How He's Selling Electric Cars on Amazon with Alex Lawrence

Quick Clarifications: 

1) EV Auto is the first used EV dealer listing on Amazon Autos, not the first used car dealer.

2. Dealers currently pay no subscription fees to Amazon. There may be a fixed, monthly subscription fee to display their inventory, with fees phasing in as the marketplace scales. But dealers remain the seller of record, control the transaction pricing, and keep the full revenue from each sale. Amazon also offers advertising products that dealers can use to increase their visibility on Amazon and in their local communities. 

Show Notes:

What does it look like to build a used-EV business the rest of the industry is still afraid of? In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Alex Lawrence, Founder and CEO of EV Auto, the used-EV dealership chain that may have bought and sold more EVs than anyone in the country — out of just three locations in Utah and Tennessee.

Alex breaks down two big moves. First, EV Auto is the first non-Tesla car dealership in America to host Tesla Superchargers on-site, with plans to own and operate a network of charging posts independent of its stores. Second, EV Auto just became the first used-car-only dealer on Amazon Autos, and Alex explains exactly why he leaned in while most dealers stay wary.

You'll also hear why no-pressure selling works better for first-time EV buyers, how Alex thinks about charging-site economics and location strategy, why so many franchise dealers botched their charger rollouts, and whether Amazon could ever pull a "Toys R Us" on the car business.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market: 

https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Tesla actually reached out to us. They said, hey, we want to talk about something. You need to sign an NDA. When they asked us if we wanted to pilot this program with them, we said yes. Now we have our first location opening next week in Brentwood on our property. And we're the first car dealership in America to have Tesla superchargers on site that isn't a Tesla dealership.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to Eeve Insider by Recurrent, where we make it easier to buy and sell electric cars by giving you access to leaders from across the industry. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Alex, the consensus is that you have bought and sold more EVs than any other dealership in the country. And that may be including Carvana. I'm not sure. That might be overstating. Oh no. Yeah, no. Okay. All right. And that is out of just three locations in some pretty unexpected places. Uh so welcome to the show. Uh, excited to talk to you this week. If you don't know Alex, he's the owner of EV Auto, a used EV dealership chain with locations in Utah and Tennessee and soon several other states. Uh, we're gonna jump right into uh, you know, how he has done that, how he's built that up, and some new initiatives he's got coming up that are being announced this week. Uh so Alex, first of all, uh EV Auto was recognized as one of the country's best places to buy a used EV for the second year in a row from the recurrent community. So, what's the secret? How'd you guys do that?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Yeah, um good to see you, my friend. Scott and I have been friends since you started the business almost. We kind of have parallel tracks in a in a lot of ways. So always fun to be with you and grateful for recurrent being all over my website for my customers to see their battery scores and more than that, their the overall health of the battery and stuff. So just uh shout out to you guys, appreciate what recurrent has done for us and what you've done for me personally. So um, yeah, I think, you know, I I've I've said this many times before, and I'll I'll probably say it forever. And that's you know, I'm not from the car business, and uh, so I've been the customer my whole life, and that has been a bad experience for me for my whole life. I have I've had almost no good experiences buying a car over the years, and I know that's not the case for a lot of people. There are a lot of great car dealers out there, but I just haven't encountered many. When we started Eve Auto, it was really simple and obvious that we weren't going to do any of that stuff. I mean, charge people more for paying cash, just all these things that uh really bothered me as a customer over the years. And so, you know, I think Eevee Auto's uh main uh reason that we succeed is that we just don't do any of that crap. We don't have any weird fees. We will give you an out-the-door price over the phone or via text or via email within 30 seconds of you asking for it because all we do is add our doc fee and sales tax license and registration. Here you go. It's really, really easy. And we don't do add-ons, we don't do dealer ads, we don't charge you more if you pay cash, we don't pressure you to buy stuff. You can get in and out of here, you know, in under an hour if you want to. I mean, just all those things and the way you feel when you come in. There's nobody with a sport coat with a name tag on, and we're not, we don't have 10 salespeople on the floor that are waiting to, you know, jump on you, and we let you go on test drives by yourself and just all these things at at a 52 years old. I'm just like, I don't like this and this and this and this and this and this. And so we're just not gonna do those things.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Well, what is it about the EV sector though that allows you to do that? Because everything you just said, you could have opened a traditional dealership that did all those things. So is there anything particular about EVs that makes it better for that?

