Speaker 1  0:00  
Coming up on episode 299 of wheel bearings. It's an all interview show, because we're taking the week off because Sam and his wife are hanging out on a beach in the middle of the Pacific, and given Robin Nicole some time off. So we've got collection of interviews that we did during the 2023, New York Auto Show, some of which have already been published on the Patreon feed for those that are supporting the show. And there's also a couple of new ones that haven't been heard yet. So first up, we've got Tom Somerville, the Marketing Manager for Ford electric enthusiast vehicles. So I'm here with

Sam Abuelsamid  0:37  
Tom Somerville, general manager for dizziest vehicles at Ford. And among your responsibilities, I believe is the Mustang Maki, right,

Tom Somerville  0:46  
exactly. It's a Mustang Maki, and working on future vehicles as well. An enthusiast space.

Sam Abuelsamid  0:52  
Electric enthusiast vehicle,

Tom Somerville  0:54  
only electric enthusiast vehicles.

Sam Abuelsamid  0:56  
Okay. That sounds interesting. Can you give us any hints? So when are we gonna see an electric Mustang ever?

Tom Somerville  1:04  
Unfortunately, we cannot talk about future vehicles. But just so you know that we are very committed to maintaining our presence in the overall enthusiast space.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:11  
Okay. That's good to hear. You know, I think the Maki's been a great first entry for Ford into that. And I think when, when it first came out when it was first announced, or hinted at actually, the Detroit Auto Show in 2019. And there was there was some trepidation. But once we actually saw it, drive it and everything I think a lot of people came around on it. How's How's Marquis doing in the market?

Tom Somerville  1:37  
So far? Mark is doing very well, you know, and along with that when 50 helped propel us to be the number two Evie manufacturer last year, you know, we're seeing incredibly strong demand for Mustang Marquis, we're seeing that over 70% of our customers are missing maki are new to Ford. So it's helping grow our reach, bring more people into the showroom. And generally speaking, maybe 6% of all of our Mustang maki customers are first time buyers. So really showing that this is a product that is helping us bring new people to the brand new people to the energy type. And it really is an amazing compliment for the traditional Mustaine

Sam Abuelsamid  2:17  
really strong first, almost two years now since starting deliveries and sales came out yesterday for q1 and slowed down a little bit from last year. Is that more of a supply issue or demand issue,

Tom Somerville  2:39  
I said, you know, it's very hard to look at the first quarter as being indicative of overall sales, the, you know, the Mustang maki plant was down for over six weeks as part of a refresh that we're doing at the plant. So a large part of that was we spent a large part of the year just not producing any vehicles. And part of that is because we're very quickly expanding production. And by the end of this year, we'll be at a 270,000 unit per year run rate. So that's between North America and China. Right? That is just for our plan. That's the global number

Sam Abuelsamid  3:09  
270,000 a year just from quite a lot. Yes,

Tom Somerville  3:13  
I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to double check on that. So you know, we there are several periods of which we just went through and where the plant was down, which is heavily contributing to, to that overall, less than last year sales number,

Sam Abuelsamid  3:26  
right. And, you know, obviously, you know, when you got production challenges like that, because you're shifting things around so you can ramp up to supply more here, you're gonna see some temporary, hopefully temporary,

Tom Somerville  3:40  
exactly Nino and lightning, the Rev. C has gone through a similar shutdown and they're going to have another one as well. I mean, this this is all part of the overall ramping that's taking place, you know, so, you know, the overall goal for the end of this year for all of our EVs is to be at a 600,000 per unit run rate. And this is part of the $50 billion commitment that Ford is made to accelerate us towards this orange by future so ended this year key milestone will be in total that is globally all products 600,000 unit run rate and then by 2026 to be at 2 million unit one way across all

Sam Abuelsamid  4:13  
that's that's a lot of ease. One of the things that's going to be changing this year for maki a little bit later for lightning is the the battery situation. Currently you're using all nickel manganese, cobalt batteries, and MC batteries. But you're gonna start using LFP batteries or the standard range Mustang this year.

Tom Somerville  4:35  
Yeah, exactly. So we are going to be migrating later this year to LFP batteries and for lightning it will be in 2024 calendar year. You know, they're really focused on what the use cases are for customers. So LFPS will be our standard range battery only and NCM will be used for high performance high use batteries for say you know the maximum range because of the higher energy density and MCM From a use case perspective, people who are using their vehicle for daily use, they need to be charging every single day. You know, LFP is a better chemistry. So that'd be the standard range configuration. And then again, for people who want a GT or a high series f150, and they need to be towing or hauling the NCM is a better choice for them. But from the customer's point of view, they're not going to be 100 Seeing the chemistry difference, but they are going to be selecting them purely based off of performance versus, you know, performance slash range, or is it regular usage? You know, another benefit of LP is being able to regularly charge to 100%. Well, we recommend only charging to 80%. For and seeing different use cases. Yes, coming to Marquis later this year, and then f150 Lightning next year.

Sam Abuelsamid  5:43  
Yeah, that's one of the great advantages of LFP batteries are durability, exactly. They can withstand a lot more abuse, going from zero to 100%, on a daily basis of needed.

Tom Somerville  5:56  
Exactly. And you know, that's also key, as we see more of our customers using EVs as their only vehicle, that level of durability is key to those people. But then there's some other customers who, you know, have an Eevee as a second vehicle, and they have different use cases, and then LLP might not be the best case. And that's where you might prefer an MCN. Again, under the guise of is a performance vehicle like a Maki GT, or it's one of the extended range packs on either lightning or Digi monkey. So

Sam Abuelsamid  6:22  
one of the things that's happened over the past year in lightning, and to be fair, a lot of other EVs from other manufacturers as well, as we've seen some price increases due to challenges with the battery, or the battery material costs, cost of lithium, nickel and so on, with the shift to adopting some LFP Is there a possibility we might start to see some, maybe some more affordable variants of marquee and realignment showing up?

Tom Somerville  6:50  
Hey, that's, that's one of the intentions as well, one of the other intentions of bringing multiple chemistries, right, being able to diversify away from, you know, high cost, you know, rare commodities that you find some other chemistries. And so ostensibly, this will be part of our ability to make more affordably V's help drive adoption, as well as help them, you know, on our path to achieving an 8% EBIT, which is one of the other goals that we've stated, you know, some of the cost changes are, you know, a function of market conditions, commodity prices. And, you know, we've seen that it goes both ways, right. So we took some price adjustments up for Mustang Maki, and then as market conditions have changed, and we've found cost savings and other in other areas, were able to bring the pricing down as well,

Sam Abuelsamid  7:35  
with the with the reconfiguration of the assembly plant, being able to get more skill. And is that going to potentially coincide. And I don't expect you to talk to Give me specifics at this point. But let coincided with perhaps maybe some other changes in the vehicle to help improve performance, reduce costs, make it more affordable.

Tom Somerville  8:00  
So unfortunately, we can't talk about future products. But you know, you know, we are committed to maintaining this always on mindset of continually bringing improvements. Now you'll see that person form us through some of our infotainment screens. Some improvements we brought to Blue cruise, specifically a booth is 1.2. But from a hardware standpoint, you know, again, applying always on there will be improvements coming, there'll be changes coming to best suit what customer needs are.

Sam Abuelsamid  8:24  
Speaking of infotainment earlier last late last week, big announcement from one of your competitors, that they were going to be removing support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from their EVs starting later this year. Obviously, that's something that Ford has had in their vehicles for quite a long time. Got it today. Does Ford have a stance and I don't know if that's something you can comment on. Whether you'll continue to support the smartphone projection in your future vehicles,

Tom Somerville  8:58  
any smartphone projection we know is something that's extremely important to our customers, it's gotten to a point where some Evie consumers are shopping based on availability of it. You know, in the Mustang Maki, we have a 15.5 inch center screen. And we one of the largest projections of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. And, and and again, it is something that in the latest software updates, we made that projection even larger. So it is something that we know customers care about it. And it's something that based on our customer feedback, we certainly want to continue including and also improving on in the future.

Sam Abuelsamid  9:29  
I'm curious, I don't know if you have any telemetry data about the way consumers actually use their vehicles for things like that. Or maybe survey data, do you find that consumers actually do use the projection system as opposed to the embedded

Tom Somerville  9:48  
infotainment? Yeah, you know, I can't give you specific data on that. Although we do know that customers absolutely love it and what do you find our customers who use it, use it all the time. It is something that they cannot live without. And again, it can was back to the point where we've seen customers who are shopping for vehicles based on availability and sometimes so you know, for some people absolutely love it use it all the time, and other people care less about it. But it's become an extremely more increasingly more important feature for the customers who do highly value.

Sam Abuelsamid  10:16  
Anything else about the current generation for EDS that people should be thinking about? Want to share right now, obviously, can't talk about the future products yet. But hopefully soon. Anything else we talked about the current generation,

Tom Somerville  10:34  
you know, really excited to as I was mentioning some of these over the air updates coming, this is one of the first major ones for Mustang Maki, where you now have some improvements in the center screens and accessibility improvements as well as you blue cruise 1.2. So as you probably aware, we launched with blue cruise which which enables hands free driving and pre designated roads. And then in December, we started rolling out an update that allows you to make hands return. So by activating the turn signal, the car will now switch lanes in a hands free environment. And the car also is able to bias itself in its way. So when it senses a vehicle next to it will nudge it over in the other direction in order to

Sam Abuelsamid  11:11  
that's a very handy feature to have for passing a big truck.

Tom Somerville  11:17  
Exactly. So you know, these are the sorts of features which customers we've heard from customers that they're looking for another example that is we now have a dedicated camera button in the center screen. So you know small things that customers have asked for, and that we've now started to deploy over the air to our customers who have purchased our vehicle. So you know, just again, this commitment to from a software perspective, maintaining is always on capability, listening and reacting, you know, in a quick timeframe to customer feedback.

