Automotive State of The Union

Audi To Build At Scout Plant, Used EVs Sell Fast, Ford’s New HQ

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Episode #1198: Audi taps Scout Motors to build its first U.S.-made SUV, the used-car market cools while EVs heat up, and Ford trades “The Glass House” for a high-tech headquarters built for its next century.


Show Notes with links:

  • Audi is shifting its U.S. strategy with plans for a large electric SUV designed specifically for American buyers—but instead of building a new plant, it’ll lean on Scout Motors’ upcoming South Carolina facility.
    • The new SUV will use Scout’s body-on-frame EV platform with a range extender for longer driving distances.
    • Production starts in late 2027, giving Audi its first U.S.-built model without a multibillion-dollar factory investment.
    • The move helps Audi avoid steep import tariffs while boosting its U.S. competitiveness.
  • Scout CEO Scott Keogh hinted at more group synergies: “There is certainly a possibility that other exciting products from the group will definitely be built there.”


  • The used-car market is finding its rhythm again—though buyers are taking their time. Prices keep climbing, but EVs are now the surprise speed sellers of the segment.
    • The average three-year-old car spent 41 days on lots in Q3 2025, the slowest turnover since 2017.
    • The average transaction price hit $31,067, up 5% from last year and nearly $10K higher than pre-pandemic.
    • EVs sold fastest at just 34 days, beating hybrids (40 days) and gas models (43 days).
    • Two-thirds of used EVs were priced between $20K–$30K, often with under 40,000 miles, giving them the best value in the market.
    • Edmunds found that eight of the 19 fastest-selling three-year-old vehicles were EVs, led by the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, and Hyundai Ioniq 5.


  • For the first time since 1956, Ford is moving its headquarters—trading “The Glass House” for a massive, ultra-modern campus designed to reflect the automaker’s tech-driven future.
    • The new 2.1 million-square-foot “Ford World Headquarters” doubles the size of the old site, featuring seven restaurants and a 160,000-square-foot food hall.
    • A dramatic showroom dubbed a “James Bond villain’s lair” serves as the centerpiece for product reveals and executive decision-making.
    • The move, just three miles from the old HQ, brings over 14,000 employees within a seven-minute walk of the new complex.
    • Ford’s goal: attract top software and AI talent and foster collaboration—something “The Glass House” wasn’t built for.
    • Ford Land’s Jennifer Kolstad said, “When you’re in it, you feel like you are in the center of automotive design.”

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Paul Daly:

Good morning, everybody. It is Monday, November 17. Let's see here North New Orleans on the weekend, Kyle is in Palm Beach. We're all gonna be in LA. I mean, what a week this is gonna be. This is the automotive State of the Union. It's time

Kyle Mountsier:

to get going. The people really want time to get going. Oh my gosh. Welcome to Monday. This done is a figment of your imagination.

Paul Daly:

No, it's not actually happening. It's a green screen in the back

Kyle Mountsier:

right Kyle. It isn't, it isn't perfectly gorgeous and 73 degrees out. No, that's not happening.

Paul Daly:

Well, I mean, it's some places in the country. It's that nice. Syracuse isn't one of them right now,

Kyle Mountsier:

let me say, without fail. Ash events, Brian Pash, Glen Pash, the entire team at at modern retailing conference, they they never, they never miss and the weather didn't miss us. This year, the conversations have been absolutely amazing. AI CDPs, tracking, web analytics, the content, the people here dialed in. It is a strategist conference through and through, and we're having the greatest time, and the weather has cooperated.

Paul Daly:

