Podcasts about Fisker Automotive

In this episode of Remote Work Radio, our program director, Dr. Paul Hill, interviews Roger Ormisher, Vice President of Communications and PR for McLaren in The Americas. With a career spanning three continents and extensive experience with global automotive brands like Volvo, Nissan, and Fisker Automotive, Roger shares his insights on accelerating your career as a remote worker. Drawing from his background in experiential marketing, product launches, and brand partnerships, Roger offers practical strategies for building a successful remote career and thriving in today's evolving work environment. Tune in for expert advice on advancing your career as a remote worker. For remote work skills training and job search support, please consider taking the Certified Remote Work Professional© course form Utah State University Extenison. 

This Day in Legal History: Posse Comitatus Act Passed On June 18, 1878, the U.S. Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, a significant piece of legislation that shaped the relationship between the military and civil authorities. The Act made it a felony to use the Army to enforce domestic policies without explicit authorization from Congress or the Constitution. This law emerged from the Reconstruction era's complexities, particularly the federal military's role in enforcing laws in the Southern states post-Civil War. The term "posse comitatus" translates to "power of the county," and the Act aimed to reinforce the principle that civil authorities should maintain law and order without military involvement. The Posse Comitatus Act reflected a commitment to preventing military overreach in civilian matters and preserving democratic governance structures. This principle has influenced various legal and military policies over the years, including modern discussions on the military's role in domestic security. The Act underscores the balance between maintaining national security and protecting civil liberties, a balance that remains a cornerstone of American legal and political thought.Fisker Inc., an electric-vehicle startup, filed for bankruptcy after halting production of its problematic Ocean SUV. The company's filing in Delaware lists assets between $500 million and $1 billion and liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. This bankruptcy protects Fisker from creditors while it plans repayment.Henrik Fisker, known for designing BMW and Aston Martin cars, founded Fisker Inc., his second EV venture to face bankruptcy. His previous company, Fisker Automotive, also went bankrupt in 2013. Fisker Inc. went public in 2020 through a SPAC merger, raising roughly $1 billion and partnering with Magna International Inc. for vehicle manufacturing.Production of the Fisker Ocean SUV began in November 2022 but was plagued by missing features and software bugs. Influential YouTuber Marques Brownlee's negative review in February further damaged the company's reputation. Fisker produced over 10,000 vehicles but delivered fewer than 5,000 to customers. The company tried partnering with franchised dealers but faced significant financial difficulties, warning in February about its uncertain future. Although it secured $150 million from a lender, a potential deal with an automaker fell through. Magna International, a partner, halted further production of the Ocean SUV. Fisker's bankruptcy highlights broader challenges in the EV market, with several other startups also filing for bankruptcy amid slowing sales in the U.S. and Europe.Troubled Electric Vehicle Maker Fisker Files for BankruptcyUnion members at Amazon.com Inc. have voted overwhelmingly to align with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a major U.S. labor organization, in a move that could significantly impact staff contract negotiations. About 98% of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members supported this partnership, aimed at securing better jobs and working conditions for Amazon employees.The ALU, which achieved a historic win in 2022 by organizing workers at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, faced setbacks in subsequent elections and internal conflicts. The union struggled to bring Amazon to the negotiating table. However, ALU President Chris Smalls and 15 other officials reached an agreement with Teamsters President Sean O'Brien and his team in Washington. The Teamsters represent approximately 1.3 million people.This collaboration between the ALU and the Teamsters signals a significant step forward in labor organizing efforts at Amazon, potentially increasing pressure on the company to engage in meaningful negotiations with its workers. Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.Amazon Union Allies With Teamsters in Big Labor AdvanceThe EPA's new limits on PFAS in drinking water are a positive step but more comprehensive regulations are needed to manage the release and disposal of these harmful chemicals. At a recent conference, stakeholders including parents, firefighters, and farmers discussed the need for broader measures to eliminate nonessential PFAS uses and enforce stricter waste management practices.CDC data shows that reducing PFAS in drinking water correlates with lower blood levels of the chemicals in residents, validating the EPA's efforts. However, the current rules do not prevent the release of PFAS into water or apply to private wells, affecting millions of people.Environmental advocates emphasized the necessity of treating PFAS as hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The EPA's recent designation of certain PFAS as hazardous under the Superfund law aids cleanup efforts but falls short of comprehensive waste regulation. Proper disposal methods are critical to prevent further contamination, yet data on PFAS waste disposal is limited due to insufficient regulation.Participants called for more stringent discharge permits under the Clean Water Act and quicker implementation of hazardous waste rules. PFAS, widely used in industries like semiconductors and battery production due to their stability and resistance to damage, require robust management to prevent environmental and health risks.Examples of contamination were highlighted, including high PFAS levels from military bases causing serious health issues. The EPA's database on waste transfers shows significant amounts of PFAS-contaminated materials being sent to incinerators and other facilities, underscoring the need for better waste tracking and management.Advocates stress that eliminating unnecessary PFAS uses and implementing strong regulatory measures are essential steps to protect communities and the environment from long-term PFAS contamination.PFAS Drinking Water Limits Praised but More Regulations SoughtIn the ongoing litigation over Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) allegedly cancer-causing baby powders, a new legal battle has emerged over attorney-client privilege. Plaintiffs' lawyers accuse J&J of misusing the bankruptcy process to evade liability and are pushing for the crime-fraud exception to force the company to disclose internal communications. This could reveal J&J's strategies to limit liability in around 61,000 talc-related cases. The litigation involves J&J's use of the "Texas Two-Step," where it transfers liabilities to a subsidiary, which then files for bankruptcy. This maneuver has been met with controversy and legal challenges. Plaintiffs' attorneys argue that J&J's actions are fraudulent attempts to avoid liability and are calling for these communications to be made public to bolster their case.In a recent development, the plaintiffs are also seeking to disqualify some lawyers representing J&J and to prevent the company from proceeding with an $11 billion global settlement plan. This settlement, which requires approval from 75% of the plaintiffs, has faced opposition from some plaintiffs' firms.Despite J&J's efforts to resolve the litigation, the plaintiffs' legal team argues that more needs to be done to ensure justice for those affected by the contaminated talc products. They are also challenging J&J's use of bankruptcy as a tactic to force settlements and are pushing for the court to invalidate J&J's attorney-client privilege in this context. The outcome of this legal battle could significantly impact the strategies used in large-scale product liability cases, particularly those involving mass torts and bankruptcy.J&J's Talc Litigation Saga Gets Attorney-Client Privilege TwistThe IRS should adopt a remote-first work model to attract top talent and enhance operational efficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic proved that remote work is not only viable but also desirable for many employees, particularly in the tech sector. As the IRS continues to modernize with advanced technologies like AI and machine learning, it needs to recruit top-tier tech talent. Offering remote work can help attract this talent by allowing employees to work from anywhere, increasing job satisfaction and expanding the pool of potential applicants. The Treasury Department has found that job postings highlighting flexible working arrangements attract more applicants. Additionally, the IRS can save on overhead costs by reducing its physical office footprint, which remains significant despite many employees working remotely part-time. A remote-first approach would also help the IRS compete with private sector tech firms, which have successfully used remote work to attract employees despite offering lower salaries. This flexibility would enable the IRS to draw a diverse workforce, fostering a variety of perspectives and ideas. Existing policies limiting remote work to within 200 miles of an office need reform to maximize employee flexibility. Security is a critical concern, given the sensitive nature of taxpayer information the IRS handles. However, research indicates remote workers are often more aware of cybersecurity practices. To support a remote-first model, the IRS would need to invest in tech infrastructure and rework management and accountability measures to focus on outcomes rather than hours worked. Embracing remote work is essential for the IRS to continue modernizing and improving taxpayer interactions.IRS Should Embrace Remote-First Culture to Recruit Top Talent This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Welcome back to the Out of Spec Podcast! On today's episode, Francie and Kyle speak with a new Fisker Ocean One owner - also a long time listener, first time caller - Brian! Brian talks all about his hefty EV lineup at home, why he chose to invest into the Fisker Ocean One, the delivery process, their (rough) family road trip, and his high- and low-lights regarding this all new electric SUV. Fisker Inc: https://www.fiskerinc.com/History of Fisker Automotive & Fisker Karma image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisker_AutomotiveShoutout to our sponsors for more information find their links below:- Star Charge: https://www.starcharge.com/charging?id=20 - Kempower: https://kempower.com/america/charging-solutions/Find us on all of these places:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/outofspecpodcastApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/out-of-spec-podcast/id1576636119Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tKIQfKL9oaHc1DLOTWvbdAmazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/473692b9-05b9-41f9-9b38-9f86fbdabee7/OUT-OF-SPEC-PODCASTFor further inquiries please email podcast@outofspecstudios.com#fisker #fiskerocean #electricsuv Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wondered what happens when an EV startup bites the dust?