Sam Abuelsamid  11:43  
And when one can for example, maki customers expect to get that 1.2 liters up. So some of them are even getting

Tom Somerville  11:49  
it it depends on a multitude of factors, including, are they already receiving automatic updates, which is something we encourage all of our customers to do. So there's a couple of different factors that will determine when but the updates already started several months ago. So they are in the process of rolling out to our customers and blue cruise 1.2 come standard on every 23 model year that's already built. So so it's been from the plan for several months and enrolling at OTA to everyone else in process right now as

Sam Abuelsamid  12:16  
well. Okay, great. Thank you very much, Tom.

Tom Somerville  12:17  
Thank you. Nice meeting you.

Sam Abuelsamid  12:18  
Thank you as well. Next up is the call talking with Angela paida, the CMO, the Chief Marketing Officer of Hyundai America.

Nicole Wakelin  12:29  
Alright everyone, I'm here at the New York Auto Show with Angela's paida who is the Chief Marketing Officer. I gotta write because her badge literally just says HMA executive, which does not. So we're going to talk a little bit about marketing and Hyundai. So the first thing I actually want to ask you about is something that you guys just showed off the Disney 100 years of magic. Yes. Tell me a little bit about that ionic five. How did that come to be?

Angela Zepeda  12:54  
Yeah, so that started with the partnership we have with Disney. And this is the second time we've worked with Disney, who's a great partner of ours. We started working with them a couple of years ago when we launched the Tucson, all new Tucson in 2021. And that was a fantastic partnership. And so they came back to us when it was coming up to be the 100th anniversary of Disney, which is pretty special on their end. And so we're the auto exclusive partner. And so we work together and that's what we love about our partnership is that it's not an off the shelf, you know, for logo here, you know, do a little, you know, commercial there, it's really working together to collaborate, collaboratively put our two brands together. And one of the things we wanted to do was to do a special edition, which we had never done before with another partner and it's something Disney has never done. Oh, it was actually Hyundai engineers and designers working with Disney's Imagineers. And together we work to put together a special edition ionic five, it's the platinum edition. And it's a really nice version of the ionic five there'll be 1000 of them and it has really beautiful cues that have you know, hidden things with Disney in it not over the top. But it's a beautiful way they think celebrate Disney and I think the beautiful thing is that we have also in Hyundai but it's a nice collaboration between the two brands and so it's really special so we're excited

Nicole Wakelin  14:23  
assuming you've taken a look at it and seen some of the details is there any particular thing because there's a lot of little hidden Mickey's and stuff is there one thing I know you think this is super cool, like a favorite feature for all the Disney cues and

Angela Zepeda  14:33  
well there's there's a couple things on on the show car that unfortunately we can't bring to the production car. Like for example there's the LED lights in the front. Yeah. Which we can't do for safety reasons. The production car but that was actually really cool. Yeah, but we do love the wheels and that's a very Disney thing is to always do a little hidden Mickey. So it's got the Mickey ear. Yeah, that's Spin designed into that wheel. And so we love that. And so it's but there's a lot of cool little things inside the interior. And you'll get some Disney sounds, the ambient lighting. So it's just it's got some nice things.

Nicole Wakelin  15:12  
Well, the wheels make it into the actual vehicle. So the wheels are okay, wheels are Yay. So we'll have hidden Mickey wheel. Yeah, and

Angela Zepeda  15:18  
I love the color I think the color is, is it's actually a special color. Okay, it's gravity, gold, it's a matte color. And also the interior is an interior, you can't get on the car in a standard version. So okay, you know, overall, I think is going to be something that I think fans are gonna love.

Nicole Wakelin  15:35  
And what do you think makes Disney a good partner for Hyundai? Why does that work?

Angela Zepeda  15:41  
We love it. Because it's, of course, it's an iconic American brand. It's a family brand. And it's one that's genuine and true about making these big emotional moments with consumers. And that's what we want to do at Hyundai, we want to make an emotional connection to our brand platform is it's your journey. And so we just feel like together, we have this nice meld of what we want to do about, you know, really interacting with our consumers in a genuine and authentic way. And that's what Disney also does. And so together, we feel like we have a nice symbiotic relationship. And so we're very happy on both ends. And so we're very excited about round two, and this partnership will last through the end of the year. Okay. And so this is just the beginning.

Nicole Wakelin  16:28  
Oh, that's exciting. So other stuff is coming. Yes. I can't wait to see it. He's just I'm a huge Disney fan. So to see a Disney Car is kind of fun for me. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So you had a big day today in New York, you guys, you guys want a few things from the world car, or just a couple of little important huge awards that you won this year. So it's big day, what is your plan? You know, for the ionic six having just come out, we all just drove that I had a chance to drive it. What's your plan in terms of marketing? How are you going to get the public to continue to go in on the idea of EVs are something I can get today? And I should consider today? Because it's a fantastic car. How are you going to market that to people?

Angela Zepeda  17:07  
You know, the ionic platform has been really interesting for us. We had an ionic five last year. And where we were a year ago, and maybe even, let's say a year before that. We weren't really marketing widely that we had all fuel power trains. And a lot of that had to do with the fact that we were being very regimented about cafe and ZEV requirements. So we were doing a little more regionalized marketing in those states where we were really having to hit those requirements. But as it was accelerating very quickly, that Evie was going to be here and going to be here to stay. We elevated that to more of a national campaign. And so at the same time, we were coming out with the all electric platform where we weren't just doing a derivative of electric into an already established model. So it was important for us to get not only the information out that what is electric and how does that work, but that was coming in a really special platform. And I think we're Americans were at that time we're in a Tesla, for us was an interesting breakthrough, because it was giving you a version of a car that was taken away what I think Evie was really missing before, which was, you know, you were sort of giving up range. Um, you're giving up I think, a lot of content. And a lot of inconvenience, I think came with those vehicles. But then Tesla came in was giving you range, it was giving you performance, and it was giving you everything and more you wanted in a car, but it came at a pretty high price tag. And ionic five is the thing that sort of gave you what you might have gotten in a Tesla three, but at a really affordable price. And I think that's the beautiful thing about Hyundai as a company, it sort of gives you accessibility to things that maybe was affordable only to those who could afford it. And here we came now with Ionic six in a little bit different package in even more range, but really fast charging. And so I think that's really fantastic. I think we still have a job to do to let people know that it's really a lifestyle. And it's it's pretty easy to own an Eevee. Of course, on the coasts, it's really a lot of infrastructures in place. But it's getting pretty accelerated. And there's things you can do to put things in your home to help you have an easier lifestyle with Eevee. But again, I think that acceleration is becoming really faster to adopt. And the price is coming down. And so we see people getting really excited about it. And you know, we're all in on a UV so we're excited about what the future holds.

Nicole Wakelin  19:37  
Now, do you think because you have two really great cars and the iron five and ionic six they're great EVs are all the things you said are 100% true that sort of giving people what they missed in the Tesla experiences gives them a better car experience. Do you think that there needs to be sort of are you trying to just sell people the ionic five and six are you trying to sell at electric lifestyle in your marketing? Like how much are you focusing on saying, you can own an Eevee. And you can live with it every day as opposed to just you have to live in the Hyundai, like how much of it needs to be an education,

Angela Zepeda  20:10  
it's a little bit of both. So, you know, we'd love them to pick the Hyundai. But we also know there's barriers to break down. So even on our Hyundai usa.com website, and now we're starting to feed this content to all of our dealer websites. It's a lot of, you know, educational content information. I mean, we still get questions. And it comes through on our social feed, you know, like, Can I drive my Eevee in the rain? You know, what happens when I wash it? And, you know, they sound like, they're funny questions, but they're really honest questions. So we have to help people understand, you know, what it what it means to only Evie. I, you know, people are asked, like, you know, what's charging, like, you know, I hear I have to have an app, you know, how do I do payment? You know, what's, what does free charging mean? What happens after that, you know, and so we have to just break down all those barriers. And so that education is part of the OEMs responsibility, because that's part of the whole lifestyle, like you said, so we're just trying to answer the questions in the most simplified way. So it doesn't feel overwhelming to the customer. And so a lot of that is on our website, and we're trying to educate our dealers as well. So when the customer goes there, the information is available to them. And, you know, it's on the responsibility, I think of the entire industry to make sure that the information is is easily digestible to the consumer. So it doesn't feel like it's as scary or unattainable as I think a lot of people feel like it is,

Nicole Wakelin  21:37  
I agree with you that there needs to be an education every time I have an Eevee as a press vehicle, I get a lot of questions about whether I can use it and during the winter, because I'm in New England, exactly. Pictures of it plugged in in the cold and everyone thought I was gonna burn my house down. I'm like, No, it's okay. It's okay with the snow. Right? So and it sounds funny, but people are genuinely afraid because you wouldn't plug a toaster in outside of the snow, why can you do it with your car? And it's okay, exactly. People get a little confused. Do you find that? Like they're getting that information a lot from your website, but they're also having to go to your dealers? Is there a significant attempt to get the dealers in on this so that they're able to answer these? What might seem like basic questions in a way that people understand how living with an Eevee is?

Angela Zepeda  22:17  
Yeah, the dealers play a huge role in this. In fact, the dealers who sell our ionic lines, specifically, they have to be certified dealers. So there's training that's involved, they have to have the information on their websites. And that's because we want them to be armed with the right information. So when it comes to customer comes into their dealership, they're not, you know, leaving them sort of like, empty handed with like, well, I don't know, you know, it would be terrible. So if you're selling Ionic, you have to have the right information at the tip of their hand. So we're providing all that content to them. Our field staff is training them, and we're just arming them with as much information as we can and doing it in a way that makes it easy for them to translate that to the customer. So it's an ongoing process for sure.

