Embracing the “EV Curious” – Recharged’s Winning Formula

This episode is sponsored by DriveItAway. Whether you’re looking to rent, buy, or simply test out an EV, DriveItAway puts you in the driver’s seat. Visit driveitaway.com for more details. OTC: “DWAY”

Links

Connect With John Foley

Transcript

Elena: We are doing this episode after many months of talking about doing an episode. Now we’re finally doing it here at Used Car Week. So John, welcome to the show.

John: I appreciate you having me and I’ve been looking forward to it.

Elena: Yeah, this is gonna be a fun conversation because I know you’re, you’re making moves in the EV space and I’m really excited to highlight what your view and your team are doing. There is there’s a lot to talk about. So bring everybody up to speed about you and what you do at Recharged. Talk a little bit more about your background and your automotive career journey.

John: Sure. So I was talking last night at dinner with some friends. My very first job was as an entrepreneur, going out and starting my own lawn care business. I found my way into the automotive industry like a lot of other people like not purposefully, but I did fall in love with it. And I’ve been in auto industry now for over 25 years. I spent the first 15 years just traditional automotive. I’ve done every role inside of the dealership and then I had the opportunity to join a friend of mine at car lots. And I spent eight years there. It really helped for me, like unlock that ability to think about the business a different way, which is something that was inside of me already and like I wanted to unleash so yeah, it’s been eight years Carl outside of business across the country. And then I was thinking about like, what do I want to do next and I had a few ideas. I wanted to kind of go chase down and I was at a conference and I was watching this presentation and talking about this tsunami of inventory that’s coming to market over the next few years. And I’m just thinking man, like the new car manufacturers that we have to bring so many requirements on franchises to be able to sell. And that’s not without thought, like, they understand that the experience has to be different than these vehicles are different than a traditional life vehicle. Like why would that not translate to the used car side and who was going to be there? When these cars come to market to help people to find them and show them the way and once I got that in my mind, I could not get it out of my mind. And so that’s where recharge was, was born. So I started thinking through what I wanted recharged. In the most simplest form, I could buy and sell and create a great experience for people. But what I’ve learned more and more is that like, if I can do that, well then like what can I sell them? All? I can sell them on but I can certainly try. If I can sell my own inventory well, then I can begin to open up a recharge icon platform that other sellers. So that’s that’s where that’s where we are today.

Elena: Yes and I love the story of you being at a conference because we are indeed at a conference here are at arc that you know right now and it’s that just getting the ball moving and congratulations to you for putting an idea into motion and executing on it because as an entrepreneur myself like it’s tough. So I would I would like to applaud you for getting it done and for for really also to shining a light on the customer experience of the used EV shopper which is very, very interesting. So let’s talk about your speaking of customer experience and also about the types of people the types of customers that go to see you, John, they go to see Recharged, which is in Richmond, Virginia, by the way. So what is the type of person that you typically see, either contact you or walk through your door.

John: From a demographic standpoint, it’s very hard to put a label on. We talk to everybody like if you if you buy into some of the statistics that you read, that you’re definitely going to believe that more than half the buyers that are entering the market today are at a minimum and that is all buyers. We talk to them all. first time buyers through seniors who are like, Hey, we’ve got a charging station at our assisted living facility and like less daylight. So it’s a lot of fun. I think as I’ve described before, like there are three different buyers that we see. So we see repeat buyers who are a huge portion of recharge because they they really battled to get to where they are today and do your internship on there. Maybe with the support of Reddit, and like we are here to now create the space where people can learn about how to how to purchase in charge, etc. And so there are a lot of fun to work with. And then at committed buyers often made the decision to go on buying up before they even found out the recharge was this was a thing. And then again, they love that we created the space but like they’re very easy to help because they’re already committed to purchasing everything that we’re doing this really icing on the cake for them in a lot of ways. And then there’s the curious, so the folks who have like, really just started to let the idea creep in that like maybe vehicle purchase could be an EV
getting I’m getting music, like John Legend in the background, so or maybe John Legend is EV curious. I don’t know. I don’t know.

John: So the EV curious, they are a lot of fun. Because they really are just starting to accept the idea that like it could be the next vehicle they need us to have the space and experience where like they know Tesla makes a car and they heard about a Chevy Bolt but like they don’t really know a lot and they show up they see all these different makes and models they can drive we get to learn about we answer the questions around charging and they’re just they’re blown away by the experience. The Convert very high compared to when they will probably happens traditionally. I had the opportunity with my father in law and let him drive an EV this weekend for the very first time. Every time you get somebody who’s never driven one before. They’re blown away. It’s like oh, there’s no sound but like, it’s so responsive.