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And it's this I I don't have an exact number, but I'm gonna say 95% of my customers have never had an EV before. And so they have questions. They want to talk to somebody, but they're afraid to. They want to test drive a car, but they're afraid to get pressured that they have to buy it if they drive it. And so when you pair those two together, this experience, and as word gets out that yeah, you can just drop by and ask us questions. Yes, you can just drop by and drive a car. And nobody's gonna say to you, well, what will it take you to get you to buy this car today? Or, you know, come in and sit down and let's talk. I mean, we just don't do any of those things. So we try and pair the natural first buyer questions that they don't have about a Honda Civic. They don't have about a Ford F-150, but they do have about a Tesla. And so we try and put those pair together really, really well.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

You laid down those kind of company values, I think, at the beginning when you're really small-scale one store. How has it been a challenge growing to three locations and soon more over the last 12 months and keeping those values true? How have you done that?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah, um, well, I mean, the cliche, but correct answer is just incredible people that buy into that same exact ethos, that same exact culture. We have had almost no turnover in sales in the last five and a half years, which is just unbelievable for the automotive industry, particularly. And so, um, I mean, I I can count one maybe two for a variety of reasons. It wasn't like this horribly painful thing, just life circumstances and stuff. So, but the people that want to work here, they they already believe that that's the way to sell anything. So I have people that have never sold a car before that are coming from other sales environments that are just crushing it. And I have people that have had sales experience in the car business that are also doing great and crushing it. And so, but they all want to feel good at night. They all want to go home and feel like they helped people and they were honest with people and they didn't pressure people. And and and so when we when when we find those kinds of people, they our culture just naturally comes together. And and it's something we constantly talk about. It's in our five core values. You know, customer reviews are are revered as like the highest level of important feedback that we get. And they're empowered to do things. One of the other things that we don't do that drove me crazy is we don't send somebody to a different office. They work with that one salesperson from start to finish. And so that salesperson has autonomy to make decisions and do things for them and work through things, and they don't have to play the good cop, bad cop game and and things like that. So it's it's what's been hard for us, Scott, is the scale of our growth and and not getting back to people or not answering a text or not returning a phone call or not being timely. And that that just tears my heart out. But we've grown so fast that it's been harder for us to keep up with that. The people we have do a great job, but getting enough, we're very picky, we're very particular. We take a long time to hire somebody, and that doesn't lend itself really well to like rocket ship kind of growth.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

So we've been working together for years, you know, recurring and Eevee Auto. How how do we fit into that to the picture, you know?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

And I I have no problem sounding like a TV commercial for you guys. I mean, our customers instantly know that a score out of 100 and a report that they can click on that's visually appealing and really easy to understand, it it crosses off maybe the number one concern. Range is is right up there with uh, you know, what happens if my battery uh dies? Or how far can I drive on a charge? Or, you know, how do I know if this battery's in good shape or not? And it just handles all those things. And so it's featured prominently on every one of our listings and has been for years now. And it's just an awesome way to handle that. And proactively we're saying here, click on this report. It's like a Carfax for your battery. You can you can see all the information. So we're we're sharing that with you because we're on the same team. We want to sell you cars that have the strong batteries.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

It's been awesome working with you, and I think a lot of ways here. So this is the shape of the car dealerships to come of the future, but you're getting there first. So uh you have two big announcements this week. Um, can we start with the fancy new uh Tesla superchargers at your store? Yeah, how'd you pull that off? Give me the whole story on this. I saw the saw the picture.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Yep. So it's really cool. So Tesla actually reached out to us. This was last, I mean, it might have been a year ago. And uh they said, Hey, we want to talk to you about something you need to sign an NDA. And I said, Okay, can you give me a little more information? And they said, It's about supercharging. And I said, All right. And so, you know, they now have the Tesla for Business program, which is still is different than than our relationship in some ways, but um, that didn't exist. And so they said, Hey, we're gonna start partnering with people on supercharger locations. Are you interested? And I said, Is that a trick question? Like, that's one of the most dominant monopolies I've seen in my career, and it only gets more dominant. I I just they've won. They've won the fast charging race. It's over.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