Nicole Wakelin  23:03  
No, when you say you're training the dealers, what is that? Is that everybody at a dealership where they'll just be certain people who are like, Okay, we know how to use EVs and we're sort of certified EVs, are you making sure that whole dealership experience for our customer?

Angela Zepeda  23:15  
We're open to the whole dealership experience? Because you know, a customer may interact with anybody at a dealership? Yeah, as the guy that does the final walk around with the car, but it's the guy who's selling it. And, you know, there could be questions that come up even in the f&i office when the transaction is happening. So you just never know when that question may come up from the customer. So hopefully, it is everyone at the dealership that at least has the basic knowledge level, to answer the question and or if someone is, you know, not able to answer the question that they have at least some kind of digital device in the palm of their hands or quick in to grab, and they could quickly look that up so that way they can get that customer that information. So we're doing all we can to make that very rapid. So that way, you know, they seem as knowledgeable as possible in the moment. It's not perfect, but it's getting better and better every day.

Nicole Wakelin  24:06  
It is excellent. Well, thank you so much for taking some time to chat with me. Thank you and congratulations on your big world. Thank

Angela Zepeda  24:11  
you. We're very we're very excited. Thank you.

Sam Abuelsamid  24:15  
And then we've got Kristian Munia and Jim Morrison from Jeep. All right, so let's start off. Jeep has had an amazing ride over the past decades, the growth of the brand has had the Wrangler and as with every major brand, there's always usually one model that is kind of the heart and soul of that brand. Ford Mustang, Corvette, Jeep Wrangler, Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. Much hail wagoneer to the really wranglers the one that that when people think of Jeep Wrangler, the original and it's been interesting the last couple of years, you've had probably had something resembling real competition in that in that segment. And I'm curious your thoughts about what it's like having some some competition and from what you're seeing now within 24 wrangler come in impacts of that competition, how competition is making everybody better.

Jim Morrison  25:26  
I think competition is good. And I think one of our driving forces has always been our customers. And we listen to our customers as they move into them. And a lot of the things that you see, you know, illustrated with the new Wrangler, more capability, more technology and more company, there's all stuff that they've been asking for. But for sure, it's been helping stimulate along by the by the competition. So at the end of the day, the product keeps getting better. If you look at the the number of innovation interventions we made with with Wrangler. In the last few years, it's been at record paces, you know, we've added 35 inch tires, we've added more capability, we've added a 20th anniversary, we've added a four by E, we've added a 392. There's a lot going on in the Wrangler world. And today's announcement is just the icing on the cake of continual evolution of the product driven by our customers.

Christian Meunier  26:18  
Because the simulation, the next restoration, we see we have a duty, which is to make landlords the best of the best of the best, always the icon of the brand. And the fact that there are new players in the segment in the simulation. The good news is at the end of the day, it also provides more visibility to that segment, more people are coming into the sector, they understand that we've been talking about mobility for so many years, right? It's been like a fashionable word. Mobility, when it's selling, mobility is

Sam Abuelsamid  26:51  
selling in a very different form.

Christian Meunier  26:57  
We don't tell our clients, we sell a dream with a lifestyle, obviously, with mobility, but mobility that gets you anywhere, whenever you want. And I think it's a good thing. No competition is good. We think it's very stimulating. And most of the changes on the 24 that you have seen as a background was already in the pipeline. The one thing that is us is a little bit more stimulation to go faster, to make it happen quicker, because because you have to condition you need to stay the best of the best. So you're going to do it.

Sam Abuelsamid  27:30  
So obviously one of the things that Jeep Wrangler figure now can Cherokee was doing faster than anyone else in the off road segment is electrification. With the form IE, Wrangler, and now that Cherokee you got more coming next couple of years, can you talk a little bit more about that kind of work where the Jeep brand goes here.

Christian Meunier  27:57  
So we've been we're very committed to win a competition. And I think that the magic of four by E is you make the four by four better. We make the jeeps better was more by you build the best you ever you have more capability off road, you can drive in silence in nature. Why not? And at the end of the day, the customers and racing, we started with a Wrangler. For the two years ago, we've been since then number one featured in North America, we introduced the rancher eco by the end of last year, number two was on Cherokee North America. So that means we have the two number one and number two slots very quickly. Because because the HEV because of what it delivers to customers, that ability to drive 20 to 25 miles, your electric. And if you charge and you commute, if you do a little bit of off road, you can do it through electric or hybrid load. You have no anxiety, Rachel efficiency, which is not that easy with a Wrangler. Without it. I think we have all the benefits that are pretty obvious now we're bringing them in a pure electric next year, with the Recon and the wagon in your ass. It's gonna take you to another level. And the first reaction of the public is very, very awesome. You know, he was in Moab, Utah, and maybe you want to give them some perspective. We get feedback from the press feedback from the customers. And little vital people are getting convinced that that's pretty cool stuff

Jim Morrison  29:31  
is leasing for us like her she said is and we always want to be the best and Google Drive capability. And now for BI E is being recognized as the best. We've had people come up to us on the trails and say, Wow, I think is more capable than a gas running around. And it has an incomplete silence. And when you do that, take your doors off and your top off. It's it's a unique experience that people are drawn to in addition to electrification so it's really a unique space for us

Sam Abuelsamid  29:59  
to do accepted Share of sales that you got with that version.

Christian Meunier  30:07  
No, because I think the execution of the system is awesome, works really well. And we had no doubt that we could build a better jeep. At the end of the day, the only thing that was a little bit of a challenge was get people's mindset wrapped around it. But think about it, we launched it two years ago, we started selling 15 20% of the sales of Wrangler, which he was for me. Now at the end of quarter one, we're 38% was Wrangler is going to keep picking up. The second half will be well above the Wrangler run Cherokee after just four months already at 18. So it's creeping up because demand is there. Because people realize that you have the VA performance is something really cool. You don't have a bad feel about the environment or not not as much the upgrade fuel economy. And honestly, I drive one, I drive a Wrangler Rubicon. I drove 3000 miles, I wanted to get station three. What happened? I had a VA. So there's a lot of good video, I feel, I love it because of the torque you have is a lot of fun it is it can be. And if you go silence, take the doors off, take the top off, you're in nature, basically hear nothing but the first time driving,

Sam Abuelsamid  31:42  
or my last year in Texas with the engine off all yours tires, punching this definitely

Christian Meunier  31:54  
scraping. It's quite an experience, pretty much always at the Rubicon lecture. As a customer I was. And I had a few hardcore guys follow me. And not the youngest generation. And these guys really didn't maybe. And then I said, I'm here. Try it. So they did their Lacroix. And then I said, Okay, come over, do the same thing. It doesn't take two minutes for them to realize that

Tom Somerville  32:32  
for two minutes, especially when you're calling somebody

Unknown Speaker  32:36  
better,

Christian Meunier  32:39  
much more precise, much smoother. No need to push the throttle. It's very subtle, very subtle. So it's, I think there is no inconvenience, there is no drawback with it.

Sam Abuelsamid  32:53  
So with the popularity of four by eight, has that given you added confidence about the transition to the popularity and more of a given use an added calmer confidence that when you start launching your battery electric models next year that they will do well, you know that they're going to be accepted by the public as well. What do you think?

Jim Morrison  33:20  
I think for sure, I think one thing about the Jeep customers is they've always been looking towards the best off road capability. And what we've proven with our mobile E is more by E is the new four by four. And that's being understood more and more than that's the best. So this will be taking it up for lunch.

Christian Meunier  33:38  
I think the Recon I had to bet anything, we'll have a year waiting list before startup production. So that's the confidence level have maybe I'm going to be continuing the feedback we had from clinics, the feedback we've had we we've shown it to the dealers last week in Vegas. It's overwhelming. I think the fun that that product is going to deliver. The range is going to be decent, the fun that people will have. I think it's not going to be for everyone. You know, I think we're gonna do extremely well. I'm confident chief iconic qualifies as a number one electrified SUV brand in the world. Because we're gonna have an electrified offering in every single nameplate, from wrangler to radiator. And the system works. It works on road, it works for daily drive, it works for commute, and it works very well. And I think we're gonna keep ramping up without pushing. Without pushing. I think it's a pretty obvious thing that happens. The dealers are starting to really be convinced of that. When you start driving it doesn't take long That's right, you're like many systems like that and make you less fortunate to

Sam Abuelsamid  35:08  
have the opportunity to drive a lot of different EVs, I totally agree with you. And the thing that most drivers have never been an Eevee. Maybe 2 million EVs in North America today, and there's 290 million registered vehicles, the most people have never even experienced that. It's going to be interesting, as more and more people get into these different types of vehicles. In Europe, we also have another EP that's already on the market. And how's the how's the responsibility lagging?

Christian Meunier  35:47  
So easily, which is really our number one marketing event in Europe is almost 50% of our sales in Europe. For a lot of reasons, obviously, that's where we produce. That's where we really put a lot of emphasis a lot of resources behind it. It's also

Sam Abuelsamid  36:02  
a market that is amenable to smaller vehicles like that,

Christian Meunier  36:05  
as well. And to give you a perspective is 2022. We are we were number one and number two, on the LED so low emission vehicle PGV. And Bev included, she was number one brand in electrification, number one unit sale

Sam Abuelsamid  36:26  
was something you would normally think about was he

Christian Meunier  36:30  
were number one ahead of Tesla ahead of anything else. So when people try it, they understand it. And I think it's a really good technology to bridge until the whole world is ready for pure electrification with charging station around the corner with quick charge and everything else. I think Kobe II was plugged in the very good rich. And I think what is very clear for Jeep and I think what, why I believe we have a very strong plan is we're going to have several a list of different technology for customer support, where we one another be applicable, maybe in the Midwest for a period of time, because they're not enough charging stations, a grid and everything else people live we moved. He will have some HCV. And we'll have some that will between now and 2030, we'll have a wide spectrum about freedom of choice is important in American people to try something because they don't want to ever needs 30 will be 50%. That's a hell of a commitment that we really need to do that. So you mentioned charges,

Sam Abuelsamid  37:52  
you're already doing charging locations. As we start to watch, not to currently go to level, I think there are solar power.

