if you've been doing asoto event, you know that we kind of are a little obsessive about what we give out as swag. We'll call it merch. Like there's no like squishy balls. Like this is stuff that you can actually use that you actually want to wear that you want to put on your stuff that you want to pay for if you don't get enough items. So we're going to have all that out of soda, which is only 29 days away. Now. We are under 30 days,
Kyle Mountsier:
that kind of my mind this morning. Like I knew that yesterday, I knew there was a moment in church I was sitting there I was like before, it's the 14th That's 30 days away. But then when I get the daily email this morning, and it was like 29.
Paul J Daly:
I know I know what it was. It's real fun to watch ticket velocity pickup in the last 30 days of any event, if you've ever put on an event in auto, you understand that until you get under 30 days, people haven't fully like Oh, I better buy my tickets. So what they've been picking up every day or so more and more, we're gonna have a great big crowd at a soda con, we still have space left, and you need to be there, go to ASOTU con.com. Check out the speaker list, check out the agenda, which is now probably 90% up, we still have some more sessions we need to add. We have amazing keynotes amazing dealers who are sharing best practices so that you can leave better than you came with special thanks to Jim Fitzpatrick and CBT news for putting ASOTU CON on the front page of the CBT site at the end the last week.
Kyle Mountsier:
And my heart's so good. I think our team our whole team has recorded his quote in the interview. It's a mix between what was it in spirit,
Paul J Daly:
rock concert, Baraka spiritual revival, and the third part is part business. What we're gonna call the end part, like, business objective changing event, yes. Because it's not just like we had, we have this thing where we put on amazing experiences. So it's easy to think like, oh, it's just a great experience, just a spiritual revival. And there's those things, but you're gonna go home, knowing some of the best practices going on in the industry and with the relationships with the top practitioners in the industry, that you know what it is, once you meet, have a conversation, exchanged numbers having to get tripped up, you just text the person, Hey, what did you do about this? And this and this? Hey, what are you doing now that salespeople aren't making as much as they were? What have you tried? And we all know those are the things that make massive massive differences in our businesses. So go to ASOTU con.com. Still tickets left. If you're an industry partner, we have a very limited amount of spaces left. The program has been very close to sold out even on sponsorships. So I think everyone is understanding like I'm about to miss out on something. Yep. Okay, so like we brought this swag so
Kyle Mountsier:
Okay, do it real quick. Okay, so
Paul J Daly:
this is just a little thing. We have a lot coming but this little more than cars, I can't put it too close to the camera because I don't have autofocus. It's like an air jump tag. They call it but it is like a high quality aluminum carabiner. With a ring it says more than cars on it. It's like a heavy duty like military grade nylon woven a backpack is going on the keys on the backpack. We're going to walk see these walking all over the airports and not to incar cutter who first of all, I want to thank our sponsors, Reynolds and Gugu presenting sponsors of the event for making this sucker happen. They just stepped up partnered we got a lot of fun things coming with them as well. This little piece of swag however, comes from our friends at car cutter and it is further rechargeable with the recharge Lance would say sponsored and it is a dongle that has a USB regular USB on one end and on the other end, it's got three options. You can have USB C A lightning and a micro USB. Let me tell you, this is going to become part of my regular travel gear. I already have like a shorter one that I never leave home without.
