Nothing happens in our business until we sell a car. I would say that our products are second to none. EVs are the future. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. We're all in when it comes to EV investment. It's all part of a $12.6 billion investment. One, we're gonna be able to produce 300,000 vehicles out of that plant. Phase two, 500,000. 8,700 manufacturing jobs. What other company is doing that right now, right? ["The New York Times"] This episode is brought to you by Lattlings. Dealers, when you look onto your Latt, do you see risk? Every day, almost half of a dealer is at risk of aging. That's an average of a $1,500 hit on your gross profit per vehicle. But savvy dealers can avoid risk and get that money back. Introducing Lattlings Sentinel, the first and only AI inventory management solution completely focused on predicting and mitigating your carryover risk. With a decade of machine learning optimization behind it, Lattlings Sentinel allows dealers to launch separate strategies for each individual VIN and ensure they sell faster and more profitably. All this so you can turn cars seven to 10 days sooner and protect your margins. Stop accepting unnecessary risk and start controlling your inventory. Get the Lattlings effect with the Lattlings Sentinel. Visit lotlinks.com slash Sentinel to learn more or click the link in the show notes below.
This episode is also brought to you by Uber. Courtesy transportation is no longer a nice to have. It's a neat to have. That's why 80% of dealership respondents agree that providing on-demand courtesy rides with Uber has helped retain customers based on Uber survey of 79 organizations in 2023. With central, you can request a ride on behalf of your customers, even if they don't have the Uber app. Card dealerships are loving Uber for business because it's a headache-free solution for offering white glove service and seamlessly handling tasks like pickup and delivery of auto parts and replacing shuttles and loaner cars. Dealers can request one way or round trip rides, add multiple riders and locations and even monitor trips in real time. Plus, you'll get monthly reports to keep track of everything. If you're ready to reduce the costs associated with maintaining shuttles and limit the liability of loaner vehicles, it's time to partner with Uber. Visit t.uber.com slash CDG Auto. Today, to learn more or visit the link in the show notes below.
本集节目由Uber赞助。免费交通服务不再只是锦上添花,而是必须的服务。这就是为什么根据Uber在2023年对79家机构的调查,80%的经销商认为提供按需的Uber免费乘车服务帮助他们留住了客户。有了Central,你可以代表你的客户请求乘车服务,即使他们没有Uber应用程序。汽车经销商们非常喜欢Uber for Business,因为这是一种无需烦恼的解决方案,可以提供高端服务,以及无缝处理像是取送汽车零件、替代班车和备用车辆等任务。经销商可以请求单程或往返的乘车服务,添加多个乘客和地点,甚至可以实时监控行程。另外,你还会每月收到报告来跟踪所有情况。如果你准备减少维持班车的成本,并限制备用车的责任,那么是时候与Uber合作了。访问 t.uber.com/CDG Auto 了解更多信息或查看下方说明中的链接。
Randy Parker on the CDG podcast. Randy, welcome. Hey, good morning, you'll see how are you? Good to have you here. Good to have you and our producer, both fellow TCU alums. So that's a nice little way to kick off here. Hey, man, that's a great way to kick off today, man. We've got a fellow Horn Frog doing the filming, so that's outstanding. I'm at ease now. I mean, it's all good. That's all you have to hear. I love it. That's what I like to hear. Randy, you've had quite the run to say the least. Since you joined Hyundai Motor America, I should say, the company has grown astronomically. You've gone from being seventh in market share in the US. Now you're fourth in market share. We have a lot to cover today. Lots of dealer questions, lots of Hyundai dealers submitted questions. I mean, just really, it's going to be a packed episode. Can you give us a start with your background? You've been in this industry for quite a while, and you've done a lot. Can you take us through from where you started, how you got to this point in your career? Oh, man, how far back do you want to go? Give us all the truth. Take us all the way back, and we can always pass forward. Thank you all the way back. Well, it started 35 years ago. That's how long I've been in the automotive space now. Fresh out of college started with General Motors acceptance corporation, better known as GMAC, which is today now Ally Bank. But nevertheless, I spent four years at GMAC on the finance side before transitioning over to Chevrolet Motor Division. But approximately 18 years at Chevrolet. And then I became like the other prodigal son. I figured, hey, I've been at General Motors now for a very, very long time, and wanted to get out and spread my wings a little bit, and spread my horizons. And so I ended up going over to Nissan and Infiniti, worked there for about seven years, five years on the Nissan, I'm sorry, four years on the Nissan side, three years running Infiniti North America. And then I think I've saved the best for last. I've been with Hyundai now for about five years. So again, 35 years in the auto industry, I moved 14 different times. I lived in four different states. So Texas, Michigan, California, Tennessee. And I worked abroad in Japan for a couple of years. Lived in Tokyo, but worked in Yokohama. Great experience. And now I'm back in the US helping to drive the Hyundai business. Incredible journey to say the least. In some ways, we could say you're only getting started to Hyundai brand. I've been covering it a lot and really derise. I'm curious to know from your