Is there any thought to try to do some sort

of battery pack to enable the pastor.

Christian Meunier  38:27  
Three with solar is not currently available. 2030 minute, full charge, solar doesn't work. Level two works well. And we're making some progress, not as fast as we would like. We'd love to have them everywhere on the trail. But we're doing it.

Jim Morrison  38:47  
We're continuing to look for innovative ways to get to the level threes. Our dealers are working hard now as well.

Christian Meunier  38:53  
So we'll have every dealer will have level threes. Obviously the level three is going to be a lot more common than it is today. Obviously on the coast of the US prefer more. But you know, the federal government was really pushing hard on it and the grid is going to be available in two to three years for the nation. On the trail, our responsibility is to do as much as possible for people to be able to enjoy the recon, we'll do the Rubicon Trail, one chart. That's our commitment engineering at the Mission to the west and they will do it they won't run out of juice at the end of the trail they'll be able to go back to a charging station

Sam Abuelsamid  39:34  
do the whole trail and Daniel Jones

Unknown Speaker  39:38  
was the mission

Sam Abuelsamid  39:42  
requirement if you're going to build that vehicle

Unknown Speaker  39:45  
or have to eat any

Jim Morrison  39:46  
biggest thing and if you can get through the Rubicon they can do it.

Christian Meunier  39:49  
Rubicon is very slow but he's burns a lot of electricity right

Sam Abuelsamid  40:01  
All right. Anything else about what's what's happening with jeep. Going back to the where we started with the Wrangler, Wrangler, we've added new features, floating axle availability from the factory, factory, which availability. Listening to your, your customers and what their needs are, and really incorporating some of those kinds of the trails off road, keep going and talk a little bit more about those updates.

Jim Morrison  40:33  
I think that's a great illustration of listening to our customers. You know, when you look at a lot of customers, off road rigs, now, they've got iPads set up. So they can use the mapping technology is so good, they can use the map to follow the trails, if they don't know where the trail is. So they've even got an icy four stream today, they still put a big iPad up to call the trail. So we listen to them, and we put a call screen and a big trail. So you can actually do that same time, you can monitor pitch and roll the clip over to a camera, all the steps that they need are there on the trail, it's all there in a nice big integrated screen. So you don't have to download the maps. You don't have to worry about you know, getting a trial and not having your map isn't downloaded. We download all badger monitors trails right in there. And it's really nice. It's that's a good example of listening to our customers and doing what they were doing and now making it easier for them.

Sam Abuelsamid  41:26  
And the factory, which I think is availability is a really cool feature. I think having myself gotten myself stuck in a competitors vehicle. Being able to find somebody with a cell service was a huge, huge help. I think people will really appreciate that one. For those that you

Jim Morrison  41:49  
well, you know, what it does is it gives them a level of freedom, right? I mean, the that is me just knowing that you get yourself unstuck you enter into a different mindset, right? Because you're not panicked about I'm not sure what's at the end of the trail in the middle of the trail. This gives you a freedom to go into it. And when you

Unknown Speaker  42:09  
get stuck, you get stuck

Sam Abuelsamid  42:14  
on something you can wrap the cable around.

Jim Morrison  42:19  
Also issue here when you pull up those competitors.

Sam Abuelsamid  42:22  
Files pulled out my ideas.

Christian Meunier  42:25  
Ah, Cherokee, Oh, nice. My lawyers are not allowing me to share this. But you will see a picture in the presentation. When there was a ice storm in Texas, in January, it was all over the news that Jeep Wrangler owners are on a mission to get people out of the ditch. And there is a there's a video of a gladiator fully semi obviously it's not official growing capacity is. So

Sam Abuelsamid  43:07  
it's all about the community

Christian Meunier  43:21  
what these guys doing, obviously, I think, four years only 22 here. And he's interested all these people, whether SDG Safari and all the things that our customers requests are usually pretty fair. And Jim is constantly pushing me to get results or is about how do we make our ship better? How do we listen and deliver to them? And I think we do 24 I think we raise the bar

Sam Abuelsamid  44:01  
it's not just about making it better in general but making it a better cheap,

Speaker 6  44:05  
political one cheapest and most exactly, sure. Exactly.

Jim Morrison  44:11  
Native energy any

Sam Abuelsamid  44:11  
any final thoughts?

Jim Morrison  44:14  
I think it's great to see. You know, the only other piece that I would say is the demand for Jeep is an all time high people can't wait to get hers and freedom and adventure is on top of a lot of Americans minds right now and but better brands to capitalize on it the Jeep Thank you very much.

Sam Abuelsamid  44:35  
Thank you. Now we've got Mike COBOL talking about the Ram 1500 Rev and midsize trucks and other stuff happening at RAM to bring brands she knew them and RAM and especially RAM show the revolution pops up in January and now You got the production intense version, correct that. And there's a lot of similar, there's also a lot of this different from that concept. Or we start off with that, you know, go over some of the what, what, what, what, what is making it to the production ramp 1500 Rap and what's what's special

Mike Koval  45:20  
was, as you pointed out, we made a splash at CES in January where we revealed the revolution concept, which was really a glimpse into the future of the brand. And I made a commitment that everything that you see from the RAM brand, from this moment forward will somewhere be a direct descendant of the revolution concept. It's kind of our manifesto is our ethos, right. And I think as we're launching the actual production ramp 15, under rep today, here in New York, the first thing you see is the influence from the exterior styling, especially on the front end, to that tuning fork design, very sophisticated, but modern, Rem that at least this is the future of the I would say the brand, look, especially for me, very muscular stance, in terms of a lot of the features and innovative the specs that you saw on the concept. The team right now I have a technical solution for 90% of everything you saw on that truck lifecycle management. So we're putting in Romac roadmap together now. So you will start to bring in those some of those features that you saw on the truck little by little over the lifecycle of the actual production vehicle itself. So that's concept gives you a lot of latitude to dream, it's a push, Will everything make it to market? Maybe not, but just shows I think some of the spirit, Ram and the things that we're thinking about, and how Rambo hopefully can make your life a little bit better. But you saw this this performance statistics today. And I know we've we've caught some Barb's and a you're late, all that stuff. But I found in life, it's often at the challenge is how you react to the challenge. And with full knowledge of what our competitors have announced. We've able to push past a lot of those performance characteristics. So whether it's 14,000 pounds of towing 2700 pounds of payload. 500 miles of range. And this is the production version. Right? We start producing that kind of next year.

Sam Abuelsamid  47:11  
Yeah. And being first, Apple didn't go to the first iPod, first mp3 player, great point on the first smartphone. And they did okay.

Unknown Speaker  47:24  
I didn't know.

Sam Abuelsamid  47:26  
Sadly, I did not do as well as

some of the specs on this truck. I guess, from the conversations that he had last year, you started the brand revolution program talking to customers. Look, what did you find from talking to customers were the things that they wanted to see in an electric very simple,

Mike Koval  47:49  
very simple. And we talked how many cities with up to 25 or 30, I think over the course of the year. And I thought that was really cool. And that was one of the things that we wanted to do to differentiate ourselves and web designers are designers and engineers without actually having these little fireside chats. If I were to steal all of the feedback down, it's one thing, hey, we'll come along with it. There were some that said never ever, ever, ever, ever forget it. I don't want that. You know what that was? Okay. So the one thing they said, Look, we're willing to give you a try, we'll come along. But I will not compromise on the things that matter to me the most, which historically, were towing the payload, and more importantly, in the future arrange in charge time. That was it. That was a central message. Hey, there are some things about styling and Adel make a spaceship and all this stuff. But fundamentally, trucks don't need to do truck phase. And that's why not only hitting that feedback, but also with full knowledge of what the competition is doing. We were able to make some tweaks and you saw some of the performance characteristics today on the actual production truck. So

Sam Abuelsamid  48:50  
here is from the from those conversations were there significant or were there were a significant number of people that you talked to that had already driven an electric truck at that point there were not many out there but there was one and a small number of rubber bands with the

Mike Koval  49:11  
answer is no for that very reason there just weren't that many now the market has become more mature in the last year or so with with some of the other guys coming online but what fundamentally that that was it Look, I don't want to electrification cannot be a compromise or a limitation. The trucks still I still needed to do the things I wanted to do. And I think ran has if you think about when we watched it, I saw it but look at that every time that we only ran 15 We launched an 18 Isn't it monitor we called the DTS early that's a complete game changer. Right and handling the luxuriousness of the interior of course then we had the 12 inch touchscreen which I mean that was that was a game changer. Now it's table stakes right? But everything that our fans have come to know and love from ramp the comfort, the style, the ride and handling capital that we stay true to who we are just now electrify. And there are more, by the way, we're not done yet. So as wonderful as this day is today, we've prepared for preparing for for yours, it's all about battery electric truck, to battery types, right? 168 to 29. Three, by the way, I think 350 is right in the heart of the market is two, three and 400 miles range, right in the heart of market, but it ranges you think 500 miles, right. But with all of that said, we're not done yet. And that's why we affirm today that we're also gonna have a ramp, rev x r, which we're saving for. So we're on that to follow very, very soon.