The one-time founder of Fisker Automotive, who created the Karma luxury hybrid vehicle about 11 years ago, is back at it again, this time as Fisker Inc and its first SUV, the Ocean.  To be built by industry veteran Magna International, the company has a better chance to make it this time around.  We discuss. 

The future of design! MotorTrend's Ed Loh & Jonny Lieberman sit down with Henrik Fisker of Fisker Inc! Henrik discusses the highly anticipated Fisker Ocean, lessons learned from Fisker Automotive, the benefits of startups, their partnership with Magna International, designing the BMW Z8, his time with Aston Martin, infotainment systems & the future of software defined vehicles, what "subscription culture" will do to the car industry, the Fisker Karma & Fisker Orbit, how he's endeavoring to change the EV market, & how he views the future of car design!

Nick Lambesis is the Founder of The Lambesis Agency which has developed a disproportionately large number of long-running iconic international brands from 1987 to 2019. In his new role as Managing Partner of Tipping Point Inc he has partnered with La Mer Walker who he worked with at Lambesis and then headed up a creative team at BCDV--Boston Consulting Digital Ventures. They now focus on both traditional brand development as well as the future areas like NFT's and the Metaverse. Historically Lambesis is known for breakthrough work and the creation of blockbuster international brands, including five Coke Brands--Dasani bottled water, Gold Peak Tea, Honest Tea, Fuze and McCafe--Physicians Formula, Bebe, Campari, Grand Marnier, Fisker Automotive, Hitachi, Guess, Skyy, Charles David Shoes, and Tacori Fine Jewelry. The work The Lambesis Agency did for Airwalk and the method of primary research used became one of the central ideas behind the bestselling book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell who dedicated and entire chapter Case History to this phenomenon. Gladwell began work on the book shortly after receiving tremendous response from his seminal 12-page article entitled "The Hunt for Cool" which ran in The New Yorker Magazine in 1997 which featured DeDe Gordon, the Lambesis Director of Research and Trends. The methods The Lambesis Agency used to research and brand clients pioneered many new developments in marketing, including the creation of buzz, viral marketing and the use of short films on the internet. A Forbes cover story featured another Lambesis client, Bebe Women's Clothing, and highlighted the role style-based marketing played in creating a “buzz” as Bebe Women's Clothing became the second hottest growth company in America. This same meteoric growth was the norm for all the brands Lambesis transformed into icons and took them to the top tier of their respective categories. The Lambesis Agency has also been a winner in the industry's top award shows, including the One Show (Silver and Bronze), and a Kelly Award finalist twice for creating one of the top 25 magazine campaigns in America. In 1995 Lambesis was one of two agencies honored in San Francisco as “Best Agency in the West.” The Lambesis Agency's work has been featured in four marketing textbooks, publicized extensively in trade publications, and featured in the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want.

Henrik Fisker was born in a small town in Denmark in the 1960s. He loved taking rides on Danish country roads with his father in the family's Saab 96 sedan. One day a Maserati blew past them and Henrik instantly discovered his life's passion: Cool cars. He first went to work for BMW where he designed the Z8 and later was recruited by Aston Martin to develop the DB9 and Vantage. In 2007, Henrik founded Fisker Automotive where he designed and developed the Fisker Karma, an electrified supercar. That company met trouble when its battery supplier, A123 Systems, went bankrupt. Today, Henrik is back, building a new company called Fisker Inc. His first product will be the Fisker Ocean, an all-electric SUV that will start deliveries in Q4 2022. In our Winning in Asia conversation,. Fisker talks about the Ocean SUV, manufacturing partnerships with Magna and Foxconn and what America needs to do to win the global electric vehicle race.#WinningInAsia / #ZozoGo https://twitter.com/Dunne_ZoZoGohttps://www.instagram.com/zo.zo.go/?hl=enhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-dunne-a696901a/

Henrik Fisker is a risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging legendary designer & entrepreneur who turns dreams into reality and believes in never giving up. An entrepreneur, creator, innovator, mentor, brand ambassador and a leading automotive designer. Best known among his creations are iconic cars such as BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Artega GT, Fisker Karma, Viking motorcycle, Rocket and more recently Destino V8 and Force 1. Henrik Fisker is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Fisker Inc., an American automaker based in California USA, revolutionizing the development of electric vehicles with game changing battery solutions. Previously, Henrik Fisker founded Fisker Automotive in 2007 as the world's first green luxury lifestyle automotive company, and took the idea from conception to a team of 600 people, from concept to full scale production, and sales of the company's first model, Fisker Karma that sold more than 2000 vehicles. Under the leadership of Henrik, Fisker Automotive won numerous awards, including 2012 Time Magazine Best Inventions of the Year. Henrik Fisker resigned from Fisker Automotive in March 2013 due to major differences with management on strategy. In January 2016, Henrik Fisker cofounded VLF Automotive with Bob Lutz and Gilbert Villarreal, an American luxury sports car manufacturer based in Auburn Hills, Michigan that specialized in low volume, specialty cars. Henrik Fisker is head of design and product strategy at VLF, that currently has 3 models the VLF Destino V8, VLF Force 1 V10 and VLF Rocket. In 2016, HenrikFiskerlifestyle was launched, a lifestyle brand dedicated to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. In June 2013, he founded and currently serves as the CEO of HF Design, a design and innovation company developing a number of first-to-market consumer products in categories ranging from automotive, lifestyle, homeware, education and smart devices. The company announced a partnership with Benetti Yachts in April 2016, launching a 164-foot super yacht series called the Benetti Fisker 50. Previously, Henrik founded Fisker Coachbuild in 2005, an automotive design house that revived the art of coachbuilding by combining beautiful design with existing world-class engineering. Fisker Coachbuild created cars such as the Artega GT (German sports car), and the Fisker Latigo & Fisker Tramonto. From 2001 to 2005, Fisker held prominent executive positions at Ford Motor Company. He was creative director at Ingeni, Ford's London-based design and creativity center. At the same time, Fisker served as Board Member and Design Director at Aston Martin in Gaydon, UK. As a board member, Fisker was part of a team that led the turnaround of Aston Martin. Henrik designed the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and was responsible for the production launch design of the DB9, variants of which were James Bond's preferred vehicles. Fisker was also director of Ford's Global Advanced Design Studio in southern California. Designed under his direction were several show cars including the Shelby GR1 concept showcased at the 2005 North American International Auto Show. From 1997-2000, as president and chief executive officer of BMW Designworks USA, BMW's California-based industrial design subsidiary, Henrik led a team of 130 people and was responsible for both internal and external clients. Henrik created notable cars such as the BMW Z07 concept (1997) and BMW Z8 roadster (1999), another Bond car. Henrik sits on the advisory board of Panasonic Aviation and is a senior advisor to McKinsey.

After a brief introduction, Robert asks Alex to detail the recent founding of Automobili Estrema (1:46) and how he got involved with Fulminea and what the vehicle is designed to be (3:22). Then Robert and Alex share their thoughts on the rapid embracing of electric vehicles (13:53). After a short break, Alex details when the car will come to market and what he thinks the future of cars will be (23:49). Finally, Alex shares how he got into design (30:22), found his way through Mercedes-Benz and BMW (33:52), and pioneered a designer program (43:21). https://fulminea.com/ ------------------ Learn More: Cars That Matter Follow Us: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter Hosted by: Robert Ross Produced and Edited by: Chris Porter Theme Music by: Celleste and Eric Dick A CurtCo Media production See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a brief introduction, Robert asks Alex to detail the recent founding of Automobili Estrema (1:46) and how he got involved with Fulminea and what the vehicle is designed to be (3:22). Then Robert and Alex share their thoughts on the rapid embracing of electric vehicles (13:53). After a short break, Alex details when the car will come to market and what he thinks the future of cars will be (23:49). Finally, Alex shares how he got into design (30:22), found his way through Mercedes-Benz and BMW (33:52), and pioneered a designer program (43:21). https://fulminea.com/ ------------------ Learn More: Cars That Matter Follow Us: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter Hosted by: Robert Ross Produced and Edited by: Chris Porter Theme Music by: Celleste and Eric Dick A CurtCo Media production See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Devious Motives episode 23,  we talk about 'shared values' and what it means when it comes to the notion of public service. A quick look back at the Obama Biden years gives us memories of such boondoggles as Fisker Automotive and Solyndra. The central question ought to be are you looking for a President who wants to serve the public or be serviced BY the public.  It's deep! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Rommel Report, I am excited to introduce you to James Wong of MAXA Design! James has had the privilege to create brands throughout the world: distinctively different brands with the United Nations, Fisker Automotive, the past VP of Product Marketing at Facebook, publicly traded companies, billion dollar sales organizations, influencers, tech start-ups, and 500 other business leaders and creative entrepreneurs in the last 8 years.

