Tesla’s Cybertruck Canada Push, Longest Range EVs, Brick and Mortar Boom

With barely 2 weeks left in the year, we’re covering the extreme measures Tesla is taking to sell Cybertrucks. Plus, we look at the EVs with the longest range and explore how brick and mortar experiences are booming.

Show Notes with links:

• Tesla is taking unprecedented steps to address waning demand for its Cybertruck by repurposing its premium Foundation Series models and turning its attention to the Canadian market.
  • Foundation Series Cybertrucks, the first produced, were priced $20K higher and bundled with premium features, including laser-etched badging.
  • Many of these trucks remain unsold, prompting Tesla to remove the exclusive features to sell them as standard models at a reduced price.
  • Tesla is shipping over 800 Cybertrucks to Canada for homologation (certifying that a product or vehicle meets the necessary standards to be used in a specific region or country), believing the Canadian market offers stronger sales prospects than the U.S.
  • The company is also leveraging discounts, adding the Cybertruck to its referral program, and slashing lease prices in a bid to boost interest.
  • These efforts are straining Tesla's service and collision centers, leading to longer wait times and logistical challenges for existing customers.

• Range anxiety continues to be a significant barrier for many EV shoppers, but manufacturers are addressing these concerns with innovative designs and longer ranges, positioning EVs as practical and compelling options for mainstream consumers.
  • Mainstream consumers are shifting focus from sustainability narratives to tangible benefits like lower ownership costs, charging convenience, and exciting driving experiences, with range emerging as the decisive factor in EV adoption.
  • The top 10 EVs with the longest range are: Lucid Air Grand Touring - 516 miles, Chevy Silverado EV First Edition RST - 440 miles, Rivian R1T Adventure Dual Max - 420 miles, Rivian R1S Adventure Dual Max - 410 miles, Tesla Model S AWD - 402 miles, Tesla Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive - 363 miles, Hyundai IONIQ 6 - 361 miles, Mercedes-EQ EQS Sedan - 352 miles, Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV - 339 miles, Tesla Model X AWD - 335 miles.

• In-store shopping isn’t just back—it’s booming. Strengthened by year-round innovations and experiences, brick-and-mortar stores are delivering unmatched value for both consumers and brands.
  • In-store holiday sales are projected to grow 2.5%-3.5% this year, with total spending reaching up to $989 billion, a significant increase from 2023.
  • Immersive attractions, like Natick Mall’s Santa’s Elevator Express, create unique opportunities for brand discovery. Over 5,000 families booked visits before the event even opened, boosting foot traffic by 50%.
  • Experiences like batting cages at Dick’s House of Sport and lifestyle zones like The Green at Oxmoor Center keep shoppers engaged beyond the holidays.
  • Gen Z, the “omnishopping” generation

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Transcript

Paul J Daly: 0:01

Good morning, Monday, December 16. I mean, the last full week before Christmas. What else can we say? Well, we're talking about Tesla's push into Canada with the cyber truck, the longest range, Ev and the brick and mortar. Boom. right. It's no need to repeat my hand. To repeat,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:23

man, I'm telling you, first of all, Nashville's done, lost its mind. Okay? It flurried snow again last Wednesday,

Paul J Daly: 0:35

Nashville trying to be Syracuse out here.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:38

Then it was like 19 degrees again, and then it was like, 63 Oh, so, like, we're out here. We just don't even know what season. When was it? 63 just over the weekend. It was beautiful. 63 and sunny. Just gorgeous. Like, what's

Paul J Daly: 0:53

it today? Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:55

nasty.

Paul J Daly: 0:57

Nada. She got the break. That's the difference. Maybe that's the only differentiator now

Kyle Mountsier: 1:01

we we get breaks fairly often, like we'll hit a 70 day, but it just then it like everyone's nose is running. It gets all sideways,

Paul J Daly: 1:09

right? Everybody's just sick, everybody. I spent most of the day. We went to church in the morning, but then I just spent all day just inside and relaxed and watched a lot of football, ate some food. It was a good kind of day. Well,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:23

yesterday, the Bengals one, which is a rare sight, it wasn't pretty. It was not pretty, like it was ugly, even at one point I got it. You'll love this. Like the commentators, I think it's like fourth quarter. They're like, well, you know, there's 33 points, 37 points, whatever it was on the board. We don't really know how we got here, but you can tell why both these teams have losing records. That was the line. I was like, Oh, wow,

Paul J Daly: 1:51

that's tough. You're like, I know. I've as an Eagles fan. I fit in that position, not this year, but I'll be back soon. We'll be back soon. Oh, man, speaking to be back soon, this Wednesday, two days from now, we're having our next ASOTU Edge webinar with automotive mastermind. We're going to be talking about sales to service processes, and the coolest part is we have Shane O'Hara and GM at Chapman BMW Chandler talking about transforming his dealer service drive into a sales hub, averaging now 30 to 45 cars per month. So if you want to learn how he's doing that, get a couple ideas heading into the new year. We'd highly recommend it. It's a very quick shot webinar, 2030 minutes. Go to asotu.com and you can register right there. You can get the recording. You can be there live and heck less. And you can learn how to make your business better. How's that for a value proposition? Lots

