Jimmy Douglas: Why 49% of Car Dealers Struggle to Sell EVs | Car Sales | Ep.677
In this episode my guest is Jimmy Douglas, founder and CEO of Plug and former Tesla exec. Jimmy’s one of the sharpest voices in the pre-owned EV market, and he’s here to break down what most dealers are missing, and what a small group is quietly getting right.
We talk about why nearly half of dealers still won’t touch used EVs, what it actually takes to build a profitable EV business inside your store, and why “dipping your toe in” may be worse than not playing at all. Jimmy also shares how culture inside the dealership makes or breaks EV success, what numbers you should pay attention to, and how to avoid getting stuck with inventory that loses value faster than you expect.
If you’ve been on the fence about EVs, this conversation will help you sort through the noise and figure out whether your store is ready—or if it’s better to wait. Either way, you’ll walk away with a clearer picture of what’s really happening in the market and how to prepare for what’s coming.
Tune in!
You can also grab your free copy of my #1 bestselling ebook Don’t Wait, Dominate! here → www.flexdealer.com
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Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
I mean, gosh, there's got to be a way for them to lean in on it. Or are you saying, no, pull out your credit card and buy 40 of them right now? I mean, they're worrying about the tax credit timer. How do you reconcile all of this? For those that are like, yeah, I'm feeling the pull, I just don't know how to get in.
Jimmy: 0:21
I think the fact that we saw such a big shift from 59% aren't doing it to only 49% is very much a byproduct of the tax credit expiration Like these are really hot right now.
MC: 0:33
Tell me the story Like what's the story behind that number and what are the first, maybe two process of changes that would help move a dealer from no thanks to selectively profitable?
Jimmy: 0:44
One of the biggest issues around this has been.
MC: 0:48
One of the things that I enjoy most about producing the dealer playbook is hearing from you the messages that I get of people who are getting so much value out of the podcast, applying it to their day-to-day workflows and finding a thriving career right here in the retail auto industry. It means the world to me, and one of the ways that we make doing this possible is through my agency, flexdealer, and, of course, in the spirit of providing value, I think this is a perfect time to head over to wwwflexdealercom to show even further support for you, my beloved DPB gang. Right now, if you go to my website, flexdealercom, you can get a full, free PDF of my number one bestselling book Don't Wait, dominate. And the reason I think it's so special is that a lot of the topics that are discussed in this book are even more relevant today than ever, with this surge in popularized AI and people wondering, well, what can I do next? How can I have a competitive advantage? Well, that's all here in this book, and so I'd love to be able to offer you a free copy of this If you go to flexdealercom. It would mean the world to me, because that is how we continue to produce this show for you.
MC: 2:10
Jimmy Douglas is the founder and CEO of Plug, a wholesale marketplace built specifically for used EVs that helps dealers buy and sell with EV-specific data and confidence. A former Tesla exec and we all know how we talk so much about Tesla these days he's now a leading voice on the pre-owned EV ecosystem, frequently interviewed about why most dealers hesitate with used EVs and how prepared operators are quietly building margins as supply rises and incentives shift. Now I got to dig right into this because I've been thinking about this. I've got questions. I need to get to the bottom of. Jimmy, you've cited that roughly 59% of dealers aren't touching used EVs, while a tiny group sells a disproportionate share. Tell me the story. What's the story behind that number and what are the first, maybe two process of changes that would help move a dealer from no thanks to selectively profitable?
Jimmy: 3:16
Well, first of all, michael, it's great to see you and I really appreciate the flattering introduction. And you're right, this is my favorite topic. So I'm actually going to break some news here for you. The analysis that yielded the 59% metric is a couple months old and we just ran a new one and, believe it or not, we're down to 49%. Wow. So suddenly now we're just down to half of dealers are not touching used EVs, which is a huge improvement. But what's also true at the same time is three nationwide retailers actually own even more of the market than they used to. Now they own 23%, which is my former employer, and Carvana and CarMax. Meanwhile, another 11% of that whole market is owned by 50 rooftops outside of there, so it's still a very lopsided, asymmetric market. Only 0.2% of car dealers overall sold at least one of these every week, so it's practically untapped by the masses, and I think about this every day.