Elena: So let’s talk a little bit more about what’s on the horizon for Recharged. Again, I know there’s a lot of background noise right now by the way at the podcasting stage, so just mental note for next year, Used Car Week. So, when we’re talking about what’s on the horizon for recharged, getting geared up for 2024. What are some things that you’re looking forward to accomplishing you and your team as you you know, hold this this beacon of light of the light in Richmond, Virginia.

John: Yeah, there’s a lot to be excited about and we are very excited. So today, you know, we’re buying and selling our own inventory. But mostly buying and selling our own inventory. And it goes very well and we’re selling 75% plus of our inventory month to month. Which is I know, everybody’s talking about these cars piling up on the lights and not selling but like, we seem to be immune to it.

Elena: So, can we just talk about that for a second? Okay, so that it’s such a hot topic here at this conference of like, you know, floor plan expenses start to creep up but this like you said the magic word that I just want everyone to hear that like you guys are immune to it. And you are obviously doing something different.

John: You know, listen, there are challenges but I’m not going to discount that. There are challenges still in front of us as it relates to charging. Yes, there are challenges in front of us as it relates to pricing and solutions are continuing to to evolve. However, there are buyers out there today, and like if your position is you know, EVs are not going to make it and that’s the message that you’re spreading throughout your dealership. That’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy when you’re not selling them. It’s like, of course you didn’t sell you didn’t want the one you had there and you didn’t help them. You know, anybody get excited to retrain to sell it. And so, you know, I think when we come out of the darkness and say, you know, Hey, it’s okay to be EV Curious, you know? People flock to it, you know, it’s great. It’s great experience. Like I am curious. I’m glad I can. I can come here and be myself.

Elena: So talk about affordability a little bit more.

John: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think that the tax credit is great for for evey adoption, but not everybody qualifies for it. Not every car qualifies for it. So we’re trying to help people understand you know, qualifying to this car qualify. And we’re getting feedback for buyers every day on our messaging to make sure that we’re doing a good job communicating that. So for me, like the toughest spot to like, own a car is between 25 and $30,000. And not that like there are plenty of use car buyers who don’t qualify for the tax credit, and they’re gonna buy the car that suits their needs. But when you’re so close to qualifying for the tax credit, you definitely, you know, eliminate most tax qualified buyers tax credit qualified buyers. But you know, beyond that, there are you look at the pricing of like Altera and ionic six and Evie six like and well equipped, of course, but it’s reasonable in the used car market and understand on the nuclear side they might be a little bit high today for people when when I started to build recharge, I calm and like think about what is the online experience and and to be clear, like I’m learning every day and continuing to make changes that improve that experience. But when I was talking to EV owners, who had gone through experiences before and tried to understand like what is you know, I got a lot of I went into it like okay, you know, environment, TCO which is you know, total ownership, but these are the things that have to be you know, and like EV owners as you pointed out, are very quick to be like, don’t forget to tell people like, these cars are pretty badass, like a lot of fun to drive. Like that cannot be lost in this. So, you know, we really that’s again, you know, to the point earlier about or the example with my father in law like getting somebody behind the wheel and seeing like what it’s like they’re they’re always impressed.

Elena: Yeah, no, no doubt. And as the technology continues to evolve and change and we have a you know, it changes the product model pipeline that’s coming through, right, we’d love for you to get an opportunity to tell folks where they can reach out to you if they have questions or just want to be connected to you on LinkedIn.

John: Sure, LinkedIn is definitely a great place to connect with me and I’m very responsive. So you know, I will always reach back out and I love you know, telling the story, of course, but, you know, hearing the journey other people are on and, you know, considering different ways we can work together partner together, you know, in the future. Recharged.com and, you know, it’s an education center as much as anything else. We’ve got over 70 pages of educational content. We’ve got a lot of video social content that’s coming here soon to build that out. And then of course, you know, our recharge score is on there. And the recharge score is a way for us car buyers to understand, you know, all the considerations, not all the considerations, but a couple of the bigger considerations in purchasing an Eevee you know, pricing, vehicle history, and of course, the battery health. You know, what That click is this, how should I think about this? Is this a good purchase or not?

Elena: So those will be in the show notes so everyone can go and check out recharged.com – John, this has been great.

John: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.