Sam Abuelsamid  50:34  
I'm really curious to learn more about that one, but

Mike Koval  50:38  
it's all about the power of choice. And that's what our reservation program about this, you're gonna use your truck differently than he is that she has. So with that in mind, with use cases and the customer in mind, ultimately, Ram will provide a better suite of solutions. And that includes not only just pure BV with the two battery packs, rev XR, you still gonna maintain our ice propulsion system as well. I'm just putting an extension on the house. I'm staying true to not alienate anybody. That's still nice. I'm just bringing in the electrified side of the family on one side of it. So, but we've been very encouraged by the numbers so far. Looking at the IHS forecast, at the end of the decade, our mix of of Ali vaez is actually even more bullish, more aggressive than the IHS call. So we're in and

Sam Abuelsamid  51:22  
then then our forecast.

Mike Koval  51:25  
We're in we're in and if this was a true positive that we're in, I'm not sure what is what we're not done yet. When I thought

Sam Abuelsamid  51:35  
that the rumored mid

Mike Koval  51:37  
sized pickup. Well, no, no, no, no, that was just even within within the whole time. That's true. This is within the full size, the Reb XR, the mid size you mentioned, you know, I think credibility is really important. And so going back even to Detroit last fall, is when I first publicly stated my desert, because we've been talking about it forever. We know that the biggest whitespace opportunity for the brand growth is midsize, right? And since the quota went away, was to bring a concept version to the dealer show that we had in Vegas a couple weeks ago. And look, I was looking for a thumbs up, I would know what that meant. Or if they threw something that hit me in the head. I would also note that, and it was you'd have to ask them, but I think virtually every dealer if you were to talk to him, it was a resounding like, round of applause now now I've got to go back and actually do it. Because that was just the concept version. But

Sam Abuelsamid  52:30  
that's something we're gonna see this year maybe?

Mike Koval  52:33  
No, no, not quite, not quite. We had nothing to announce today. But this is what I would tell you. We have been talking about it for a long time. And I am personally committed and my team is committed that this is the leadership team that is actually going to do and I'll tell you say okay, my people shit why it's the merger is the merger of the two companies that have given us new pathways to figuring out how to get this done. I just could never get the business case that I haven't had.

Sam Abuelsamid  53:01  
So that when he talked about pathways that other markets beyond North America to sell.

Mike Koval  53:09  
And I think if you were in my shoes, I have to pull myself out of the ditch sometimes because historically 95% of my businesses in North America it's a steal our home, right we have to certainly for full size trucks. But look at the numbers in South America, the Gulf Coast countries in the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, art RAM international numbers are growing. We were up 40% year over year last year, we are 50% versus last year 22 versus 21. I look at jeep. I'm nowhere near them yet they have a lot of global equities. But that's what I'm aspiring to do is to grow the brand. My first I would say milestone was electrification, ushering the new era of electrification for our brand and we're here, we're live and we're in

Sam Abuelsamid  53:53  
talking to Christian in general. And I asked him this question about whether the acceptance and popularity of the Wrangler or by now the Cherokee more by Did that give you more confidence going forward as you start to introduce vehicles like the RAM and other products?

Mike Koval  54:13  
Without question, without question, but I think back to what a pickup truck does back to what it has to do the the inherent promises and commitments we all make to our customers, when we were able to crack the code on things like range and towing. That's, that's that combined with the early reservations, we opened up our first cycle of reservations, the night of the Super Bowl 72 hours, we closed it for the first month first model, you're basically covered. Got a few more based on that. So we reopened it today. That's another proof that our customers like what we're saying so far. And we when we close it after 72 hours if we hadn't told them really any we didn't get any performance characters. Now they know. Now they know what's up And we're not done yet. We're not done yet. It's all about the power of choice because I know you do something different than you do something. So we'll have the bed with two battery packs. RAB XR, but the MCA is not far away, we have our ice system, power of choice, our choice. But all of these little things gave us their success, which you're doing great. Cracking the Code on the performance characteristics gave us all the competence that we needed. And we still have more

Sam Abuelsamid  55:28  
performance characteristics. One of the areas that sells a lot is work trusts, the lower end the biggest engine, they need space to haul stuff. Was there any thought to doing perhaps a single motor version of truck or something that might help?

Mike Koval  55:54  
impasto? Nothing? Nothing to announce today? But I will, I will say that two things one, I'm super bullish on not only the retail versions, if you will, but I think there is an absolute use case for pleasing small business as well. And we're seeing it on the ProMaster, the ProMaster BV, which we're that's our first actually our first Bev is this fall, the interest raising white polo Cost of Ownership route predictability and carbon Net Zero commitments that everybody's making. So that is giving me confidence. Also, on the full size truck side of things. Now, we will have the treatment, which is our work truck entry level, commercial model. And I am looking at different propulsion, or different options for a lower end, nothing to announce today. I mean, like I said, the 350 to 168 is identical, right. And that's right in the heart of the market, if not even at the high end today. 500 is off the charts, obviously. But I think if you were much I have to look at everything. And so nothing to announce today. But I think the I think the demand will be there for fleet small businesses who may need some different things.

Sam Abuelsamid  57:09  
One more question are the RAM brand? You've seen the introduction of smaller trucks last year, they've done really well. Surprisingly well. And I know a lot of people is that a market that you see as an opportunity for RAM as well.

Mike Koval  57:27  
It is an absolute opportunity. If you look at the transaction prices of full size pickup trucks, not only on mid size, but even something below mid size. I have them already in South America. I would if I could push that button right there and bring it to the US tomorrow, I would do it. Because there are some really, really cool things down there that I think we could sell today. It's never that easy. homologation safety. It's, it's a bit of a nightmare. But what am I looking at it? Yes. Am I interested? You bet. I think there's a market no question about it. Just a matter of time. So because it's such a Yeah, it's not just about what we need in one year in the US, or more broadly, across North America. Globally, again, where else Where else can I go? You know, there's some interesting markets. So pick

Sam Abuelsamid  58:15  
up the power train from a Hornet, or canali plug in hybrid,

Mike Koval  58:20  
it's all possible. And so the beautiful thing about some alliances is just the sharing of all these platforms and technologies. I mean, I'd love to get into Southeast Asia to Thailand, that metric ton market is Why can't ranplan there? Well, we can't. So we're just you know, looking at all the different markets and the different opportunities and I I think the RAM brand, the you know, we are built to serve those who serve their communities, family, community, hardwork, integrity, those are values I think that transcend barriers and boundaries. Look at the International numbers. I think there's there's a real demand people, people really connect with what RAM is all about internationally. And so that gives me the competence and the basis to explore opportunities. So what of Southeast Asia, enlarged Europe wherever global growth, right electrification, global growth, all opportunities, small pickups. It's gonna be very exciting. I mean, we're just getting started like this is this carefully curated RAM, drumbeat and Evie, attack news. Today's a big day. This is this is pivotal. This is a big moment for our brand and really for the company. We're just getting started. All right.

Sam Abuelsamid  59:33  
Thank you very much. My pleasure.

Speaker 5  59:35  
Thank you. 97.

Sam Abuelsamid  59:39  
Next up is Olabisi Boyle, the vice president of product planning and mobility strategy for Hyundai. So how's your day been?

Olabisi Boyle  59:47  
Well, you know I'm in a good mood because he won like four World Car awards for three or four last year, three, three. It was Evie. Overall A car. Yeah, you know, so I only five when you start expecting it

Sam Abuelsamid  1:00:10  
you setting a high bar for yourself?

Olabisi Boyle  1:00:15  
I know, I know. I know. I know.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:00:17  
So Ionic six important new product, you know, Hyundai is one of the few brands that has actually stopped by sedans in recent years. A lot of other OEMs have kind of shuffled them off into the, into the distance, and you stopped by sedans and launched something really interesting with that car both from a design and technology perspective. What's how's the response been to the ionic six so far?

Olabisi Boyle  1:00:51  
Well, we just started building it for North America in February. And they're now with dealers just starting March, right. So it's, you know, just out there. But to be honest, we expect to this to do well, like the ionic five that we've talked about interview as we like to refer to it as a streamlined four door vehicle, because it wasn't like your traditional. Let's call it sedan, and you tried three boxes today. Exactly, exactly. And that was on purpose. Like if we go back to the whole egfp platform, right. And so that was ionic five, and he had this kind of crossover SUV, we wanted to kind of hit a piece and key segments, the crossover SUV, I'll tell you a little bit why we want to do the four door streamlined silhouette. And then we're going to have a large three row, SUV come in, in 24. And so the idea there was, let's have a platform that can produce in key segments for us. Because I think that the definition of Eevee is, is basically I want my eyes caught some people in the car industry, we really care about the drive chain, right. And then if your performance you really care about like, but after a while, if there was, especially if there was no issue and infrastructure as you moved to mainstream, they're not gonna care about the powertrain, they just want

Sam Abuelsamid  1:02:19  
to get in the car. No, that's gonna start for him every Right,

Olabisi Boyle  1:02:23  
exactly. And so that's why we wanted a platform that's going to deliver some key segments. And if you talk about, let's call it the sedan segment, you still got about 2 million or so of those that are sold, right. And so and then a lot of people have abandoned it. So it really allows us an opportunity to sort of increased market share in something that the advantage, especially when you come out with a vehicle like an ionic six, because it's not a traditional sedan, number one, number two, it's an Eevee battery, the full electric dedicated platform. And we went from the ionic five, at 303 AR, to this streamline silhouette to 361 AR, right, and we put all the arrow treatments and body covers in the needs, we have those active air flaps, we have all these moldings to sort of guide the air and reduce the drag around it, it's got the really streamline shape. And so now you have something that gives you 360 miles, that's huge compared to even ice, you know, in a sedan that actually looks good, it's not some kind of bubble car, because it's an Eevee it actually looks really nice. It's designed purposefully, not just because we have an easy to do. And so we think that'll help us also, for all the people abandoning the Sudan market. This is a compelling you know, and we don't have to sell all the 2 million unless somebody but if someone wants to buy 2 million of them also the value of the tuna, tuna

