Still in China but heading home tomorrow. Some takeaways from this trip, during which I have interviewed executives from EV startups, established OEs, Tier One suppliers, and dealership groups: Pretty much everyone thinks New Energy Vehicles will represent 20 percent of all passenger vehicle sales by 2025. Indeed, one Tier One supplier I talked with said he thought that was conservative.
These New Energy Vehicles – the majority of which will be BEVs – will be connected, intelligent, and increasingly autonomous. And with the volume of BEVs that will be on the road in China as, essentially, test labs for the technology behind those areas, many of the executives I talked with also feel China will be the world leader in intelligent, connected electric vehicle technology. This technology is coming to the U.S. as well, but without a government mandate to develop those technologies, and smaller scale BEV deployment, it will take longer.
And … on to buy sell topics. Many of you know James Taylor aka JT. Well, he just started a new job at SunTrust Bank in which his mandate is to create and grow the bank’s dealership buy sell business. SunTrust is already a full-service bank with some 400 retail automotive customers. Not many full-service banks (not any others according to JT) are in the buy sell business. What will this entrant mean for the industry? Read more about JT’s move here.
Also, The Rawls Group returns with some areas that may be overlooked during buy sell transaction. Key areas to pay attention to are people, operations, and IT, says Kendall Rawls. Get the details this week.
And of course we have Transaction News.
Enjoy!