They have the most and they are building new ones faster than anybody else. Absolutely. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

99% uptime. You just, I mean, I've tried all the other chargers and they're pretty pathetic in the user experience and and they're broken, and now they're getting better. And they're not Tesla's not gonna be the only charge, and I don't want them to be the only charging option. They're just the easiest to use and they've got the easiest to find. And so, uh, and they work always. I've never been to a supercharger in all these years where the super where they didn't work, never. And so, I mean, they have this army of repair people just like sitting around like 911 operators, just waiting for something, and then they converge on it and fix it. And so the other companies can't do that. They don't have the scale. And so, anyway, when they asked us if we wanted to pilot this program with them, we said yes. And so we started looking for locations. And it actually was a lot harder than I thought to find location. I thought I'd call up a landlord and be like, hey, I want to put superchargers on your site, and they'd just say, go for it. But it was a lot harder than that and has been a lot harder than that. But the the punchline is now we have our first location opening next week uh in Brentwood on our property. And we're the first car dealership in America to have Tesla superchargers on site that isn't a Tesla dealership. So kind of a big deal. And, you know, we've got eight of them, and it's right in our parking lot. So it's gonna be an experiment. People are gonna be coming in and out charging. We've got a big movie screen. We're gonna put sports up on there. We've got a sign for people to come inside and get free drinks and free snacks and use our bathroom. We're not a Tesla diner, but we're trying to make it a little bit more of a come in and test drive a Rivian while you're charging your Cybertruck, see what that's like. You know, we'll give you a trade-in value on your car while you're sitting there. Um, we're actually in our other locations, which I'll get to in a second. We're gonna do some other things like have a little car detailing van parked there. And uh, we just signed a deal at an In N Out burger here in Utah. So you'll go to In N Out and get a burger for 99 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

One of our folks 99 cents, I'm hoping, is what you meant to send me.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Yeah, 99 bucks is what we're thinking for a really nice interior detail and exterior wipe down.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

I thought it was 99 for a burger. I was like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

No, no, no. No, no, yeah. You get the in-N-Out experience, but while you're in there.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Now I'm good. I'm with you now. I'm with you now.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So just things like that that we're trying to do to make it a little different. You know, you'll be able to scan. So the chargers are branded, powered by EV Auto. Um, and they're the V4, the latest Tesla superchargers. Um, but you'll be able to schedule a service appointment by scanning a QR code or get a discount or whatever. And so Brentwood opens next week. So hopefully by the time this announcement goes out, it's really close to being turned on. But then we've got locations in Florida, Arkansas, Texas, California, and Utah that we have signed agreements and are in various stages of development. Some of them like shovels are starting to dig, others are waiting for a permit.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

But it's not dealership plus charger or that are no sorry, just chargers. Just chargers. Okay. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Yeah. So EV, the EV group owns EV Auto, but it also owns an entity called EV Supercharging.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

And uh we've got uh about 20 locations in those states um that we're currently developing. And we want to uh get so that so there's locations and there's posts. Uh we want to have a thousand posts that we own and operate, which is 125 to 150 locations that are separate from our dealerships. Every dealership we open now, so we can talk about the fact that we bought a property in Las Vegas and we're gonna be opening down there before the end of the year. That'll have superchargers on site. And we can talk about that we're uh closing in on a couple of locations in Dallas, and those will have supercharger locations on site. And so wherever we can in the future, we'll also, but this is separate. I'm talking about separate from that, that we're gonna have these EV auto branded superchargers, hopefully, you know, all around the country.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

So you it it actually, if if you open at that rate, it won't be long until really they should be breaking out the EV auto superchargers as a charging network that will pretty quickly catch up with everybody else, you know, all with Electrify America and and uh and and you know the other sort of like non-Tesla uh superchargers.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Yeah, I mean, we've we're uh committed to opening as many A plus locations as we can find. Okay. And so we are very particular about where. I mean, they've got to be really, really, really good spots. And so we're we're gonna be we've got a website that you can come in and submit your site to us. And and it's really cool. We we partner with the landowner. So we'll either rent stalls from them or we'll give them a profit share and they spend no money, it's no out-of-pocket. And so it's a it's a good, fair deal to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

How do the economics work for you then? Is like there's some upfront outlay. Are you just sort of like taking the place of Tesla's supercharger division and like taking that financial risk? Or what what's happening here?