Sam Abuelsamid  1:03:55  
Dungloe about the design of ionic six and five and presumably the seven as well as up when it comes out. And even the Kona as you move into just talking to another designer, as you move into this year of electrification, some of the traditional requirements that a vehicle had in terms of airflow through the front through a grill you know that that grill Hill also created the face of the brand of the vehicle and as the need for that goes away you know companies taking some interesting approaches to okay what do we replace this with? How do we evolve the look you know, to maintain a brand image and I think 100

Olabisi Boyle  1:04:44  
Verizon Yeah, that's the that's on the corner that's out there. So it's I don't know it's I don't see a chance to see the Sonata. It's got that seamless horizon. On our eyes. You got the pixelated incorporated into the lights. We started incorporating into the wheels But there's some design treatments and themes and techniques that you can sort of blend together. The mediator grill obviously has gone on on that. So then you can get creative with what you could do in the front. You've done it on Genesis, we've done it on Hyundai's definitely on the ionic five, six, and to be seven, but then now you see it on the on the Kona. So I think it's, it's, again, once the people who really don't care about the drive change as long as it functions as has told, horsepower, er, charging time, things like that. Then they care about how it looks. And I think the reason why we're getting a lot of accolades and third party recognition is because we're designing the car for people both on the exterior and the interior. The other thing that allows us that does allow us with the electrify chassis, you don't have the tunnel, and flat floor and all that is you really get to extend your wheelbase. Now. It's so the interior is large, yet the exterior can kind of

Sam Abuelsamid  1:06:01  
prioritizing for the people. Exactly. That's another piece of hardware. Yeah,

Olabisi Boyle  1:06:06  
I need to move because I feel early in this Evie journey. It was about like, Oh, this is the technology this. But now when you get people who use the vehicle every day, and just taking their kids to daycare or whatever they're doing to try to commute to work or whatever, then you need to make it for the people inside. That's what they're going to care about. And I think we spent a lot of time doing that. And the Evie sort of chassis allows us a lot more space innovation.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:06:32  
And one of the things I personally appreciate is Hyundai deciding to stick with some physical, tactile controls, vehicle, talk about that all the time, not necessarily putting everything into a touch interface.

Olabisi Boyle  1:06:46  
So we have just a little inside baseball. So we have these meetings, and it's us and it's consumer experience. And it's the design guys, and you know, you have to be like design guys want everything like flat and beautiful and that. But we actually have meetings where we all come together. And there'll be like, last time, you know, the people are really complaining about like, they have to like search for the H back controls, or they have to do this. And we really collaborate. Because we still want to optimize, we don't want it to be all designed, you know, and we don't want it to be all, we're not gonna have all buttons either, you know, and so we want some aesthetic who have what form and function. And we I really feel we're sort of kicking on all cylinders, for all school speak, to collaborate on those piece pieces. And so design doesn't always win and consumer experience doesn't always win, but we really talk it through. And I think there was a time where it's just like what the Bucha gonna do and have it designed says and it's not like that, you know?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:07:41  
Yeah, I don't know if Steve Jobs was the first one to say but he's the one that I'm familiar with him articulating the idea that design is not just about the way something looks, but the way it works. And it's all of that and I think that's you know, that's really important. That's

Olabisi Boyle  1:07:56  
the thing that that then people really end up loving your goals in like because I've talked to a bunch of people even on the i Five she talks about that interior space and that house seems like bigger room you when you get in real estate I even thought the ionic six too. And I was like, well, you looked at all these EVs Why did you end up choosing the ionic five. And they're like, you know, we saw from the outside, we just thought like, it wasn't gonna be big enough. We just had a baby and we're gonna like, you know, put the BBC in and, and he goes, the reason why when I sat in the ionic five, but I hadn't sat, they'd like seem 1000 When I sat in the ionic five, I was shocked is how it is. And then after that, like all the ones I saw before, forget it. And then I bought piano class. And I hear that so much, because they're pulled by that. But I think it's also because we spend all this time on springs innovation, and taking advantage that we have this flat floor and electrify chassis, like

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:47  
one of the one of the interesting things from a technology perspective, around egfp was the decision to go with an 800

Olabisi Boyle  1:08:56  
volt architecture, that's the unique selling proposition and

Sam Abuelsamid  1:08:59  
in more mainstream vehicles. Like they haven't Of course, the only one

Olabisi Boyle  1:09:03  
Yeah, but we're with democratizing the technology. So that was a strategic. I feel really inspired by them by this isn't you know, from albumin and seem to go with the 800 volt technology, because one, it allowed us to 10 to 80% ultra fast, easy charge, so

Sam Abuelsamid  1:09:23  
we need to find a charger that works.

Olabisi Boyle  1:09:25  
So So Sam, so Sam worked with me on this, alright, so we are in the infancy of the infrastructure journey, right? The OEMs can't go I'm not gonna work on EVs till the infrastructures. Right? So we got to do this. But 10 to 10 years ago, we ain't like everyone's just like, why are you doing that? You know, it's impossible. And now people are considering EVs. 10 to 10 years from now, the pains we're going through? Well, my charge is always broken, not maintained there. We won't be at that position. You know, maybe we'll be working on trying to get infrastructure for hydrogen Whatever the case is, because to meet these climate change challenges, it's not going to be a lot of people make it like a war between like, battery V or hydrogen or, and it's not, we're gonna have maybe hydrogen for heavy duty, maybe battery V for, you know, passenger cars, or light duty, or whatever the case may be. But we're gonna need to meet these really stringent goals, you know, 50%, you know, no ice vehicles after a certain time, 2035 and all of that, it's going to take multiple types of technologies to get it there. And so I know the infrastructure is not there today, but it's going to evolve.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:10:33  
Well, I think one of the, one of the things that doesn't get talked about enough is the used vehicle market. And obviously, you're primarily focused on selling new cars to consumer. But yeah, and obviously, new car buyers, you know, love the the ability to charge very quickly. But I think that's actually going to be even more important when you get to the unit or market because more far more people buy used cars, the new cars here, and those cars down the road for a long time. And as you get into that used car market, where affordability is even more of an issue for for consumers, many, much higher percentage of those consumers are going to be living somewhere where they don't have dedicated off street parking, to charge at home every night. And so they are going to be much more dependent on that charging infrastructure. And they don't know how much thought Hyundai gave to that, in making the decision to go with an 800 volt architecture today. But you know, five, six years from now, when a lot of these cars are in the used car market. And those consumers that can't, can't charge at home, are relying on that. I think they're really going to appreciate the fact that okay, I can go somewhere for 20 minutes and

Olabisi Boyle  1:11:51  
five hours. Yes, exactly. Right. So I think that's, that's a piece of it. But you know, the infrastructure thing, I'd say a lot this alive, like, like an African term is also flipped, like it takes a village. And so what I mean by an echo system it is. And so one of the things, let's just talk infrastructure for a minute. So one of the things that we're exploring many avenues is in this ecosystem, or take the village. So there's one piece was, can we work with our dealers that depending on where they're located, have real estate, where they're willing to build infrastructure, since we have a relationship with dealers and and actually maybe we can work with a traditional oil company partner that wants to now have EVs infrastructure. And then and maybe look at opportunities to partner with our dealers to to have him structure there is another piece where I'm in an urban environment. Maybe there's a way to air b&b, my electricity. So if, from my brownstone, I connect to charger that's here. And then Sam is in town for for a minute. And he has to go by my house, I can he can plug into those a lot on the curb, right. But somehow, because it's in front of my house and is still part of my brownstone or whatever, I get some money out of this, and the company gets money out of this, whatever the case might be. So that's an avenue, especially maybe in urban environments, we're getting tall and skinny enough or whatever. Then there's, you know, we have in Korea, we have these stations called E pit where our own particular network, it's in Korea now and they're trying to Island those out and make is that something maybe maybe we wouldn't want to explore, you know, in North America, and actually have a network of charging network that way. And then is there where we partner with a traditional oil company that now wants to go into clean energy to set up that infrastructure? And so that's what I mean by the ecosystem. We're like, looking at avenues and all of those, because as an industry, we're going to need that to sort of help speed up this whole. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:14:05  
So is Hyundai looking at making more direct investments in infrastructure? Or is it primarily through working with your partners to help facilitate like with dealers, we're

Olabisi Boyle  1:14:16  
gonna look at all those we're kind of like exploring all those kind of those options. Yeah, but we understand the need for it to your earlier point, right, you know, infrastructure isn't there. And so we also want to sell our AV so we need to help you know, promote that we also need the education piece of it. Um, part of the reason we did the Hyundai home thing, right? Was the education piece of it right, you know, I buy my Eevee but maybe I want I didn't know I needed a home charger and some people they didn't they don't realize that you know, a home charger. Oh, I now God wasn't like it my guess my grandma's electricity bill. And um, and so maybe solar panels out and then maybe there's some I can give it back to the grid. And then maybe there's a battery charger for when the lights go out and you know, I still have some energy I can use at The key thing is a couple of things, it gets coupled with an energy adviser that says all for your house is 2000 square feet and this type of solar panels and this was, and by the way, in your particular town in New Jersey, these are the incentives that go with it. So you can help all of that you can, you know, bring this along.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:15:19  
Another area, you know, we had somebody write to me recently about the challenge of charging an Eevee. If, if you're physically disabled, if you're in a wheelchair, I'm sure you've experienced, you know, handling those, those big six DC fast charging cables. And looking at the way most charging stations are configured, you know, if you're, if you're in a wheelchair, and you've got a an adaptive vehicle, trying to enable, I mean, even even just in many cases, like the Electrify America station that's near my home, you know, they've got pairs of chargers with a pair of parking spaces in between on either side of there. There's just physically no space to get in there with a chair, you can't do it. If you're in a chair and be able to get that cable and get it onto the end of the vehicle. Recently, Hyundai showed off a robotic charging system, you know, is is that those

