An Auto Entrepreneur Buys Lots of EVs, GM Retools, Gen Z Prefers Search on TikTok

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Walking into a much cooler Friday than last week for most of the country, we’re covering a move by startup Autonomy to boost EV offerings, GM retooling and simplifying its chip infrastructure, as well as the Gen Z trend of trusting TikTok for search.

• EV Subscription Company, Autonomy (formerly NextCar) placed orders for 23K EV’s across 17 Automakers, partnering with Auto Nation for both sales and service
  • “The orders are for 45 different models and are valued at $1.2 billion per an Autonomy press release
  • Will take delivery of all 23,000 vehicles within 18 months, Founder and CEO, Scott Painter told Automotive News.
  • Until now the company only had Tesla Model 3s, and is moving to including the Model Y, several GM models including the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq. Also about 1000 vehicles each from Volkswagen, Ford, Hyundai, Kia and Rivian and fewer than 500 each from Polestar, Volvo and Canoo
  • Painter founded TrueCar and Fair
  • Take away: We don’t know if the business model will work or not, but it definitely will promote overall EV adoption
    
• GM is retooling and significantly reducing the number of ‘chip families’ it’s using to clear backlogs and prevent them in the future
  • Were sitting on 95k assembled vehicles waiting on chips at the end o f Q2 and have cleared more than 20K of them in July
  • Plan to reduce the number of chip families by 95% in future designs, to prevent future shortage
  • CFO Paul Jacobson said the number of chip families used will drop by 95% down to 3 total. He also noted increased involvement throughout the manufacturing chain
  • Take away: These aren’t flashy announcements, but most nuts and bolts improvements aren’t. That’s a good thing.
    
• TikTok is becoming (or maybe IS) the preferred search engine of Gen Z
  • Wanda Pogue, Chief Strategy Officer at VaynerMedia cites a new study that shows 40% of Gen Z users prefer TikTok and Instagram over Google when it comes to search
  • “...my Gen Z daughter had a group of friends over. I asked them about their behavior on TikTok, and they agreed: It’s the platform they go to now when searching for anything, from the highest-rated beauty products and clothing trends to the best restaurants in the area or recipes to try”
  • Gen Z prioritizes authenticity and utility which is one of the reasons why they like the visual representation with more real-world application
  • “Social channels have become brands’ digital storefronts, and the content shared on them is the cornerstone of building a modern brand. It’s an always-on game of relevance, where brand channels need to be “alive” to engage existing communities’
  • Take away: What was that you were saying about “organic content”?

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Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
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