Can We Afford to Ignore Electric Cars Any Longer?
Yeah, it’s a probably a bit of a non-traditional path into the world of working with dealers. So, I was building software for leasing companies and the company got quite big and I thought, you know, not sure, maybe I want to do something different. So, I left and then found myself managing an electric fleet and I obviously knew what was going on with residual values from, you know, my time in leasing and all these electric cars getting there, the their residual values hit and battery issues were something we had to contend with. And when you’re running an operational business, having issues like that is just fundamental, right? So I start and think about batteries and how important they were going to be cuz I knew that the battery can be half of the value of the car. And we just said, “Look, there’s got to be a way so anyone can assess the condition of an electric car battery and they know like the remaining warranty, the real range that car will do on a different scenario. So you don’t need to be a trained technician. It’s just a super simple process with like an app on your phone. Takes like a minute or two and then we give you a certificate. So that’s in a nutshell what we do and uh who we are. Greetings fellow legends of the motor trade. Whether you’re hunting down missing log books or chasing customers who vanish mid part exchange conversation, welcome back to Dealer Pod, the podcast built by dealers for other like-minded car dealers. Each week, we sit down with some of the names of the biggest motor trade veterans in the industry, new disruptors, uh, to small startups as well to find out exactly what’s working right now, what’s changing, and how you can use those insights to grow your own dealership. My name is Steven Douglas alongside Scott Sibi and Martin Carr. And today’s podcast is sponsored by Dealer Way, the UK’s fastest growing dealerto dealer platform connecting trusted traders all over the country. Before we get started, make sure that you smash that like button and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode. We drop new ones each week. All right, let’s get straight into it. This is this week in the motor trade. This week in the motor trade brought to you by Autora. >> This week in the motor trade sponsored by our partners Autograb. I’ve personally been using Autograb myself for now about seven or eight months now. Um it’s helping me uh buy a lot of stock direct from the general public from private listings all in one platform that I otherwise probably would have missed because I would have had to keep jumping over to different platforms. uh alerts us when there’s cars that have vented me filters and and it’s it’s been a bit of a gamechanging tool for for me in my business. I know Scott buys a lot of stock from there as well. So really really really good. Make sure you check that out and if you’d like to know more um just have a look on the YouTube description below and click the link through to their site and if you sign up using that link and mention Dealer Pod, you’ll get a huge 25% off your first 3 month subscription. Okay, this week in the motor trade, guys, what’s happening? December. Christmas is nearly upon Happy December. Happy December. Yeah, it’s a bit um it’s just a typical December, isn’t it? It just goes off a bit. We I think we’ve um I know we always talk about numbers and how many cars have sold. It’s always a bit of a I know people talk about profit, but numbers is vanity or something like that or whatever they say, but it gives you a bit of a feel on how many customers are coming, I suppose. So, I think we’ve done like mid30s. It’s the 11th. um like 38 or something like that. So I think to be fair we’re probably in a good position, but we’ve got like obviously next week and some of the week after. Um >> so what you on 38? >> 38 >> out of a stock of how many? >> Uh I check yesterday about 270 but there’s quite a lot in prep still. So available available maybe is about 200. >> So I normally stock around 60 to 70. We’ve currently got around 42 cars up for sale because we’ve uh we’ve been a little bit busy and we cannot really replace cars at the minute and we’re on 26. >> Yeah, but that’s the budget, isn’t it? >> So, that doesn’t make you look good though, Scott. Does it really? You know, the size of me compared to you. >> The only thing I would say about that is >> you are floundering. >> No, I think there’s a lot more rats around. >> Was it No, no, to be fair, the the budget happened last week though, didn’t it? So, >> yeah. all all the finance uh people who sit at home get get more money >> and also for the uh the subprime market the budget was announced and I thought actually I can spend that extra money or whatever on a car. So I think it’s turned the tap on for you George where the people who are like um who are non in that situation I’ll probably wait until after Christmas like they normally do. So we’ve been stocking up with lots of cars. So, so although we haven’t sold a lot, we’ve uh we’re it’s part it’s partly the planning because what I want to do is stock up for January, probably put 150 in to January and then you go into you know February and you need to obviously replace them and then December if we do out of those stocks say we’re doing another I don’t know 60 or 70 this month. We’re not really replacing them this month. So, we could end up having a bit of a stock shortage going into January which we didn’t want. >> But we’re still buying cars. The lads are out collecting cars this week. I think we’re bringing in about 20. I bought two from the auction yesterday. What a sinner, >> right? >> I bought two from there. So, um I was happy the ones I bought, they came cheaper than what I had for them, so that was good. >> I’m struggling to buy cars again. I mean, I feel like I’m seeing that all the time. Constantly. I just feel like this year has been a constant struggle to buy cars, but >> uh we’ve been selling a lot of cars uh and I’m just struggling to replace them. But we cause that we’ve got enough margin that we would want like you know and >> and getting them through prep. It’s the same world. Same world, isn’t it? But like I’m looking outside the pitch and it looks like we’ve been robbed. There’s there’s just empty space everywhere. I’m desperate desperate for cars. >> We’re seeing that people want more more money for their cars these these days. >> Yeah. I mean obviously I’m I’m on dealer way every day. I’m on mo motorway every day. I’m on call wow every day. And you know, like you know, I know our business is dealer way and it it doesn’t sound great that you know, that I can’t buy cars off it at the moment, but I just think it’s general across the board. It’s just really really difficult to acquire acquire used cars at the minute. It’s it’s just I’m hoping that in January everything just kicks off and and goes ballistic. But that then, like you say, you know, it it becomes even harder to buy those cars because everyone’s everyone’s trying to get them, aren’t they? And the prices go up a little bit. But I’m I’m literally I’m 20 30 cars behind where I need to be having in stock. And then I know in the back of my mind that I probably should have should be like 10 to 20 up because I can’t buy the cars in January. So starting to worry a little bit about it. Really need to just get get some more cars bought. But then you sit and think to yourself, well, do I work for less money? You know, just just to to to fill the pitch and p the numbers up. >> I think they’re working for less money and that when they’re buying them, they it’s just gambling, isn’t it? and you get a car back and the prep bill is huge and you end up working for nothing. >> So, you win on some, but it’s um I just don’t think it’s good business anymore. I think it’s very tough. I think that I think this year has been tough for a lot of dealers. I know there’s a dealer just went bump big main dealer uh three sites family business. They >> Scod dealer, wasn’t it? Who was that? >> Yeah, it was like Leads or somewhere, was it? >> Don I think it was Doncaster, wasn’t it? The um Scoda sites and VW. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I think there’ll be a lot more of that happening because I think as far as a business model goes, it’s um it just doesn’t stack up. It’s just, you know, you just it’s it’s just tough. It’s it’s very tough. We we did one the other uh day when um which was interesting, which we had the body shop was rammed and the valas didn’t have enough cars to valid. So, they were running out of cars. The seven valas were nothing to clean. That’s a problem where you got to keep everything spinning. So, we give them 15 cars which were in the paint line. So they might have had like a couple of chips on the bonnets or a couple little stone chips on the front bumpers and so on. So good enough to get validated, get photographed and get on the pitch and then if somebody wanted to buy the car and they said, “Oh, look, I’ll buy it if you paint that or whatever would do it.” And all 15 cars bought one sold none of them came back to the body shop. >> So the so the learning thing there was, are we over prepping the cars to our standard or we are we’re doing too much prep. So when you add up all the prep on 15 cars, it’s in the thousands, in it. >> Mhm. So, so we’re not going to like change our standards, but I think I’m going to start and keep a closer eye on what we’re actually doing because I bought cars, well, everybody’s bought cars from main dealers and things like that over the years. And you’re looking this, you know, stone chips on the bonnets, things like that. You think, “Oh, bloody hell with the main dealer. We’re expecting some different kind of standard when the main dealers can be the same or even less.” >> I think you find that they are the same. I used to think that. I used to think, oh, everything’s, you know, like perfect and main dealers and what have you. But I I drove past a main deal a few weeks ago and I where was I? I wasn’t in Newcastle. somewhere in the country somewhere and um I forget now but I drove past and they had like cars up for $39.99 like 62 played cars in a main I’m thinking what’s going on you know crazy that >> I bought my X5 with one of them M50 things I don’t know years ago about 5 years ago and that was a main dealer uh Chester I think it was BMW and there were stone chips nasty stone chips touched in on the bonnet and the car was like 50 grand so it wasn’t like you know cheap as they say and then when I got it back the lads were taking the piss because it had like genu Chinese tires on and and they thought it was all hilarious and uh so I actually took it around to Silverlink and I said, “Look, is this right? Is this BMW standard?” And they said, “Yeah, as long as the same brands on the same axle.” >> Yeah. >> That’s the standard of BMW. So the tire was like, I don’t know, 60 quid on a 50 grand car. But they said, “No, that’s BMW standard. That works.” >> Yeah. And then I bought another one not so long after Jane had the brain tumor. She was in recovery. And I thought, I’ll buy a car so she can sit in the back just relax. And I thought I’ll get a 7 series. So I bought a 7 series from BMW and on the way back I you know the car’s like got a bit of a wobble. I thought this car’s wobbling here. Like so I rang the uh the salesman and I said look this car is shaking here. And he’s like he wasn’t that bothered cuz um I think he’s quite new to the job. So he’s he’s like give her a ring but the service is terrible. So anyway in the finish I said to Ben I says should we pull this in the workshop? And he said well no it’s under manufacturer war. He said we’ll just put into BMW. So we’ll put it into BMW in Newcastle. the dealer hadn’t forgot to emote it. Um >> hadn’t forgot to emote. >> No, they forgot to do like the MOT. It must have been just coming on to three years and um he says put it into there. So I told him about the wheels. So when it went in for for the wheels um and the checks and whatever, I can you check the wheels cuz they’ve got a wobble and I says they’re either faulty tires or there’s a buckle on the wheel. Um anyway, he gives the car back and he said, “No, the the wheels are totally fine. No problem with the wheels whatsoever.” So when I drove it back there to here, um car still shaking. So, I’m thinking, well, how’s the how have they checked this right? So, I pulled into my workshop, got the wheels off, put it on the balancer, did a video, sent it to BMW about the guy who I spoke with, and you could see all the wheels was on the balancer like that. All four wheels were buckled, and that was main dealer. Um, so they hadn’t checked it down there. I put it into another main dealer in Newcastle, told him about it, who then hadn’t checked it, and then I sent him the video of the wheels where you could see it on the bouncer, and he’s just he just says, “Oh sorry about that.” I said, “You said you’d check these.” And he was like, “Well, yeah, it must have been a different BMW on the ramp. I’ve got confused.” >> Jesus. >> So, I sent the I did me I did the customer rejection thing and I just said I sent the dealer down there says, “Come and get us and just send us your money back.” >> Absolute screamer. >> Yeah. Says, “I’ll just have your money back. I’m not bothered.” And then then I reckon to get the money back. Must have took two months. >> Two months. >> No. >> Whereas one of our customers would be screaming down the phone every day, wouldn’t it? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> For that. >> I was just saying I just says I don’t want it. It’s within a month. Your son’s his fault. I says, “Just come and kill it and I’ll I said I’ll go and I’ll move on.” I says, “No problem. No hard feelings. Just crack on, you know.” So, but I waited for months and I I sold them an M4 years ago as well. That was BMW at at Testo’s roundabout. Which one? That would have been Martin at the time. >> Virtue. >> Was it a Virtue? Yeah. >> Would have been Coopers at the time. >> Coopers at the time. And I sold them the car and I think that took about two months to get paid for. I chased them and chased them. I reckon they’d sold the car and got the money in before they actually had to pay. Yeah. Terrible to Yeah. in a silicone. Well, then back in the day, I >> think everyone knows that you’ve just got too much money. That’s the thing. >> Well, I don’t think so. >> He doesn’t need that. >> Scotty, I ever thought about owning an an EV car? >> Uh, well, my new car is EV >> in a way. So, it’s a hybrid, so it has got the battery on, >> which it does 50 miles on pure electric. M >> and I really I really like the car out of all the Range Rover Sports and Range Rovers I’ve had. That’s the best one. Just the way it drives and the way it moves and it doesn’t really go through the gears and it’s um I really like it. Yeah. It’s pity the range wasn’t any better, but it’s um it’s all right. Yeah. And we’ve just bought a Model Y. We’ve got one in today. It’s the first Model Y we’ve just had. >> Well, obviously my my MS got a Model Y and I do think they’re good cars to be fair. >> Yeah. Bought the sub mouth and the lads just went and got it there before. It looks nice. >> No, no. Obviously Martin, you drive an EV as well, don’t you? And >> just with this news that’s come out very recently from the budget about them, you know, charging the the was it 3 p a mile? >> Three p a mile. >> And I just >> she hasn’t got a clue how she’s going to do it, man. >> What do I think about this 3p thing? Do you think it’s going to end up 6 p and then 20 p? >> Never going to happen. It’s never going to happen. >> I’m not sure it’s going to happen yet. I don’t know how they’re going to monitor it. How would they monitor it? >> Yeah, there’s no there’s no um roll out. There’s no She didn’t even realize that your your EVs didn’t have an MOT for three for 3 years. >> Yeah. She couldn’t answer the question when she was asked. >> So, she didn’t know how she was going to keep track of it. >> Mhm. >> Wow. That’s bad, isn’t it? >> You mean what’s going to happen? Like, I mean, obviously Oil will come in on this, but Motability scheme, who’s going to be paying for that one? Your taxi drivers who are doing 30,000 miles a year on EVs, who’s paying for their, you know, I mean, who’s paying for their stuff? Um, the government cars is it’s just it hasn’t been thought about at all. Are you going to get stopped at the time tunnel and go right what’s your what’s your mileage please? >> Unless they’ve known about this for years and they’ve built some sort of tracking software built into these EV cars to be to be actuated and started at 2028 when it starts and they’ll know instantly. >> Mhm. >> Possible. >> It’s possible. I mean you’ve got you’ve got it already in like pretty much every car that you’ve just mentioned there’ll have communication with the manufacturer. >> All right. So there you go. Might might come from that. Don’t know. We’ll see. In today’s competitive used car market, staying ahead means finding the right stock at the right price every time. I use Auto Grab to do exactly that. With endless listings and constant market shifts, it’s tough to know what’s worth chasing, but Autograb cuts through the noise. Their platform shows me where the value is, lets me filter for high margin stock, and alerts me when the right cars hit the market. If you want better margins and smarter sourcing, head to autograb.co.uk today. Make sure you mention Dealer Pod when signing up to get 25% off your first three month subscription. So today’s guest is the co-founder behind a company called Generational. Now they’re targeting the big trust issue in the the use market with proper battery testing, battery health testing rather. Um he’s helping dealers sell electric cars with confidence and I’m excited to hear his take on things all EV. Uh I’m really pleased to have him on the podcast and really pleased to welcome Mr. Oliver Philpot. How you Ollie mate? How’s it going? You okay? >> Yeah, good. Thank you. Thanks for having me, guys. Um really appreciate it and >> our pleasure. >> Happy to try and share some some insights, some thoughts, some wisdom. >> Yeah, I don’t know about wisdom, but I’ll do my best. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I really appreciate it. >> Yeah. Great. So, Oliver, obviously, welcome to Dealer Pod. So, what’s your story? How did you end up in the in the EV and like this sort of world in the first place? And just just tell us a bit about yourself and your company, you know. >> Yes. Um probably a bit of a non-traditional path into into the world of working with um with dealers really like but I started out so I was like a a software guy, right? I started out as a um building software for leasing companies. So like the the company I worked for they they sold software to like you know Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Toyota Financial Services, companies like that, right? And um so um I was always pretty automotive focused. Um and that company got quite big and like you know it was as a UK company and like went through an IPO. The time was pretty exciting. I mean I didn’t really benefit from it but like you know going through that as a as an employee is like you know is is a fun journey. Then it got quite big and I thought, you know, not sure, maybe I want to do something different. Um, so I left and and then uh spent some time in a couple of startups and found myself managing um an electric fleet. Um, and this was also like the sort of I don’t know how much you sort of follow the world of of startups, but this was like just postcoid and like there was lots of like investor money going into a lot of these businesses. It was all growing like really quickly and stuff. Um, and I yeah, so found myself managing this this electric fleet and I obviously knew what was going on with residual values for from you know my time in in leasing and all these electric cars getting their their residual values hit. Um, and battery issues were something we had to contend with, right? So we were working with early generation EVs. Um and uh when you’re running an operational business like having issues like that is uh you know is is just fundamental, right? Like um so I sort of was starting to think about about batteries and like the fact how important they were going to be because I knew that you know an electric car the battery is can be half of the value of the car in in some cases, right? Um and uh then I met my my co-founder um Russian who um had this amazing experience from his time at Red Bull Racing. Um and we just sort of uh together you know he said look there’s got to be a way uh so so anyone anywhere can super easily super quickly assess the condition of of an electric car battery. Um because we sort of thought like you know when it comes to electric cars like the health of the battery is probably going to be like the new mileage. Um so so that was the beginning really and we we started the business in um 2023. Uh and then we’ve also been lucky with timing I guess like it’s just been growth from there particularly like the last um uh six months. So yeah, so we currently work with like about a third of the biggest 30 dealer groups in the UK, but all the way down from like PLC groups um down to like there’s a guy down the road from me who like sells cars out of his parents like backyard basically. Um, so all sorts of uh of customers and like yeah, I mean it’s been a friendly journey actually like um you know one thing I didn’t anticipate is like quite how like collaborative a lot of the dealers are out there um like helping each other out and like just the um uh it’s been like really nice environment to to work in and we’ve been fortunate that like um we’ve had a um a load of partners and and we’ve also benefited from like I a bit of luck. Um, you can’t escape that as well. So, um, yeah, that’s where we are today. Um, basically we we help dealers with a super fast, super easy way. So, anyone can assess the condition of an electric car battery and they know like health of the battery, the remaining warranty, the real range that car will do on a different scenario. So, you don’t need to be a trained technician. It’s just a super simple process with like an app on your phone, a little dongle that plugs into the diagnostic port of the car. takes like a minute or two and then we give you a certificate. So that’s in a nutshell what we do and uh and here we are. >> Great. Obviously I want to delve into to to your company and the processes and you know how you can help dealers um in a little bit but just keen to get your thoughts really on the you know like the the state of the EV market as it is like how would you describe it? What what’s like the reality versus the headlines? >> Yeah. So, um I haven’t looked for a couple of weeks, but I think the last time I checked there were about 40,000 EVs on for sale on Auto Trader and like this time last year I think it was about 22,000, right? So, you’re seeing like there’s just a there’s a lot of used stock coming off off leases, right? I think like you talk about the government like a lot of incentive still going on on on new cars. Um and that has meant that you know there’s this um there’s a lot of electric cars on salac on the balance sheet of the leasing companies right and the government hasn’t done anything for the used market right so you’ve got all this this stock starting to to you know hit the used market and um at the moment I think it’s probably fair to say that like there’s a little bit of an imbalance in terms of supply and demand right because when you push a lot of product in at new then and you don’t do much to support the used market. I think that’s kind of where we are. But my sense is I don’t know be keen to hear from you guys that like when we first started the business there are a lot of dealers who say look I I’m not stocking an EV. I don’t I don’t need a headache, right? And now actually what you’re saying like it’s hard to fill your your full core unless you are stocking EVs and it’s getting harder and harder, right? So like >> it’s just even though like the majority of independents still aren’t stocking them, um it’s harder to to do business without it, it’s like it’s harder to avoid. So um yeah, my sense is the market the there’s a lot of product out there. Probably a bit of imbalance in supply and demand. Um but I do think now like the conversation has changed a little bit in terms of the consumer side. So I think people do it’s interesting what you said, Scott, around your your Range Rover, right? Like I think people talk about the benefits electric car in a different way than they did a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago it was all about like oh you know it’s greener and like we’re all going net zero. Actually now like there are people who will you know it’s pretty mainstream. It’s like that they’ll say >> it’s quiet. It accelerates like you know really smoothly. It’s nice to drive. There’s packed with new tech. Um you know my wife likes it because she never has to go to a petrol station. um you know there’s actually a whole load of other ways of looking at it that I think are becoming more mainstream. So um yeah, we’re seeing more of that in in the market as well. >> Do you do you not think obviously everyone used to talk about when they first came out um about the like the range anxiety, you know, am I going to get it from from A to B if I’m doing long long journeys and what have you, but do you not think the real issue now is the resale anxiety around the cars? like people worrying what the car is going to be worth if at the end of that, you know, cuz they’re going to probably more than likely take it out on some sort of finance agreement. What’s it going to be worth at the end of it? >> I think it’s Yeah. So I uh so my parents, right, have always like bought a secondhand car and like driven it into the ground, right? Like they were just that kind of that kind of family. Um and so so I bought a used uh a used EV probably 18 months ago. uh and I own it and I’ve lost you know I get you know you get it valued right like just thinking about it and it has come down in value quite a lot right so I know that like if I if I do sell it I I might take it and I think also people are thinking about you know what condition will the battery be in they’re thinking about all the new product that’s coming onto market right all the Chinese product that is also hitting the values of the of all the other brands um so I think there is like definitely a bit of anxiety around that. Um, and not just not just range anxiety, right? And then, you know, you’ve then got the government doing things like uh sticking three pile on tax and it does generate a little bit of negative uh negative sentiment. So, yeah, it’s uh it is something that that I think is is on people’s minds. >> Well, it’s not true that though. It’s the like I say that the the 3 PML is the second sort of raid on on EVs this year. The first one was the when it went from free tax to £190 in April. You know, everyone everyone who had them, you got you got hit with a you got hit with your tax bill whether you whether you liked it or not. Um that was the like you say the first raid. But it’s interesting you say about the the used incentives in the marketplace in about the residual. I mean, I was reading um an article saying that so ice cars from brand new, an ICE car will have sort of a 50% residual value in sort of the 3year period against an EV car, which is about 60 to 65% residual uh knockoff. So, there is there is definitely anxiety there, and there probably does need to be something to support the used car network with a with an EV grant. Um, I mean the again going back to the new car one, the the the the Renault 5 became available at 3750 off. Was it last week or the week before? And overnight Renault turned the 0% finance off and put the finance rate to 6.9. >> The car was exactly the same price monthly payment wise, but the car then qualified for a £3,750 grant. >> Can you imagine if customers got got