Jimmy: 4:27
Now here's the part of this equation that you'd probably be surprised to hear me say. I don't walk around saying every dealer should sell used EVs. In fact, there actually aren't enough of them for everybody to do it really well. The dealers that are doing this really well have a bunch of them in stock. They are a bit of a beacon within their geographic region for people to go when they want to be educated about the used EV product and they want to speak with somebody that speaks firsthand, through the nuances of charging on the road or at home, or thinking through total cost of ownership or getting excited about over-the-air software updates.
Jimmy: 5:02
It's a fundamentally different asset. It's transformative and in order to actually make money doing this, you kind of need to be all in on it. But when used EVs are only 2% of the used car market, not everybody can be all in on it. That said, I personally don't think that this entire market should get swallowed up by a small number of nationwide operators. I think that would be a mistake. So to dealers who are investing in it or feel like their team or, frankly, their community where they live, the ecosystem within which they live, is ready for them to embrace it, then now is a really exciting time to do that.
MC: 5:42
Now I mean, it makes sense, right, you're going to see the I don't know big box chain or big dealer group soaking up all of the used EV inventory, which doesn't give other more rural markets, single point stores, the opportunity to even foray into this subject matter. But what's the balance there? What would have to happen in order for more? Maybe single or dual point stores feel comfortable acquiring used EVs and then finding the market in their area to sell them?
Jimmy: 6:13
To be honest, we see examples of this in nearly every pocket of the country. The first and most important aspect of it is cultural more than anything else. Is the leadership team, the ownership, the sales team, the financing team has everybody actually really bought in on this versus? Is it something that's being handed over to them? The new EV product we sat at over 100 days of supply on new EVs across the country for so long. Of course, this quarter will be an outlier because there's such a rush to capitalize on the credit, but it's really hard for people to get on board with taking on used EVs when they can't even sell brand new ones, with extraordinarily low monthly payments, subsidized through manufacturers and from the government. So I don't blame people when they're skeptical about it as something that's really profitable for them. For those who do feel ready, it really starts at the culture within the store.
MC: 7:16
Which is not the answer that most people were expecting there, I imagine.
Jimmy: 7:21
No, people are expecting to walk around being ex-Tesla and telling everybody that they need to buy an EV right now or they're destroying the world and that everybody can make money on it.
Jimmy: 7:31
Actually, no, not everybody can make money on it right now. Eventually, within the next 10 years, I see EVs becoming 30% of the used car market and at that point in time non-participation is definitely a lot riskier. But at this moment in time, deciding if you're all in or all out is actually a better strategy on the use side, and readiness to jump into it of course will depend on if your market, where you exist, has an appetite for it. But ultimately, most pockets of the country can have a profitable used EV enterprise if culturally they're aligned in investing in it. At the store and I say that because it's a highly educational sales process People expect to come in and buy a car, but they don't realize what they're actually buying is a computer on wheels and they have to fundamentally think differently about how to plan for a road trip or how to expect the functionality of that vehicle to evolve or change hopefully improve over time what the asset appreciation or depreciation might look like.
Jimmy: 8:37
So many aspects to it, and when it's a black box. It's just easier to do something that you're more comfortable with.
MC: 8:41
You know this makes sense, though, when you're saying, you know, I asked you well, like, like what, what do we do to go from kind of not profitable or no thanks on evs, to selectively profitable, and your answer is to go all in, which makes perfect sense to me, because when you make that decision, then you start building standard operating procedures around market education and salesperson education and consumer education. There's so many things then that make that time to build out those processes way more worth it than if you're selective. You're one foot in, one foot out. That's right, it's so important.
Jimmy: 9:19
That's right, michael. The stores that do that are also very proactive about acquiring their inventory and doing so with attention to nuance around the mix and the battery size, the range, the software enabled features, having a really diversified lineup. And that's not easy to do if you don't know what to look for, if you haven't educated yourself and gotten fully up to speed. And, frankly, there's arbitrage in the market too, like most auctions or places where you source vehicles don't represent EVs properly, so you really need to know what you're looking for, and a lot of dealers that are all in on this market actually capitalize on that information arbitrage. They don't suffer from it, but that makes it much harder for dealers that are entering the fold if they're doing it with any intensity less than all in.