2nd episode of the Elite Experts Conferences' Podcast: It is our special honor to present our next guest - an extraordinarily inspiring courageous personality and a charismatic passionate visionary Gianfranco Pizzuto! Gianfranco is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of international business experience. In 2007 he was Fisker Automotive's first investor and co-founder. He spent the last 13 years in the automotive industry working as inspiring consultant and covering senior positions specializing in PHEV and EV. He is the owner of the Scuderia-E brand. Gianfranco's latest top project is the creation of an Italian-Turkish Formula E team together with Mark Lander, founder of IMECAR, Massimiliano Zocchi, head of DMove.it and Armağan Arabul, founder of Elektron Innovative. In this episode we were talking about developments in the automotive industry, innovative sustainability, e racing, higher purpose of Gianfranco's work, inspiring projects, business cooperations, lifelong learning and leadership.

August Bradley is a futurist business consultant, founder/host of the Mind & Machine podcast and former COO of the pioneering virtual reality company Kite & Lightning. August's worked with brands including Coke, Xbox, Kia, Gap, J.Crew, Banana Republic, Fisker Automotive, and many more. He is also a Board Member & Director of the AI & Machine... The post AI, VR and a World Without Privacy as We Explore the Cosmos and What it Means to be Human | August Bradley of Mind & Machine appeared first on The Syndicate.

Rembrandt Labs, Ray Imblum, President/EngineerSay goodbye to muddy acoustics and uneven Tone. Say hello to the Model V by Rembrandt Labs. Powerful enough to wake the whole neighborhood without losing any of the precision sound that turns your music into a multi-sensory experience. With a +35db Amplifier, fill your entire home with stunningly clear sound using a smart phone, iPod or MP3 player. No other speaker matches the one-of-a-kind sound engineering of the Model V.Place it on almost any surface, in any room. The Model V doesn't compromise on sound quality. The Helmholtz Chamber and Transducer disk fills the room with rich, detailed sound. Take your listening experience from “good” to “unmissable”.Topics:FiLMiC's multi-camera video tech comes to the iPhone 11 | Engadget…They were the first to show off simultaneous video recording using multiple iPhone cameras (at the iPhone 11 launch event, no less), and now they're making that functionality available in a free new app called DoubleTake…Verizon brings 5G to the Super Bowl—for part of the stadium, anyway | Ars Technica..With Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami scheduled for February 2, Verizon emailed a media alert to Ars and other news outlets on Wednesday last week, bragging that it will “power the first Super Bowl featuring 5G.” Notably missing from the news alert was any indication of how many fans will be able to use the 5G network from their seats during the game…Karma Automotive to build electric truck and SUV from Fisker's ashes – The Verge…Karma Automotive, the automaker previously known as Fisker Automotive, is working on an electric pickup truck and SUV, Bloomberg reports. The company plans to show off a concept version of the pickup before the end of the year, and eventually sell it with a starting price that's less than its $135,000 Karma Revero. Both vehicles will be based around a new all-wheel-drive platform which will be built at the automaker's factory in Southern California…For full show notes, check out ComputerAmerica.com!Other Shows You Makes Be Interested In:

August Bradley (@augustbradley) is a futurist business consultant, founder/host of the Mind & Machine podcast and former COO of the pioneering virtual reality company Kite & Lightning. August's worked with brands including Coke, Xbox, Kia, Gap, J.Crew, Banana Republic, Fisker Automotive, and many more. [spreaker type=player resource="episode_id=20085392" width="100%" height="80px" theme="light" playlist="false" playlist-continuous="false" autoplay="false" live-autoplay="false" chapters-image="true" episode-image-position="right" hide-logo="true" hide-likes="false" hide-comments="false" hide-sharing="false" hide-download="true"]

August Bradley (@augustbradley) is a futurist business consultant, founder/host of the Mind & Machine podcast and former COO of the pioneering virtual reality company Kite & Lightning. August’s worked with brands including Coke, Xbox, Kia, Gap, J.Crew, Banana Republic, Fisker Automotive, and many more.He is also a Board Member & Director of the AI & Machine Learning Society, Chairman of the Technarte International Conference, technology series moderator for The Los Angeles World Affairs Council (LAWAC) and head of the Los Angeles Self Driving Car Meetup.In today’s episode we discuss:- Why August and I won’t let voice assistants in our homes- What happens next with VR and where it is headed- Which technologies worry August most and why- What does privacy look like in a more connected world- Why Facebook and social media are so bad for all of us- How Amazon helps transform healthcare- The reason AI and automation will be net-negative on jobs- What we have to look forward to when it comes to future technologies- The reason space exploration is so important and exciting- What do we do about big tech and regulation- Why August isn’t worried about AI consciousness or superintelligence- The reason food science and clean meat is such a promising field to pursue- Why immigration is a stupid topic to focus on when it comes to jobs- Science fiction as a safety net

Show #616   Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 20th October 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.   Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.   Welcome to two new Patrons. Thank you to new supporter BILL BEINITZ. And a new PARTNER is always a very special moment. Welcome to EMOBILITY NORWAY. Since 2013, Jan Tore Gjøby has held over 200 courses and lectures on electrical mobility and charging infrastructure. In an engaging and easily understandable way, he talks about the transition to electric mobility and how it affects the environment, the economy and you. Jan's next course is in just a few days, on October 24th in Oslo.   Basic electric car charging What do laws and regulations say? What characterizes good charging systems? Electric car charging in condominiums and condominiums Payment models and systems Fleet charging strategies What the future has to offer, new cars, heavier vehicles, new charging solutions   Find out more at emobilitynorway.com. Also next Wednesday 23rd, Jan is going to visit next the first Polestar Space opening in Oslo.   ZIPSE PROMISES CONTINUATION OF THE BMW I3 "The new BMW boss Oliver Zipse continues the production of the electric model i3. After sales director, Pieter Nota had said in September that there were no plans for a successor to the i3, Zipse now put a stop to rumours of a possible production stop." writes electrive: "He made it clear to the local medium Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung: “The i3 will continue to be produced, no question about it. The car is already an icon today. Which car can claim this after only six years? Icons tick according to a different logic, they don’t have a classic successor, they always remain true to themselves in essence.” Today, the i3 is more in demand than ever and will “make another leap in battery and operating concepts”.   https://www.electrive.com/2019/10/19/zipse-promises-continuation-of-the-bmw-i3/   HUMMER REVIVAL AS ELECTRIC SUV COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN "The Hummer brand has been defunct for almost 10 years now, but reports about its revival continue to surface. The most recent ones, however, may need future Hummer buyers to find charging stations instead of fuel pumps." according to Motor1: "In an exclusive report by Reuters, GM is said to have plans to build a new line of premium electric utes at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant at the end of 2021. With this new line comes the possibility of reviving the Hummer brand as an electric off-roading truck/SUV. This is according to the news organization's sources – people that are familiar with the said plan. The new line of premium electric utes will be called the BT1 electric truck/SUV project, Reuter's sources said. It will be the main subject of the $3-billion investment in the Detroit-Hamtramck plant to make electric trucks and vans, which is part of the four-year $7.7-billion umbrella investment in GM's U.S. plants – all enclosed within the proposed labor deal between GM and the United Auto Workers union."   https://www.motor1.com/news/377325/gm-electric-hummer-revival-report/   CALIFORNIA PLUG-IN HYBRID MAKER KARMA AUTOMOTIVE NOW ACCEPTS BITCOIN "Karma Automotive announced Tuesday that it will now accept Bitcoin at its flagship Newport Beach location. " says Green Car Reports: "In addition to dabbling in cryptocurrency for simple transactions, Karma will also explore theoretical blockchain applications outside of the that space, the electric-car manufacturer said in its announcement.  This move signals Karma's intent to expand its role as a tech incubator as well as an automaker. Many large-scale manufacturers have entered partnerships or established their own tech incubators to study green energy, mobility and other items outside of the traditional automotive sphere.  It also serves to further differentiate the new Karma brand from its roots in Fisker Automotive, from whose ashes the new company was formed. The Revero GT is the only carry-over product; two more models are planned along with a forthcoming in-house EV platform."   https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1125562_california-plug-in-hybrid-maker-karma-automotive-now-accepts-bitcoin   HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS STARTS MASS PRODUCTION OF 800V, HIGH OUTPUT EV INVERTER "Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. has started mass production for its 800V compatible high-voltage and high-output electric vehicle (EV) inverter, which increases EV practicality and enables long-distance driving. The product contributes to both comfortable acceleration performance of the vehicle and faster charging times." according to Green Car Congress: "As most EVs are based on a 400V system, in order to increase the vehicle’s driving range, additional batteries with parallel connection are required. This results in increasing the battery capacity but also the charging time. However, an 800-volt system enables the battery to be charged with the necessary amount of energy over a short period, allowing for fast charging of high capacity batteries."   https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/10/20191019-hitachi.html   QUESTION OF THE WEEK ANSWERS TOM RAFTERY The answer is simple. Stop spending money of subsidising fossil fuels. Two birds, one stone ☺ This would immediately make petrol/diesel more expensive, and therefore Evs more attractive! And the wider environmental effects of making fossil fuels more effective would cause a massive shift to renewables for electricity generation.   Peter Ferrett The government will save money by not subsidising oil as much, this should ofset the lost in tax from fuel.   Søren from Australia I suspect that stopping the subsidies given to the oil,  gas and coal industries would more than cover the lost revenues for petrol taxes.   OPHIR The best way to compensate for lost gas taxes is to stop subsidizing oil and gas companies!   DUNCAN ARMOUR I think the question only makes sense if you ignore what is going on around the industry. The UK government funds the fossil fuel industries to the tune of £490 billion (2014 - the government is very adept at hiding its funding). Worldwide subsidies for the fossil fuel industries are some USD5.3 trillion (2015). The nuclear industry additionally receives subsidies which dwarf those of the oil and gas industries. So, if we stop subsidising industries that are destroying us, we wouldn’t need to pay vehicle tax, and would be receiving huge rebates on our income tax (which would allow us to easily afford solar).   JERRY LEVY 1) Tax carbon emission of ICE cars from emission test result And 2) Tax electricity used by EV or even household if it is generated from fossil fuel.  This will force people to put pressure on local government and utility companies to generate electricity from renewable energy.   KIERAN KENNEDY Currently, EVs are exempt from road user charges, and this is currently our only form of EV incentive in New Zealand. The government has promised that they won't be charged road user charges until 1st January 2022 or when EVs make up at least 2% of the fleet, which ever comes sooner. It is looking like the 1st January 2022 will come sooner based on current trend, although uptake here is still impressive. When they do start to charge EVs road user charges, it makes sense to collect the revenue the same way we do for diesel vehicles currently. That is, road user chargers are bought in advance and displayed on your dash. This will have a higher administrative cost than taxing petrol currently, but wouldn't necessarily have to if systems were automated and done online.   DOUG VOWLES Here in Ontario Canada when vehicle registrations are renewed, the mileage is reported on the form.  So an equitable road taxation formula could be:   Yearly mileage X vehicle weight X vehicle type factor X “some constant factor” = $road tax   The vehicle type factor can be adjusted over time to reflect the increasing dominance of electric vehicles, being lower (but not non-existent) now, but rising as EV’s become the only type of vehicle on the road.    ED CORTEEN the answer is simple and fair (according to me!??), pay per mile driven, where driven and most importantly at what time of day, so city centres at peak times will be expensive, a quiet country road in the afternoon cheap. How can this be achieved? My 24kW leaf, now a 10 year old design already almost does this, from the app I can see how far we travelled every day, how much power used, how long the journey was and with modern telematics it should be quite simple to automatically gather the data required and send it in, (sadly)!   DAFFYD CHEUNG I’d suggest, the electricity supplied at public charge points could be taxed in the same way. The more you drive and the less efficient the vehicle, the more you’d contribute per mile/km. Since there’s a handshake between charger and vehicle. A count could be made, of how many kWh had been obtained from public chargers for your vehicle/s in the year or month. Home charging could also be taxed in a similar manner, if a fast charger is utilised   SHAWNE IN PORTLAND, OREGON Oregon has started a pilot "pay by the mile" program to replace paying at the pump. http://www.myorego.org/ I wonder if a tire tax would work. The bigger the tire, the heavier the vehicle,  the more road damage so the higher the tax.