like a an EV grant for a used car? every car every car dealer would just want to fill that fork up with EVs, wouldn’t it? >> That’s that’s the thing. That’s it’s it’s coming. I mean, if you think about if you think back since co manufacturers have been pushed and pushed and pushed into making making hybrids and and making electric cars, most manufacturers don’t do diesel anymore. They only do petrol. And they’re getting phased out. And it’s going to come to a point when it comes when the cycle comes around where you’re going to find the traditional ICE cars are harder and harder to get a hold of and you’re going to get more hybrids and more electric cars coming through. >> It doesn’t have to be like a grant though, right? Like the government could do something like guarantee some of the values of of you. So something that might be cheaper for the government that would also help like just balance the market out a little bit. >> Yeah, exactly. Um I think there’s ideas like that that would be cheaper. Do you not think like especially in the used era because I mean I always see like a a customer who buys a new car against a customer who buys maybe a you know like a five grand to 15 grand car is a total different type of person and I I do you think like the manufacturers have have done enough to educate the people on on like how an EV battery car actually works or you know oh they just left it us to clear up the confusion cuz speaking to a lot of people about um me wife’s Tesla and the the amount of questions I get asked all the time. I mean, I can’t even answer them all to to be fair, but it’s just nobody seems educated about like what an EV car actually is. >> I reckon the part of it though is that the I think there are traditional used car buyers who are looking at new stock because of like all the incentives. So, I think that is happening, right? Like they’re like, “Oh, look, I can get this, you know, basically a if you’re getting on salac, right?” like and you’re not um uh you know the it’s just such good value. I think there are people doing that like through their company and I think that’s that’s happening a lot. I think when you hit the used market the job of the dealer now is becoming so hard, right? Because you’ve got like you’ve got the super educated buyer who like comes in and wants to know every like question uh and like has got super specific stuff and you know you you’ve got a team of busy people, right? and of like stock flowing through the the business all the time. Um, and at the same time, you’ve got people who are just like that sort of like early majority of people, right, who are start maybe thinking just had a hybrid and think actually maybe like I can charge at home. I might might get a full EV, right? Or it’s just they hadn’t considered it before and they’re not like, you know, uh, into knowing every fine detail of the of the tech spec. So, I think having to cater for all of that um cuz it has sort of been left up to the the dealers um is a uh is a tough job right now. Yeah. >> Ollie, can can I ask um you know that when the the dealers do the plugin and prints out the certificate, do you get that data as well or does the data just stay with the dealer? >> We can see it. So, like you know if you it’s stored on our on our database. So if you ever need to like reaccess a certificate or anything like that then um uh then we have it. So I can tell you sort of like what um what sort of typical battery degradation looks like across you know different makes models or just generally like across the market. >> That’s what I was asking. Yeah. >> Yeah. So um typically really it depends on how the car has been used, right? Uh so you know have you rapid charged the car all the time or stored it at 100% or cycled it up and down from from uh 100 to zero and back down a lot right like um or well all these sort of things like can cause slightly faster degradation of the batteries. But I think the key thing to say is that like >> battery these car batteries are performing much better than people expect right. I think a lot of people compare it to their iPhone um and they think oh you know after 3 years like it’s going to be um you know I’m not going to be able to like my my phone will die at like 4:30 p.m. now right at the end of the day if I’ve been if I’m using it but like a car’s battery on average we see about 2% a year degradation. Um but that varies on really on how the the vehicle’s been used. And what you see is that like if um we we did a bit of research when we started the the business and people essentially value a car without a known um battery health similarly to one with a battery health in the mid70s of percent. >> Mhm. >> So the the point is that like people sort of priced in that risk or they sort of worry about it a little bit. Um, but the vast majority of results we see are coming out well in the in the 80s and 90s and percent. So like you know really for the story I think for people is one of of reassurance, right? Like um about 0.8% of the vehicles we’ve ever tested come in with a battery health below 80%. So they’re all pretty good. >> Yeah. Are there any brands in particular for you know like used car dealers where where you’ve probably been asked this a thousand times which which ones are the ones where you say you couldn’t give me one of them or every time you know the data shown that little peers while he’s hiding his pillow now he’s like >> the dealers are going to they’re going to switch off now these main dealers if you if you say the wrong thing. What Scott’s asking is what is the electric equivalent of a one liter Fiestto Fiesta Ecoboom automatic >> or an Inenium? >> Yeah. >> I got to be careful that I don’t get like a a letter on my doorstep from a manufacturer or something. Um >> you can tell us off off air, you know, if you don’t like that question. We still >> No, no. You need to tell the dealers listening not what not to buy. I think it’s pretty well known that like um for example some of the early generation Nissan Leafs without some of the same like cooling technology degrade a bit faster. Um >> I wouldn’t say there’s like >> one brand that is like better than all the others. Um it’s it hasn’t really come out that way. we don’t see any obvious trend because as well like there’s there’s different batteries in the different models and they’re like you know really the usage profile is quite different. So we’ve um sort of steered away from like you know publishing a a ranking and also it’s like I think you’ve got to you got to watch out for sort of um telling people that just because they buy this make this model of car like you know the battery won’t degrade right like um it’s a sort of it’s a chemical fact and really it depends on how you use the car but in the vast majority of cases it’s much better than than people expect, right? Like um these batteries are performing really well and you’re not going to lose much much range, right? Um if you’re buying a used EV. >> So maybe with cuz obviously, you know, we hear the horror stories and that you know talking about BMW before and where they’ll say they’ve got I think we had a guest on the other week and he’s talking about BMWs and had lines of them what they couldn’t fix. It’s maybe it’s not the battery at fault. It’s probably the control units what’s controlling the car and the battery which is failing and not necessarily the battery. Would that would that be right or do you think it would a battery just have a total fail? >> Could be. It’s it’s all relatively rare, right? Like you’re um your the the trouble is that when it does happen, it’s expensive, right? Like um the you know replacing a cell, you could you’ll be in thousands of pounds like or a cell or a module, right? like um and then there’s the question of like the repair networks are then the supply chain for a lot of the stuff is is still not as mature as it as it could be, right? Which might mean that it takes a lot you know takes some time. Um and then you know your insurers’s got to potentially give you a um a backup car and all that sort of stuff. So, like, you know, generally speaking, so I was at a I was at an IMDA event last week and I think there was a warranty company there and a gentleman there said that they uh had warranties on 7,000 EVs and they hadn’t had any uh battery related claims. >> Um yeah, >> which is pretty compelling, right? But the but the thing is that when you do get them um like they are >> they’re they’re fairly expensive, right? So, you just want to know like before you take that car in like um what the condition of the battery is. Yeah. >> Well, that’s that’s traditionally what’s put me off stocking any or trying any just thinking like bloody hell if if the only thing that can really go wrong with this car is the battery. what if I buy this car and and and it needs, you know, the battery’s goose and it’s it’s going to cost us 78 grand to replace or even even more, you know, and that that sort of held me off from I mean the market that I’m in, you know, the the prices haven’t really been further down the line enough really for me to enter the the sort of EV space, but they’re getting there now. And I’ve been like, do I do I not? And that’s the sort of thing that’s been holding us off thinking I don’t know enough about them. >> Model 3s must be getting close to where you where you retail at though