Kyle Mountsier:
And I happened that so often. So often these
Paul J Daly:
things are going to disappear. We have a whole box of them but I know they're going to be gone on day one. You need one of these in your life and you can get one if you come to a soda. Alright, let's talk about some news. Worth
Kyle Mountsier:
worth the price of admission. Paul worth the price. Well,
Paul J Daly:
I don't know about that. I can get one of those a little cheaper than under soda cotton ticket, but close. Here we go despite Fiskars ongoing financial troubles and a significant drop in stock price. This Do remaining Fisker dealers like Fisker, Indianapolis Fisker, Albany they're staying positive and continued selling the Fisker ocean crossover. Recent price cuts we know Fisker cut the price of the ocean by 44 0%. And, you know, but that cut has actually spurred more consumer interest and sales Fisker Indianapolis reporting a lot of successful deliveries to out of state customers right because they're finally can get these remaining dealers are hopeful for the future citing oceans affordability now and positive customer feedback on the vehicles performance and design. Valid regular Val regulative dealer principal at Fisker Albany, New York just down the road from me here in Syracuse said as now we're still moving cars time will tell what happens. I love the car. It's very solid, well built, and we're hoping for the best. However, classic Fisker of Atlanta where we'll be later this week continues to list ocean inventory online. However, some other early partners like Mills Automotive Group, you know, our friend Damien mills and the oarsmen Automotive Group close to ASOTU CON are distancing themselves from Fisker reflecting very dear dealer confidence levels in the brand's future. Interesting one that developing
Kyle Mountsier:
Yeah, I mean, this this is one It's so wild because if you go track back to like a month before NADA, all the energy is on Fisker, right, they start they announced a couple dealers getting into the franchise network. Everybody in the industry is excited because they're taking the dealer route. You know, they've got a more affordable line of vehicles coming out. And then all of a sudden, like a month after NADA, when you start seeing the reviews come out and some of like, the the super Fandom of YouTube Venus is what I'm gonna call that's a great quote, right there starts to take yes starts to take hold of what's going on at Fisker. And, you know, there's questions out there in the market. I'm encouraged because this is why a brand like Fisker takes the dealer route because dealers aren't going to sacrifice for it's not going to work out. They're gonna go all in until they can't anymore. And you saw happening with a couple of dealers that are going that's a
Paul J Daly:
great point. Imagine if they didn't have a couple of dealers on their side. Now they'd be gone be absolutely a little less a little less than one there. But I also think it's going to affect the future of other AV brand rollouts that want to leverage a dealer network. I think there'll be a lot more diligence upfront, and have maybe maybe even needing to prove more of a track record. See what happens there'll be you know, I'm definitely not going to be surprised if Scout goes this direction, but Scout obviously has a network of vetted VW dealers to partner with if
Kyle Mountsier:
they want to we'll see what happens. I can't wait to see if they want to.
Paul J Daly:
I can't see them not partnering in some way with dealers this point. Oh, I know. I know. All right. Let's uh, speaking of established dealer networks. This got me excited. This one This one dropped on Friday was
Kyle Mountsier:
like 3600 for dealers. super random. We'll get into it now. Did
Paul J Daly:
you know it's like pop up was like VH one pop up video. Did you know the OG Empire is striking back as Ford introduces a 1500 Tesla competitive conquest bonus cash plan. It's actually rebates specifically targeting current Tesla owners toward the purchase of a Ford f150 lightning or a Mustang Mach II. So any owner of a Tesla from 2008 or newer is eligible for the incentive without having to trade in or get out of the Tesla are saying if you own the Tesla will give you $1,500 to try a 40 V. Ford is offering substantial discounts already across their electric model line f1 50 Lightning you can get as much as$12,500 off some of the higher trims as a broader strategy to enhance you know to elevate their Evie sales and entry level Mach II now with this incentive starts at $38,000. And so, yeah, the incentives available through according to a Ford dealer, like I don't know that we have an official document that's been released, but the incentive is going to be available through July 8 for both 2024 and 2023 model years. Look,
Kyle Mountsier:
I'm proud of them, you know, so calling the shots it's not like Evie competitive bonus cash. It's like Tesla, we're coming after you we know that the early Evie buyer was a Tesla buyer and we need to attract them to our brand. And here's the two models that you can do that with and hey, by the way you can also get a less than $40,000 Maki Yeah, it's there's so much intelligence around that decision. And I bet you're gonna continue to see the Evie sales. I I don't know about you, Paul. But just anecdotally as I've been you know, I was at Kane last week had a couple conversations, a couple phone conversations, where dealers are citing an increased interest in EVs whether that's because of more knowledge in the market. More charging stations or just more affordability sensitive, right, the affordability of the Eevee. And so it's getting to a place where it's like, hey, maybe we're actually going to, like get through the gap which we've all been talking about this kind of like Evie adoption gap. Can we circumnavigate it? You know, I think the second half of this year is still the question mark there and whether or not we can make it through that. But the early signs of this year with the tax credit with rebates like this are pointing to the possibility. My sister was over and she was asking me like, you know, people that you know, I was asking you about car questions. Oh, I
Paul J Daly:
need to get a new this new to get well, I was like, What are your driving habits this and this and this? And frankly, I started looking up Evie leases. And the fact that you can lease like a brand new like Hyundai ionic five or Mach II, like there's so many options where the lease is under$300 a month, because they apply$7,500 credit directly to the lease. And so like we had this long conversation, he's like, Oh, she's like, Are they good? Are EVs good? And we had this whole conversation about like the pros and the cons. And she's the perfect candidate for an Eevee because she drives like 25 miles a day. She lives in a place where she could plug it in every night if she wanted to. And so like one of these a Maki or you know, a Hyundai ionic five would be a great fit for her. So I don't know it's coming up. Steve Greenfield, in his email this morning said the model Y accounts for over a third of all Evie sales, just that one model. So the mock is in great position to compete.
