Welcome back to the latest episode of “The Future of Automotive” on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us.
Automotive Ventures just wrapped up our inaugural “Future of Mobility” Conference at the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta.
Since I launched Automotive Ventures, I’ve wanted to conduct a couple of small, high-impact, invite-only conferences per year to discuss the most important issues affecting the Mobility space.
Last week’s conference didn’t disappoint. We had 15 incredible presenters and limited the room to 72 executives from across the industry.
The theme of the conference was the existential threat that the Chinese pose to the legacy automakers.
Here are my key takeaways from last week:
1. The threat of the Chinese is the biggest strategic issue facing the legacy automakers.
2. Vehicle Engineering: Old playbooks no longer work.
3. Chinese new platform development: 1.5 years; Western OEM new platform development: 4.5 years.
4. Hyper-competitive culture within China drives intense innovation.
5. U.S. MSRP inflation and focus on SUVs and full-size pickup trucks have left a huge unfulfilled gap at the bottom end of the market. This is a vulnerability that could be filled by low-priced Chinese vehicles.
6. Automakers will continue to struggle with a key strategic decision: if, when, and how much to commit to a possible EV future.
7. China’s Killer Playbook: Purpose-built Overcapacity.
8. Allowing Chinese automakers into the U.S. would be beneficial to the consumer, but would cause pain: U.S. job losses and squeezing legacy automakers.
9. International markets: Chinese disruption is already happening and provides a guidebook to how things may play out in the U.S.
10. What can legacy OEMs do? Narrow scope, increase efficiency, increase spend.
We’re going to continue to host a couple of these invite-only conferences a year, and we’ll plan to get the next one in early next year, just before NADA.
Stay tuned for more details.
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week, we highlight an interesting company in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and we then take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is Chaiz.
Chaiz is a consumer-facing marketplace that allows users to select the best warranty protection program for their vehicle.
Think of it like a health insurance marketplace, but instead for F&I products for your car.
Consumers can get their vehicle protected against costly breakdowns in four simple steps. And the whole process takes less than 5 minutes.
Consumers can easily and efficiently compare hundreds of plans and prices, right on the Chaiz website.
If you’d like to learn more about Chaiz, you can check them out at www.Chaiz.com
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our DealerFund.
Don’t forget to check out my first book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” and my new book, “The Future of Mobility”, both of which are available on Amazon.
Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