When Tesla first announced its upcoming Model Y all-electric crossover in March of this year, it was forced to share the stage with Audi, who also unveiled plans for its Q4 e-Tron around the same time.Both vehicles have release dates in 2020 and both target the popular crossover segment with close to 300 miles per charge.And while the two brands, known for luxury, intuitive interiors, will find formidable competition in one another, they shouldn’t forget to swivel – as competition seems to be coming from all sides.The latest is from Fisker Inc., the second auto company started by designer Henrik Fisker… the first being Fisker Automotive, the electric vehicle maker that made more than one splash – its Fisker Karma extended range luxury electric was a first of its kind, garnering the company many high-profile investors, including celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio.Then, in 2012, they went bankrupt because, at that time, that’s what you did if you were an electric car company. But Fisker the man had gotten out by then and just moved right along with his plans for electric domination and now, it appears, he’s ready to strike.In the year 2021, Fisker will begin producing the unnamed crossover and has priced it “under $40,000” which is right in the Model Y sweet spot, as Elon Musk has promised they’d start around $39K.According to Digital Trends, the Fisker will feature “an 80-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack affording around 300 miles of range, but it’s keeping other details under wraps for now.” The company is reportedly hoping to build these crossovers here in America, and is scouting factory locations in several states. Like Tesla, Fisker will skip the dealer network thing and sell its vehicles direct to consumers.So if you’re looking for a nice, semi-affordable electric crossover, you’ll have some choices in 2020. But if you wait til ’21, you’ll have even more.