take, what attracted you to Hyundai in 2019? Not to say that 2019 Hyundai was 2009 Hyundai or 07 Hyundai. Very different brands from a dealer perspective. I remember people coming on a lot, seeing Hyundai 15 years ago versus what it was five years ago. I mean, the brand came a very long way. For you though, thinking about the future and growing brand, what attracted you back in 2019 to the brand? I would say three attractions. First and foremost, our executive chair, Mr. Chung. I've got a great tremendous amount of respect for the executive chair. He's now the leader of the company, third generation owner of the company. And I saw that he was making significant changes in the brand in terms of product development, making Hyundai more of a global company. And I felt like with a product portfolio that was coming at the time, that was a good reason for me to make that transition. The other one I would say is that my current mentor, Jose Munoz, our global COO, had a chance to work with him over on the Nissan side. Now I've been working with him on the Hyundai side. By far, one of the best automotive leaders that I've ever been around. Extremely bright, extremely smart. He's made me a better executive over the years. And that was probably the second reason I wanted to make the change. And the third one, it was a no-brainer. Hyundai is right around the corner from my house here in Huntington Beach, California. And so I've got a six minute commute. I thought between the executive chair, Jose Munoz, the product development, the things that Hyundai was making happen in the marketplace, it was a good time for me to make that transition. And so I couldn't be more thrilled, more happy to be here.
I want to take into the specifics of your current performance. Hyundai has been, you've broken the 10% market share in the US. And so the company's been on the tear. What have been the key drivers for pushing the company's growth? If you can really boil this down to specifics, right? What has really led to this meteoric rise for the brand? Well, nothing happens in our business until we sell a car, right? I would say that our products are second to none. We've got some great products right now, great design, great safety, great technology. But at the same time, nothing happens in this business until we sell a car. And we sell a car through dealers. Our dealers have been extremely supportive over the past five years, extremely resilient.
As you know, we've had all kinds of things come out as from left field. We've had to battle through the microchip shortage. We've had to battle through COVID. And I give a tremendous amount of credit to our dealer partners. They've been absolutely incredible during this time frame. In addition, our dealers have gone through a major, major transformation. We've got roughly 50% to 55% of our network right now that have completed new image facilities in the marketplace. These are huge, huge investments.
And they started at a time when the market was very, very uncertain. But I give them a lot of credit because they see that the value of the franchise has grown significantly over the past several years. Our performance and the fact that they were making a tremendous amount of money gave them confidence to make those facility investments. And so we've got roughly, like I said, 50%, 55% of the network right now that's been completely transformed. By the end of next year, we'll have roughly about 75% of our network completed in terms of new facilities.
And I would say that's a big, big part of our success, is changing the image of our brand in the marketplace through our dealer partners. The other thing that we've done over the past several years is really focus on quality of sales. We focused on retail, less fleet, which has significantly improved our residual values. We focused on less incentives improving our consumer-facing transaction prices. And that's driven a lot of dealer profitability as well. And so through a very, very strong dealer network, we've been able to weather the storm, sort of speak, and get through all of these challenges that have come out of left field.
And now we're coming out on the other end of it. And once again, we're starting to compete again, because everybody's got availability, everybody's got inventory, production has basically resumed. And now it's again, hand-to-hand combat. But I think we're poised to take on the competition, moving forward, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. And I definitely want to ask you about competition. That's a big thing on my mind here. You mentioned facilities. I want to dig into this for a second. So you mentioned that roughly 55% of your stores have been upgraded, your dealer network, right?
One question that I received from a Hyundai dealer is that right now we're at a period where all dealer profits are declining again, or you could say normalizing whatever term you want to use. The fact is they are calming down from the peak that they were at, which was sort of predictable. Nonetheless, they are still above 2019 levels, and they have outpaced inflation. How do you maintain improving the image of Hyundai, while still offering flexibility for your dealer network when it comes to improvements, right? We're talking about big investments clearly. So how do you sort of manage that from your level?