MC: 10:04
My hope is, as any good marketer might hope, that those that were thinking they should be all in are now like holding the screen or wherever they're watching this, and they're getting close. And then we've just turned off the other 51% of dealers that are like yeah, we don't have to turn them off, Michael.
Jimmy: 10:25
We we built for them too. So I want to be clear.
MC: 10:29
I want to ask you about that because you know, when you look at those statistics and it's really hard to argue the data, especially from your vantage point for those that are maybe now listening to this and looking out the window to their lot and they see four or five of them brought up like inventory selection and knowing what to look for and all those sorts of things, but I mean gosh, there's got to be a way for them to lean in on it. Or are you saying no, pull out your credit card and buy 40 of them right now? I mean they're worrying about the tax credit timer, the clock that we've got that timer recording is what? September 30th, right?
Jimmy: 11:09
So you know tax credit For the record. We got 21 days left.
MC: 11:14
How do you reconcile all of this? For those that are like, yeah, I'm feeling the pull, I just don't know how to get in.
Jimmy: 11:22
I mean, I think the fact that we saw such a big shift from 59% aren't doing it to only 49% is very much a byproduct, among other things, but a byproduct of the tax credit expiration.
Jimmy: 11:35
A lot of the dealers that we work with in our trade desk, for example so they might be running a Toyota store or a CDJR store and if they receive a Tesla trade in they're not trying to hang on to it as a retail unit, so they get an offer from us at the point of appraisal. We're seeing some of those dealers say, hey, you know, like these are really hot right now because people are rushing to capitalize on this incentive. So when we otherwise might be wholesaling this, like for the next couple of weeks, like we'll see if we can have a retail outcome out of it, which I think is a really smart strategy. So this next month the rest of this month is not representative of what the world will look like on on the other side, uh, in October. But right now dealers are more prone to hang on to those EV trade-ins and retail out of them than they were, because so many consumers are hungry to capitalize on the credit.
MC: 12:24
Interesting what happens post credit expiration, what's going to be the driver of traffic and interest and that kind of maybe tipping point for the consumer to consider an EV.
Jimmy: 12:35
Sure. Well, so this will be the biggest EV sales quarter, both new and used, on record in the US, for sure. And much of that will be because demand from next quarter and the quarter after that are all getting pulled into this quarter. Anyone that was considering that purchase is not looking to let go of a $7,500 benefit or a $4,000 benefit, so they are rushing in, which means a really painful hangover for Q4 and Q1. And that's just what happens when you pull demand forward, right, but meanwhile there are new EVs continuing to roll off the factory lines and they have to go somewhere.
Jimmy: 13:13
So I actually I've been talking since I started this company about what happens in 2026, which is three years trailing the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2023, when EV leasing just started ripping because of the loophole We've been saying in 2026, we're going to get hit in the face with all these lease returns, but it's my hypothesis that manufacturers will have to start doing lease return pull forwards in order to move a new product quickly enough, because so much of the organic demand got pulled into Q3. Ah, interesting.
MC: 13:45
Um, does that worry? Do you think that's worrying some of this? 49%.
Jimmy: 13:50
Sure, it's worrying everybody, like when, when we're concerned that we're not going to have enough demand for a commodity that's coming directly for us in mass volume, whether we're asking for it or not. Like, yeah, we should be concerned, but ultimately it's all a throughput game. Right and where? Where used car dealers have agency is how much they pay for a vehicle, whether it's a trade in or at the auction or any other channel. And those who are focused on EVs already know this is coming. They're prepared.