Olabisi Boyle  1:16:24  
are the types of things we're trying to do when we bought Boston Dynamics. How do we bring it to sort of ease people's sort of everyday needs with robots? That was kind of one part of the reasons? Like how do we help? You know,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:16:37  
there was technology that came out of the Boston Dynamics group to do that, or

Olabisi Boyle  1:16:41  
I don't know, that particular one that might have been like a pilot tugging at you? Yeah, I don't know about that particular one. But what I do know is part of the extension of sort of going into robotics with like, Bas, is how do we bring those technologies to help people in their sort of everyday lives, or even in our manufacturing facilities, as people are working on repetitive jobs and that type of thing. And it's to help. And then we have, actually, as sort of a demonstration, what types of things we would do, where you see people sort of maybe being cascaded or taken out using robots, you know, helping them to maneuver from here to there. Now, also, as we increase this infrastructure journey, because right now, people are putting Evie chargers where they can, like, if not, necessarily with a great plan, and it's like, I have some space, and I put it here, right? And so those things are gonna have to be planned out, right? Like, you're going to have to just like we're trying to deliver on the interior space with a car, you're gonna have to deliver on a charging station. That's a real charging station that accommodates all types of people that comes. And I do believe we'll get to that point. But also in the interim, I think the types of things we want to do with robotics is to help those types of

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:49  
and then of course, the field, there's also options like wireless charging, which Genesis Yeah,

Olabisi Boyle  1:17:52  
yeah, we have that in Korea. Yeah. Is that

Sam Abuelsamid  1:17:56  
something that you're looking at potentially bringing into North Korea?

Olabisi Boyle  1:17:59  
That's what I was gonna say. I didn't I didn't include that one. But those are things that we would consider as well. Yeah.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:18:05  
One, one last area I want to get into is in Chicago, you announced the Blue Link Plus next generation of conductivity for for Hyundai vehicles. And I know that one of them, as great as the ionic vehicles are one of the the perhaps weaknesses in those vehicles has been in the infotainment system finding charging when you're on a trip when you're on a road trip, trying to figure out where's the charger along the route? Rally? Yeah. And, you know, hopefully with the next the new generations, definitely, and that will be better. I'm looking forward to trying that out. But last week, GM made it interesting announcement about their decision to remove smartphone projection support from their future.

Olabisi Boyle  1:18:55  
Yeah, they're not going to have Apple, Android Auto Apple CarPlay.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:18:58  
Right. You know, they've got an Android automotive based infotainment system. And they want to focus on doing the integration within that platform to create a more consistent experience for their customers. Is that something that is under consideration at all within Hyundai to maybe go in a direction like that to really optimize that that built in experience, and maybe move away from the projection experience?

Olabisi Boyle  1:19:25  
Well, I wouldn't say whether that we're moving away, right at this five minutes. There's no decision or announcement on that. But what I would say is working on the digital cockpit of the future, the one that brings by productivity in the vehicles one day when we have autonomous but even prior to that, and we are looking at all options and alternatives so that we have sort of a unique experience, just like we're trying to optimize space and innovation, but kind of like let's call it the hardware end on a from a software, digital consumer experience. And we're looking at that Northstar digital cockpit that we're looking at various options to see what would be best to enable that. But that is a Northstar for us to have the digital cockpit of the futures that really meets the consumer needs. And so we haven't made a decision on removing or keeping and

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:14  
trying to try to make it as there's no value. Can consumers want to use no near

Speaker 9  1:20:18  
term? Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And, Sam, remember in 2015, move first amendment with CarPlay. And then the headline on the billboard that I've made that the Auto Show was freedom of choice. Yeah, I think we've always kind of stood for here's some options, right.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:20:37  
The options, you decide work on making use of your your system, the best it can be consumers choose that.

Olabisi Boyle  1:20:44  
So I feel when you have that Northstar digital cockpit, it's going to be the thing that lets the consumers do that. But there's no decision today that like we're dropping Android Auto Apple CarPlay.

Speaker 9  1:20:54  
And then we didn't announce the IDI routing on ionic six, we just I don't know, when you get your loan

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:02  
Clos. They're doing a regional drive in Michigan. So we'll be up

Speaker 9  1:21:05  
to experience it. Okay. It's connected routing. Yeah. With the charters.

Olabisi Boyle  1:21:11  
And we just about like two weeks ago, plots that we had a decent job were to charge.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:16  
Yeah. Hopefully, maybe better integration with the charge network operators to get real time data in there. Yeah. So the driver can know what's actually available. What's working,

Olabisi Boyle  1:21:30  
or speeders is their 350 kilowatt charger? Yeah,

Speaker 9  1:21:34  
I think there's so much opportunity to make that stuff. That experience better. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Both from what you were talking about. handicapped person? Yeah. And so many steps from

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:43  
the from the OEM side and from the charge provider. Yeah. You know, and for the consumer, for the consumers, obviously. Yeah, there's there's definitely a lot of opportunities there. And hopefully,

Olabisi Boyle  1:21:55  
that's also in the infancy of its journey. Yeah. Yeah, no,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:21:59  
I mean, you know, we're only 10 years into this. Really the modern era? If you look back at the beginning of the auto, and we didn't even talk about it. Yeah. You know, it took it took decades, you know, before there were gas stations everywhere. Right. Right. And we're, I think we're so much farther along, even now than we were that way. But, you know, people have gotten so used to the reliability of traditional fueling infrastructure that they they expect to get and have the same thing on the ed side. And if if we don't deliver, then

Olabisi Boyle  1:22:37  
it'd be hard to make that transition fully understood.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:22:41  
Anything else going on at Hyundai that we haven't talked about?

Olabisi Boyle  1:22:45  
Should I leave that stuff?

Unknown Speaker  1:22:48  
Oh, I don't think so. I mean, bright future.

Olabisi Boyle  1:22:52  
I mean, we're feeling kind of good these days.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:22:55  
Next year, you gotta go for a clean sweep of all the world. And finally, we've got Mike Wilde, the director of product planning and pricing at key of America talking about the v nine and more stuff. Mike, your head of product planning for Kia, North America.

Big news here today is showing off the EB nine. Yes. Certainly in public in North America for the first time. This is a really important new product for for Kia. Tell us a little bit more about the evening.

Mike Wilde  1:23:30  
You're right. It's very important. I mean, I think I got pulled under really gets the future of Qi is the future of Kia is being bold, innovative and electrified. And I think Evie nine is, you know, the best representative of what we're trying to do. We've had great success with the Telluride. You know, American families love the Telluride. They've also appreciated that technical excellence of the Eevee six, our first dedicated Eevee. And it's kind of a combination of both. So we took the platform from the Eevee six, and a lot of the attributes that people love the Telluride and now we have an electrified, tell your eyes size, SUV, and it takes what we did for evey six, even to a new level. So it's like the next level of technology connectivity.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:24:19  
And I'm a big fan of the Eevee six, I've driven all of the various EGM or almost all the various agnp, including the GTS, I haven't driven the GT yet. But I've tried the the GV 60 performance, okay. Probably similar, very, very similar, obviously very different look and feel to right performance levels, have driven a couple of different V sixes, a couple of the ones from brand h over there. And I think it's a it's an outstanding platform. And I think it's going to be really interesting to see how consumers in this segment you know, the family size three row utilities segment, which is obviously a very strong segment strong for kids strong overall, how they take to that because right now there isn't really anything. Electric in a in a more affordable price point. I mean, what the only offerings right now in this sort of size class are at the rivian r1. S, procedures. EQs are expensive, much more expensive. Yeah, so what, what kinds of things retargeting in developing the 89 to make it appeal to families in this sort of segment?

Mike Wilde  1:25:35  
size. So the number one reason that people are interested in that kind of car is, you know, they want to have a big enough room to fit their family, all their stuff. And also, if you take a longer trip, you know, the bigger the, the longer the trip, the more comfortable you want to be. And the more you know, the bigger the car is, the more comfortable you can be. So, you know, having that capability as far as the size. And then the other thing we've added is, you know, just like what was popular in Telluride is the safety features. And we've taken that to a whole new level. And then the advanced driver assistance. So you know, before you can drive it somewhat hands free Have you had to touch the steering wheel every once in a while right to show you're paying attention. But now we'll have a camera in the car and you can actually not put your hands on the steering wheel at all, the camera will ensure that you're paying attention. So it's truly hands free driving

Sam Abuelsamid  1:26:25  
will be a hands free eyes on system that's available for North America. Yes. And overseas. I think they talked about a level three system, which is hands off eyes off. That's not coming to North America at this point.