Well, we're working hand-in-glove with our dealer network. They're not just doing it alone. For example, our facilities program is very robust. The more dealer sales, in terms of passenger car sales and SUV sales, the more money they can earn from us to help pay for those facilities. It's a very, very generous program that we've got in the marketplace. The executive chair supported us with a billion dollars of investment to help dealers improve their image in the marketplace and go through this transformation. And so they're not doing it alone. We're working very closely hand-in-glove with our National Dealer Council to ensure that our dealers and that we maintain a high level of throughput, whether it's in service, after sales, finance. We're always looking for opportunity to grow.
And as you just said, you'll see, last year and the year before, we're quite anomalies in the automotive space. I'm happy that we've gone through it. I'm not sure I'll ever see that again. But from a performance perspective, we're significantly above what we were, say, in 2019. So we still use that as a reference to ensure that we're tracking in the right direction. Yes, absolutely. We're down on a year-over-year basis, I mean, 0.2% return on sales, and that's just not sustainable, right? But more now, it's about making sure that the dealers have confidence in the brand. And we're making significant investments in terms of marketing, advertising to try and grow the brand, while at the same time providing our dealers the tools to get more deals closed in the marketplace. And I think so far we've been quite successful. And I think as long as we continue to listen to our dealer partners on what's important and find that middle ground in terms of decision-making, I think it will at least give us a chance at success going forward.
You know, I want to think a quick aside. I was doing a lot of homework before this podcast and talking to Hyundai dealers, what's in your mind? What are you thinking about? Lots of people bringing up surveys, Hyundai ratings, various different organizations, whatnot. But I did something different this time. I called my dad. And I said, Dad, I said, what do you think of Hyundai? I said, what do you think? Like, what comes to mind? And the typical, yeah, they've grown a lot, but he said one thing that stuck out. And he said, design. He said, the design has come a long way. And the reason I mentioned this is because I think sometimes it's, you know, us in the industry, we focus on the data and the ratings and the metrics, which are super important. But when you ask someone that's not as close to the specific brand or something and you're like, hey, which is what comes to mind? And like he said, design, it kind of hit me. And it made me wonder like, how important has design been to your success? How important will it continue being? Is this something that you can truly measure? Right? Because like, does this reflect into surveys? Or is this just one of those things that, you know, the Halo effect lifts the brands from all perspectives? What's your opinion on just design? And I will just say, I'm, I really, really care about design. I mean, you can see how symmetrical these blocks are behind me. I'm a freak about these things, but I want to hear, this is a bit of a different ballpark. So tell me what you think about design. And then what parts of it?
I think it's extremely, extremely important. And let me just give you an example. You know, when I was growing up, and I grew up in the, in the great state of Texas, right? And I had a lot of friends that were gearheads. I mean, these guys, they worked, you know, underneath the hood of the car, changed the oil, changed the tires, changed spark plugs. I mean, I can barely change the light bulb. Okay. So I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy that's going to work underneath the hood. That just wasn't my thing, right? I was a basketball player, right? But in any case, what I, what I appreciated about cars back then is the exact same thing I appreciated about cars today. If the car is sexy and it's got a great design, I know something, I know when it looks good. And I know something, you know, if something looks really but ugly, okay? There's some cars out there right now. I'm not going to, I'm not going to name any names, but you know, there's probably, you know, an EV or two that I've seen out there that may look like a Tonker truck or some sort. I'm not, not calling any names, but, but I don't think it's very good looking. I think it's pretty damn ugly, right?
And I've worked for some car companies that, uh, design a few products that weren't very good looking, okay? So I know the difference in terms of what looks good and what doesn't look good. And I think at the end of the day, that's what people are still very much interested in. Does a car look good? Does the SUV look good? Does it fit my lifestyle? Can I see myself in this car on the weekend with my family? Can I see this? Can I see myself in this, you know, great looking SUV or pickup truck with my date on a Friday night? I mean, those are the things that still resonate with people, right? Just keeping it very, very simple. Does the car look good? Does it have great design? Does it have great technology? Does it have great safety? You know, what we try to do is meet the customer wherever they are in terms of the journey when it comes to transportation, right?
