Automotive State of The Union

40 Under 40, Used EV Ramp Up, Tesla’s Grok Doesn’t Do Much Yet

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Episode #1094: Today we celebrate the industry's next generation with Automotive News’ 40 Under 40,  explore why used EVs are the hottest deal on the lot, and dig into Tesla’s underwhelming Grok rollout.


  • It’s time to recognize the rising stars shaping the future of the retail automotive business. Automotive News has released its 14th annual “Retail 40 Under 40” list, spotlighting the next generation of dealership leadership.
    • This year’s honorees include GMs, dealer principals, CFOs, and department heads making real moves in their stores and communities.
    • Dealerships represented range from large groups like Hendrick and Lithia to family-run independents.
    • Standouts include Stephanie Frink, president of Hennessy Auto Cos., and Jake Sodikoff, dual-store dealer principal and president of Steven Nissan and Kia.
    • The list highlights broad roles—from finance and marketing to fixed ops—showing leadership can come from any department.
    • “These honorees are driving change, growth, and innovation in one of the most competitive industries in the world,” said Automotive News in its announcement.

  • In a cooling EV market, used electric vehicles are emerging as the best deal on the lot—thanks to deep discounts and looming tax credit expirations.
  • Used EV sales hit a record 100,000+ units in Q2, buoyed by steep price drops of nearly 32% in 2024.
  • Buyers like Christopher Andrzejczak scored vehicles for less than half their original sticker prices.
  • Used EVs depreciate faster than gas cars due to concerns about battery life and tech obsolescence.
  • Demand is surging ahead of the $4,000 used EV tax credit’s scheduled end in September.
  • Eli Cook and his wife, preparing to move from Missouri to California, bought a used 2020 Tesla Model 3 for $15,000 in cash to avoid high Bay Area gas prices and missing out on the soon-to-expire tax credit. “It really seems like we’re buying the dip for used EVs right now,” Cook said.


  • Tesla’s latest software update (2025.26) includes the long-awaited arrival of Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot. But before you get too excited…Grok currently doesn’t do much inside the car.
    • Grok is only available in U.S. vehicles with AMD infotainment chips—basically, Teslas made after mid-2021.
    • It’s in beta and can’t issue voice commands or interact with vehicle systems yet.
    • Right now, it’s just like having Grok on your phone… but on your car’s touchscreen.
    • Other software tweaks include syncing ambient lighting to music, personalized audio presets, and enhanced Dashcam Viewer tools.

0:00 Intro with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
1:10 Paul and Kyle are attending the 4th Annual Beaver Toyota and Mazda Golf Tournament
2:20 The Automotive News 40 Under 40 List
4:28 Used EVs are the Best Deal Right Now
6:37 What Grok Currently Does In The Tesla AI

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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Paul J Daly:

Good morning. It is Monday. What's today's date? 15th, the 14th. Monday, July 14. Kyle and I are in Atlanta, Georgia. We're actually a little bit north of Atlanta, heart hawks Ridge Golf Course for the fourth annual beaver Toyota charity golf event. And we're going to

Unknown:

talk about some so nice to look out over a golf course when you

Paul J Daly:

wake up. Oh, you just bragging now, just bragging. I mean, I'm sorry, fam. Golf Tournament Monday morning, a car dealership giving back so many 10s of 1000s of dollars to the community by bringing the community of vendors and industry partners that help this company run and serve the community. It's like, really one of the best examples of what it takes. You know, what I love about this event in particular, and I think this is something that auto, you know, does really, really well, that a lot of times we don't think about more broadly, is there's going to be a lot of industry partners here that are tech partners or service partners of the beaver organization. But there's also, like, their AC people, they're roofing people, the people that do irrigation, all the irrigation, all of those are also committed to their success in serving the community. And I think that's a wonderful thing where when you look across like all of the people that you pay every single month and what their commitment to the community is, it's an opportunity to draft all of that together. There is, and it's, I love how the Patrick a bad beaver Toyota, now beaver Mazda, that just opened is really the beacon that all of these other companies are looking to to show them how to show how do we do this? Yeah, and it really is. Fits with our fundamental core belief that the retail auto industry should be the leader in the community, and can be the leader in the community with the right prioritization. So we'll be here all day. We're going to capture some of this shoot, some content, and bring it back to you, just because it's a great way to celebrate all these good things and have a laugh or two, and maybe you'll get some. I'm not playing today. I'm running these running charity auction at the end of the day, but Kyle gonna be out there in the course, off make sure I find a golf course, and maybe we'll resurface the vlog we made last year. Oh, good plan. That was a good one. It was a lot of fun. We got some plans for today, but we'll see what happens. Let's talk about some news. It's time to recognize the rising star shaping the future of retail automotive. Automotive News has released its 14th annual retail 40 under 40 list spotlighting the next generation of dealership leadership. You can go look at it now. This year's honorees include GMs, dealer principals, CFOs and department heads making moves in their stores and their communities. Dealers represent resent. Dealerships represented range from large groups to small groups. So we have the big publics, and then we have the smaller one family run legacy one that's pretty great to watch. The variety. There standouts, some of the standouts. Stephanie Frank, president of Hennessy autos. Jake, soda, cough, dual store, dealer, principal and president of the Steven Nissan, of Steven Nissan and Kia. So many other friends on the list. I talked to Chris singleton over the weekend. So cool to see him in there. Yeah, we're gonna talk to him a little bit later in the month and get some podcasts. We're gonna bring some of these to you as well. We love this list. A lot of roles