Jimmy: 14:22
They are, in some cases, waiting on the sidelines for certain types of inventory or stocking up on others because the tax credit expiring is going to have some interesting implications. But for the use tax credit, some vehicles are actually selling for less money because the credit exists, believe it or not. I'll give you an example. If you look at like a 2023 Tesla Model 3 in an auction, like a rear wheel drive variant, it's pretty hard at auction for that car to catch any more than $24,000 because most dealers want to retail it for 25,000, which is the ceiling for the tax credit, and that's actually artificially deflated some of the newer cars in their values. But when the credit is gone, that ceiling is also gone. Granted, we also have the demand shortfall coming, so it's a little bit more complicated than just saying on newer cars the prices will go up, but it's not like a total doom and gloom scenario on residual values per se.
MC: 15:21
Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen before we hop back into this episode. I know you know me as the host of the dealer playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you, that doesn't suck visit FlexDealercom. Let's hop back into this episode. Interesting.
MC: 15:50
Okay, I'm curious about this in conjunction with everything that we're talking about. I mean, there's been so much narrative, fleeting narrative, around evs. I mean, you remember back when they really first started hitting the scene and it was like do your part for the environment. And then you know all. We've gone through some motions. Yeah, um, you know, I still. I still get a sense of the pressure of the push, which is this is the direction we're going. Cars will be, there will be no ICE vehicles by a certain time and we are going to be all in on EVs. I'm curious whether it's from your days at Tesla. What you're seeing now was that the direction. Is that the direction that you saw the OEM taking? Were they like yeah, we fully anticipate that. Every single person in North America is going to be driving an EV by 2080, or whatever the actual date is, or are they approaching it from the angle of eh? We know there's always going to be a market for this and we'll probably see some gains and it'll cap out at this place.
Jimmy: 16:55
Yeah, great question. So most domestic OEMs have a pretty significant global business and everyone's looking at China now, right, like 50% EV penetration and the prices keep getting lower and the vehicles just become increasingly compelling. And in order to compete globally, one needs to have an offering that is competitive, both in the feature set and at the price point. And the only way to really get there is to start early enough so that you can hit volume production at scale and benefit from the economies of scale, so you can sell a vehicle at a competitive price point. The Chinese manufacturers have such a headstart now compared to most of our domestic OEMs, and that's a real problem, that's an existential threat to them. So the way that I believe this will play out is administration changes aside, support or denial for climate change, science aside, these are large scale, global, multi-billion dollar businesses that need to stay alive in 10 years or in 20 years, and if they can't compete on a global scale, then they won't, and they know that.
MC: 18:06
I think basically what I'm asking here is what company should I be buying stocks?
Jimmy: 18:12
Yeah, I don't. I want to get overly speculative though, man, I was shocked.
MC: 18:17
I was in. I was in Europe recently, I was in in Holland, yeah, recently, at an event there, and I was shocked to see that there are 30. I thought they at first they were telling me three Chinese EV automakers in the market. They said 30, 30 already in the market selling cars. Blew my mind, yeah, yeah, blew my mind. And they're cheap. And yeah, like you, you look at a lincoln co which looks every bit as good and feels every bit as good as a mid-sized suv that I've seen here rolling off the line those.
MC: 18:52
I want to say it was like 28,000 euros. I was like what, what do you? What you know? Uh, I couldn't believe it. It, it, it, yeah, Knock my block off. I couldn't believe it. Um, I want to switch gears a little bit. Um, you've talked about the, the 60 days on the lot being a tipping point for used EV valuations and transport. We talked a little bit about ass, you know, the, the depreciation and those sorts of things. What, what's the playbook at 30 days or 45 days leading up to this 60 days, so that a unit doesn't turn into a write down?
Jimmy: 19:28
Yeah, uh. So the retailers that are really doing this right, turn them in 30 days or less, right. That's really the only way to solidly make money on EVs. They depreciate faster than combustion vehicles and that's not changing anytime soon. If you think about the pace at which vehicles are becoming better, more technologically advanced and cheaper when you buy them brand new, the used product has to compete with the new product and be considerably less expensive in order to be a compelling offering. The 60-day turn time idea on EVs does not work, and nobody that's really successful at selling them waits for nearly that long. Some retailers, we observe maintaining a turn time that's under two weeks.
MC: 20:14
Alex Lawrence is just turning those suckers out of.