Mike Wilde  1:26:37  
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of kind of a technical and legal question of, you know, level three. So we have the systems in the car between the LiDAR, the radar, and the camera, we definitely know what's going on on the road. But trying to synthesize that and making sure that, you know, I think that there should be level two and level three, level two was driver assisted. And level three is, you know, basically no driver, right? And that puts all the liability on the OEM, right? If you say, you know, we don't need you there at all. There's so many different cysts, you know, scenarios. And a lot of buyers, what we found in the research is, they're more comfortable being somewhat involved. Yeah, they're still especially for a vehicle like this, you know, family vehicle safety is number one. And I think the driver is still going to want to be involved.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:27:32  
So EB nine is going to be the first product in North America from Kia with that hands free capability. What sensors are you using? You mentioned LiDAR, is that only for the level three system? Or will that also be the US the North American version of the eyes on

Mike Wilde  1:27:49  
the on the North American? Yeah, it's called the Advanced highway Driver Assist. So we have HDA two and then we have this new we actually haven't officially named it yet. It's still kind of in process, but advanced highway Driver Assist. And basically what it does, like I said is you know you won't have to touch the steering wheel you can you know, change lanes, you can go on and off the off ramp so as long as you're on a map highway takes what we've already done with the Telluride so you can change lanes and takes it to even a higher level. So

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:24  
as far as capabilities will it have like a lane change on demand or an auto overtaking capability

Mike Wilde  1:28:31  
lane change on demand auto overtaking you know, we've already adding in a most our cars like junction turning and, you know, when you're going through an intersection, which is where most serious accidents happen, it'll actually stop it. But it adds you know, if you've got someone like you said, oncoming someone coming in at you, or even with someone like moves over in the lane next to you, it will move you over in the lane, like over to the edge

Sam Abuelsamid  1:28:55  
changed you over to electric clearance. Yeah,

Mike Wilde  1:28:59  
yeah. So if it if it judges you need to make an evasive maneuver. And that's better than hitting the brakes. It will make the evasive maneuver for you. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:09  
For the, for the the hands free capability with the maps, roughly how many miles of roads will be available for hands free operation?

Mike Wilde  1:29:18  
I should know that but I don't remember the exact amount it was like many 1000s of miles and they keep expanding it. I'll have to check and get back to you on what the number is.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:29:29  
And the loaner. What type of LIDAR are you using? You know,

Mike Wilde  1:29:33  
I don't know the brand of the LIDAR. I can look into that though. I can get you that information. But we have to light ours in the front in that system and also had this lower front corners, like kind of mid bumper. Okay, just on the other side of that. Oh, that little strip in the middle. Yep. And then we also have like a rear microphone. So like if a sirens come easy, no emergency vehicles come in and You know, pull over. It's also got the ultrasonic sensors on all corners, it has side looking radar, so not just front and rear, but also sideways looking radar. So that's the one that will tell you, you know who's next to you. So that's the biggest advancement is cars in the past, you know, they would look in front of you mostly, but now they see to the side and also to the rear

Sam Abuelsamid  1:30:23  
for the the HMI human machine interface. Part of that you mentioned driver monitor camera, to make sure you're watching the road. What other sorts of things have been implemented on Eevee. Nine, to help the driver be aware of what mode it's in and when they need to put their hands back on the wheel take control?

Mike Wilde  1:30:44  
Well, most of those vehicles, I think all those vehicles will come with a heads up display. Okay, so a lot of that is shown in the heads up display, then then it also, you know, has a series, it'll give you a warning. I'll give you an audible signal. It actually the steering wheel will vibrate. Okay, yeah, it'll let you know like you better you better do something. Okay. Yeah. So it has several levels of warning before it actually take an action. And then a lot of it will be displayed on the the heads up display, and then also in the center cluster. And then like I said, it has feedback through the steering wheel and audible and visual ones.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:31:22  
Going back to the electrification part of it, which is kind of the core of Eevee nine, what sort of range can we expect to see with the North American market versions of that?

Mike Wilde  1:31:32  
We're now returning to 300 miles, which is pretty amazing for a vehicle that size. So even though it's pretty huge. I mean, at least we're, you know,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:31:42  
it's roughly the same.

Mike Wilde  1:31:44  
Telluride, same size wheelbase. Yeah, but it does have. So Telluride, its drag coefficient is point three, four, which is good. But it's point two, eight, which is amazing. So it's actually better than the Range Rover, which was claimed as the lowest drag coefficient of any luxury SUV. So I think that helps with the range. And then we've got, like fourth generation batteries, which are denser, they've got more nickel in them, and they put more cell packs inside the cell. We expanded the wheelbase. 222 inches from the Telluride, it's

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:17  
that fourth generation battery, is that a step forward from what's in Eb six? Yeah, okay.

Mike Wilde  1:32:22  
Yeah, that was the third generation. And now we have the 430. So it's like with cars keep moving ahead.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:28  
And it's still that 800 volt architecture 274 It's

Mike Wilde  1:32:32  
great for evil. So you can kilowatt charging, you can charge it from 10 to 80%, in less than 25 minutes,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:38  
assuming you comply the charger that's actually functioning.

Mike Wilde  1:32:41  
That's a problem. Yes, yes, that is a problem. Yeah,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:32:45  
one of one of the one of the few issues I had with the 86 is when you are driving, trying to find chargers in the infotainment system, when I was took a drive last year from Detroit to Wisconsin. And it was trying to point me back at a charger that was 80 miles behind me, very annoying. For EB nine, has that been updated at all? Is there a new generation of the navigation to help you find charging along the route,

Mike Wilde  1:33:17  
they have a new system and I completely agree that it's a family vehicle, people are gonna be digging road trips, and people want to have confidence that they're going to be able to get where they're going. And if they need to stop the charge that needs to be directing them towards the Akron station that's available and, you know, on their way, so they do have a new system. I haven't used it yet. But integrating into the navigation that does exactly that will continually update how much range you have. So it's much more accurate as far as the range. And it also will tell you, you know which stations are available along the route?

Sam Abuelsamid  1:33:53  
What kind of towing capability will the Eevee not have? Because, obviously, you know, some people using this type of vehicle monitor need to tow

Mike Wilde  1:34:02  
that 5000 pounds open or not. So that's, you know, tell you right standard towing capacity is 5000 and x plus 5500. Of course it does degrade the range. Just like in a gas car. Yep. But you can tow with it.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:34:16  
Okay, excellent. So, when is the Eevee nine gonna be available in the US?

Mike Wilde  1:34:27  
I think production starts in September. So I think we're seeing fourth quarter.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:34:31  
Okay, fourth quarter. And initial production is going to be in South Korea, correct?

Mike Wilde  1:34:36  
Correct. And then next year, that's right, we start building them in Georgia.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:34:39  
Okay. And last point simply is to rebuild vehicles. Okay. Fantastic. Do you have any information yet on kind of the price range for EB nine? What What can consumers expect to be looking at?

Mike Wilde  1:34:54  
I mean, like, all key as we pride ourselves on our value and affordability Uh, certainly is going to deliver a lot for the money, we don't know exactly what we're gonna charge. I mean, obviously, we wanted to be less than 80,000, because we have that IRA limit of 80,000. And we want to be competitive with everyone else, and you've got the Cadillac lyric out there and, you know, good values. So, you know, I'm actually charged with pricing for Kia to when it's very challenging with, you know, Tesla, lowering prices, raising prices, you know, first, Ford continually raised prices, and then Tesla lowered prices, so we'll be competitively priced. We're not exactly sure where that's going to be. But it'll be a great value. We don't know yet what exactly the number will be.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:35:42  
What do you see as the key competitors or the not? Initially,

Mike Wilde  1:35:46  
really there aren't, like you said, there's really no other three row electrified vehicles of that size, you have the Model X, which is a lot more money in the rivian, which is a lot more money, so we really don't any, at the guest, the x 90 will be out soon, that'll also be quite a bit more money. So initially, we really won't have much competition. So if you want a three row family SUV, will be you know, your one choice and it's going to be this is the main is a mainstream vehicle and we feel like for EVs to be successful, this is where we have to be successful. We have to attract mainstream customers, and I'll be priced appropriately. Okay.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:36:28  
One other question going off a little bit different direction. Last week, GM made an interesting announcement about their, their strategy around infotainment on their TVs and their new EVs. They're just continuing. I wasn't born for smartphone projection for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, yes, their systems are built around Android automotive. So it's got support that the Google Play Store and everything built in and you can download Android apps on there. But what what do you see is, as key is strategy going forward, is that something that Kia might do in the future, moving away from projection and focusing on the internal interface to try to ensure that it's more consistent for owners as you know, the argument that GM makes?

Mike Wilde  1:37:17  
You know, I'm an OEM guy. So of course, I want everything to come from Kia. Sure, you know, so yes, is that the direction we would like to go? Yes, but I think the first thing is the customer, the customer we want, customers love their phones, they love having the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay most people have apple. So people love, you know, having that familiarity of the same system. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to just like that navigation distance to empty function with the Eevee is we're trying to add value to our system. So people will want to use that system. But we're not in a position to tell people we're not going to provide you with Apple CarPlay even though they can be difficult to work with sometimes because you know, we have different technologies and trying to make them work together is is a challenge. But we continue to plan to continue to offer Android Auto Apple CarPlay and just continually enhance our system. So hopefully, the key and navigation system is the the one that people will use but by choice not because we're forcing them to Okay,

Sam Abuelsamid  1:38:19  
good. Any other any other final thoughts on the Evie nine or electrification in general, a Kia the listener should be thinking of,

Mike Wilde  1:38:31  
I think you'd have to get in the car and drive it and experience it. I mean, we've updated everything. So I've been in the automotive industry for a long time. And the exciting thing is the newness of a new car. And when we make a new car like we make the Eevee and i Everything is new, the IP is new, we have a different kind of glovebox. You know, this is like a traditional glove box, we have a new drawer type glove box life, we not only have ambient lighting, but you can have different lighting at the top and the bottom and you can select all the different colors. The lights, like for the reading lights are dimmable, you know. So all the way throughout the car from the storage capabilities that we have USB C connectors, everything has been redone. And I think the one advantage Kia has because we don't have a luxury brand is we don't have to hold anything back. Like we don't have a luxury brand that we need to save features for. So we put everything the best that we have available in the vehicles and I think customers appreciate that. When you're buying a brand new car, you want to have the latest and the best technology and that's what you get when you get Kia.

Sam Abuelsamid  1:39:39  
All right. Great. Thank you very much, Mike. Good to talk to you. All right. Thanks, everybody. And we will be back next week with a fresh show.