Nissan CEO Feels the Heat, EV Factory Tours Booming, Cheating with AI at Work

Episode #1078: Today we’re talking stormy shareholder meetings at Nissan, the EV factory tours drawing crowds in China, and the Gen Z men getting caught outsourcing their work to AI.

Show Notes with links:

• Nissan’s new CEO Ivan Espinosa faced intense scrutiny from investors at his first annual shareholders' meeting as he moves forward with a bold restructuring plan and ends Renault’s board influence.
  • Espinosa replaces ousted CEO Makoto Uchida, part of a March leadership overhaul aimed at reviving a struggling Nissan.
  • Longtime partner Renault lost direct influence as its board reps, including Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, were removed—marking a clear shift toward Nissan independence.
  • Shareholders grilled Espinosa on governance, executive pay, and the automaker’s U.S. and Japan strategy.
  • Nissan plans to cut 20,000 jobs, shut 7 factories, and save ¥500B ($3.46B) by March 2028.
  • It projects a ¥200B ($1.38B) Q1 loss, including ¥450B ($3B) in expected U.S. tariff hits.
  • One attendee described the Q&A as “stormy,” saying Espinosa was “smooth and fluent… but equivocated without substance.”

• EV factory tours have become a cultural sensation in China, with tens of thousands scrambling each month for a glimpse behind the robotic curtain of brands like Xiaomi and Nio.
  • Xiaomi Auto's factory receives over 27,000 applications per night for limited tour slots, offering racetrack test drives and now souvenirs.
  • Nio drew 130,000 visitors last year; several other automakers are jumping on board.
  • What began as three monthly tours at Xiaomi has expanded to weekday and weekend offerings for over 1,100 visitors.
  • Visitors describe vast facilities with “only a handful of workers” as robots handle most of the labor.
  • “It offers a chance to not only see the production line up close, but also experience the human side of the brand,” said analyst Freya Zhang.

• A new survey reveals that while AI boosts Gen Z productivity, a surprising number—especially men—are bending the rules by passing off AI work as their own.
  • 40% of Gen Z men admitted to submitting AI-generated work as their own; only 20% of women did the same.
  • Nearly 1 in 3 Gen Z workers have knowingly broken company policy using AI and 30% say they’ve created fake work with AI to appear more productive.
  • 42% of Gen Z men say they worry AI could replace them at work—compared to just 33% of women.
  • 23% of men said they couldn’t do their job without AI; only 14% of women felt that way.
  • Eva Chan, career expert at Resume Genius, “The concern is workers start outsourcing not just tasks, but their judgment, confidence, and even their voice.”

Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.

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Transcript

Paul J Daly: 0:00

Good morning. It is Tuesday, June 24 Yep, I got the date right and everything today. It's the automotive State of the Union. I'm Paul Jay Daly. It's calm out here today. We're talking about Nissan CEO feel in the heat. EV factory tours are the new thing, and cheating with AI at work.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:19

I got a little I got an anecdote on story two. Oh, this morning, an anecdote on story two, which is normally I'm like story three,

Paul J Daly: 0:26

anecdote till I Clean up on aisle four. It's like an antidote. Anecdote on anecdote on story two. I well, I can't wait to get the story too. Now I have some thoughts on story three, as usual, already. Um, hey, check out our ASOTU CON sessions podcast. The road to sold with Glenn Pash was just released. However, the ASOTU CON sessions, all of these are 1520 minute time. Actually it's probably 10 to 15 minutes, quick shot podcast with some of the most the brightest spots in the auto industry, variety of CO hosts. I got to host this one with Glenn. It's always great to get and sit down. Get sit down with him. But please, you're missing out. This is a great thing for a drive to work, walking the dog, getting ready in the morning. Just get a little smarter, feel a little bit better about the industry, what you're doing, and try a couple of new things. Feel like that's a great value prop. It is a great guy. Also our other podcast, Auto Collabs, Greg uland Again, how to do more with less. I think it's the question that everyone's asking in dealerships. And you unpack quite a bit from somebody who has a pretty sizable purview on what's happening in the industry, because he has access to so much data and so many different types of products. And last but not least, all these announcements today, but tomorrow. This is important one. We have an incredible webinar coming up tomorrow. Our next ASOTU Edge webinar, integrate, don't agitate. This is how smart stores are adding AI to their operations without the pain. Very common question, what AI should I use? How do I implement it? Is it going to disrupt everything? You don't have to worry. Just be on this webinar asotu.com you can register right there. We're gonna have Scott trailer, VP of sales at Mia, and Luke Morris Parts and Service Director at Earnhardt, cdjr, talking about what they actually did to implement some incredibly effective AI in the stores. And they're also going to play some calls from that's always we gotta lined up for. Let's, let's be honest, when you're listening to an AI call, you're kind of hoping for it to mess up. You're hoping

Kyle Mountsier: 2:16

so bad, yes, exactly, or for someone to get like, mad and enraged or something like that, yeah. Like,

Paul J Daly: 2:23

I want to see a heat I want I want someone to build an AI, and the name of the AI is going to be heat case.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:29

Oh, that's amazing. And it just like, ships all the heat cases there, and

Paul J Daly: 2:33

we're going to train it on Chris Voss entire library, right? Never split the difference, Master hostage negotiator. And it's going to be amazing. Let's build it. We're building that.