now. Well, they are. And again, that’s a car that I thought about. Do I start buying a few of them? Cuz I think would would sell them, but then I’m thinking, well, they’re going to be probably up in the miles. How bad are the batteries on them? Like, am I going to be lumbered w with them if they go wrong? I just >> don’t know, you know, and you’re just not I’m so used to petrol and diesel cars and I know about them. I just it’s just it’s the unknown, isn’t it? >> An interesting one for you would be to consider. So, across all the cars we test, we see that generally age has a slightly higher impact on the degradation of the battery than mileage. So like a lot of our customers have been doing really great business in the last four or five months on relatively young slightly higher mileage EVs >> because um uh so just like loosening that um stock criteria a little bit because essentially yeah I think was a little triggered by there were a load of taxis that came off a a fleet right and got sold and like I had customers who were buying up like Volkswagen ID4s like in the by the bucket load, right? Um, and they were pretty high mileage, but um, in an EV there’s not many moving parts, right? So, like actually, if you know that the batter is in good condition, some of these VW these ID4s were like 80, 90,000 miles, one, some 100 plus. Um, and they some of them were like sub 10 grand. Um, and if you sell that with a like a battery check, it looks like and you can see the batteries in in good condition, it looks like insanely good value. It’s so much car for the for the money. >> Um, and they were just like flying off the off the forcourt. Um, so it’s an interesting like especially whilst like today, you know, the valuation companies haven’t quite caught up. Yeah. Um, so like we’re talking to the sort of, you know, the CAP HPIs of the world and things like that because they’re all interested in how to update the value of vehicles based on the condition of the battery. Um, but right now like hasn’t quite happened yet. So there’s this sort of arbitrage opportunity where these um relatively young high mileage EVs with um a battery in a good condition just look like such a good deal. >> No, I could I could see that. Yeah, I do. Yeah. just just where on on the the the subject of that in terms of servicing I mean there’s there’s there’s rumor out there that EVs don’t get serviced or maintained in the same manner as what a petrol or diesel does >> and because because there is no moving parts as you say but the it’s such an impact on the warranty side of stuff that people don’t realize >> and because people have got these on short-term leases >> they’re like oh well it’s not my it’s not my problem it’s someone else is is there is there anything in place or do you know about that that sort of looks after that side of stuff? >> So we were thinking about like putting some content out about this actually because like it it is important right so so the manufacturers um will generally warrant the um health of the battery down to the most typical warranty you see is down to 70% after eight years or 100,000 miles, right? Um whichever comes first, right? Um however like with any product right you need to use it within reasonable parameters uh in order for that warranty to be valid now and generally one of the terms or like always is that you need a full full service history right like you need that you need to keep up with the servicing requirements of that vehicle um and but the I’ve looked through the terms and conditions of different manufacturer warranties and they’re not all like completely the same, right? So, you do need to do some due diligence as to um you know, the terms and conditions for your car, but generally speaking, like if it’s got a full service history, that’s the that’s really the main thing you you care about. Um because you do want that manufacturer warranty to be uh to be valid unless you want to buy an extended warranty on the on the battery. >> A quick message from our sponsors, dealer. Attention dealer pod listeners. Do you want a better, quicker, more profitable way of trading out of your park exchanges or roller stock? List your cars on Dealer Way today and connect with over 2,000 vetted trade buyers actively looking for vehicles. No hidden fees, no hassle. Start your own custom auctions from your desk or the palm of your hand in our gamechanging app. Or advertise your stock on quick, easy, buy it now listens to our eager buyers who are waiting to quickly acquire vehicles. What are you waiting for? Join dealer way today at dealerway.co.uk and streamline your disposals. Ollie, how do you how do you see like the EV battery health impacting part exchange values over the next few years? Like are we heading for a world where a PX is won and loss based on the battery score? >> Um I think it’s an important factor for a dealer to take into account, right? Because if you So, one of our customers um tests all the all the batteries in their cars and they uh ended up taking on a car um on a part exchange uh that it just slipped through the net, right? It didn’t get tested. Uh busy dealership like stuff happens. No. Um and that car had um about 40% uh state of health in the battery. That’s very low and pretty rare, but that then becomes quite hard to sell, right? Like I think you would only do about 35 miles on a on a full charge. >> Um and that’s you know it’s an anomaly, but you’ve got to sell a lot of cars to make up for the cost of um you know the money you might lose there. So I think um it’s an important you know it’s an important sense check for a for a part exchange. I think like uh will it we’re a little way off for you know having a um pricing tool taking into account the the condition of the battery but like it is what I can say from our customers is starting to happen informally but a lot of them also where I’m seeing it is setting a kind of a minimum retail threshold right um so um we’ve got some of our customers the most common one I see is at 80% um so they would say look we’ll retail anything above above 80. Um, and if it comes in a bit below that, then like, you know, maybe we’ll push it to trade instead of like uh have a potential headache of of selling it to a customer. Um, and that obviously has a has an impact on the power exchange value because it has an impact on how much margin you make on the car. Um, so the market’s evolving to be honest. Um, we’re not yet at that stage where, you know, you can put the regge in and instead of the mileage, you could also put in the the capacity of the battery, you know, the health of the battery and and get an updated value. It’s still a little bit more informal than that, but it’s definitely, you know, hopefully those examples show you that um it it is happening. Yeah. >> You know, like your likes of Auto Trader and Motors and and Carw Wow and all these all these aggregators and platforms. Do you ever think it’s going to get to a point where they come to the likes of you guys and go right this dealer Redgate Lodge put this registration number in and they it automatically populates from the data you’ve got from this was the last time it was checked. This was the last time it was checked. this was its it its percentage on the battery. So the so the dealer is not manipulating that in any fact. Do you know what I mean? Do you ever think that’s going to come to a point where >> like almost on like a motor check or or a HBI report? Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. So like Yes. When it’s when it’s HPI it’s it’s got the last time it was checked on the on the um on the battery health. Um and not just for not just for that but when >> I think that’s coming >> your dealer portal. >> I think that’s coming. >> Yeah. when you when you you know when you got a part exchange you put in a dealer port and you see last year it was battery checked you know what I mean for whatever reason um and it’s had 90% you’ve got a bit more faith in the valuation on the vehicle >> and now all of a sudden it’s got 99% you think oh what’s going on is it off now >> it’s a clone you see that couldn’t you I was going to mention you can you can see it sort of heading down like imagine imagine auto trader where on a you know like another platform car whatever and and you you had filter for battery health. So you couldn’t put your car on auto trailer unless it had, you know, or or it fed the information like you said direct Martin and and you could filter out, you know, well, I only want to see cars above 85% battery health >> buying. And when you think about it, >> if if you know you fast forward 15 20 years and every car on the road, let’s say it’s possibly electric, >> it’s more it’s a it’s a better way for a customer and probably for us to be fair to know whether you’re buying a better car or not because at the minute really, you know, mechanical engine unless you know anything about them, you haven’t got a clue really if if the car is good or not. But >> it’s a bit like a 12 month student. So you’d have a 12 month battery health check. So it might be an annual battery health check what gets done. So when you sell a car comes with a 12 month battery health check and a 12 month. >> But the fact that you know exactly what’s in the battery as well. It’ll just make people cuz it stands to reason doesn’t you’re looking for a new car and you and you know every car is an electric car. You want to get the one with the most battery like the best battery health. It’s like you know you wouldn’t you wouldn’t go on Gunre to buy a secondhand phone if it had 30% battery life. You just wouldn’t have it would you? Yeah. If the car was 100 quid somewhere else, but it was 7% battery higher, you’d go with 100 quid. >> Yeah, you probably would. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, it will not affect car prices as that, wouldn’t it? If it gets to that point, you think? >> Can I ask you a question? You know, if a battery, say it was, say it was at 70%. >> And that’s obviously degraded. Would that 70% battery start and degrade faster? You know, you know, you know, like a car depreciation, you know, like falls off a cliff and then it slows down. does once it hits 70% is is it like is it fallen off a cliff then? >> Yeah. So there’s there’s what’s called a a knee point. Um, and a lot of this comes out of um, mostly the sort of the academic research, right? Or or the OEMs who have got vehicles and they’re sort of like cycling them in their testing environments because, you know, honestly there’s not been or the cars that are out there on the roads, right, that are now that age are there’s not a huge body of them, right? or they tend to be the early generation EVs, but like um yeah, like you know, a lot of the research suggests that um there is this thing called a a knee point basically where the um the batteries will start to degrade faster. Um in terms of like the body of vehicles out there on the on the roads right now, like you know, I think we’re not in in the main we’re really not at that stage yet. Um and the other point is that like um you know generally speaking I think the the wisdom is like the end of a battery’s first life in a car would be considered to be around 70%. Right? Um and then but the the point is about an electric car is that like actually that battery is still useful to you know you have companies who are starting to start up right like buying up batteries from cars and turning them into like basically big batteries and they’ll sell energy back to the grid right like putting them all um together. So um that will still have a value um even even once it’s had its first life in the car. Makes sense, doesn’t it? >> Ollie, I mean, right, let’s I mean, let’s get into what you’ve actually built your your company. So, say I’m a dealer, which I am, and I’ve taken in use Tesla. >> Walk me through exactly what I would do with your kit from start to finish. >> Yeah, sure. So, you have um a little uh diagnostic tool, so a little OBD dongle. You plug it into the diagnostic port of the car, and then you have an app on your phone. Choose a make a model of car. It guides you through like where the um diagnostic port is and um where you need to plug it the the device in. So do that and then you run the test. It takes about a minute or so and then we give you a certificate um that has on it all the key information that buyers are asking for. So the state of health of the battery, the uh remaining warranty on the battery from the manufacturer and the real range that that car will do under different scenarios given the health of the battery, right? So you can think about how that might fit into your life and like what it would be like in summer or winter, etc. Um so super simple. We email you the certificate, you can see it in the app, it’s listed in the web platform, so you can see the history of all the tests you ever done. Most of our customers will put the certificate like in the image carousel the vehicle listings um and those who get the best results sort of think about it in terms of the whole purchase funnel of the um of the customer journey right so like um having information on their website then putting it in the um image carousel. We’ve also got one c um customer Cambria who have like um got a little clickable battery health widget in the search results. So you can see like and as you were talking about doing it as a filter um it’s a bit like that. um uh and then put the certificates in the image carousel uh and then we customers even print them out and stick it in the in the window of the car. So you can see at all points in the process like transparently um what the condition of the battery is because it just helps you bring in more um inquiries and hopefully you know um close sale faster. So we said we we did some analysis, looked at um every EV lites in the UK over the last six months and compared the EVs tested with our kit to every other EV sold in the UK. Uh and the ones tested with our kit sold seven days faster on average than all the others. So like and that’s marketwide UK. Um so you can see that I think it just sort of adds that reassurance. There’s this level of trust and transparency as well that just helps you kind of bring in more um uh bring in more inquiries and and hopefully close a sale in a sort of derisk and transparent way. >> With your history, Ollie, you’ve been like obviously developer um and software and what have you. Have you not thought about building some sort of plug-in from the app that goes onto a dealer’s website to display like the the the certificate and everything nicely on on a dealer’s website? kind of like how like a a code weave as or an Iendy calculator looks, you know? So, so it’s just like that consistency across rather than putting I just think it’s a little bit messy just putting the photograph of it in the in the carousel. Do you know what I mean? I think I’d prefer it that way on my website if I was selling EVs. >> Yeah. So we um uh we do that with a couple of businesses already where like um they basically access our certificates via API um or you know or there’s a little widget that basically displays it nicely um on the listings. >> Yeah. >> Super easy to do. Um every business is slightly different in terms of how they how they want to use it their marketing and what’s right for them. Our certificates they’re like the ones that go in the image carousel are like specifically designed like optimized for for mobile and for that JPEG format. It’s not like, you know, a picture of a um A4 PDF or anything, but um yeah, I think it the >> the thinking is right, right, is to think about like integrating it in a in a slick nice way. Um so it’s super easy for people to get that information, right? Like if you go to I don’t know, I’ve been to Auto Trader events and they’re all about just like, you know, the car is the start, right? Like um you know, is their sort of saying, right? and just like putting up as much information out there to to let people people decide and that seems to >> um get results. >> Oie can ask as well, you know, the the dongle thing. So, do deal dealers rent that from you? Do they buy it? And then when you do the the report, how is that charged to a dealer? So, if a dealer is interested in getting, you know, your kit, how does it work? >> Yeah, sure. Uh so, they’d buy the kit. Uh you buy it, it’s yours. Um uh so the kit itself is uh £95. Um uh and then uh and then we charge per vehicle. Um and for our smallest customers who might just be doing like one or two a month on like pay as you go uh it’s £2850 per vehicle and that cost comes down with um with scale. >> It’s not dear then really is it? >> No. >> No it’s not it’s not dear. And and realistically are how long does a test take? Is it literally just a couple of minutes? Is that that quick? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyone can do it. Couple of minutes. So, the idea I didn’t realize this when we we first started the business, but like for us it’s really all or like it’s really all about ease of use, right? Like um I get that like um uh dealers are busy people, right? And there’s like different people in the business who might need to do it and like we’re another job for for people to do. So, like we’re all about trying to make it easy and fast. Um, because I know that like time is time is precious, right? >> Yeah, definitely. Without a doubt. >> What about your marketplace? Are you are you finding new new businesses like yourself coming into the market? Is it becoming more competitive? So, how much that you know you charge per thing? Is there like new people popping up and saying, “Well, we do the same thing. We only charge this.” is or or is there just maybe like one or two or three companies around doing what you do? >> Yeah. So, um there’s not many. There’s a there’s a couple of the I think the trouble is that like and there’s also the the big OEM diagnostics, right? Like your sort of main dealer like for a technician sort of thing that costs like you know thousands of thousands. Um so that’s another sort of sort of area. Um but because um our product is not really something that you can like sit down and get chat GBT to like make a automotive diagnostic tool. There’s like quite a lot of work that goes into it because um you sort of need like different proprietary encodings for every different maker model of car. Um so it’s actually quite hard to to build. So, we haven’t really seen much in the way of like new companies spring up at least in the last 12 months um doing this. I mean like have you guys heard of Zip Car? Um it just uh was a >> just bang up but not really. >> Yeah, it was a London mostly focus in London and the US. They um uh so they just shut down and but like I said I was