Kyle Mountsier:
Here's what here's the other piece of this is like I was I have a text side with a bunch of dealers and industry partners. And there are if you're if you're working for a dealer group that has a an Eevee model in the lineup, even in the dealer group, there are a lot of new employee incentives that go outside of just the LLC that you weren't really like it's available to the entire dealer group network. Where like they were saying, Hey, we're seeing a couple grand down under$200 A month leases out there for employee purchases on something like that. That's a smart game. Get the employees driving the driving the car that will drive the sales of that that was always a target from mine. You got Brian Ortega. He's like got my easy. He got his Toyota, Evie, you know, did he
Paul J Daly:
I didn't see that. Did he come in through? I thought he electrified a swatch car vz
Kyle Mountsier:
BZ four axes. Okay,
Paul J Daly:
I can never get the name right. Never. It's a lot of trying to get things right
Kyle Mountsier:
segue. So meanwhile, amongst all of this craziness, with EVs Tesla's deploying a dual effort to both one subs, slashing subscription prices and to global layoffs, in an effort to remain competitive, as it also cut it self full self driving our FSD subscription prices in half the US and Canada 290 $9 A month down from 199. They have announced layoffs exceeding 10% of its overall workforce impact potentially up to Fort Tene 1000 employees. You know what I take this, this is definitely a reduction in production shifts and strategic pause in some manufacturing locations. They have recently faced a year over year sales drop particularly in China, where the local Evie makers like BYD are expanding rapidly. They're preparing for its quarterly profits report here and the market and employees are just watching to see how these adjustments at the end of q1 and in the beginning of q2 will affect his financial health and workplace morale. This
Paul J Daly:
sounds like very classic Elon Musk, like pulling back that 10% were cut. I'm not saying he's fully arbitrary, but he's very, very well known for doing things like this like we need to start to cut expenses really quick. He knows how to drive sales. Steve Greenfield was guest host last week while you were gone and we were just talking about Tesla's goal of you know selling software and that being a big part of their revenue stream now you know, like the full self driving touted to be like a cash cow for the company once it's rolled out will it ever be able to be like fully implemented and adopted we don't know but cutting the price in half get definitely gets more people on the platform but it also gives them more data so they can make it better the new beta that's been released right like so there's this this 3d Chad
Kyle Mountsier:
NADA editor I think so they could sell it but that's just my personal opinion that Tesla's a data company they are in a car company
Paul J Daly:
Exactly. Yeah, there you go. So I also like like the way this ties in with the last story and and like you know, kind of like the two heavyweights Jim Farley and Elon Musk duking it out and when someone shows like a little bit of stagger got a little blood in their eye or whatever you could do you're gonna pounce on them and try to give them another shot while you can. Right so I mean, don't expect this to put Tesla under but but definitely is a fun battle to watch Going back and forth and in the end funny thing about this Kyle the consumer gets to decide what they want to dry
Kyle Mountsier:
always always tell them how it is consumers gonna do but consumers
Paul J Daly:
consumers gonna do we actually have a sticker that says consumer is gonna do a consumers gonna do we're gonna have a Minnesota con, go to a soda con check out the roster. We hope to see you there but if not have a great Monday morning