EP002 - Senior Editor of Auto Remarketing & Auto Remarketing Canada, Joe Overby http://www.vehicle2.getspiffy.com Episode 2 is an interview with Joe, Senior Editor of Auto Remarketing & Auto Remarketing Canada; recorded on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019. He and Scot discuss a variety of topics, including: Joe’s position at Auto Remarketing Vehicle lifecycle - how people are buying and selling cars How changing ownership models (car-sharing, subscriptions) are influencing rental car agencies and dealerships The evolution of automotive auction, both physical and digital The progression of technologies for more connected cars Affordability of electric vehicles, as well as the availability of used EVs Slow down in autonomous vehicle hype It looks like dealers, auto auction companies (KAR/Cox) and rental car companies are on a collision course around the fleet maintenance/reconditioning/remarketing space Be sure to follow Joe on LinkedIn! Check out the multiple events hosted by Auto Remarketing and Auto Remarketing Canada, such as the Auto Intel Summit and Used Car Week. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review on iTunes! The four pillars of Vehicle 2.0 are electrification, connectivity, autonomy, and changing ownership models. In the Vehicle 2.0 Podcast, we will look at the future of the auto industry through guest expert interviews, deep dives into specific topics, news coverage, and hot takes with instant analysis on what the latest breaking news means for today and in time to come. This episode was produced and sound engineered by Jackson Balling, and hosted by Scot Wingo.   Transcript:   Scot: [01:01] Welcome to the vehicle 2.0 Podcast. This is our second episode and it's being recorded Wednesday, March 6th, 2019. In this episode we have our first guest and I'll give you a little background. So here at Spiffy we are doing a lot of work at automobile auctions. It's a whole industry I've always heard about but never had experienced. So I was, I was reading online at a great site called Auto Remarketing and I kept seeing some content there by a guy named Joe Overby. And I said, "Wow, I've got to meet this guy some time" and went to his bio and discovered he is here local. So Joe is going to be our first guest here on the show.   Joe: [01:37] Scot, thanks for having me.   Scot: [01:38] Yeah. When we have 500 shows out, you'll, this'll be, you'll put it on your resume.   Joe: [01:42] That's right, first ever guest on Vehicle 2.0.   Scot: [01:43] Yes. We really appreciate it. And you're the senior editor of Auto Remarketing and Auto Remarketing Canada. So that's interesting. So you speak Canadian apparently as well as English.   Joe: [01:56] I try to. My southern accent, a little bit, gets in the way.   Scot: [01:59] Is that on your title? So you can go get some of the delicious Canadian beer or?   Joe: [02:04] You have delicious, delicious Canadian beer and they have the gravy fries, which are out of this world.   Scot: [02:11] Yeah. Yummy.   Joe: [02:12] Going up there in two weeks for that.   Scot: [02:15] Cool. Let's start off and kind of orient every, all the listeners about your background. How did you get into the industry and where you are today?   Joe: [02:23] So I went to went to NC state and I majored in political science, did a minor in journalism and had worked in for technician for a few years. And the student newspaper and then had a job in sports writing at a newspaper in Georgia right after college and worked there for two years and decided I want to try something different and get into magazines and applied for the job back here in Raleigh at our S&A Cherokee, which is the parent company of Auto Remarketing. And I've been covering the auto industry for about 12 years now.   Scot: [02:54] Awesome. Cool. Yeah. And NC state. Awesome. Go pack.   Joe: [02:59] Yes sir.   Scot: [02:59] Tell us more about Auto Remarketing. So is it print and online? Just online? And what kind of audience do you guys have? We'd love to know more about the publication.   Joe: [03:14] So we're print online and we have a digital edition are online. You know, we have our website obviously, and then we have a wide range of e newsletters that we send out, kind of that's how we get our stories out. Our largest e-newsletters, a daily morning one that goes out to about 22,500 subscribers. And then we have, you know, various other daily and weekly newsletters. They're about the same size or smaller. And then we have a print publication that goes out to 36,000 subscribers and then a digital edition of our same, of the same magazine. It goes out to 50,000. And then we have the same another publication Auto Remarketing Canada for our Canadian audience. And that also has a weekly and daily newsletters, and also a digital edition as well along with print. And then a colleague of mine, a guy by the name of Nick Zulovich, he heads up a couple of automotive finance publications. So we have one kind of specializes in the fin-tech space and then one that specializes in kind of the subprime lower tier financing in automotive as well.   Scot: [04:28] Yeah. And then the broader Cherokee, are all their publications automobile-oriented or do they go into a lot of different kinds of B2B verticals?   Joe: [04:35] Most of it actually is automotive B2B. I think we have four prints, automotive publications, but then we've also got two local lifestyle magazines. Folks here in the Triangle area, probably know Cary Magazine and we just launched a magazine for Holly Springs and Fuquay called Main & Broad. And then our company also has done several custom publications where, you know, maybe it's a, an association or a, you know, company that will publish a custom custom job for them. But mostly, yes, our bread and butter is the automotive space.   Scot: [05:11] Very cool. Yeah, it's interesting. The, you know, you read the headlines, print is dying out, but I think that's the daily newspaper. But it seems like where there's a lot of vibrancy is in kind of hyper local. So people want to know a lot more about what's going on with their community. And then also in, in kind of a lot of the B2B verticals, seems like you have those bases covered.   Joe: [05:30] We've got a, we've got a captive audience, so to speak for the, for the B2B as well. Yeah.   Scot: [05:35] Well, cool. We've got a ton of stuff we want to talk about. Let's start with what I call the vehicle life cycle. It seems like you guys got financing and then then kind of like, you know, the, the used car side, the remarketing refurbishing side. What are you seeing there, you know, around behavior around how people buy and sell cars. Is that changing or it's kind of the same it's been over the time you've tracked it?   Joe: [05:59] Certainly. Probably since about 2013, well, 2014. It's become a lot more digital in terms of the actual transaction. I mean, you had, you know, back then you had a lot of companies like Carvana, you know the BPs of the world, the rooms that have launched in the last five years. And more consumers, even if they're not maybe signing on the dotted line and buying completely online, they're doing, if there's five steps to car buying, they might be completing four of 'em online and then going and picking it up at the dealership or, or, you know, setting up the deal online. So I think you're seeing a lot more movement to completing some or all pieces of the process online. And, and, and it's not just these, the startups that are doing it, dealers are getting into the game as well. And you know, using software providers to get in the game themselves in terms of online buying and selling.   Scot: [06:56] Yeah, I think one of the Superbowl commercials that was my favorite was, I can't remember if it was Kia or Hyundai. Bt they had the commercial where the guy was in the elevator and it was Jason Bateman, and there was like root canal. And you know, like all these things and then like the bottom kind of the bottom level was buying a car and they were that company that, oh, that OEM was rolling out a model that was very Carvana [inaudible] will come to you, you have a return period. That kind of a thing. So I think it's been interesting to watch that.   Joe: [07:25] Yeah, for sure. I mean the automakers are doing it and they're, they're doing it through their dealers. I mean partly obviously cause a franchise dealer laws that they have to go through their dealers. But you know, they, they've got the infrastructure of, of these large dealer networks that they can set that up. Yeah.   Scot: [07:40] How about, I'm kind of staying on the topic of the vehicle life cycle. You mentioned your sister publication around finance. What's, what's new there? I know I've seen some data that leases are, are quite kind of, you know, continue to be the most, one of the increasingly popular ways to, to, to finance a car. What else are you seeing in that?   Joe: [07:59] Well, I'm one of the, one of the alternatives now is some of the cult subscriptions and they, you know, instead of in one of the, one of the models that has launched recently is one called Fair, which was launched by a guy named Scott Painter who was the CEO and founder of True Car. And he brought in a guy named George Bauer who's a former executive with the German automotive. And I believe, you know, it's had a lot of, a lot of experience in, in that, in that space as well. But you know, they models like that kind of had, I've taken on the approach of, you know, why jump into a 60, 66, 72 month loan when you can subscribe to a vehicle for, you know, a year if you want it at three months, if you want it. And then kind of get out and move on to the next one. And it's, you know, not to get in the weeds too much, but it is a different little bit different model than say, you know, a rental or a lease. But it just gives another flexibility for, for someone who doesn't want to set up financing for the next six years of their life.   Scot: [09:04] Yeah. Yeah. That, that's a good segway. So part of the reason we started this podcast is we at Spiffy. We've put out this framework, we call the vehicle 2.0 framework and it's got four components, changing ownership, connected car electrification and autonomous vehicles. And you know, Fair is a good example of kind of the changing ownership going from kind of long leases to kind of micro leases. Then you've got Getaround, and Toro. That's more Airbnb kind of like, you know, sharing almost car sharing. And then it's really topical because I'm sure you saw Lyft filed their IPO and it's kinda caused this whole raft of in there, you know, Lyft talks about long-term, they don't think everyone's going to own a car. And then now I've seen like six top level articles about, you know, what's happening with car ownership. Any other interesting car ownership trends you're seeing?   Joe: [09:53] Well, I just, I think that the, in terms of car ownership, there's just such a variety of alternatives. Now, I mean the, you mentioned Lyft, I mean one of the stories we had this week was Lyft has partnered with Cox Automotive, which owns kind of a variety of different vendors in this space. And they're on the service side. You know, when, when you, there's a dealership service department platform where, you know, when you take your vehicle to get serviced, they've got an automatic partnership with Lyft. So instead of having a, a loaner fleet, that dealership can just get set you up with the Lyft vehicle for that, you know, for the time period that you're, your vehicles in the shop. And, you know, you've seen those Enterprise commercials with, I think it's Joel McHale where he says, you know, you can rent a car from enterprise, you can, you know, car share with enterprise or you can buy it from enterprise. So I think companies are realizing the, the amount of variety of, of different ownership models and the way people want to interact with their cars these days.   Scot: [11:00] Yeah. So sometimes you know, the articles kind of doom and gloom for kind of the traditional dealer. Do you think the dealer is kind of a dinosaur in this model or did they, they have to kind of just pivot and become more of like the service center? So if we kind of go to the extreme, right, and we, we kind of, I think, you know, we believe car ownership's going to be more of kind of fleets owning cars and people kind of, you know, using them on a smaller kind of timescale. It's not, all these things are never going to be 100% either. I come from the world of eCommerce and we're like 15% of the city of retail is on the commerce. We've been at it for 25 years. So, but you know, imagine there's a day where more like 20% of cars are, are kind of a fleet kind of a model. Where do you think the dealer falls in that spectrum?   Joe: [11:45] Well, I think at this point there's still, there's still very much in the game. I mean, a lot of these models that we talk about Fair and, and some of these subscription models, they, they worked through the dealership. So, you know, you may, the end consumer may go to their app and, and you know, subscription program or some sort of alternative ownership program that they access through an app. That company, a lot of times we'll still buy the car, you know, the delivery of the vehicle still through that dealership and a lot of the dealerships are offering these services themselves. So I think that they, I think it's more of a pivot that a dealer, you know, may shift part of its business from, you know, 100% retail sales to portions of it being, well part of our inventory is going to be first subscriptions or car sharing, you know, for a ride hailing drivers and that sort of thing. I do think there's an opportunity as well for dealers to be in the service business. I mean, for these vehicles, the service business of, of a dealership has long been the most profitable anyway. So, you know, they're, I think they're very excited about, you know, the ability to change their model. I mean, I was talking to a dealer recently who said that it's in dealer's nature to sell what the consumer wants. I mean, it's a simple statement, but, you know, dealer, a dealer wants to sell, however, you know, whether it's an electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle or, or an alternative method of ownership, a dealer wants to be the person selling that car and they're going to do it.   Scot: [13:25] Yeah, absolutely. How about, and this may be out of your purview, but we were doing a lot of work now with rental car companies and I had kind of assumed that they would be on the decline because I've gone through a phase where if I go to a city now, I kind of do some math and figure out am I just gonna kind of Uber around or am I going to rent a car? And you know, that that bar is kind of increasingly leaning towards more ride sharing. But I was surprised to find rental car companies that are actually growing pretty nicely. What do you think, you know, are they kind of going to start competing? The other argument could be maybe rental car companies are better equipped to manage these kind of future fleets than dealers are. Do you have any point of view on that?   Joe: [14:06] That's, that's interesting. I mean, I think they certainly have the, if you think about what they already do, you know, a lot of them already sell cars. Just like dealers, you know, they have, they operate in many ways like dealerships.   Scot: [14:21] Yeah, and they have more flexibility because like, you know, dealers get kind of locked in, if you bought it here, I want you to service it here and you know, and they're locked into one type of vehicle. Like I'm not going to take my, my Honda to a Lexus dealer for now. They may actually, sometimes you talk to dealers and they would actually do that, which always surprised me. I never knew that was a thing. Yeah. But most consumers don't think that way. Whereas whereas Hertz, Avis, etc. Are, you know, manufacturer agnostic.   Joe: [14:44] And they do have, I mean, you know, a dealer, a dealer wants to get that, that new car sales there. They are going to take a trade in and then, you know, either use it on their own lot or, or take it to auction or, or you know, dispose of it via wholesale. But, as far as rental companies, I mean, I think, you know, they certainly have the type of infrastructure, national footprint that automaker or franchise dealership system has. They also recently, I mean, if you'll notice that a lot of these companies, either their, you know, the, the large rental car companies are either outright buying some of these smaller alternative, physical ownership platforms or they're working very closely with them to partner, you know, cause they know that they know that, you know, when, when you go, when, when somebody goes to travel there, they're doing the math that you just described. You know, it actually be cheaper for me to take a Lyft to and from a hotel rather than, you know, renting a car. And I think, I think those companies are doing the math and partnering with some of those companies. And, you know, they, I know that they're even getting into the connected vehicle space as well, these rental companies. You know, I think they're just as progressive, you know, in terms of this technology as the dealership and automakers are.   Scot: [16:22] Yeah. And I mentioned at the top of the show that, you know, you guys put a lot of great content out there about auto auctions. That's when, as an eCommerce guy, it's kind of interesting to think about, you know, I haven't visited one, but a lot of people at Spiffy have, and then they seem to be these giant fields full of cars. And you know, there's, there's a point in time like a Wednesday morning and three days before Wednesday, you know, tractor trailers are showing up with cars and unloading them and then they're getting washed and they're putting them through an auction process and they're loading them back up. It just seems like a hugely physical analog kind of a thing in today's world. Is digital hitting auto auctions and, and what's that look like and give, give listeners that maybe they don't even know the industry, like maybe a high-level overview of and what's going on.   Joe: [16:57] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the, I mean, first of all, the physical auction space definitely is still happening. I mean that, physical sales, you know, are still going on every single week, every single day. But you do have where the two, the two largest corporate physical auction companies in the US, Manheim and Adesa, Manheim is owned by Cox Automotive, which is part of this global huge company, Cox Enterprises, Cox Automotive. And then you have Adesa which is owned by Clorox and services, which is a publicly traded large company. Both those companies are pushing more and more on their auction side to digital. I mean, I don't have exact stats in front of me, but it's about 50/50 of their auction sales involve some digital element, whether it's somebody buying via simulcast or you know, somebody sitting on a computer and buying through an online auction. They're pushing, those two large companies are pushing more of their business to the digital side.   Scot: [18:08] But digital, is like an overlay on the physical or, or is it actually a separate digital thing so I could buy one and it's not actually in a physical auction?   Joe: [18:15] Right. So a little bit of both. Actually. The, for example, car and services, which owns Adesa also owns a online auction company called Trade Rev. And that is completely digital and you think, oh, it's kind of cannibalizing. But no, it's, it's really a compliment to their existing auction business. Cox Automotive has, you know, dealer to dealer sales platforms. They have online auctions. So you know, these companies, the approach that I've seen them take is they want to sell however the buyer wants to buy. I mean, and dealers are just like consumers and that a lot of them are moving more towards making purchases digitally. That said, I mean, there's still a huge role for these, for these auto auctions. I mean, there's, some of them, for example, at Manheim, there's a former Manheim location that now has been turned into a mobility fleet servicing center. So what they do is they, you know, they do all of the things that need to happen with a fleet of, of mobility vehicles. So gassing them, washing, reconditioning. All of this sort of services you might think have to happen on the backend, this former auto auction does. And I think you're going to see a model where you know, an auto auction might do a little bit of both. They might still have those physical sales in the lane every Wednesday morning, but also sell vehicles digitally and act as a service center for all kinds of, you know, they already do a lot of ancillary services anyways. Now they have a new client and these large fleets of, you know, ride sharing, car sharing, you know, subscription services that it's a new clientele that they can serve as those vehicles as well.   Scot: [20:15] Yeah. So it kind of sounds like we've got three factions fighting for this future of, of you know, fleet management. So you've got the dealers and the OEMs kind of aligned on one side. And in the eCommerce world, it's interesting. So, you know, you have kind of brands and retailers and, and those guys have fractured themselves because there's been a lot of channel conflict where the brands are starting to go around kind of their traditional channels. So it'll be interesting to see if that happens. But that's one faction do, we had the rental car kind of faction and the now it seems like the auto auction guys kind of also want to put their hat in the ring for managing this.   