Jimmy: 20:17
EV auto, yes, yeah, and in Bountiful Utah, by the way. Right, nobody would have suspected that this was going to be an EV hotbed, but there's a market for it there, absolutely, and look at the culture of his store. Everybody is a driver of EVs. Everybody can speak confidently about the product. He has a whole suite of selection, right. He's got Teslas. He's driving around in a Hummer. He's got Rivians. That's a beacon. That's where people go when they want to be brought up to speed and educated on the products. And he is. He's running a very successful business because of that yeah, yeah he's.
MC: 20:56
I mean it's been so cool to watch him. Essentially, I mean in his world he didn't come out from nowhere, but kind of in the grand scheme of like automotive, he just he just popped in and blew up and it's been so cool to watch.
Jimmy: 21:10
Um yeah, you know fun fact about, about Alex. I have a check in a frame out there on the shelf. He was the first paying customer of Plug.
MC: 21:17
No kidding, wow, alex, good buddy, good job.
Jimmy: 21:23
OK, I mean, what a guy. I wasn't even charging money at that point in time. He sees the future. Yeah, that was great.
MC: 21:28
But, and I mean you're right.
MC: 21:34
I've it but and I mean you're right, I've been to his one of his satellite stores in lehigh utah okay, I haven't been to the lehigh one yet. It's a vibe. I mean I'm sure they all are, but that one. You walk in I was like I want my office to look like this the vibe, the furniture, the, the, the greeting, the lot presence, just everything was so cool. And we had a miscommunication. He actually wasn't there, he was at the bountiful store and he was like shoot. And I was like well, I'm taking candy, bro, I'm taking candy.
Jimmy: 22:01
He's got liquid vats in the fridge.
MC: 22:03
Got it all. Let me ask you this when it comes to pricing and reconditioning costs, you've kind of alluded to traditional book values, and recon checklists weren't built for computers with wheels, as you've mentioned. It like fast charging over the air, updates, all these sorts of things. So what are some EV specific variables that you would insist? Anyone listening factors into the price and reconditioning on the list?
Jimmy: 22:39
Yeah, this is very near and dear to me EPA estimated range when it was new. Current maximum range capability, net of any battery deterioration. In the case of Tesla's, you'd likely want to consider the autopilot computer hardware version, potentially even the MCU version, software enabled features. Is an autopilot car a full self-driving car? Does it have acceleration boost? Does it have access to Tesla's supercharger network, either as a Tesla or as a non-Tesla? If it is a Tesla, is that supercharging access unlimited and free? Does that free, unlimited supercharging transfer to the next owner or is it the kind that does not?
MC: 23:13
uh, I'm sitting here, dude. I'm like I'm writing those for those that are listening. I've got my remarkable.
Jimmy: 23:19
I'm like this is I'm like he doesn't know what he's talking about, just kidding they can just like they can just buy the car, unplug and see all of that and not have to worry about it uh my pitch. But uh, you tax credit qualification for the next two, three weeks is the thing, yeah.
MC: 23:38
Can we pontificate for a minute though, because you got, you're one of the most knowledgeable people in this, this field, as it pertains to EVs that I know of, and and just like human nature, where things don't always end up the way that we think they will. Do you think, I mean? And if you don't want to say, you can say I don't want to say, but I'm like do you really think the end of September is like it?
Jimmy: 24:05
Oh yeah, I do, I do, yeah, yeah.
MC: 24:08
You don't think there's going to be a flip and be like ah, you know what we got to reevaluate.
Jimmy: 24:18
We're going to be a flip and be like ah, you know what we got to reevaluate, we're going to go another 45 days. No, I don't, uh, but also I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing either. I actually I have kind of a complicated relationship with the tax credits. Listen, when they launched, I ran sales operations across North America at Tesla. I love free money from the government to help me not get fired. That's great news.
