Automotive State of The Union

Dealers React To End of EV Tax Credits, Bay Area Robotaxis, Keep Your Shoes On

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Episode #1091: Today we’re covering how dealers are adapting to the end of EV tax credits, Tesla’s push to bring robotaxis to the Bay Area, and the TSA’s surprising move to let travelers keep their shoes on.



Show Notes with links:

  • With the federal EV tax credits ending September 30, dealers are shifting strategies to keep momentum in a market suddenly missing key incentives.
    • Liza Borches of Carter Myers Automotive says, “We’re planning marketing campaigns to help [customers] take advantage while they still can.”
    • Joe Jackson, GSM at Bowman Chevrolet in Clarkston, Mich., said they are learning into leasing, “EVs are a lease-heavy vehicle; I expect the leasing to weather this a little bit better than the purchases,”
    • EV Auto’s Alex Lawrence thinks that “adoption [will] increase, but it’s going to be a lumpy line.”
    • Liza and CMA are confident about the future,, saying “We’re committed to educating customers about all the other benefits. Our job is to be proactive, transparent and ready to help customers navigate this shift.”


  • Tesla is aiming to bring its experimental robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area within the next two months—pending regulatory approval.
    • Elon Musk confirmed expansion plans on X, following a limited pilot in Austin, Texas.
    • The Austin test fleet, with safety monitors onboard, is set to grow its service area this weekend, with an ultimate goal of 1,000 Robotaxis in several months.
    • Tesla faces tight regulation in California, unlike the light-touch environment in Texas.
    • Approval from the California DMV and CPUC is still needed to charge passengers for rides, although initial approvals were given in March


  • A major travel headache is officially over: U.S. travelers no longer need to remove their shoes at airport security, thanks to new TSA technology and a successful pilot program.
    • The change is effective immediately nationwide, per Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
    • Passengers ages 12 to 75 were previously required to remove shoes—a post-9/11 rule spurred by the 2001 “shoe bomber,” but a pilot program showed TSA’s equipment could maintain safety standards without requiring shoe removal.
    • “Most Americans will be very excited... it will be a much more streamlined process,” said Noem.
    • TSA PreCheck still offers added perks like skipping laptop and toiletry removal.
    • TSA is exploring more changes, including special lanes for families and service members, to simplify screenings further.

0:00 Intro with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
0:45 Paul saw Halloween decor at Costco yesterday
2:08 Announcements
2:50 Dealers React To The End of the EV Tax Credit
6:42 A look at Paul and Kyle's bookshelf
7:30 Tesla Eyeing Robotaxi In San Fran
9:43 TSA No Longer

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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JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

Paul J Daly:

On Good morning, Thursday, July 10. This is the automotive State of the Union. I'm Paul Jay Daly. This is Kyle Mountsier. Today we're talking about dealers reacting to the EV tax credit and Bay Area Robo taxis and everybody's getting to keep their shoes on the TA TSA line. Apparently, whoa. Apparently, kind of started saying, before the show started, like, I have this thought about the shoes thing. I got some beef. I was like, save it for the show. Talk about

Kyle Mountsier:

it on the show.

Paul J Daly:

Save it for the show. I know, can you believe we are 10 days? It's we're a third

Kyle Mountsier:

through July already. Come on.

Paul J Daly:

I made I was in Costco yesterday, last night, and I made a post because they had a freaking Halloween stuff out. No, yeah, I made a post. I'm a little upset about it, but in the LinkedIn post, there's a little bit of a bright side to it, which you have to watch the post this season. Like, bright side is they also have Christmas stuff out. No, no, no. They they have, like, swim trunks on clearance, I don't know, but yeah. I mean, we're only three weeks in the summer, for crying out loud, officially,

Kyle Mountsier:

oh my goodness, happy, not happy with Costco.