Joe: [20:48] Yeah, absolutely. And, and even then, you also have a, aside from the, the large kind of corporately owned auctions, you have a lot of independent independently owned auctions. I mean there's, I don't know the exact count, but there's hundreds of independently owned auctions and they're, you know, they're just as innovative and then getting into the same type of a, the same type of play that, that these, you know, large corporate auctions are as well.   Scot: [21:16] Yeah. And I saw a company called ACV Auction, am I saying that right? And they just announced, I forget the amount, but it was like a big raise. Was it 70 million, a hundred. It was like a, it was kind of eye popping. Let's see if I can find that. But that's more of just kind of a new new entrant. Right. So just pure digital if I understand?   Joe: [21:35] Yeah, absolutely. They are a digital dealer to dealer online auction and they have been, I mean it seems like for a while there, almost every other store we had was about them than raising capital. I mean they, they have been, they hired a relatively new CEO I think has somewhat of a Wall Street background and funding background. A guy named George Simone and they have just been raising money and raising money and then, you know, Trade Rev, which I mentioned earlier is I guess it would be a competitor to theirs. And they're, they're owned by, you know, one of the publicly traded large company in the auction space. And then you have, there was a new, a company from Canada called Eblock, which they just launched in the US in Burlington, Vermont. And then you have just tons of other companies into this, in this digital, wholesale space where if you think about Carvana and Vroom and some of those companies and just think about, you know, those they're in customers or retail customers like you and me, ACV, Trade Rev, their customers are, they're doing essentially the same thing, but their customers are dealers. Yeah. And there's just, they're well capitalized. There's lots of them. And you know, I think it's a growing space. And then you, and then to add to that, there's, you know, a company like a Smart Auction, which is a piece of Ally Financial. They'd been around for 20 plus years doing this. And there's, it's, it's a growing space.   Scot: [23:09] They're coming at it from the financial side?   Joe: [23:11] Well, they're an online auction, but they, you know, it's, it's a similar concept to me as it were. Dealers can go in and buy car wholesale cars online for their inventories. Yeah. Got It. Does Cox so, so noticeably absent for that was kind of Cox, do they have a digital auction platforms? They do. They have OVE. They have Manheim Express, which is a dealer to dealer platform. And you know, they're, they're very much involved in digital wholesale. Yeah. Cox Automotive.   Scot: [23:42] Cool. And while you were talking, looked it up. So they raised a ACV auction, raised 93 million in December and they've raised 150 million total. So that's a pretty considerable. It's interesting because watching, so I come from the marketplace world and they've, they've kind of gone through this kind of touchless to high touch. So, so kind of the famous example is a lot of people use Open Door. I don't know if you've ever shopped for a house now, but they'll go in and buy the starter homes and a whole area of, so here in the triangle they've bought like any house, but between kind of 102k, they'll go buy it and then they'll run a marketplace. So, so imagine like, you know, Zillow went out and bought all the houses and was selling them. So it'll be interesting to see if we kind of go full circle and see someone like an ACV actually taking some inventory risk or something. You would imagine with raising that much capital there, there's gotta be something going on there that's all that it's a lot of engineers behind the scenes deal for $200 million. Okay, cool. So changing ownership, some interesting trends there. How about connected car? What, what did, what do you think happens in a world where our car is kind of connected to the cloud and, you know, it lights up a lot of nice new features for, for the consumer, but what else does it mean for the future of cars?   Joe: [24:56] Well, I think that this number one, it's sort of been progressively happening already. I mean with, with Onstar, with General Motors, you know, having the, having that kind of feature. And then, you know, on the way over here I had my, how to podcast and music and directions going through my phone. So there's already a level of connectivity in cars and, and I think that is a bigger, not worry, it's going to be here faster, I guess, than autonomous vehicles. Yeah. I've, I've heard that, I've heard that in the industry that, you know, that's, people aren't talking about that as much as they are autonomous cars, but I think there's a greater chance that we have connected vehicles much quicker than we have self driving vehicles. It'll be interesting it, you know, what's the, you know, what are some of the purposes to that, you know, is it safety? I mean, that, that would be a, to me, you know, cars communicating with each other, you know, could be a big help for safety is that, you know, when cars are too close together or, you know, does it help avoid accidental oil, you know, or accident avoidance. I think that's a potential play there. I mean, obviously the infotainment is, we're already there. Yeah. But I think there's a lot of, a lot of room for growth there and I think you're going to see that quicker than, than you are autonomous cars.   Scot: [26:26] Yeah, it's been interesting. So a lot of, a lot of companies kind of went with their own kind of, you know, app, App store thing and now it seems to be kind of standardizing on a, you know, the Apple system or the Android and kind of Amazon. It seems to be having some legs with Alexa, kind of, in the car. Yup. It's interesting to see what happens there.   Joe: [26:46] And another point to that. There's a, there's been a couple companies that have come out with basically devices that you plug into the onboard, got an onboard diagnostic port. And so as long as the vehicle is something, it's either sometime in the 80s or sometime in the 90s that if your vehicle was made after a certain point, you can turn it, you know, 1995 Toyota Camry into a connected car by plugging in their device to a, to the onboard, the OBD two sensor. So it's, it's really interesting. Even used cars are becoming connected cars.   Scot: [27:21] Yeah. And some companies like a Verizon has Hum where now that not only do you plug that in, so sometimes you can plug the sensor ended, it'll talk to your phone and get to the cloud, but sometimes it will have its own cell phone connection in there so it can, you know, to your point it can, it can add retroactively add connect to capabilities. Yeah. Electrification. So there, there's a, you know, avi is a autonomy is like the shiny bulp, but in the industry, but electrification seems to be kind of grinding out a lot faster. What do you think about that?   Joe: [27:51] Well, I think the biggest issue I see is affordability. I mean, new car affordability in general is already an issue. And it's driving a lot of people to the used car market right now. And that is partly as a function of consumers more interested in trucks and SUVs and crossovers than they are sedans. It's a, naturally the price goes up on those vehicles. But you know, I, I think you look at it like the Tesla's of the world and some of these, you know, electric vehicles or are too far past a price point where they don't make up for the gas savings. But I think there, there are people working on that. I mean the, actually the next, next couple stories I'm working on, one of them is about a, a company called Current Automotive and they are a used electric vehicle dealership that sells primarily online. They're actually one of the co-founders is part of the, or has families that the built Jacobs Automotive Group up in Chicago. And then the other co-founder I believe is a former Tesla executive, but they are, you know, having, having the point now we're where there's enough used electric vehicles that are hitting the market. Having that infrastructure of a, of a dealership type of organization that can sell them, you know, I think should help some of the affordability around electric vehicles.   Scot: [29:23] You don't think a $35,000 Model 3 is, we think we have to go lower than that?   Joe: [29:29] Well no, I mean I don't think so cause I, I think that the way new car prices are now, that's probably about what average for a new car now.   Scot: [29:38] Yeah I think average is between 30 and 40k. Right?   Joe: [29:39] So, you know, I don't know there has to go lower than that, but I do think it is a positive sign that there are going to be used vehicle options for people that, you know, don't necessarily want to shell out 35 grand at the low end for an electric vehicle. And then, you know, you had another, another kind of story we're looking into is the the former House majority leader Richard Gephardt,is signed on as an advisor with Fisker Automotive. And they're in that same kind of electric vehicle space in there. They're looking to basically solve the pain point of, you know, creating a, a workforce for people to build electric vehicles. And so I think with more options I think the price will come down on, on electric vehicles. And again, going back to the kind of the different types of ownership models, there's several different iterations of electric vehicles. You know, you have your hybrids, you have your-   Scot: [30:44] Different plug in hybrids.   Joe: [30:45] Exactly. Yeah. I know a lot of people that are doing the plug in hybrid thing kind of helps with the range anxiety to have an internal combustion engine there. So I think there's, there's more options come to the table. I think you'll see the price come down and more people get into them. I don't think we're going to get it go away from internal combustion engines. I mean, not only because of the infrastructure challenges, I mean there's, there's political challenges do it as well. I mean, there's entire industries that would lobby against that. So you know, I think, you know, I know certain countries are probably will go 100% evs, but I don't think that's going to happen in the US.   Scot: [31:26] Yeah. China seems to be very aggressive. So they're, you know, they've got massive pollution problems and they're pushing for that big subsidies. And they're building out of the, all of the infrastructure will be interesting to see what happens there. Do you guys cover electrical infrastructure at all? Like, do you know how many chargers and companies like Chargepoint? There's a lot of startups trying to dissolve the charging challenge.   Joe: [31:46] Not yet. I'll say, we, you know, our focus has mainly been in the the used car retail and you wholesale space and sort of the, that side of the industry. But in the past, you know, three or four years, we've really ramped up our, for lack of better word, automotive technology coverage, whether it's mobility, whether it's, you know, EVs online buying eCommerce as become a huge part of the industry. And so it's kind of been a huge part of our, of our coverage. So I think as, as more of those models gain traction, that that'll be something we'd probably open, open ourselves up to a little bit.   Scot: [32:24] Yeah. I think the industry is not really ready for electric cars because when we visited an auto auction and they had almost a whole, there were helping Tesla do a kind of a bunch of refurb kind of stuff. And their biggest, one of their biggest challenges was having so many Teslas there, they couldn't charge them all.   Joe: [32:41] Yeah.   Scot: [32:42] So they would like, you know, they had a line of a hundred Teslas and over, you know, over a period of time the batteries, you know, they're, they're using some electricity and they would kind of brick the, the vehicle and have to go figure out like once it's bricked, it's hard to get it to two power. So, so, you know, it's interesting to like, you know, the, the infrastructure we always think about on the consumer of the retail side of charging, but it kind of flows through, you know. Imagine a rental car company trying to do this and you know, having to add, you know, they're going to have to charge hundreds of vehicles overnight and the infrastructure, on that side, I don't think a lot people think about that. But that's big too.   Joe: [33:15] And there's probably companies out there that eventually if they're not already, would go and work with the rental car companies and the auto auctions that they can set up charging stations. You know, if they say we've got too many Tesla's here at the auction, the charge, all of them, you know, at this company as I'm sure it could come in and do that.   Scot: [33:34] Yeah, they're expensive though. Each one of those is like, you know, a hundred to 200 k and like with, when you put it all in with the, the backend electrical plus the wiring and the head unit. Yeah. It's expensive. Yeah. Cool. And then the, the shiny bulb in the industry is autonomous vehicles. What do you think about that?   Joe: [33:52] I think it's going to be awhile before they gain a whole lot of traction. I think there's, you know, what I've seen mainly is that it will be like as a staged rollout where it's, each level is kind of staggered I guess. But you know, I think last year the, the much publicized, you know, unfortunate, you know, the accidents that resulted in fatalities involving self driving cars. I mean I think that kind of slowed it down a little bit. I think the, there's too many, too much safety concern right now. Whether that's overblown, it's still there. I mean I think, there's a lot more testing that needs to be worked out before those gain any kind of real, you know, measurable market share.   Scot: [34:40] Yes. Yeah. It's been interesting to watch it CES. I haven't been to CES in a while, but I watched the coverage. And this is the beautiful thing about social media, you don't have to go to these things anymore. Save a trip. And it seemed like the last three CESs is prior to 2019 we're all a lot of autonomous vehicle hype and then this year it was kind of like the reality of more of the things they were showing were, you know, really constrained public transit kind of thing. Just so you know, these vehicles are going to go in a very predetermined route with its own lanes and a very safe kind of approach and they're only going to go 20 to 30 miles an hour and they'll have a human in there. And so really kind of pulling back from that, you know, I'm just going to hop in a car and it's gonna drive me coast to coast and I won't, I can sleep or something like that.   Joe: [35:22] I think it's more of a pragmatic approach. It's cities looking at how do we solve these mass transit issues, you know, whether it's a or, you know, even even companies, I mean who were, you know, if it's a, if it's a self driving a shuttle at a company or something that it goes around the campus or, or you know, helping cities out, solving those, solving those issues, more of a pragmatic approach rather than a retail consumer just wants a self driving car, like, you know, on the Jetsons or something.   Scot: [35:51] Yeah. So any other trends in Auto Remarketing that, that are kind of top of mind with you?   Joe: [35:58] Well, I think going back to the, just the increasingly digitize digitalized presence of, of the auto auction industry. I mean I, I think there is, it's an interesting time because so much of it is, is going digital, you know, and despite there being still the need for the physical auto auction because you're moving these large assets and it's, you know, there's a lot of physical movement. It's still needed in the industry. It's interesting to see how you'd mentioned the ACV investment. It's, it's been really fascinating to watch how much money and how much attention is, is getting paid to, to that side of the business. And I think it's a, it's only going to grow from here. You know, that the digital wholesale environment.   Scot: [36:45] Cool. Awesome. And you guys have, you mentioned earlier that you spend more time on kind of, you know, some of the future vehicle technology stuff. And I noticed that you'd put a lot of events on this seem to be kind of anchored around this. Tell listeners about some of the events you guys host and how they can learn more about this.   Joe: [37:02] Sure. So we do, we have four automotive conferences each year. Two of them were actually coming up in Canada. I'm heading to Toronto in a week and a half. That'll be for the Toronto used car industry. But this summer in Raleigh we have the Automotive Intelligence Summit. This is our second one. It really, it focuses on just the, you know, a lot of what we've talked about today, you know, autonomous vehicles, the connected vehicles, digital retail, the use of big data and data analytics and artificial intelligence and the, you know, things, you know, what role does blockchain management have in, in automotive. So a lot of these tech driven changes in automotive. This conference, you know, we'll address, and again, it's our second year of doing it. It's going to be July 23rd through 25th in Raleigh at the Marriott Crabtree right across from the Crabtree Mall. But if, if people are interested in learning more, they can go to autointelsummit.com. That's autointelsummit.com. Or they can holler at me on Twitter @AR_JoeOverby and I can share more information there as well.   Scot: [38:25] Cool. So I think you said four, so two in Canada, Auto Intel, is there a fourth one?   Joe: [38:30] Yeah, absolutely. Our signature event. I'm glad you reminded me. Our signature kind of flagship conference is Used Car Week and each year we host that in the fall and it's typically in the southwest. This year we're going to be in Las Vegas at the Red Rock. Last year we were in Phoenix or Scottsdale, Arizona. And what it is is it's four separate conferences that are all kind of part of the used vehicle life-cycle. So we have a retail focus conference on pre-owned. We have a finance auto finance conference, we have the repossession and recovery space. And then we have our National Remarketing Conference, which is the kind of wholesale, the auto auctions, that sort of thing. And we're actually going to be celebrating our 20th anniversary of that National Remarketing Conference. But that's going to be November 11th through 15th in at Red Rock in Las Vegas. And folks who are interested in that can visit usedcarweek.biz. And that and that again, you know, it is kind of an overall auto industry conference, but given the nature of, of automotive these days, it is going to be tech. You know, there's going to be some tech focus, some innovation, some, you know, talk about digital and that sort of thing as well.   Scot: [39:55] Yeah. So just kind of reading the between the lines sounds like the Raleigh one is maybe like hundreds, low, hundreds, a couple hundred folks. Anything in Vegasis going to be at least single digit thousands if not tens of thousands. T   Joe: [40:08] Yeah, the Auto Intel summit, we had about two or 300 last year, very kind of boutique conference, but you know, everybody there was very engaged and there to, you know, be in the sessions. And again Used Car Week is a broader, larger, you know, we've been doing it for a couple of decades, it is in the, you know, I think last year we had about, attendance was about 1600, I believe. Yeah.   Scot: [40:36] Yeah. Cool. Yeah, it's fun to go to kind of both cause you kind of, you know, the smaller shows are more in a minute and literally deep on something but maybe not as actionable sometimes. And then the networking is good and then the bigger ones you can kind of go and have a list of here's five vendors I want to meet. And it a lot more to kind of tactical get, get business done. So it's good to kind of go to both, I think.   Joe: [40:57] It's like going to a basketball game at Cameron indoor stadium versus going to a football game at Carter Finley. It's just, one's a big crowd and loud and once you know, it's small intimate atmosphere, so, yeah.   Scot: [41:09] Absolutely. Cool. Well Joe, we don't want to take more of your time. Appreciate you coming over to Spiffy to record the podcast. Excited to have you as one of our first guests. You mentioned your Twitter handle. If folks want to, that's one way to kind of get in touch with you. Are you active on Linkedin or other social media and maybe let's definitely kind of bring them to the website too.   Joe: [41:28] Yeah, absolutely. Certainly active on Linkedin, just Joe there. And my email, if anybody has any questions about our conferences or about our publications. It's at joverby@cherokeemediagroup.com. The website for all of our publication is Autoremarketing.com.   Scot: [41:53] Great. Thanks for coming and thanks Jackson on the audio engineering side.   Joe: [41:59] Well thank you Scot. This has been fun!  