sort of a bit of an RIP to Zipar because when we first I’ve actually been banned from Zipar because when we first like um when we first started the business you know I was like I started with nothing right um and Zipar let you rent cars by the minute. Um and so in London like they had this mandate where a load of the car the zip cars had to be electric. Um, and uh, so I was like renting all these cars and like and then I got this email from Zip Car saying um, Mr. Phil, it looks like you’re taking a number of journeys and not going anywhere or taking only very short trips. So I think they thought I was like I don’t know like selling drugs out of their cars or like using it for like prostitution or something. So I’ve been banned. >> Would you neither that that you can confirm is true? I I I absolutely deny both of those started their downfall >> but the point was that like you know that was what got us started right cuz understanding every different make model of car is like um a difficult thing to do um and so because I was like you know uh fairly technical I was in the cars like testing them and and obviously I was testing these cars batteries I wasn’t like doing anything go dodgy in the car >> but um yeah so it’s quite hard to like um basically do this. Um so we haven’t seen that many um businesses out there. You can’t just like sort of start up >> say information must be key. >> The sort of the data the data backup is the key element of it, isn’t it? >> Yeah, because it’s all like proprietary encodings from all the manufacturers, right? Um so essentially like we sort of sum up what we do. a bit like having all the different manufacturer diagnostics um but in a really easy to use app then that gives you a very consumer friendly like uh output essentially um that’s sort of like how I would sort of oversimplify what we do. >> How many dealers you got using the products at the moment then? >> Hundreds of rooftops. Um I I don’t know honestly. Um so and customer account yeah like uh hundreds. >> And when you first started obviously the motor trades traditionally not always quick to adopt the new things you know. How hard was it to vince sorry to convince the the first few dealers to actually you know plug the devices into cars and get started. >> Yeah it was hard man. Um like >> because I think I think now it’s it’s easier because we’ve like actually looked at the whole market data and like I like we’ve proved that like cars sell faster um and that you know we help you know derisk the purchase as well. Um but initially like you really got to be evangelize it right and like get people who kind of believe in things. So like um we were lucky we had a couple of couple of early big customers. So um so Carbase for example in the in the southwest um one of our early customers and like I think just got it from the start right they were like you know all about transparency you want to do right by the customer um >> uh and now like the market is ch like the market has changed a bit the number one reason so we are like most of our business at the moment is sort of like runoff just like inbound demand coming into us um and and the number one reason that dealers site uh in terms of wanting a solution like ours is that like basically consumers asking about the condition of the battery when they’re inquiring about the car and that’s like the number one question they’re getting. Um so they just need a way to to be able to answer that for for people. So um yeah, in the last months last 12 months I think the market has has changed a bit and some of that, as I say, some of that is luck for us, right? Um we’ve >> we’ve been fortunate to to have benefited from that. >> And since you’ve had like this product out into dealers, does any sort of real world use surprise you? Like anything that you didn’t expect? Has any dealers got back to you and says, “Oh, this is great.” Or, “Oh, I didn’t expect it to do this or you know, like is there anything come out that you weren’t thinking about?” >> I think we hadn’t anticipated people using it in terms of when they’re buying the car or like you know, initially roof um We’d always thought it’d be useful for both, but like um you know going out and actually doing the job of a buyer, right? Like I think is something that’s that’s also you want to know before you spend um money. I I obviously came at it initially from the point of view of a consumer, right? Like when I’m buying the car, I want to know. Um so so that and then I think like um the the importance of the fact it could be done by anyone is is something I I hadn’t fully appreciated when we were when we started right is that like there might be a salesperson who needs to use our our tool or it might be um a valeter or um it might be like you know if it’s if it’s a small dealership it’s like it’s the owner um like it just needs to fit into any any pro operational process and kind of be done by anyone because like you know workshops and technicians are generally need to be busy all the time right with like um and a lot of like companies will want a a view on that car’s battery because it’s the you know the main expensive component in the vehicle before they invest more money and that vehicle gets further down the the process. So yeah, we definitely learned a lot about like um uh what dealers need. >> Can I ask Ollie? Do you think you know like obviously we’ve got workshops, we’ve got like loads of diagnostic equipment, Bosch KTS, Snap-On, all these different ones and these companies are huge. Do you not think they would look at this and say there’s a gap in the market and what we should do is our Snap-On, whatever they call the machine, I don’t know now. um amount of touch but where they’d say well our our new latest machine with DIAG machine does programs this it does that does that and it reads battery health checks as well do you think what would what would be the separation where your bit of kit and your expertise does that where could do you not see that you know they would dip their toe in there and think well we need to catch up with this and do it >> they might do I mean like we got to we all got to live with that right like and um I think where we’ll stay pretty squarely focused is on electric vehicle batteries and making the test super easy and super fast. Um, I think like we’re a pretty like as a business, I mean, like I’ve always wanted to run the business like aggressively lean basically in terms of people because I think we can move faster and if we stay kind of quite focused like we can be really good at EV batteries and making it super easy and super fast so anyone can do it and also producing the results in like a, you know, a very consumer friendly way, right? Um, and I think some of these like bigger, slower moving engineering organizations, we just don’t come up against them. Um, to be honest, like I think it maybe they will wake up to it at some point. Um, but do you know there’s going to be a lot of EVs out there, right? So like, you know, and competition is not a bad thing, right? Like keeps us on our toes and like means that um, ultimately you guys get better service and um, uh, you know, and the market gets what it needs. So like I don’t think we’re we’re too worried about it to be honest. Like the bigger problem for us is like just getting the message out there like but like actually this is something people care about. Super easy to do and uh helps you when you’re buying, helps you when you’re selling. >> We had an on the other weekend. Um we’ve never been asked for but the the guy who bought us says I’ll buy it if I can do a battery health check. And we the Bosch sent what we’ve got. We asked them, we’ve got the Bosch KTS equipment, and we spoke to Steve from Bosch, who’s like our area account manager, and we said, “Look, does this does this KTS do the health health check?” And he says, “Oh, yeah, it’ll be fine. We’ll do it. Can you print off a report?” “Yeah, yeah, you can do all that.” Uh, and when we tried to do it on this Audi Ron, it wouldn’t do it at all. So, it failed on the first hurdle. Um, which yours would have done that, I would imagine. And then we had a nightmare trying to then try and I don’t know I don’t know who did the the health check and the finish, but it dragged on. Um, so there mustn’t have been anybody local to us who could have plugged it into the health check. >> Yeah. And I think for us as well is like that’s what I mean in terms of saying like, you know, this is literally all we do as a company is like so it’s kind of got to work, right? Like um >> you’d hope so. >> Yeah. Um and so like you know if uh if certificates don’t generate or we don’t support like so we purely focus on supporting as many different makes and models of of uh of car as we can generally more than those you know the bosches of the world and and stuff like that right because this is we’re just focused on on this one thing um and doing it in a way that like anyone can do on an app right so like you don’t need to be a trained technician um And then there’s that sprinkling of like having a consumer friendly output that isn’t like bamboozling people with like all these numbers that they don’t understand or is a sort of like um uh not something that you can like really present in a in a marketable way. Um so yeah, I think we think that’s enough for us for now. I think your tool would work well