The Future of Automotive with Charlie Vogelheim, Host of The Flying Car Podcast

Today on Kain & Co., host David Kain, President of Kain Automotive, sits down with Charlie Vogelheim, host pilot of The Flying Car Podcast. In this episode, we’ll find out about Charlie, the realities of flying cars and the future of the retail automotive industry. 

Charlie was editor at Kelley Blue Book until 2005, then joined J.D. Power for a time. Under great minds like Bob Kelley and Dave Power, he saw businesses that wanted to share information with the consumer. His passion, though, is in aviation, hence The Flying Car Podcast. “Going forward with this development of technology, for me, it’s the flying car. When that happens, booyah!, then I can settle down.”

David and Charlie discuss the real-world applications for flying vehicles, which Charlie muses will begin with “emergency, then safety, then commercial” uses. He mentions that for passenger-carrying flying vehicles, training pilots to move two or three people at a time is prohibitive, so autonomous is likely the answer. 

Regarding retail automotive’s future, Charlie remarks about the shift in outlook from pre-COVID, when everyone believed that personal-use vehicles would diminish in popularity in favor of options like mass transit. The chip shortage only added to demand. While some new electric car companies like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and VinFast aim to sell direct to consumer, the reality is that slow adoption rates mean it could take decades before there’s a major shift in the retail auto business, barring something unforeseen. 

Charlie says to the dealerships, “There’s a lot going on. It may be autonomous, it may be flying, but there’s a lot of people talking about things. Whether it’s infrastructure or lane changing – you can’t drive down Market Street anymore in San Francisco – or whatever it is… I encourage the dealers, as they become these corporate entities… you gotta get a seat at the table.

“As things change, be part of the conversation.”

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