DEALER STORIES

Dealers Prepare For Christmas

Byers Chevrolet in Grove City is taking their toy drive to a whole new place - the internet!

Encouraged by the hundreds of toys collected last year Jimmy Jones and his team are expanding their commitment to giving every child a full Christmas morning by inviting people to send toys directly to the store from Amazon.

A pretty cool idea that seems worth giving to OR copying for the kids in your corner of the world. 😉

Telling it like it is - We are trying to understand if this makes Jimmy Santa and us the elves? Or maybe we are Santa and Jimmy is a flying reindeer? Please write in and help us make sense of this metaphor.

TOGETHER WITH MRC X ASOTU

Got Your Ticket(s) Yet?

Modern Retailing Conference is almost here, and we are excited to see you in Palm Beach!

We could talk a lot about using code ASOTU100 to save $100 on your ticket or about the buy one get one deal on tickets right now.

Instead, we just want you to know how pumped we are to spend a few days making content with you.

See you soon!

QUICK HITS

VW among companies pausing Twitter ads.
Bank of England has the highest interest rate in 33 years. Warns of “Long recession.”
Want to see A Christmas Carol as a musical comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell? Wait till Nov. 11.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

The Automotive Troublemaker Podcast
- Steve Greenfield Reads The News w/ Paul and Kyle
Auto Collabs
- Loading the Statue of David with Michael Cirillo
In The Dirt w/ ASOTU

AUTOMOTIVE

Batteries, Solid-State, and Hydrogen

Panasonic broke ground on a $4B battery factory in Kansas. The plant will produce batteries for Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y EVs while working with the automaker to develop next-gen 4680 power cells sometime in 2024.

Honda, on the other hand, says next-gen isn't next-gen enough. The Japanese automaker has sights on solid-state electrification by the end of the decade. While an early leader in hybrid technology, the company has shown comparatively little drive toward electrification.

Honda CEO and President says the company will begin small-scale production of solid-state batteries for cars and motorcycles in 2024. If all goes according to plan, vehicles using the tech will launch to the public before 2030.

What the heck is a solid-state battery? Glad you asked! We have all heard a lot of talk (and then some more talk) about how solid-state batteries will change the whole EV game. Let's summarize the claims and challenges!

✅Lighter weight, greater efficiency, quicker charging, and cheaper/cleaner production make solid-state batteries seem too good to be true.

🚫40 years of companies like Exxon, Duracell, Toshiba, and Sony not figuring it out also make the tech seem too good to be true (but in a bad way).

Ok, so Honda is lying? Nah. Honda's 2024 - 2029 timeline and its history of not wearing flaming pants indicate it may be time for solid-state to join the world of carbon-neutral aspirations.

Of course, these two Lithium-based options are not the only game in town. Nikola is quietly making hydrogen-based vehicles a real contender for public adoption. Currently only producing semi trucks, the company grabbed higher revenue ($24.2M vs. $22.1M) and lower losses than expected for Q3.

The company's stock took a hit due to reduced production expectations for 2022, but it has made impressive work on its hydrogen refueling network.

Crystal Ball - This isn’t a reference to looking into the future, it is our guess about which unsuspected new power source will be all the rage by 2040.

MARKETS

All Jacked Up On Q3

Earning reports are still coming out and helping people set expectations for Q4 with the data of Q3. (Most of) Our team is into data, and everybody (except Issac) loves caffeine, so let's look at both.

⭐️💵 Starbucks beat wall street expectations despite a 16% drop in its second-largest market, China. Total net sales grew 3.3% to $8.41B vs. expectations of $8.31B. According to the company, higher order amounts in the US drove growth.

Pep rating - 6 upsettingly large dirty chai latte's out of 5 ☕️🌋

😈👹 Monster Energy Drinks had a 15.2% increase in net sales, which led to a record Q3. The company was able to mitigate increased production and distribution costs with price increases and lower promotional allowances.

We'll let you in on a little secret - the 15.2% increase in net sales was entirely due to Charity@asotu.com 's unhealthy addiction to the Sugar-Free Ultra Fiesta Mango Monsters. 🥭🤪

🥤🥳 Coke bubbled up $11.1B in Q3 which is a 10% growth in net revenue. The quarter was dotted with interesting moves like the Coca-Cola Value Bundle aimed at serving cost-conscious consumers, customer experience-based marketing, and efforts to increase corporate water stewardship.

Pep rating - 9 caffeine-free Cokes out of 10. Why not a perfect score? Because it is missing caffeine. Why is it missing caffeine? Ask Isaac@asotu.com 🥤😴