Episode 21: Alex Capecelatro – Josh.ai Alex Capecelatro is the founder and CEO of Josh.ai, a voice-controlled home automation system with a focus on artificial intelligence. Josh.ai utilizes a proprietary natural language understanding (NLU) engine with state of the art home control integrations for a powerful smart home experience. Alex started his career as a research scientist for NASA, the Naval Research Lab, and later Sandia National Laboratory. He then ventured into consumer technology first with electric car manufacturer Fisker Automotive, then through founding two social software products “At The Pool” and “Yeti” with members in more than 120 countries. Alex’s focus is at the intersection of elegant design, cutting-edge software, and purposeful hardware to offer transformational experiences. Alex received his engineering degree from UCLA and currently splits his time between LA and Denver. Links to things we talk about: Alex Capecelatro on LinkedIn Josh.ai Josh AI on Instagram AVC - Fred Wilson's Blog for Union Square IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR, PLEASE: Subscribe to our list Connect with us on Twitter Email us and tell us what you think! Colorado TechCast brings you interviews with entrepreneurs, thought leaders and technology pioneers from around the state. We provide a behind the scenes look at who’s doing what, why, and how you can get involved. Join us each episode to hear the exciting stories of technology happenings in our state. I want this show to be relevant to you, so please send me your thoughts and suggestions. My email address is Trapper@ColoradoTechCast.com. You can also hit me up on Twitter @CoTechCast. I read and respond to all messages so drop me a line and tell me what you think. I am always on the lookout for future guests, so if you know anyone with an interesting story to tell, or you yourself would like to come on and talk about what you’re building, then send me an email. Thanks for tuning in, and join us next time when we bring you the story of another digital pioneer from Colorado!