Paul J Daly:

Come on, it's over. But then I had $1.50 hot dog. I split it with my son,

Kyle Mountsier:

so you were the happiest, man. You're good. Don't, don't worry about it. Buck 50. Buck 50 for the largest hot dog you ever seen in your

Paul J Daly:

life. Literally, we split a hot dog and a slice of pizza, and we filled the soda cup with water up, because there's no way I'm giving that kid soda at 8pm and it was three, like, $3.17 so I'm like, All right, you can, you can have a holiday.

Kyle Mountsier:

You can put anything you want out all year. Doesn't matter. Doesn't

Paul J Daly:

matter. It's fine. Hey, uh, we launched a new Auto Collabs episode. Or actually, is it out? It's out Sanjay.

Unknown:

Sanjay podcast platforms now. It'll air on social and YouTube at 1230 Oh, look at

Paul J Daly:

that. That Sanjay varnwald spine talking about overcoming merchandising challenges with AI. If you're not, if you don't know what this is, we have another podcast called Auto Collabs, and we interview lots of people across the industry to talk in a little bit deeper sense about what they're up to and implications on the industry. We also had a webinar yesterday. If you missed it, you can still check it out, talking to Uber for business, our friend Steven Chapman, talking about how you move things in and out of your business without spending any money in

Kyle Mountsier:

infrastructure, including food, including food,

Paul J Daly:

Halloween things from stay I bet you could get Halloween stuff from Costco, that you could get Halloween stuff from Costco. You can still get that if you go to asotu.com and register for it. All right, let's talk about some news with the federal EV tax credits ending on September 30. We talked about that earlier this week. Dealers are shifting strategies to keep momentum in a market suddenly missing key incentives. One of the founding investors of ASOTU, dear friend, her quote is, oh, not on this shirt, but more than cars is a derivative of her love people. More than love cars. It's here. It's kind of everywhere. Liza Borches of Carter Myers automotive said we're planning marketing campaigns to help customers take advantage why they still can. Joe Jackson, General Service Manager at Bowman's Chevrolet in Clarkston, Michigan, said they are leaning into leasing. EVs are a lease heavy vehicle. He said, quote, I expect the leasing to weather this a little bit better than the purchases our friend Evie auto, Alex Lawrence thinks that quote, adoption will increase, but it's going to be a lumpy line. He sells used EVs. Liza and Carter Myers automotive are confident about the future, still saying, quote, we're committed to educating customers about all the other benefits of an eV Our job is to be proactive, transparent and ready to help customers navigate the shift. So, I mean, just typical dealers, right? Like, okay, that's what you got. Watch this. It's gonna

Kyle Mountsier:

be, this is, like the, the smallest bump in the road that we've had in the last 13 years. I feel like this is, like a little hump, you know that that you bump over. I do think you know, if you're, if you're sitting there and you haven't started having these discussions with, you know, ads, partners or with your team, about how to communicate this, what to communicate in the market, how to incentivize people to to, you know, have purchasing behavior around EVs, you should be thinking about that, especially if you've got some level of day supply that isn't cohesive with 90 days, right? If you got 120 180 day supply, this is a time to shrink that day supply on EVs. But again, it's not like they're going away after this is over. So it's still about education because, and I think the reason why Alex is saying it's going to be a lumpy line is because there's still, like an adoption question. There's still people questioning whether or not this is the right thing for them. So it's not just about taking advantage of, you know, the tax credit in the short term. It's, is it? Is it the right type of vehicle? Can it fit my lifestyle, all those types of things. So there's still a lot of education that you have to put into

Paul J Daly:

the market. You know, also, quoting the article is, I got his book here. Hold on. Where's it at? Got a couple book author this book. Dude, Where's My flying car? Oh. Tim Jackson, former chair of or president of Colorado auto dealer Association, says In the article, he's advising dealers to get as many EV new EVs on your lot as possible, because he's saying there's going to be a run on these things, but make sure you don't have them after September 30. So I think,

Kyle Mountsier:

yeah, you better sell them. You don't have a lot of

Paul J Daly:

time, dude. There's gonna be some amazing deals in like, the last two weeks of September on

Kyle Mountsier:

EV there are gonna be some amazing deals.