Unknown: 2:44

Oh man, I'm so ready for that. He's like, I gotta go. I gotta go. I got a thing new.

Paul J Daly: 2:52

All right, speaking of building things, we're gonna segue into the one. Segue into the story. Let's go. Nissan's new CEO, Ivan aspinosa, faced intense scrutiny from investors at his first annual shareholders meeting as he moves forward with a bold restructuring plan and ending Renault's board influence completely, he's replaced it ousted CEO Makoto Uchida as part of March leadership overhaul aimed at reviving the struggling brand. Longtime partner, Renault lost its direct influence and its board reps, including Chairman Jean Dominique sennard, who was removed, making a clear shift toward Nissan's independence. Shareholders grilled Espinoza on governance executive pay. And the automakers US and Japanese strategy, they plan to cut 20,000 jobs, shut seven factories, and save 500 billion yen, which is $3.4 billion by March of 2028 so a couple of years ago, before they do that, it projects $1.3 billion q1, loss, including 3 billion in expected us tariff hits. One attendee described the Q and A as quote stormy saying Espinosa was, quote, smooth and fluent, but equivocated without substance. Look, that's a hard job. That's Look, I don't care who

Kyle Mountsier: 4:06

you are, you get you get injected in March, and by June, you got to get land blasted by a bunch of shareholders asking where the money is. That is a hard job to do. It sounds like he handled it with poise. But obviously there's still so much learning. It's hard to get into an organization within 90 days and understand all the idiosyncrasies and have enough substance to answer questions with a real future plan. But it seems like there's definitely some big moves, I mean, the slimming down, the getting back to basics, understanding who you are independent of kind of like the Renault Overlord is, is, I think, a really important part to Nissan. I think the dealers have been asking for this for quite some time. You know, hold and reserve judgment until plans get in place. But there's definitely a lot more moving and shaking this year than there has been in the past five. Five or six years. So could be, could be signs moving up. Obviously, as a Nashville native, I want to see Nissan win, because it is a massive part of the Nashville economy. So yeah, up into the right fam.

Paul J Daly: 5:13

I mean, these signs just need to embody some more Nashville vibes. Wouldn't hurt, definitely wouldn't hurt smart. I don't know that would be. That would be a smart brand play. Hey, help you with some messaging and some creative around that. You give

Kyle Mountsier: 5:26

us a call, we'll help you out. Well, yeah, speaking of giving us a call and we'll help you out. Let's

Paul J Daly: 5:34

go. All right. Sounds fun, actually. EV factory tours have become a cultural sensation in China, with 10s of 1000s scrambling every single month for a glimpse behind the curtain of brands like zombie and Neo. How do you sell that? Say that brand? I would call it zombie, all right, correct us. If you know Neil, please. Yeah. Zombie, zombies, auto factory receives over 27,000 applications per day. What for limited tour slots offering racetrack test drives. That's There you go. That's why everyone racetrack test drives and souvenirs Neo Drew 130,000 visitors last year. Several other automakers are jumping on board what began as a three as three monthly tours has expanded to Weekday and Weekend offering for over 1100 visitors a week. Visitors describe the facilities with, quote, only a handful of workers, so they're very automated, with robots handling most of the labor. Analyst Freya Zhang says it offers a chance not only to see the production line up close, but also to experience the human side of the brand. How could we not be behind

Kyle Mountsier: 6:37

that part? We're all about it. First of all, this is super fun. And if this isn't telling you that auto is still in a cultural moment, I don't know what does global I'm gonna give you my anecdote and how I think you can press into this as a dealership that maybe doesn't have a factory. I coach kids soccer, and these next two weeks, it's like kids soccer camp. So this week is the girls camp for like, nine to 13 year old girls. I'm leaving last night, and I get in my Mazda. That's not an EV, but, like, the Mazda has kind of that, like Tesla vibe. So one of the girls, as I'm leaving, like, waves me down and goes, is that an electric Oh, wow, to which I say no, but it was this moment that I realized that every kid across America is looking for the cyber truck on the road, wondering if that car is an electric, like even and this girl was this girl was 11, her perception is like I could have a frame of reference to talk to this guy that's a coach about an electric vehicle, if he says yes, because that's what I'm excited about. So if that's the case, and if we're watching EV factory tours be a thing, why not draft on that cultural moment and bring families in by bringing their kids in to experience these vehicles, because the wonder of a kid's eye when they see experience that is a really great is so magical, and the draft that they're going to pull in with everyone around them is going to be impressive.