Kyle Mountsier: 2:41

of value props. Speaking of being live this week, we are headed into our fourth annual Year in extravaganza. That's Ye, for those that don't know why, ee, year at extravaganza, that's going to be on Thursday. You're not going to want to miss it. That is, we're going to have people like Zach Kyle, Austin con Roy, Daniel Gover, Elena cicatelli, Michael Cirillo, Ryan Warman, you might have seen these people across the interwebs. They're going to be talking about the year in review and what to look forward on next year. And we're just gonna have a lot of fun. Paul and I probably get dressed up, you know. Oh, definitely

Paul J Daly: 3:13

get dressed up getting dust off the old suit. You know, get ready to go dust it off. No, my suit's good. It's I wore, I wore it a couple times this year. I'm so proud. I'm ready to get the blue one going. I have a blue one that I just haven't you know, need to you got a blue suit? I do. I didn't like just get it. Is it? What? It's not bright blue. Oh yeah. Periwinkle. I was excited.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:37

Periwinkle, yeah.

Paul J Daly: 3:43

It's the Monday before Christmas. Everybody listen. Tesla is taking unprecedented steps to address waning demand for the cyber truck by repurposing its premium Foundation series models and turning its attention to the Canadian market. So you remember the foundation series cyber truck, they were the first ones produced were priced $20,000 higher than the regular cyber truck and bundled with some premium features. One of those features was the laser etched branding or badging on the side of the vehicle. We've seen it however, many of these trucks are now remaining unsold, prompting Tesla to get this. This is how you do it. Just send it to a body shop and take off the foundation badging, and it's$20,000 cheaper. Isn't that 20 grand cheaper? Done? Unbelievable. Did bundle some other stuff with it, but Tesla is also after it's doing the shipping 800 cyber trucks to Canada for what is that home of homologation?

Kyle Mountsier: 4:41

Homologation? Yeah. Basically, you just gotta say, like, hey, this thing works in Canada for all the regulations and everything that work up there. Yeah. And

Paul J Daly: 4:49

now they're trying to leverage some discounts adding the cyber truck to its referral program. They're cutting their lease pricing on it, trying to, you know, move more cyber trucks. They obviously, I think they moved 50,000 so far. They were thinking they're gonna do 100,000 but, you know, people started canceling the orders. The one that's coming out that they talk about a $61,000 so that'll make a sizable difference. That one's gonna scream. One of the things they're doing is sending these trucks to all these collision centers, all like random collision right? Make sure they're not random but different collision centers, and they're just like, kind of jamming up the system to take off the badging. And I think it's, it's etched into the stainless so strange. So I guess they're gonna have to, like, sand it out and then, like, refinish the door in a way that makes it match the rest of the truck. That sounds really difficult, as someone who's spent a lot of time, I gotta, I

Kyle Mountsier: 5:40

gotta wonder, like, why Canada? Like, what research said? Yeah, they'll probably pay for the more expensive ones that don't really do great. No, I

Paul J Daly: 5:49

don't think they've released in Canada yet. Oh, that's yeah, okay, yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 5:53

there's pent up demand type thing. I got it. I got it. That's where they're

Paul J Daly: 5:57

not like, the Canadians will buy them. Can right? Yeah, that's why, because they haven't released them there yet. So it'll be their first crack again. They'll be all trucks. They'll move some metal, and then it'll be interesting to see what they do with the cyber truck next year. Obviously, was a huge I mean, regardless, if it wasn't a ton like, they made quite a splash this year, my opinion, they

Kyle Mountsier: 6:21

made a splash. And I think that, hey, look, you know, Tesla says they never do marketing. I would say that I would beg to differ the marketing themselves, you know, yeah, speaking

Paul J Daly: 6:30

of marketing yourself, segway, speaking of EVs to range anxiety is continuing to be a significant barrier for many EV shoppers, but manufacturer factors are addressing these concerns with some innovative designs, longer ranges, positioning EVs as a more practical solution mainstream consumer shifting focus now from sustainability narratives to tangible benefits like lower ownership costs. So we thought we would give you a little breakdown of the top 10 EVs with the longest range. So I'm gonna actually it's written from like the most of the least, but we have to read it from the least to the least to the number 10. Tesla Model x3, 135 miles. 335. Miles nine. Mercedes, EQs SUV, 339 number eight, another version that same vehicle for the sedan version 352, Hyundai IONIQ six, 361, Tesla Model three, rear wheel drive, 363, hit in the middle of the list. Now Tesla Model three, all wheel drive. 402 the rivian R 1s dual Max. 410 another rivian r1, t4, 120 miles an hour. Number two is that I didn't expect this one. Number two, Chevy Silverado, Ev, first edition, 440 miles of range. And the impressive one, longest range, not the cheapest, The Lucid Air Grand Touring, whopping 516 miles with also a price tag that's really high, 110 G's, yeah, versus a day, yeah, for