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yeah, so we own the chargers, so we put in all the capital to to buy them and build them, and then you make all the money on the charging that happens there. Not all the money. Tesla takes a uh off the top to handle all the service and all the cuts. So the nice thing is is it really truly is a a true hands-off operation after they get open. Okay, that's what services them, handles customer service, payment, all the things, and so so they take a fee for that, and we keep the the remainder. And the hope is is that the usage is uh enough that that remainder makes it a good return on investment for the capital to build the chargers.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

So when you kind of like penciled it out, or I'm sure you did much more sophisticated than that, like what's the payback period?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

You know, on average really good, yeah. I mean, really good locations are you know single digit years. Okay. So I mean, so it's a it's a it's an above average return for sure.

unknown 14:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Um, you know, we're really bullish though. We think we can get these A plus locations that return faster than that, but it is a gamble. I mean, we're committed to these. We're we're we're not halfway pregnant, you know. I mean, we're we're all the way there. And so, um, but I'm I'm extremely bullish. I think the Tesla supercharging network, I said this earlier, I'll say it again. It's one of the most dominant monopolies I've ever seen. I mean, it's gonna, EV market share is gonna grow, more people are gonna charge, more people are gonna be on the road. If I can get the in-and-out burger on the corner of the off-ramp, right there, I mean, I'm gonna lock in that area for all brand supercharging for the foreseeable future.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

And I guess like the the the economics of whatever happens when you have a uh charging site at your store, that's all just gravy. If the if the person walks in, they decide to, you know, sell their car to you, or they, you know, or they upgrade to a new one, or they buy an accessory or something like that. That's that you're not depending on that for the ROI.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

No, but we're gonna track it for sure, because you know, we're giving up eight parking stalls in our Brettwood location. Okay. Um, and so we want to make sure that it's worth it. And so we do, I mean, why wouldn't you get a trade-in value while you're sitting there if you're thinking about trading your car? We can just come out and scan the VIN and do a few things.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Or get it detailed or you know, yeah, yeah. Um, so how like obviously the the ROI really has a lot to do with the utilization rate. So if you have nobody there, it's gonna take a long time. If it's all full, it'll be a quick payback. Um so how do you select locations then for that for that usage rate? And set follow-up question what happens if Tesla just opens one of their regular charges next door and slams your your uh your utilization rates?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah, so the first one it's a tremendous amount of research, um, a lot of data. It's not a uh, hey, that seems like it'd be a good location to me. Um, there's a significant amount of diligence and stuff, and there's a lot of factors that lead towards a high utilization site, and we use those and local knowledge, you know, from real estate professionals and and people that we know. And and so I think we've got a pretty good handle on what an A location looks like and what will um and so it's gotta go through a whole lot of filters and diligence and and it's a lot of work to find them and then figure it out. The second thing is, you know, Tesla could in theory do that, but um, if and look, you never tell felon, he's unpredictable. But I really believe that Tesla's only gonna put chargers when where chargers are needed, yeah. And so, meaning if our charger is satisfying demand, there's no reason for them to spend the money to put another one nearby. Why would they? Right. Uh customers are being well served, and they're gonna have a mediocre performer, and I'm gonna have a mediocre performer. Where they're gonna do it is when there's weights and high utilization and chargers that aren't always available. And in that scenario, I'm gonna have the opportunity to go open another one if I want to. And so yeah, I just don't see a it just feels like bad returns for them and bad returns for us if they just start putting them right close to each other unless demand dictates it.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Right, that's fair. Um, I I mean I do think that there's an interesting angle here with the second mover from a location selection actually could be advantageous because a lot of the first Tesla charger locations, they're in these weird little like undervalued sort of like plots of dead real estate, like in the far corner of the mall parking lot or whatever. And you know, I think that Iona and others are showing that, like, no, really what you want is a bunch of cool things right there that um you want to be at for five to ten minutes, basically. And so hopefully that's what you're thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Yeah, yeah, Tesla's actually changed their stance on it too.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Right. Uh oh, for sure. But like all their initial charging sites were in these like ugly, dead, scary places, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Part of that was financial constraint, though. Yeah, they weren't the Tesla then that they are now, right? And so they were kind of like, you know what? People are desperate to charge, they'll find them in the back of the hotel, and we can get it in the back of the hotel for cheap.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