Jimmy: 24:33
But ultimately, going back to the China problem, right, like this transformation is happening in a global context, no matter what anybody tells you. Like it's very clear. And in order for American manufacturers to maintain their power, their state in the world as real world competitors, like we need products that can compete, that are compelling for the money, and the only way to do that is to hit volume production following many years of innovation and product cycles. And the problem with a lot of the new EVs that we have available to us in the States right now is they were, frankly, uncompelling products for the money. You're talking about a car that costs $80,000, that can only drive 250 miles and doesn't have access to the only DC fast charging network that people actually trust.
Jimmy: 25:16
Who's buying that? It's not because it's an EV, it's because it's an uncompelling product for the money, and we need to get to a place where we have ripping products that are affordable, that people actually want, not because it was shoved down their throat based on some sort of mandates and my complicated relationship with the tax credits was that it kind of bought everybody more time to have a compelling product that people want for the money. What I would have actually liked to see, instead of mandates and credits, is manufacturers have the time to properly invest in product lines and technology in parallel with charging infrastructure being built up so that these products can be truly compelling and not sour the taste in everyone's mouths around EVs. And I'm talking about consumers and I'm talking about dealers, many of whom are very turned off by all of this, and I don't blame them, because it's hard to run a business when you're forced to sell a product that people aren't buying. Don't blame them, because it's hard to run a business when you're forced to sell a product that people aren't buying Right.
MC: 26:15
I'll admit you know, as a former Tesla owner.
Jimmy: 26:21
Mm, hmm.
MC: 26:23
I got spooked because where I live in in North Texas we had the vehicle. I want to say dude, I can't. It even hurts me to say we had the vehicle for probably 10 months. Okay, and I very sure I did the swipe. I looked at the odometer and I saw 30 000 miles and I was like 10 months. I'm like where did my wife drive this thing to?
Jimmy: 26:53
Jupiter. She drove 30 K miles in 10 months.
MC: 26:56
Yes, impressive, right. So then I got spooked because in my mind I was like I'm gonna have to replace the battery in this thing real quick, like I'm, yes. So there you go. You're already shaking your head. For those listening, he's already already saying oh, nay, nay. But I did get spooked and it brings up the reality of this misperception or idea of the EV. You brought up depreciation and those sorts of things and maybe it's going to depreciate faster, but that doesn't have anything to do with how long it lasts.
Jimmy: 27:28
That's the funny part, michael. There's such a disconnect between residual values and longevity. So the fact is is we don't know how long these vehicles will be on the road, but the only sizable data set that exists around this was released by Tesla in two of their annual environmental impact reports, and in those reports they released information about the broader Tesla Model S and X fleet that had crossed 200,000 miles, and that fleet, when it had crossed 200,000 miles, an aggregate had retained 88% of its battery capacity. For Model 3 and Y it was 85%. So if that's at 200,000 miles and, as you likely know, the steepest end of the battery degradation curve is at the very beginning on the front end, these are probably half a million mile cars at least.
Jimmy: 28:15
Now that doesn't make it suck any less for the one person that's one out of 500 that had a high voltage battery pack failure right after their eight year warranty expired. At an odometer lower than that, I get it. That's where warranty products are going to be really important. It's honestly like a massive F&I upside opportunity for any dealer that's participating in this, and Alex sells an F&I product right now, and there are multiple of them out there. I really like Battery for Life, which is one that any dealer can get access to. It's a real fear. It's a legitimate fear because it's such an expensive failure. But the rate of failure is so far below, uh, the rate of failure for any uh combustion drivetrain when you get above a hundred thousand miles and uh, I don't think enough people realize that and you definitely would have been fine hanging on to your car. What was it? Tesla, what?
MC: 29:03
it was a three yeah it was a three dual battery dual. You know, it's like if people didn't believe in the resurrection they would after I floored that thing. Because, yeah, you're like, it's a tiny little thing and then you go and your ghost leaves the body and then it re-enters when you decide to hit the brakes the model 3 performance.
Jimmy: 29:21
I have one uh. Bought it 2021. Uh. Out of the factory, the car still feels like magic shut up jimmy.
MC: 29:30
Shut up jimmy. Now I regret, I'm like I'm going to, I'm like I don't bring it up, to regret my life choices no, you buy another one, like there's a really affordable that is true. That is true. Um, from all of the, the I, I'm almost curious and you can tell me offline because I am curious about this of all of the models that you see pass through plug. What are the models of EVs that you're like?