It's kind of hard to not have a great time, but I'm so jealous I can't be there. I said to you when we were getting ready for the show, I'm not gonna let my wife see this live stream, because she knows exactly where you're standing right now. She's like, Wait, we didn't go this year. I mean, we're trying to thread the needle. Over the weekend, I was at the giving hope gala put on by Troy duhan in the premier Auto Group. There were 1100 people in this room, and you should see, I should have given Nathan the picture to put up the list of sponsors is primarily the auto industry investing millions of dollars to feed millions of people every single day across the country. It's a pretty unbelievable effort. And just reminding us that the auto industry is doing all the strategy. They're getting better at what they do, and when they do that, and they make the money, they're sowing it back into the community across the country. And then this, what are we you're gonna be wheels up right from there. Nathan's tomorrow to LA, coast to coast, baby. You got a direct flight Miami to LA, direct flight, which is, oh my gosh, that's gonna be a great crowd, Miami to LA. I mean, come on. Oh, it'll be a ripping crowd. So we're gonna be at the LA, the auto LA, automobility, automobility la show at the LA, Auto Show with our friends, thanks to our friends at cars commerce sponsoring the podcast we're recording, and our press and content sponsored by our friends at Kirby, our first West Coast activation. We couldn't be more excited to bring you the conversations and the things that are going on at the show on that coast, and there's some general implications about what's going on across the country. They're also we're gonna get a first look, I think, at some things that we haven't there's gonna be a lot of car displays, a lot of things. So between our trip to Kazakhstan, a few weeks ago, we got to see a lot of Chinese manufacturers. We're back seeing what all the manufacturers doing that are selling in the US and bringing as much content as we can to you. So make sure you follow along on LinkedIn is probably going to be the best place, but also YouTube. So follow more than cars on LinkedIn or so do. We'll be putting it through both channels, and the emails are gonna have all of it. You didn't know that

Kyle Mountsier:

read the first story. I'm getting some sunglasses because the sun moved.

Paul Daly:

But first world problems for Kyle this morning, Audi is shifting its US strategy with plans for a large electric UV SUV designed specifically for American buyers. But instead of building a new plant, it's going to lean on listen in Scout motors, upcoming South Carolina facility to make them the new SUV will use scouts body on frame EV platform with a range extender for long driving distances. Production starting in late 2027 giving Audi its first US built model without a multi billion dollar factory investment. This is helping Audi avoid the tariffs while boosting us competitiveness. German labor leaders criticized the idea of expanding US production, calling a new plant difficult to understand. Scout CEO Scott Kyle hinted at more group synergy saying, quote, There is certainly a possibility that other exciting products from the group will definitely be built there. I didn't see this one coming at all.

Kyle Mountsier:

Never could have seen this one coming. Obviously, Audi VW, German brand. So there's a little bit of relationship play over there. We, we love to remember that scout is tightly coupled. There still interesting to me that scout is just not delivering vehicles at scale yet they are making these bold new plans to support other OEMs and their manufacturing efforts stateside. It tips its hat to how much manufacturing effort focus is being put on bringing that into the US still wild that Audi is planning that, but also just a cool collaboration. I love the fact that more OEMs are thinking about, how do we collaborate, collaborate across the globe and figure out how to build at scale? Because at this point, the majority of these European and US at manufacturing. Actors are just competing with Chinese manufacturers, so it's a race to see who's going to be able to compete on that global scale. And and collaborating is probably going to

Paul Daly:

be the way to do it. I think Audi, Audi in this this segment in general, has always wanted a larger family SUV. So it'll be interesting to see how much bigger it is than the Q was. What's their largest vehicle right now? The Q 7q, 70, QX 70, and so obviously it'll probably feel a lot more like some of the scouts frame on body stuff. I didn't see this one coming. I do think, though. I mean, obviously it's a result of the tariffs. And I do think this will move Scout a little bit in more of the graces of the franchise dealers, knowing that some of their adverts and products are making their way into the franchise model and allowing us to deliver through that a little bit better. We'll see. But I think your your point is the best point, meaning, like they have yet.

Kyle Mountsier:

You can tell you, I can tell you, I've talked to five Audi dealers about their feelings about their new websites, but that's just me.

Paul Daly:

Too Yes, too early. Well, we'll talk more about that soon. Yeah, there's, there's, there's a thing there, there's a thing there. You said, you know, Scout making all of these bold, you know, predictions and claims without you said, delivering vehicles at scale. But we could probably just shorten that sentence without delivering vehicles. Oh, right. Like they haven't delivered any yet. And they also have just throw me Instagram ads, like it's going oh, and they look awesome on those Instagram ads. But they just also announced, like a month ago, we covered it here, that they're changing the whole powertrain in the car. Well, it's EV powertrain, but adding a combustion engine to it, which was not part of that plan range, extended combustion. So they got a lot of confidence going in gotta, gotta applaud the confidence. We'll see how it all pans out, speaking how, how it pans out. Segue another surprise story that I read this morning, the used car market finding its rhythm. Though buyers are taking their time. Prices are climbing, but EVs are now the surprised speed sellers of the segment, the average three year old car spent 41 days on lots and q3 the slowest ever since 2017 the average transaction price$31,067 up 5% and nearly$10,000 higher than pre pandemic. But the fastest selling segment are EVs in the used car market, just 34 days beating hybrids, which are at 40 days. Gas models at 43 days, two thirds of used EVs were priced between 20 and $30,000 often with under 40,000 miles. So I think there's some clues there. Edmonds found eight of the 19 fastest selling three year old vehicles were EVs. Eight of the 19, led by Tesla Model three, model Y and the Hyundai IONIQ five, there's

Kyle Mountsier:

an asterisk on this one, because q3 was met with the removal of the $4,500 on the hood of so many of these used cars as a discount incentive. So there's still an asterisk question mark. Are we going to see the same kind of thing in q4 but remember, in this we've talked about a bunch of times, when you see that much go into the market from a single market segment, and people be more aware of these vehicles on the road. Even my kids, they're like Dad, I've never seen as many Teslas out there on the road. I've never seen as many of these Hyundai vehicles with the front grill that doesn't exist. Like they notice those things? If my kids are noticing it, certainly the public is noticing it. So that's going to drive interest in traffic into q4 and if you're not there to meet that demand, if you're not there to answer those questions, if you don't have inventory that can relate to the customer that is seeing these cars on the road, that's when we're going to see the EV dip. And it'll mainly be because we're not prepared to to accept the demand that's going to come in by seeing more of these on the road, but still, asterisks on q3

Paul Daly:

asterisks on q3 I don't, I want to segue into this next story. There's, there's no segue That's so great. The segue is, take it away. Kyle, ah, for the

Kyle Mountsier:

first time since 1956 Ford is moving its headquarters trading the the Glass House, as it's been noted for, a massive ultra modern campus designed to reflect the automated trek, tech driven future. Look at that. The new 2.1 million square foot Ford World Headquarters doubles the size of the old site, featuring seven restaurants, and I want 160,000 square foot food hall, a dramatic showroom dubbed a James Bond villa. It looks so amazing that it all looks amazing serves as a centerpiece for product reveals and executive decision making. The move is just three miles down the street from the old headquarters, it brings over 14,000 employees within a seven minute walk of the new complex. So basically, like so many employees right there anyway, Ford's goal, attract top software and AI talent and foster collaboration, something the Glass House wasn't particularly built for. We've. Quoted her a few times. We're actually going to have her on the show soon. Ford. Ford lands, Jennifer Coles dad said, which they're calling it, kind of Ford land said, when you're in it, you feel like you are in the center of automotive design. Bring it back

Paul Daly:

forward. I love that. They've been, I mean, they've been working on this for quite a long time. We talked to Jennifer at the Reuters event a couple of years ago and became fast friends. There's definitely this elevated attention to how the esthetic and the flow changes your mindset and induces more collaboration and more forward thinking. If you see the pictures, if you weren't able to watch and you're just listening to this show, you should look it up, because it is pretty it's pretty amazing. Also, 14,000 employees within seven minutes of walking distance like there is something that happens when you're invested in what you're doing for your career, and the opportunity is built around that means your kids are going school together, you're having coffee at the same coffee shops, you're seeing each other on the weekend. And I think that's going to translate some more magic for Ford, as they, you know, figure out how to face the challenges of the new EV market, the Chinese competitors, this new environment. I think nothing does that better than some in person collaboration. That's pretty inspiring. And the James Bond villain layer, it looks pretty unbelievable. I think we need to go to Detroit.

Kyle Mountsier:

Actually. Let's go to Detroit All right. Now, while you roll the outro, I'll just give the people a little bit of little

Paul Daly:

bit. Oh, just showing us the palm trees and the sunshine and the beach chairs, but you're not going to be on those. Everybody in the auto industry is inside working on making this industry better than it was yesterday, so we can take care of everyone around us. You you.

Contributor

Kyle Mountsier

Host
Contributor

Paul J Daly

Host