So I actually think their strategy to get to market fast and get a lot of them and just get them in the cheapest, easiest, I'll say yes, fast locations was actually very smart. But now they've learned that that amenities matter. Yeah. And so for their own locations and locations they approve with us, we we want to have amenities nearby. Now, there's exceptions to the rule on occasion. There's some areas where it's like, look, this is just so desperately needed. Yeah, that an amenity is is a cream icing on the cake, you know. And so, but no, if you look at my locations now, um, all the ones that I'm describing to you, there's food and bathrooms and things to do within a walking distance of all of them. Yeah, and so that's that's important. And you know, at some point, I don't have any sites yet, but Tesla actually has a partnership with Amazon, and they have these uh railroad containers that they can drop on a site that has an Amazon Go store inside. You'll walk in, walk out, no, no human checks you out. Okay, and so I would love to to find a local see the locations I'm finding though, they don't that'd be competition with their needs, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

But that's not all. Alex, you just talked us through the the big uh Tesla supercharger, EV auto-powered announcement. You have a second big announcement coming out.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

We are really excited that we've launched as the first used car only dealer on Amazon Autos. And so uh, you know, all of their other dealers are franchises. I mean, they certainly sell used cars as a part of their franchise operation, but they're all tied to a franchise. And so we've been working with Amazon for a while and kind of preparing this launch, and I can talk you through why and how and stuff like that. But if you want to buy a used Tesla or a used Rivian or, you know, Lightning Mock, it just depends on what we have uh on Amazon and do it the Amazon way, you'll buy it from EV Auto. And uh, we're really excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

So it's a lot of franchise dealers leaning in, going, okay, there's something, something's going on with Amazon autos. I got to pay attention here. So a lot of dealers in the industry are really wary about Amazon's move into auto retailing. You're leaning in and embracing it. So, like, why? Like, what's what's why are you sort of jumping in on this?