Paul J Daly:

I just got all these butt hides. I know you're picking it up next week. I'm so excited for this.

Kyle Mountsier:

I actually got that. Yeah, I've gotten it's that time. I got one car this week, I'm getting another car next week. One's mine, one's my ride. Just a rotation,

Paul J Daly:

they're like, the same car. I mean, slightly upgraded.

Kyle Mountsier:

It's literally the same, like, I'm it's like, I like my coffee mugs the same every

Paul J Daly:

morning. What's the new upgrade in the Sienna? What does it have that your current one doesn't

Kyle Mountsier:

aside from your face aside, it it has a vacuum white, right? That was like, though, I mean, there's, like, other couple

Paul J Daly:

things, because French fries, like, stuff in the car. It doesn't

Kyle Mountsier:

when you got three kids under the age of 11 and you got a vacuum option, get the vacuum option. Fam

Paul J Daly:

never even considered that. That's such a great addition. It's so smart. You do kind of need a minivan to, like, have space for the vacuum. That's right. Yeah. I'm just looking at all these books. I have. Tim Jackson, Dude, Where's My flying car? So many good books in Adam Marburger, servant, leading F and I, manager, hang out. Steve Greenfield, the future of

Kyle Mountsier:

mobility, the future of automotive, the future of mobility,

Paul J Daly:

which is the 100 year story of Carter, Myers automotive, which they did

Kyle Mountsier:

an amazing job. I got Thomas Klein tuck the octopus. Oh, I

Paul J Daly:

have a good one. Glenn patch road to hold,

Kyle Mountsier:

yeah. Oh, that one's over there. Yep,

Paul J Daly:

we got sand this

Kyle Mountsier:

in this by this dude. Oh, by this guy. Oh, we should, we should write a new forward to that. You know, we should

Paul J Daly:

try to do forward manifesto. It's aged pretty well. There's some stuff in there. You realize, okay, that was written like seven years ago, but, like, I still, I still stand by it all. Yeah, way to go. I think we're doing a show on news stories today. Oh, we should do that. Tesla is aiming to bring its experimental RoboTaxi service to the San Francisco Bay area. It's like Waymo stomping ground within the next two months pending regulatory approval, Elon Musk confirmed the expansion plans on X following a limited pilot in Austin, Texas, like I don't even know if they know if it works yet, but let's bring it to San Francisco, something to light on fire. The Austin test fleet with safety monitors on board is set to grow its service area this weekend, with an ultimate goal of 1000 robotaxis in several months. Tesla's facing tight regulation in California, unlike the light touch environment in Texas, approval from California DMV and CPUC is still needed to charge passengers for rides, although initial approval, initial approvals were given in March. So

Kyle Mountsier:

this one's going to be the easiest move that they make, obviously, if things are working well in Austin over the next couple months, San Francisco is well used to this. They want EVs. They want AVS. They're already, you know, they've already got, I think Waymo out there. You know, there's going to be like an easy tick off for the first three or four cities and and I for one. I'm still, I'm so in on, I'm so bullish on this thing. Like, I, I, I'm telling you, when you ride him one of these things, it's just

Paul J Daly:

we were trying to get, we were trying to ride in one when we were in Atlanta, because they have, oh yeah, when we were at the at the automotive ventures event. And the only thing we could do is put it, like, flip a toggle that increased our chances of getting one. But, yeah? Like, just select one. It's a lot. Yeah, you can't actually use the Waymo app, because they're doing it only through the Uber app, yeah, which is such an interesting move I wonder. Like, I mean, I wouldn't really consider San Francisco as, like, friendly territory to Elon Musk, not to you. So, like, if I'm a writer and I want to be riding around in a car. Like, I would normally

Kyle Mountsier:

not sure if you want to be riding in the Tesla,

Paul J Daly:

but I mean, I mean, maybe if you want, like, the the real,

Kyle Mountsier:

can you unbrand This thing before I get in the real San

Paul J Daly:

Francisco experience, like, like, pick the Tesla, right? It'll be a wild ride. It's almost like a universal experience, like Universal Studios experience, like, look, it's an angry mob. I don't know. It's an actual No, no, no, oh no. Stop

Kyle Mountsier:

speaking of angry mobs.