Paul J Daly: 8:19

Listen, if you get the kids excited about something, you could possibly get Mom excited about something? If you get mom again, sure, if you get Mom excited about something, guess what?

Kyle Mountsier: 8:28

You're getting it. You're you're done. You done. Sold a car. Oh, man, I,

Paul J Daly: 8:33

I think the idea of test like, high speed test drives acceleration. I mean, because have you seen the videos out where the people are sitting, like, these are kids. I love, I love, I feel like this is a little bit back to, like, we're going to let kids be kids, and not like, put them in an airbag bubble.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:48

So we talked about it last week with with Daniel and the

Paul J Daly: 8:53

Raptors. No, these, these. These were the kids are, like, standing on the seat of an eV with really high end acceleration, like a Tesla or something with like, a two, three second acceleration, they stand on the seat, and then, like, the driver, it's, I think in every video I've seen, it's been the dad hits it, and the kid picks their feet up, and they're like, like, the Gravitron at the carnival. They're stuck to the seat. Oh, it's amazing. And they're like, God

Unknown: 9:17

is amazing. And

Paul J Daly: 9:19

then, like, as the car gets up to speed, they like, just go.

Unknown: 9:23

It's unbelievable. That's amazing. I will try to get that video, but yeah, I'm like, more of that. More a dealer couldn't do that. No, no, no. The insurance companies are sweating right now. Like, oh boy.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:37

Stop listening to these guys. Yeah. Speaking of sweating, yeah. Segway, this is

Paul J Daly: 9:43

so opposite of our workplace. But right?

Kyle Mountsier: 9:46

All right, a new survey repeal reveal, reveals that while AI boosts Gen Z productivity, a surprising number, especially men, are bending the rules by passing off AI work as their own. 40% of Gen Z men admitted to submitting. AI generated work as their own. Only 20% of women did the same. Nearly one in three Gen Z workers have knowingly broken company policy using AI, and 30% say they've created fake worth work with AI to appear more productive. What 42% of Gen Z men say they worry AI could replace them at work, compared to just 33% of women. They're savvy. 23% of men said they couldn't do their job without AI. Only 14% of women felt that same way. Ava Chan, career expert at resume resume genius, said the concern is workers start outsourcing not just tasks, but their judgment, confidence and even their

Paul J Daly: 10:41

voice, oh, that's insightful. That's dangerous. Listen, we have a culture. Our company is encouraged at all times to if you can use AI to do it, use AI to do it, or you use AI to help you. So I do understand, like some highly regulated industries, like being against it, have a problem with the deception part, right? Because I think that's right. That does something to your character, that does something to the culture, and it just kind of like leans toward a toxic workplace environment. However, I think every company out there should be finding ways, and if you have regulatory hurdles, find a way that you can use it. Find a way to teach and let your people lean into AI so that they can it can be a working partner, because it's just another tool, right? So AI work is somebody's work, and if you can't add thoughtful context, thoughtful prompts, make it do what you wanted to do, then you may lose your job, because somebody else will be but that's just like competition in any space, everyone's gonna have the same AI tools.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:37

So, yeah, I would say, create some guardrails, right? Every company should create guardrails. You shouldn't be uploading customer files into non paid plans off your workspace, right? Like there are simple things that you should be doing to ensure like compliance and data security, but past that, encouraging this type of work, and allowing people to express themselves and create freedom of work within AI tools is extremely important this day and age and and and giving them context and training on how and when, so that they don't try and replace things like judgment, confidence In their voice, yeah, because they're given freedom to utilize the resource in the right places, right and then leveraging that to clean, to clear space for them to have judgment, confidence in their voice, heard and seen in the spaces where it makes most sense.

Paul J Daly: 12:35

30 years ago, you could ask someone how to find a piece of information without using the internet, and they would do it. Yep, if you ask a teenager to find a piece of information without the internet, they have no idea how to do it. Does that mean they're dumber? No, it just means they've learned how to leverage the tools in the same way before there was like an encyclopedia or the Dewey Decimal System. And you ask somebody to find a piece of information, they would have to find a person that knew it, right? And then the books came along. You weren't like they're dumber because they have to look in a book. You wouldn't dumber because you have to search on Google. And you're not dumber because you have to use AI, or you want to use AI, it becomes part of your norm, right? I think this allows us to go forward, and the risk is outsourcing the humanity judgment your character. Outsource humanity. Put that on a team. Do it. I thought, you know, tomorrow, maybe we cover the story tomorrow. But I read a story yesterday about AI simulations, resorting to blackmail. Oh, yeah, in order to avoid being shut down, maybe we'll cover that one tomorrow. You mentioned guardrail. So listen, everybody, whatever you do, I think you've gotten it from all three stories that it's important that you pay attention to the people. You make it meaningful for them so that they can thrive, and you put the thriving people in the middle, and then the whole thing grows. That's kind of the formula.

Unknown: 14:02

You