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah, I mean, I I think they have every reason to be wary. If you look at Amazon's history with other Toys R S's of the world and stuff like that, um, you know, there's potential for it to be difficult. I have some opinions on why I don't think that will be the case. Um, but uh, you know, for me, I've always been an early adopter, hardware, software. And so the minute I heard that Amazon was doing autos, I I, well, I want to be there. I want to be there. And so, and and so that was just my my tech brain way. But as I thought about the business case, at the end of the day, I just I want to be where my customers are. And some of them are gonna be there, and some of them are gonna prefer that. And so I just want that to be a choice for them. I just want that to be an option for them. And so uh, you know, I was in touch with Amazon very early, like, hey, I'm I'm in. And uh, as we met over, I mean, it's been over a year now, I think, um, you know, there were some hurdles to to jump over and and they make total sense. So with Amazon, you know, they really have just an incredible customer experience. If you want to return something. Or you have a question about something, they just make it so easy. And obviously buying stuff is so easy. And so when they equate that to cars, to autos, uh, you know, they want to make sure that the people that are selling on there match that experience and and back that up. And with franchises, they have some strings they can pull there and some levers they can push and pull on with through the franchises to make sure that, you know, they don't have a problem with a title, or you know, they don't have a problem with a return, or there's not a customer. They just, you know, they've they're partnering with these these franchise, these OEMs, and they have controls. Well, a used car dealer, you don't have any of that stuff. You know, there's no franchise to answer to, you know, they can they can not pay for a car and and have a title issue, they can go out of business a lot easier, they can, you know, play games with customers and have nobody that can force them to do certain things. And so, from a liability and a risk perspective and a brand risk perspective for Amazon, it uses a tough one. And I think you're gonna see them be very judicious and very careful about who and when they onboard used only dealers for that reason. So then the question becomes okay, well, why did they choose you? Why are you the first? And uh there's a couple of reasons. One, you know, they've been watching our social media and stuff for a while, and they've been following our reputation and stuff. And, you know, our our goal is to be the most trusted car dealer in America. And they felt like the way we treat customers, the way we back up our cars, the way we do things was a match with their the way they do things. And they're right. Um, so they didn't feel like they'd be pushing a rope uphill to get us to treat customers the way that because look, if you've got a problem with the car you bought on Amazon, you're gonna go to Amazon for help. You're you're gonna say, hey, I bought this car from this place and they're not doing it. You, you know, and and Amazon will help, you know. But if we've got a partner that will will be aligned, then we don't have to worry about it. So that was number one. Okay. Um, number two, uh, they did some financial research to make sure that we were a good, stable, profitable business and that we could have sticking power and that we, you know, for example, we don't use flooring. We own all of our cars. And and so just things like that that I think are not unique to us, but it it helped our cause that we were not some fly-by-night, you know, highly leveraged uh, you know, company that might leave them holding the bag, so to speak, if things went a different direction. And so, and then the third, uh, you know, I this is my opinion. They won't really comment on it, which is I get I think it'll be a cold day in hell before Elon sells Teslas on Amazon. Um, and so uh he will not be handing the direct-to-consumer keys over to Jeff to start to sell, in my opinion. And so if they want to sell a meaningful number of Teslas specifically, because then they've got to find somebody that can can list a meaningful number of Teslas, and that's that's us. And so, because they believe, and I do too, that you know, a Tesla buyer is more tech forward, and they're probably more likely to be comfortable buying on a car on Amazon than maybe other other brands and models. And so they wanna they want to test their theory there, and and I do too. And then the last one, you know, my social media will help amplify sure uh the Amazon Auto's message and bring more attention to it and so forth. So when you layer all those together, you know, we've been working uh on a launch for a while, and you know, I don't know, Sky, how big of an impact it's gonna have on our business. I do know that they get three billion unique visitors a month, and uh some of them are looking for a Tesla. And uh so it'd be really interesting to see how that translates into, you know, more of our cars being sold uh to people around the country.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, you're about to find out. Is the only use Tesla seller? I want to know like how are the economics different for you when you're selling a car direct versus selling on Amazon?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Yeah, so right now the structure is the front-end profits you don't share, you keep. So you price the car at what you want to price the car at, and your margin is your margin. Um, they're charging a per rooftop fee, um, much like other software marketplace providers, and then they get a percentage of back end sales. Okay. And so where the risk is for other dealers is they could change that. Yeah. Right. At some point, they could say, you know, we're changing our structure and how we share revenues or what per, you know, what what our fees are per month. Or I mean, but that's no different than any other marketplace. Yeah, you know. And so, uh, but you know, I mean, Amazon's got a history of of making their own white label products and things like that. Where I think it's very different here. I really don't think Amazon is gonna pull a Carvana where they're gonna buy car dealerships or start car dealerships and have their own car inventory and and stuff. I just don't think they're gonna do that. And and that would be the big threat, I think, is if they started competing directly. Now, they could change the percentage of money they take, they could start taking money out of the front end in their rights to do all those things, but I don't think they're gonna like start car dealerships.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

And and I will say that would be exactly opposite of their strategy in the general Amazon.com marketplace, where they are uh more and more of their sales are third-party listed and in some cases third party shipped, right? So like yeah, the that there I cannot see that they would go in uh the opposite direction for Toys R S the hardest, you know, like product to sell overall, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

So they put toys, I mean the the example here most is what they did to Toys R Us, you know, hey, we'll sell all your toys, Toys R Us, and then eventually they started selling all their own toys and everybody else's toys, and Toys R Us went to business, and so but cars are not toys, yeah. Uh, you know, and and so I again I but it's I mean, I'm not it's not impossible, I just think it's really unlikely.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yeah, okay. Um Amazon defaults to 250 mile radius from your zip code to show you car listings as Amazon autos. Does that limit you to the areas around your store? Uh or are you like like it looks like the default expectation is like the customer's gonna get uh pick get come to the store and pick it up versus getting it shipped. Is this local around your stores or is this national?