The war for the living room used to be simple: influence whoever was in charge of the family TV’s remote control. With the rise of the Internet of Things, smart speakers, and AI-enabled home automation systems - the home itself has become the next computing platform. To get a handle on what the future of smart homes might look like, I caught up with Alex Capecelatro in LA. Alex started his career as a research scientist for NASA, the Naval Research Lab, and Sandia National Lab. He later joined Fisker Automotive, ran his own startup, At The Pool, before creating Josh.ai, an AI agent for the home.

The war for the living room used to be simple: influence whoever was in charge of the family TV’s remote control. With the rise of the Internet of Things, smart speakers, and AI-enabled home automation systems - the home itself has become the next computing platform. To get a handle on what the future of smart homes might look like, I caught up with Alex Capecelatro in LA. Alex started his career as a research scientist for NASA, the Naval Research Lab, and Sandia National Lab. He later joined Fisker Automotive, ran his own startup, At The Pool, before creating Josh.ai, an AI agent for the home.

With fossil fuels polluting the earth’s atmosphere and being in finite supply, technological advances in renewable energy such as solar, hydropower and wind are becoming more essential for our future.  Batteries are at the core of making renewables power possible.   Our guest today is Duwayno Robertson. He’s an expert on batteries for future-forward automobiles and renewable energy systems. Duwayno was a Fisker Automotive lead engineer overseeing everything that interacted with the battery, helping to create the ahead-of-it’s-time Fisker Karma eco-luxury automobile with its solar paneled roof and groundbreaking hybrid engine.   Since then he’s worked at two leading renewable-energy companies: Aquion and AGL, building a sustainable energy future.   We explore a full range of renewable energy opportunities and challenges. And we look at potential breakthroughs on the horizon.   More at http://www.mindandmachine.io

This week, the guys talk about their favorite seafood and steakhouses in Florida and California. They talk about Disney's move to separate from Netflix. Alan talks about the return of Fisker Automotive as Karma Automotive and their latest release. And much much more!

Fisker Automotive is trying to raise 100 million dollars through private equity after the U.S. government refused to loan more funds to the company. Ford is producing an hour-long reality series called “Escape Routes” featuring the 2013 Escape that will air on NBC. Dodge announced it will enter the Global RallyCross Championship Series with a rally version of the Dart. All that and more, plus another entertaining installment of "Hall vs. Hall."

Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Director General, Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board (CARB) Ray Lane, Managing partner of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club Vice President, founder of The Club's Climate One Initiative PANEL: Leading a transformation to a global low-carbon economy Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Mary Nichols and Ray Lane will address questions concerning California’s leading role in the fight against dangerous climate change. What is the state of science on the causes and impacts of global warming? Can California consumers, corporations and policymakers facilitate systemic change and spur others to act? What are the costs and what are the opportunities? What role does innovation play? “California's culture of innovation is helping to drive the world towards more sustainable ways of producing, consuming and being,” comments Greg Dalton, Club VP and Director of The Club’s new Climate One Program, who orchestrated the program. “The changes are profound and promising. And yet leading environmental scientists such as R.K. Pachauri say we all need to do more, much more.” Pachauri, chair of the IPCC since 2002, is also the director general of the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, devoted to researching and promoting sustainable development. Selected by The United Nations Development Program as a Part Time Adviser in the area of Energy and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, Pachauri holds an M.S. in industrial engineering, a Ph.D. in industrial engineering, and a Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State University. Nichols, appointed chair of CARB by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2007, also served as CARB chair under Governor Jerry Brown. Her history includes serving as assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air and Radiation, Secretary for California's Resources Agency, and Director of the University of California, Los Angeles Institute of the Environment. Considered one of California’s first environmental lawyers, Nichols has paved the way for greater air quality. She has her Juris Doctorate degree from Yale Law School and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University Lane, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has sponsored several investments for the firm in clean and alternative energy including Ausra (solar concentrator), Fisker Automotive (plug-in hybrid car), Th!nk NA (electric car), Luca Technologies (biologically enhanced gas recovery from fossilized hydrocarbons). Before joining KPCB, Lane was President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle Corporation, the second-largest software company in the world. Lane received a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in Science from West Virginia University (WVU).