Paul J Daly:

Says angry mob like watching people in the TSA line look

Kyle Mountsier:

and made your travel headache is officially over for all of the people that didn't buy the TSA Pre check. US travelers no longer need to remove their shoes at airport security thanks to a new TSA technology and a successful pilot program, the change is effective immediately nationwide, so you don't have to remove shoes like today. They did that. That's so fast. Yeah, actually, I think it was yesterday. Everybody happy. They're also happy passengers, ages 12. 75 previously were required to remove their shoes of post 911 rule, spurred by the 22,001 shoe bomber, most Americans said No. M the homeland security secretary said it will be very excited. It will be a much more streamlined process. Okay? GSA pre check still offers perks like skipping laptop and toiletry removal. That's a that's special, and they are still exploring more changes, like including special names for families and service members to simplify screenings further.

Paul J Daly:

Tell Atlanta, do they have a culture person they can send over to the Atlanta airport? Oh, I set it up, I have to say Atlanta airport, and got all of their employees are from New York City. No, they're not from the south. I'm just telling you, right, that is not true. I've been to New York City, and the New York City TSA teams are way more buttoned up and polite. And look, they got

Kyle Mountsier:

all them from Alabama. They knew what was up there. Like, bring in some people from the South. Oh, man,

Paul J Daly:

it's so funny, because Christy Noam is on the screens at the Atlanta airport. Like, given the announcements as you're waiting in the TSA preli. I think this is an amazing thing. A lot of people in the auto industry. It's travel very frequently. I think it's going to speed everything up. I think there's no one that's unhappy about this. And I think the shoe bomber, whoever it was, probably cost the United States taxpayers more money than anyone else in the history of the world. Had to,

Kyle Mountsier:

yeah, do it. Matt, now if they can just get new machines to move slightly quicker, dude. And the new machines and new machines are so bad, and now you got to take your belt off, like that didn't used to be a thing. Now these things all go off with your belts, like these are two problems. Doesn't used to be the case. No,

Paul J Daly:

I'm trying. I need to find a belt with, like, a three years. Yeah, you're the composite buckle so that I don't that's the most annoying part of TSA Pre

Kyle Mountsier:

that's a smart idea. Yeah, I'm gonna, we're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. We're gonna the most annoying part of cars branded on it. Gonna put this as the new machines are

Paul J Daly:

brutal? Yeah, I know. Are we complaining? Are we doing a show?

Kyle Mountsier:

You know, I'm proud of the TSA for helping all the people that didn't pay for TSA Pre check not do I am I mad about this? Am I slightly upset now that everybody else gets basically the same treatment? No, I'm not mad, Paul.

Paul J Daly:

While we're talking about this, let me give you a pro tip for TSA Pre, if you're traveling with children as they get older, like nine and up, typically. Do you know the TSA can actually not accept them as pre check, even if they're your minor and they're what? Yeah, and so I learned this the hard way, and some it's their discretion. And I have no idea why the guy in the Orlando airport made Brooklyn my 13 year old daughter at the time. She's like, she can't go through it's discretionary. Like, Oh, okay. So now we have to get in the other line. If you've been to Orlando, but I found out the work. Here's the workaround. When you're booking your kids tickets, you put your TSA Pre number in their TSA Pre SLA, oh, that's strong. Never had a problem since now. They always get the check on their boarding pass. No problems.

Kyle Mountsier:

Come on. You know. No issue. Just when you

Paul J Daly:

thought you could get any more value out of this show we've given you travel hacks to start your Thursday off. Listen whatever the deal is. You know what the deal is. Go out there, take care of the people around you, and things will just be a much better you

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Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly

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