SPEAKER_02 28:15

No, so since we don't have to play the franchise game, yeah, right, where Ford dealership over here, Ford dealership over there, they've got territories, right? They've got so I don't have to do that. And so I'll ship the cars anywhere in the country. You can come pick it up or I'll ship it to you. I already do that. I ship cars nationwide every day.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

So so if I so if I'm looking up for a used Tesla on Amazon Autos, right, you know, this week now, as we're talking, even though I'm in Seattle, I'm gonna see your listings in Salt Lake City.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Yeah, you should be able to, and and and we'll we'll build, we'll be able to give you a quick, easy price to ship it from from A to B. And we do that every day already. So it's easy for us to do that. But yeah, that's one of the advantages is we don't have to we don't have a protected territory or a franchise, and we don't have to, you know, reciprocate and things like that. So so that's a that's a nice advantage for sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

So uh last question I think on this is like Amazon is still new to the auto marketplace game. Um, what do you think that they should do to their shopping experience that would just 10x their used EV sales through the platform?

SPEAKER_02 29:14

Yeah, and to be clear, I think it's gonna be a slow grind. I don't think we're like all of a sudden just need all these sales from Amazon okay, 2x, whatever you want to do, 50%. Yeah, but but I mean, I think it's gonna be a steady growth, don't get me wrong. Yeah, um, and it's gonna grow every year and continue to grow. Um, you know, I've been really impressed with them. They have a lot of of really talented people from automotive and cool people, like, you know, they've they've done it, but they also are cool and smart, as you can imagine. And so um, they've got a lot of in-house experience on on all the traditional ways to buy a car. Um, and so I think they're just gonna continue to make it easier to to to pick other products, they'll make it easier to to ship. I mean, it's already gonna be super easy to buy the forms that you fill out and the click, click, click, and all that stuff. I mean, it's the easiest, most frictionless possible experience out of the box. And so, uh, you know, I think it's just gonna be people getting comfortable buying such a high-ticket item. And, you know, we deal with this all the time. I mean, if you are buying it sight on scene and it's used, there's some fear around that. And so, but Amazon has a seven-day return policy with their uh with their autos partners, and so and you have to agree to that, which we're fine with. Yeah, I mean, I've I've returned a lot of cars for a lot of crazy reasons um over the years, and so uh there's there's I think they're just gonna continue to refine that. I remember hearing Bezos speak live in Utah maybe 25 years ago, and he said Amazon's always gonna only have two goals, and that's cheaper prices and faster shipping, because neither one ever goes out of style. And so it'll be interesting to see if they can apply those to automotive. You know, are they do they get really competitive bank loans? Like, can you get 0.99% through Amazon, you know, or you know, really inexpensive warranty coverage that's better than anywhere else for $10 a month added to your loan, or you know, like I said, just shipping that's just built into it. Here's my zip go, da da da, and the car just shows up at my doorstep two days later.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

And I think that those are the kinds of things you're gonna see that towed behind an Amazon Rivian delivery van. I I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

I mean, they they very well could. I I mean, if they start doing that at scale, there's no reason to, I mean, they're the best logistics company on the planet, I think. Yeah. So or one of those.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

So uh, what is in in your view, like wild success for this partnership 12 months from now? What does it look like for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Yeah, I mean, 12 months from now, I'll have um, you know, probably seven dealerships open. And so if each location was shipping, you know, 30 to 40 cars a month out of it. So what is that 200 to 300 cars a month across my seven locations? I think that'd be fantastic. I think that'd be a big so it'd be really interesting to go back a year from now.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

We're gonna see.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

We got you on film now, we're gonna find out. I really have no, I really have no comparable. Um, you know, so it's it's just kind of a wild. I mean, I've done some modeling and stuff, and I mean, it's all additive for me. Uh, you know, yes, you don't get as much of a chance to sell back end products and stuff, but look, man, it's a sale, it's a customer, it's an opportunity to interact with somebody and and have a great pickup and delivery experience. And we're still gonna talk to them on the phone and help them with their charging. And if it makes sense, talk to them about some warranties and stuff. So we'll still have those opportunities. We're gonna call the customer on the phone, but we're not gonna obliterate the Amazon experience and turn it into a high-pitched sales pressure conversation on the phone. I mean, they they are there because they want to avoid that stuff, and so we're gonna be very careful to not ruin that experience for them.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Awesome. All right. Well, I will we'll we're gonna check in 12 months from now and see how this all went. Uh do the do the you know those cooking shows where it's like the before it goes in the oven and the after it comes out of the oven. So I can't wait. We'll see if it's burnt or if it's beautiful. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Thanks for joining this episode of Eevee Insider. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And we will see you next time.