for transport companies when you know the likes of carwow and motorway and they’re going to collect cars for people. If they carried that little uh dongle and they run the B battery health check because otherwise you you’re just trusting the customer’s word for it and then you know it give you the battery health check it say I don’t know 80% or 70%. There’s you can either walk away from the vehicle or you’d have to renegotiate it but but at the minute the dealer’s buying it blind they don’t really know the state of the battery. So it’s worth it would be worth you know for dealers all over the country using likes and motorway in car to do that I would imagine. >> Yeah because as I said you don’t you know if you get one issue it can be kind of pretty painful financially right you’re in the thousands uh and they’re rare but >> if a dealer was going to do it anyway and provide the health check with the car they’re selling if they bought it in that way they’re only still going to do the one battery health check because it’s on their system and they’ve got it haven’t they? >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You want it as early in the process as possible probably. M >> obviously our audience is mainly independent motor dealers. Obviously we do have people from main agent and what have you and bigger franchise dealers watching the show but we’ve also got quite a um a few workshops um or people that run workshops or own workshops watch the podcast. I’ve spoken to a couple of them and and I’m just thinking, you know, I take your target audience has been sort of like the the dealers first and foremost, but there’s a huge gap in the market really as well for to go after workshop operator owners as well who could, you know, offer this out as a service to someone who wants to check the battery on that car or who wants to sell that car uh and they need to provide that that proof of how good the battery is. Are you seeing lots of that as well? Yeah, we’ve got um we’ve got several actually. And I think part of it as well is that like you know if you take your car to the main dealer like sometimes they may say oh like uh because a lot of consumers reach out to us being like you know can you guys test my car’s battery and we haven’t you know I haven’t got the operational footprint to do that right but like there’s a lot of consumers who are asking for it. Um and so anyone, you know, any business who wants to offer this out as a as a service to consumers like we’re sort of keen to work with, right? Because um people are asking for it, um and if you go to the main dealer, a lot of the time they might not actually even be able to do it or like you said, Scott, to be able to produce like a nice a nice certificate or get the information back to people in in an easy way. Um or if they can, it’s like I don’t know, it might be 200 quid. So like absolutely like Stephen I think it’s a like really good opportunity especially just to get this we want this information to be everywhere right like because it’s so fundamental to the value of the car that like it kind of needs to be ubiquitous so um yeah repair shops a big part of the big part of the solution I think >> I wonder if they’ve made it part of anote you know cuz there’s certain parts of what they test on the car >> I bet you would material. >> Could I invest ollie early if that’s if that’s going to happen? >> If the Department of Transports listing >> Yeah. Yeah. I’ll let I’ll let you know. Like we get a heads up from the government. I get Rachel Reed tap me on the shoulder and then I’ll I’ll let you know. >> Um >> uh I I would like that. I mean it would make sense I think like to have the central you know government database where this is like transparently available right? Um uh as far as we understand there’s no appetite for it in in government at the moment like they’ve got they’re busy with other stuff basically. >> It would be like an advisory wouldn’t it? So if it was a batteries of the 70% you would just have it as an advisory. It wouldn’t fail theote but it would just be highlighted on the MOT. >> Yeah. And then there would be one you know there’d be some cases where like you know uh you might need a repair right like if there’s like issue with a cell or like um you know some some faults that that need addressing. Um but yeah, I think you can imagine there’s a lot of people in like I don’t know, Department of Transport who would need to like put together a lot of policy for that to happen. So, um uh yeah, we we tried pushing it. Um but no luck so far. >> Don’t give up. >> So, let’s keep banging the drum, guys, cuz then you’ll keep doing it. >> You’ll be doing me a favor. >> Ollie, obviously times on a little bit. Um, but just before we go, um, sure there’s a lot of dealers still watching the show who are really interested in the product that you that you’re providing. Um, if they wanted to know more, um, or if they want an easy way to get started, how how do they go about doing that and getting set up with yourself? >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so you just, um, drop us a message on our on our website, which is www.generational.ac. Um, or find out to me like reach out to me on LinkedIn. Um, I’m I’m on there. Um, that’ be the the two easiest ways or my email address is olivergenerational.ac if you want to email me directly. >> Great. Happy days, Oliver. Thank you very much for your time, mate. I really, really appreciate it. I think you’ve got a good product and when I do sort of start dipping me toe in the water, I’m sure I’ll be on the phone. Um, I think Scott might be actually after this. >> Yeah, we’ve we’ve already we’ve had since we met Ollie at the um at the A.M., Uh, I mentioned it to a couple of the the guys in the service department, but they like the idea of it. And I think the amount of cars we pick up, which we buy privately, and obviously it’s only going in one direction. There’s probably going to be more EVs coming. So, I think it’s a I think it’s a must to have the plugin, >> it’s a no-brainer, it >> Yeah, it’s a no-brainer and it’s just a cost what you’re doing. You’re better off knowing um, you know, if there’s a if there’s a fault with the battery rather than buy, it’s going to cost you, I don’t know, 10 grand or even even write it off. I mean, so we had we had somebody on the podcast and that I think they were talking about motorbility cars. I think they might have been like French ones or something and they were like 12,000 quid. They were worth these small electric motorb cars and they had problems with batteries, serious problems with batteries where the batteries were like, I don’t know, six or eight grand or something to fix. So then the cars were potentially just write offs. >> Yeah. >> Ouch. Indeed. >> Ouch. >> Right. Well, we’ll leave it at that. Ollie, thank you very much again for your time. Thanks everyone for watching home. Make sure you like and subscribe and we’ll see you on the next one which will be our special Christmas edition of the dealer board. So thanks everyone. Cheers Ollie. >> Yeah, I really appreciate you having me. >> See you. >> Thank you.
The market has changed and electric cars are no longer something dealers can ignore.
In this episode of DealerPod, we’re joined by Oliver Phillpott from Generational, a company helping dealers understand, test and confidently retail used electric vehicles through clear EV battery health checks and certificates.
Together, we break down what’s really happening in the UK EV market and why the shift is now impossible to ignore. From rising EV stock levels and changing buyer expectations to battery anxiety, pricing pressure and dealer hesitation, this is a no-nonsense conversation based on what’s happening on forecourts right now.
We discuss why avoiding EVs may already be costing dealers sales, how battery health is fast becoming as important as mileage, and how tools like battery testing and certification can remove risk, build buyer confidence and help EVs sell faster.
No headlines, no politics, just honest motor-trade insight from people buying, selling and valuing cars every day.
If you’re a dealer still unsure whether EVs should be part of your stock mix, this episode will help you decide if the market has already moved without you.
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Current Trends in the Motor Trade
02:47 Stock Management and Sales Performance
04:54 Challenges in Acquiring Used Cars
06:11 The Impact of Budget Announcements
07:54 Quality Control in Vehicle Preparation
10:04 Experiences with Main Dealers
11:17 The Shift Towards Electric Vehicles
14:07 Introducing the Guest: Ollie Phillpott
18:41 Insights on the EV Market
21:28 Resale Anxiety in the EV Market
23:03 The Impact of EV Tax Changes
26:50 Understanding EV Residual Values
30:00 Battery Health and Its Importance
34:53 Navigating the Used EV Market
38:30 The Future of Battery Health in Valuation
44:03 Understanding Battery Degradation and Second Life
45:24 The Diagnostic Process for Electric Vehicles
47:49 Enhancing Transparency in EV Sales
49:41 Cost Structure and Accessibility of the Diagnostic Kit
51:12 Market Competition and Unique Selling Proposition
54:27 Adoption Challenges in the Automotive Industry
56:43 Unexpected Insights from Dealers
01:01:51 Future Opportunities and Market Expansion
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