Kyle Mountsier: 8:10

us, the Dan, uh, here's, here's the cool part. We're seeing more and more of these vehicles get to that over 300 mile range, which there's been a lot of talk like, that's the barrier of entry, you know, seeing the Hyundai Onyx six at a price point in the 30s. Yep, hit that number three over 350 actually, at 361 miles that right there is, I think, the bar that that more and more are going to have to meet to get a bit more mass adoption. Like it stated people, you know, early adopters of Ev, were doing it in order to kind of like, meet, like, satisfy themselves that they were being better for the environment. But the practicality is moving in to the buyer matrix. So saying, like, Hey, is it going to be a lower cost to own? Can I afford it? Will it? Will it be better for, like, my daily habits? Those are all the questions that a lot of EV shoppers are having right now. So I'm excited to see more hitting this. However, the practicality of the majority of these being well over 65 grand, you know, I don't know for all the way there yet. I know

Paul J Daly: 9:17

Brian Ortega, thanks for just making the comment. Read It Like Letterman. I used to love the Late Show as top 10. We need to bring Letterman was amazing. We need to bring that back. The top 10, number 10, those are great. I watch it every I watched that show. So much in high school. Believe so much Letterman Show. But back, back to the EV conversation. A lot of other data points have come out supporting, I think, getting people to start to turn to look toward EV ownership one, I think we covered it last week or the week before, talking about the the battery life being far more than what you know the warranty period is. People are like, Oh, at least the battery is so expensive, but now they're like, hey, after 20 years, battery life still might be at like 5% so I think there's a lot of reasons more people going to share. The EVs, but the price point obviously one, and there's more and more options every day. And I think next year is going to be a con, regardless of what happens with the credits. Regardless, it'll be fine. I know. Will it be the year that I get an EV I've really been, I've been, I've been

Kyle Mountsier: 10:14

back and forth on this thing. I've honestly been back and forth like I'm looking I I'm, I'm like, four or five months away from the full itch. And so we'll see what happens.

Paul J Daly: 10:24

We'll see Nick Schultz follow your boy story. Yeah. Nick Schultz chimes into the live stream. Lease only makes sense on most of them, and fully agree with you, Nick. I mean, right now, especially some amazing lease deals, which is why I'm thinking, like even looking at the Honda prolog, right? They got a pretty sweet deal on that. Sorry, yeah, $260 a month, with like, three grand down or something like that. That's not bad. Give old Brian bed stuck a call, CV, Hook a brother. There you go. Let's see. I don't know how we're going to segue into this. Okay, okay, we can't stop and go ahead

Kyle Mountsier: 10:56

right in store. Shopping isn't just back. It is booming, strengthened by year end, innovations and experiences. Brick and mortar stores are delivering unmatched value for both consumers and brands. Here's the stats on holiday shopping. Holiday sales are projected to go 2.5 to 3.5 this year, with total spending reaching up to $989 billion immersive attractions like nada mall, Santa elevator Express is creating a lot of unique opportunities for brand discovery to that alone, 5000 families booked visits, experiences like batting cages at Dick's house of sport and lifestyle zones like the green at Oxmoor centers keep shoppers engaged beyond the holidays. So there's like extended experiences Gen Z, the Omni shopping generation, balances online browsing with in store purchases making up nearly 50% of total spending in mass merchandise and cat and grocery categories. Mean, Gen Z got some money, fam. Holy cow.

Paul J Daly: 12:02

It's cool. Okay, so I was shopping at the mall over the weekend, believe it or not, impressive, and it was great. Like, I love shopping in person, even when it's crowded. There's something about it that I love. And the idea that when they talk about omni channel, when you can walk in to a mall with one thing on your list and walk out with a bunch of other stuff, I think that's a win for every retailer in the mall. Yep, right? You feel there's, there's a sense of accomplishment, instant gratification. You can actually see and try, there's some Christmas music going on. And even aside from the Christmas music you look at like these companies like, you know, like, Dick's Sporting Goods saying, like, Hey, we're gonna start to bundle stuff together. People who buy sports stuff also like to do sports stuff. So we're gonna give them golf simulators and batting cages. Oh, why not put a restaurant in there? We were at a dealership the other week that has a kind of a little bit

Kyle Mountsier: 12:57

of an idea about what does that feel Yeah, I, for me, the point of this is, is like, how do you craft unique experiences alongside others? Or how do you enter into the experiences where other people are already shopping? You know, I wish more and more that people were investing in pop up shops around high shopping and high traffic areas, right? Like little unique boutiques, yeah, for two to three weeks where you can showcase a product, why not invest in that, even if it's like your used car brand, like you're gonna have to wait till next year, you know? But there's always a mall spot open for a boutique that's like, create the little boutique during Hall during a holiday season or a high visibility shopping season to drive demand and interest. Well,

Paul J Daly: 13:44

look, if all that talk about holiday shopping didn't remind you that you need to do your holiday shopping, then you're not gonna make it. You're just not gonna make it. So you gotta we got a little more than a week left. Listen, we'll be here all week. We will see you tomorrow.