Show Me the EV Facts with CARFAX

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Transcript

Elena: So we are here at the Auto Intel summit in beautiful North Carolina. Ian, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate you.

Ian: Yep, thank you, Elena, I’m happy to be here it’s gonna be awesome.

Elena: So we’re talking, of course, about EVs. But we’re also talking about what CARFAX is doing and some of the innovations that CARFAX has been working on, we want to learn a little bit more about you even a little bit more about your background in automotive. And what kind of brought you to this point.

Ian: Give you a little bit about my background. So I’ve been in the automotive industry for a little bit over 15 years, I actually started my career with Enterprise rent a car. So I worked there for five years when I left Enterprise, I was managing a portion of their remarketing operations in the Washington DC area, which involves the distribution of old rental cars through wholesale channels, whether it’s wholesalers direct to dealerships or through our auction channels. After that I came over to CARFAX starting a sales role. They’re selling data into some of the top financial institutions around the country. And at present I oversee, I’m the director of auto finance. So I oversee our data sales to financial institutions, which includes over 1500 banks, credit unions, captive finance arms, as well as our extended warranty service contract business. So in my role other than managing a sales team, I’m in charge of helping develop and launch products into the industry and all the efforts that kind of support that.

Elena: If you could share a success story or an experience that maybe you’ve had with a CARFAX client, as it relates to EVs?

Ian: That’s a great question, Elena. So we work, like I mentioned, we work with over 1500 financial institutions around the country that includes some of the biggest ones, small, medium sized ones. So everyone has those questions about vehicles about data. So the EV space, even though it’s it’s fairly new, it’s definitely growing. So they’re always asking about the values, we can deliver a very, very specific value specific to the locality where that vehicle is demographic information, and the market. So as the market is changing, and we’ve seen that over the last few years with all vehicles, but especially with EVs as they’re, we’re starting to see some coming to the used car market and understanding the value and the equipment, battery information is definitely crucial. So we deliver some of those things to lenders. And then one unique instance, where we help lenders, for example, is credit unions. We work with some of the largest credit unions, including Navy Federal Credit Union, who provides a full CARFAX vehicle history report to each of its members with a loan application and loan package. So that helps them understand the vehicle, the EV if they’re financing that a little bit better. So everyone goes into it eyes wide open.

Elena: How do you see the role of EV data evolving in the lending industry in the next five to 10 years? That is a big question.

Ian: It certainly is. So you think about it from a lender’s perspective. And they view everything through the prism of risk, right? They want to know and the consumer looks at the same things as well. But the lenders want to know, they look at you as a borrower, they’re gonna look if you’re applying for a loan, especially for a higher price vehicle, and EV, for instance, they’re gonna look at data on you your credit score, they’re gonna look up your income, your debt, all of those things to help make a more informed decision, but just as important as the collateral, right? So you want to look at the vehicle itself, what it’s worth the value, you’re also looking at things like the mileage domitor, readings, damage history, all of those things and EVs are no different than any other vehicle. In fact, data might even be more crucial to make those assessments. So what I see lenders doing, you know, they’re looking at those, it’s still an uncertain market, I think about 1% of the vehicles in operation right now, or EVs according to 2022 numbers. But if you look at some of the numbers, 7.03% of new vehicles sold last year, and 2022 were actually EVs. So I think we’ve kind of hit the inflection point where you’re having you’re hitting critical mass, whether it’s a greater range, greater options, lower sales price, consumers are definitely more attracted these vehicles. So getting back to the lender piece, looking at everything through the prism of risk, if they can understand things like battery health, longevity, knowing that, hey, this battery is going to last 150 or 200,000 miles and knowing that more objectively, that’s going to help them make better decisions. And some lenders they won’t even land on vehicles under 80,000 miles or so. But if we can prove that with battery data that that battery is actually going to last a lot longer than that they might be able to open up their lending restrictions and and having that objectivity you know If they look at reliability and repair data already with combustion engines, but you don’t know when an engine is going to give out, you don’t know when a transmission is going to give out, just like a battery, that can be a very costly proposition and very risky proposition from a lender perspective. So if we can dig into the battery data and understand, hey, these batteries are gonna last this long as it allows everyone to make a more informed and better decision.

Elena: I really liked what you said about the objectivity of the battery health because at this point, mileage goes out the window. Right? That has been the the key indicator that I’m sure lenders and of course, Carfax is looking at mileage data, right for ice vehicles. So really, really important what you’re doing in the EV space now. So any new products that CARFAX kind of has on the horizon to help your customers in this quest for transparency, this quest for information, anything new and upcoming that you can share?

Ian: Yeah, great question. So we actually have a product, it’s called CARFAX Car Care. And this is an application that you could have on your phone or on your computer. And what that does, it’s a virtual glove box. So it gives all the users access to look at their vehicles information, the value, service history, and we can provide service updates for owners to better maintain their vehicle. And we have over 32 million customers on that app right now. It’s actually directly integrated with the Geico and the progressive apps. So it’s something that’s out there, it’s free to use as well. So we leverage over 139,000 different sources of data to deliver that. And we have many Eevee users that are using that app to help to maintain and care for their EVs, which is going to lead to you know better performance, greater longevity. And as we start launching new things into the space and new battery health products, our expectation is there’ll be a connected to that app and democratized for all consumers to use.

Elena: I appreciate you taking the time I know that you you had a great session here at Auto Intel so very excited to kind of see what’s next for for CARFAX.

Ian: Thanks so much.