DEALERS
Watching Elf With Walser
Walser Automotive Group never lets us down!
🎥 Their creative ability to enrich their associates and support their community has a new highlight - the movie Elf. 🧝
🪡 The team gathered around to enjoy the movie while making blankets for The Bridge For Youth, a nonprofit serving homeless youth. 🫂
Telling it like it is - Shoutout to the whole Walser team for constantly showing up for their community!
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AUTOMOTIVE
New Inventory Continues To Climb
Historic inventory lows may be just that- history!
🗓️📈 Cox Automotive data show new inventory has increased by another 150K vehicles.
🤯☀️ A stream of increases from June to now has 2022 sitting 78% higher than 2021 at the same point.
📉🤷♀️ Of course, inventory is still significantly below that of 2019/2020.
🤓👍 November ended with 1.61M vehicles in dealer inventory, with some variation between brands based on days supply strategies.
Let’s remember - A return to 2019 inventory levels does not equal a return to 2019 dealership strategies.
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AUTOMOTIVE
Toyota’s Plan For A New Plan
Toyota announced a 3-year plan to change its EV strategy and key suppliers. Details of the plan will become public through 2026 and seek to close the gap between Toyota and the more agile EV-focused startups like Tesla and BYD.
Slowing down to speed up. The plan is expected to have a rippling effect through current EV operations as they, and the supply chains, are evaluated and adjusted.
Telling it like it is - Maybe Toyota went from a “weak” EV approach to a bit too feisty. Somewhere between the two is going to be just right… W-iesty… F-eak? We will get back to you on that.
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TOGETHER WITH TRUECAR
I Need a TrueCar
Why not end the year on a true high?
TrueCar's "I Need a TrueCar" sweepstakes will bring ten people $5,000 closer to the good, reliable car they need!
So our question is - How many of your customers could use $5K?
To Enter, Customers Should:
- Post a video to TikTok or Instagram about why they need a car
- Use the custom "I Need a TrueCar" song on the post
- Include the hashtags #INeedATrueCar and #TrueCarSweepstakes in the caption.
Then sit back and wait to hear the winners announced (hopefully from your community)!
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QUICK HITS
- US scientists make a breakthrough in Fusion power. This marks the first-ever energy net gain from the tech.
- Ticketmaster can’t stay out of trouble. Massive fraud in Mexico surrounding Bad Bunny tickets adds to the existing Taylor Swift upset.
- Twitter Blue to return with a higher price for iPhone users… take that, Apple?
- NASA lands Artemis on the moon and says its new spacesuits should be ready in time for the next manned mission to the lunar surface. We hope for the astronauts’ sake they are right…
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AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE
Live Event!
ASOTU's 2022 Year End Extravaganza is bigger and better this year. Join us and our in-person studio audience for two hours of fun and insights live from Music City.
Guests from automotive and beyond will join us for a Tonight Show-style event as we recap 2022, look forward to 2023, and see what surprises are in the ASOTU stocking!
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AUTOMOTIVE
Updates from China, Europe, and The US
BYD is marching on. The company has exceeded its previous month's global wholesale sales record for ten months this year. November was one of three months with over 200K sales at around 230K, which is a 155% year-over-year increase.
Leaving China. The company set an additional record with just over 12K exported passenger cars and 485 commercial vehicles.
Rivian is hitting pause. A commercial van partnership with Mercedes in Europe said the two companies would produce vans together, but not the same van, two different vans in the same factories. Twelve weeks later, Rivian says they will no longer pursue the joint venture.
Nothing ventured, nothing lost. In a press release by Rivian, leadership says the company is evaluating growth opportunities with attention to risk-adjusted capital investment returns. Following a year of ups, downs, angry investors, and annoyed customers, it makes sense the brand is taking its next steps one toe at a time.
GM and LG are getting a boost. A $2.5B loan from the US Energy Department will help the companies build joint battery cell plants in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan. The loan creates some 11,000 construction and manufacturing jobs and inches GM closer to its 1M EV a year by 2025 goal.
Dollars for the future. The White House's goal to reach 50% electric automotive manufacturing by 2030 is backed by billions of dollars of loan money like this set aside as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. More loans, battery factories, and US-Based manufacturing are sure to follow.
TL; DR - Chinese BYD is capturing more home field market share by the day, Rivian is reconsidering which fields it should be playing on, and GM’s Ultium is sitting on funds to build their own field (or 3).
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AUTOMOTIVE
Cybertruck Spotted
Yes, the "Cybertruck has a new release date" thing is getting old, but there are pics to prove it this time!
Images of the body have popped up online and given Tesla's 1.5M interested parties a little glimpse to tide them over before production begins in June 2023.
What’s that old saying - Don’t count your chickens before they have the rest of their components installed and are sitting in your driveway? Something like that.
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CULTURE
Hip-Hop, META, and Shaq
You may have heard the metaverse is a fad or that VR still needs to be fully realized as a widely adopted technology. To people saying that, we have one question, "Why is Shaq hosting his NYE party in VR then??"
Yes, Shaquille O'Neal has announced an immersive VR countdown special featuring Cardi B, Killer Mike, Ludacris, and more of Shaq's favorite artists and other fun events.
🎤🏀🥽
Black tie optional, just like life. The one-hour special will premiere in VR using Meta Horizon worlds and on Meta Quest TV. You can also just check out his social media to catch the full show.
The "Shaq-tacular Spectacular" starts at 6:30 pm EST on December 31st.
Shaq just wants to know what the world would look like if he was the same height as normies like us.
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