Kyle Mountsier:

across the board, finance, this is what I love. Like a lot of times, the general manager, the dealer principal, gets the limelight, but Automotive News has done a great job at pressing this through the store, whether it be in service or in marketing or in the accounting office, that those leaders in there that are driving business success and driving like real innovation across our industry. I love when this list comes out. You know, you always feel like, oh, but what about those people that I knew that's on that's that's on me for not submitting them, but there's so many people. What I love is like, we only know a couple of people on this list, and, and, and so there's so many incredible leaders across this industry that just go meet some, find out what they're doing.

Paul J Daly:

Yeah, you know, it's great list, and congratulations to everyone who made it. We know you have their dinners to go to now. We look forward to meeting you all and talk to as many of you as we can. Make sure you reach out to everybody and congratulate them. Yeah. Speaking of, I don't know segway, it's a Wall Street Journal article this morning, in a cooling EV market, used electric vehicles are emerging as the best deal on the lot, thanks to deep discounts and looming tax credit expirations, used EV sales hit a record 100,000 units in q2 it's the first time the number broke 100,000 units in A quarter, buoyed by steep price drops of nearly 32% buyers like Christopher Adja scored vehicles for less than half of their original sticker prices. This is actually really more more of a common tale, because of the depreciation much faster than gas cars due to concerns about battery life and tech. Absolute obsolescence. Demand is surge. Ahead of the $4,000 EV tax credit that's scheduled to end at the end of September, one man in the story, Eli Cook and his wife, prepared to move from Missouri to California, bought a used 2020, Tesla Model three for$15,000 in cash to avoid the high bay area gas prices. And they wanted to avoid missing out on the credit. They said, quote, It really seems like we're buying the dip for used EVs, right? I love, I love that

Kyle Mountsier:

quote. That's hilarious. Like buying the dip. I mean, the fact that you get this $4,000 EV tax credit. And the thing that I think is really important for our industry is a lot of us, you know, in the industry, know some of this stuff already. It's very relevant. It's timely things that we're dealing with on the lot right now. But again, this is a Wall Street Journal article that's very present, that's very out in the open, where consumers are getting this knowledge, getting this information in real time. They're seeing other consumers in this article get great deals on EVs, and they're going to be searching for the same thing. So knowledge about the EV tax credit, how, how and when you can apply for it, when it applies to the hood of the vehicle, all those types of things I think are really, really relevant for any dealership that has even one EV on the lot, because those questions are going to come up every single day, if, if culture is pointing to this

Paul J Daly:

as an opportunity, that's right, that's right. Well, speaking of culture pointing to something opportunity that maybe

Kyle Mountsier:

software update 20, 25.26 included this long awaited arrival of grok that Elon was super excited about, were We but before you get too excited, currently, grok doesn't do much inside the car. Right now, it's only available in US vehicles with AMD infotainment chips, basically Tesla's made after mid 2021 it's in beta, but it can't issue voice commands or interact with any vehicle systems right now. It's just like having grok on your phone, but on your car's touch screen. So it's kind of like a little phone app where you can ask it questions and tell it to be sarcastic. I

Paul J Daly:

mean, Tesla needed something good to talk about. That's it. I think they talked about this, and it got some buzz. We were excited about it. Where's the robo taxi? Fam, Oh,

Unknown:

see, see what they did. There's

Paul J Daly:

just getting back in the seat. And there was another article talking about how he's just like, maybe executives, yeah, maybe for now. But he's saying how he's burning through executives. They're obviously, they say they are going to, obviously get into the place where Rocky is controlling a lot of car features. They are playing catch up, right? Definitely has this dialed in a lot further, where you can real, talk to your car and have it produce, you know, do things that the

Kyle Mountsier:

car. Yeah, when we're car thing, when we're at Steve Greenfield's event about the existential threat of China, there were multiple people citing that these vehicles in China already have so much of this integrated lifestyle, they're integrating phone into the vehicle. They're integrating AI systems into the vehicle. And so, you know, this is, this is Tesla probably not positioning as much in the US, but probably globally, because they are falling behind. Man, I was really excited.

Paul J Daly:

I think, I think we're not that far away. I think Tesla will be the first one to do it well. And from the American car company side, I think Tesla is going to be the one sure that helps push innovation, because they obviously, natively, have the AI. Like develop, they

Kyle Mountsier:

already have an AI. It's in the car. It's like, exposing some level of it to the user. Yeah, so,

Paul J Daly:

I mean, disappointing for a Monday, but on the bright side, we're at hawks Ridge, going about play some golf. We're going to go

Kyle Mountsier:

play some golf. It's going to be beautiful. And I can't wait to see how much we get to to help give away. I know it's going

Paul J Daly:

to be so much fun. Cue the music. We're out. It's a lot. I'm gonna sit in the AC. I'm gonna go heckle them every once in a while, but we hope you have an amazing day. What whatever you're doing, go serve some people. And it is the right decision every time and always you

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Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly

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