MC: 29:54
maybe not yet I know that's a nominate. I told you I wasn't going to throw you a curve ball, but I'm so curious.
Jimmy: 30:01
I actually really like the question. So the hardest, the hardest ones to move right now are the ones that have a huge stack of incentive on new cars. Move right now are the ones that have a huge stack of incentive on new cars. It's. It's like, uh, if something is relatively new and, uh, a used one is just impossible math, uh, then this is going to be the case across an auction, no matter what it's an EV or not.
Jimmy: 30:24
Uh, as an example, we just did a, uh, the new Wagoneer EV and I think it's barely been out and I think the used one that we, that we had had just like a few hundred miles on it.
Jimmy: 30:34
We bought it through our trade desk. Like we will buy any EV through our trade desk. And the challenge there is the leasing deals are just so outrageously generous. So on the front end, the used product takes a really big hit and for for that product in particular, it's fairly unknown amongst the dealer body. Like a dealer is going to look at that and compare it to a Rivian R1S, where they're familiar with it because they've sold so many, and like they're going to pick the Rivian. So I would say anything that's like relatively brand new and doesn't have a lot of context, as a used product that is embraced by the broader dealer body is going to inherently like have a lot of context, as a used product that is embraced by the broader dealer body is going to inherently like have a more difficult time than products that have had a bit more runway.
MC: 31:16
This, my beloved dpb gang, is how you know when somebody's been media trained, because I mean perfect yeah sure response. You, you in. You took in, you ingested the question. I saw you flip it in your brain to a much more diplomatic posture and it was so perfect of an answer. I'm like you need to run for some sort of office, even if it's like you're something.
MC: 31:45
God help us all man, this is so much fun. Uh, I've taken so many notes. By the way, those listening or you'll be able to get the notes and some of the key takeaways by going to the dealerplaybookcom website and visiting the link for this episode. Jimmy, how can those listening or watching get in touch with you and connect?
Jimmy: 32:03
Yeah, great question. If you don't mind, I would like to plug one of our products here as well, and I'll start with that. So dealers are receiving EV trade-ins, or at least appraising them, at a much higher rate than ever before.
Jimmy: 32:15
And when we got started, as a dealer-to-dealer auction, we came to realize that everybody has an auction relationship and EVs as trade-ins come up for a lot of dealers that don't retail them, but they're not so frequent that a differentiated auction process is like a super compelling idea for many people, but cash certainly is. So what we did was we rolled out our trade desk, and what that is is it's something that you can use during the point of appraisal. If you go to our website plugvin, the first thing you see is a place to enter a VIN and in fact, if you do it on your phone, you can actually scan the VIN with your phone on our website, no app required. We put a number on that car in under 15 minutes and we put cash behind it. So if you sell the new vehicle and then receive the used EV as a trade in, you can exercise our cash offer and we become the owner basically immediately, and then we sell it directly from your lot uh generally the next business day in our own auction. But we we take all the risk off the table for you and let you get that deal done.
Jimmy: 33:18
That's the fastest growing uh product segment that we have right now and it's really built for that half of dealers that we don't observe, uh, retailing any evs because we know they still receive them as rated. So so really, yeah, thank you, and we're really excited by that product. It's growing lightning fast and it's also really great for us because ever since we launched it, the average number of unique dealers competing for vehicles in our auction actually also went up, because Plug is the owner of those vehicles, which means they are definitely transacting that day. We don't hold on to inventory and we take on all the risk because Plug is the owner of those vehicles, which means they are definitely transacting that day. We don't hold on to inventory and we take on all the risk and we don't lose money in aggregate on this business model. But we're not aiming to make arbitrage. We generally try to offer what we believe it will sell for.
MC: 34:03
So that's been what's the URL you want to send us to?
Jimmy: 34:07
Plug.vin.
MC: 34:09
Plug.vin. Go check it out. That sounds super cool. Jimmy man, thank you so much for joining me on the dealer playbook podcast. Appreciate you!
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