“We have to be adaptive. We have to think outside the box. We’re going to have to reinvent how we do business in the future. We will continue to service our legacy customers with their traditional ICE engines. But we will have to reinvent how we treat the EV6 and our EV customers.” decade before we start feeling a pinch. We’ll have enough knowledge of this new technology by then to adapt. But to me, it’s all talk until that happens. When it does, we must continue to serve our legacy customers while reinventing ourselves and thinking outside the box. Tesla has been the frontrunner for EVs, but are franchise dealers the legacy manufacturers’ secret weapon to overtake Tesla? Absolutely. We talk to customers and deliver a good experience. Tesla stores are impersonal, and customer service is poor. Tesla has a unique product and autonomous driving, which is new and cool, but Mercedes and Audi can compete with them now, and I guess we’ll be there soon, too. Then again, many people don’t want the car driving. There have been some bad accidents because people pushed the limits on the car, and something went wrong. Things happen lightning-fast. Let’s talk about the Kia EV6. Do you have them, and are they selling? They moved more quickly when they first came out last year. There was a waitlist, but availability is better now. I have a GT on the floor of my showroom. I drove it last weekend, and even though I’ve always had fast cars, I’ve never been in anything like that. The vehicle’s design is amazing, too, with the way the dashboard flows and the visibility inside the car. I couldn’t find a blind spot, and the car handles like a dream. Kia has exploded onto the scene in the U.S. and globally. It has some of the top products in the industry right now. Hyundai has always been the big brother because it has more capacity and outsold Kia, but Kia currently outsells Hyundai in Central Florida. Any last thoughts? I think we all have concerns about the future of what’s gonna happen to our service business and our profitability when this EV thing really takes off. I think it’s going to be a decade before it becomes a reality. By then, I believe we’ll have enough knowledge of this new technology to adapt it. We have to be adaptive. We have to think outside the box. We’re going to have to reinvent how we do business in the future. We will continue to service our legacy customers with their traditional ICE engines. But we will have to reinvent how we treat the EV6 and our EV customers. ACCELERATE 13
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