And so, if it's, if it's simply great design, you're looking for it, we've got that. If you're looking for high performance vehicles, we've got that. I mean, we just launched the all new Ionic 5N, which is our high performance EV, right? This thing is an absolute scream to drive. It's a beast. It's going to race in the Pikes Peak Race next month. But if you're looking for, you know, car, you know, with great safety or range, I mean, we or hybrid, we've got it all, you know, under the Hyundai umbrella. And so at the end of the day, it's all about given the customers what they're looking for and designing cars that meet the demands of the consumer.
All right. So how much of this, as I like to use this term a lot, but like how much is this stated, versed, revealed preferences, right? Meaning even in my world, right, when we're in media, we're constantly, you know, we're constantly wrestling with do we create content that people are asking for? Or do people not really know what they want? You have to sort of put it out there first and tell them and show them what they want and expose them to that. How much of that has played in your world where the designs have changed significantly, right? Has that been really like an internal thing like top down? Has it been more bottoms up? How do you think about that?
Well, you know, for my, I'm not a designer. You know, my job is to market, advertise, price, and sell the cars and take care of the customer. That's what we do, you know, from my vantage point. But I think to answer your question to the best of my ability, I would say it's both, right? I think first and foremost, you've got to make sure you design cars that meet people's needs. And then I think, you know, from a design standpoint, you know, you didn't need to take some risks and try to anticipate what the customer's needs are. You know, the old adage is he who gets their first wins, right? So although there might be some vehicles out there that I call but ugly, what I can say, those are huge risks, right? Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't.
But I got to give a lot of credit, you know, to manufacturers who take those risks, right? Because I think you have to do a little bit of both. One end, you're trying to design cars that meet the customer's needs today, as well as tomorrow. And then you got to, then you got to try and anticipate what's coming around the corner. What's going to be important to consumers, you know, five years from now, 10 years from now, and stretch your imagination a little bit. And again, he who gets their first wins. So before we dive into competition, which you mentioned earlier, what is in your mind going to be important to consumers next, right? What is that next iteration of design, vehicle specification? How do you think about that?
I think design will always be important. You know, I don't think that's ever going to change. You know, at the end of the day, again, it's all about design, in my opinion. That's where it all starts. But I think it's also about, you know, some of the technology that's going into some of these vehicles. You know, we're toying around with our robo taxis as an example. I mean, how cool would it be to, you know, get into a vehicle and you can drive from Huntington Beach, California to LA and the car is driving itself. And meanwhile, you can do all these great things inside the car, you know, still conduct business and feel safe as that car is driving you from point A to point B. It sounds a little far-fetched, but if you watch some of the old Jetsons cartoons back in the day, right, we all thought that the microwave as an example was really far-fetched. You know, they took this box, stuck it in the microwave and bang, out came, out came dinner. conveyor belts that they showed on the Jetsons. We thought, you know, why would anybody need a conveyor belt, right? There was an old quote by a CEO, you know, I think it was 30 some odd years ago, why would anybody need a computer, right? So again, you're trying to anticipate where the market is going. And I think that's never going to change when it comes to design and building great, great, great, great, great, great automobiles.
So when you say robo taxi, is that a technology that you're thinking of building in-house? Are building in-house? Is this something that you would license from a third party? How do you think about this? Well, I can't get into too many specifics. I'd love to tell you more, Yossi, but unfortunately, I've been sworn to secrecy, but nevertheless, let me just say that it is something that we're going through. I would say a significant discovery phase at this point in time. We're intimately involved in this process. We're very interested in the technology and see how it works. And if nothing else, you learn a lot about the technology. And in the very, very short term, you can leverage that technology and harness it in a way that you can help protect the consumer, right? And that's what's really, really most important, because if we can protect lives, if we can reduce fatalities, if we can reduce accidents on the highways and the roads today, and if we can leverage that technology that exists, in terms of robo taxi technology, then why not leverage it, right?
But ultimately, I would say that the utopian state is to take all that technology and be able to jump into car at Caesar's Palace and take it over to the wind. And it's driving you safely from casino to casino, let's just say, as an example, right? So it's great technology. It's great technology. And I'm happy that we're getting it. Yeah, we're already in Vegas, so we're on a good track over here. Oh, you're in Vegas? Is that what you are? No, I said you're in Vegas. Caesar's in. I mean, we're on a rollover here. I mean, the party's about to start. We finally did it. Cardio's Ship Guy News is live and ready to serve the car industry. We're not a traditional news outlet, and I'm not a journalist, but I believe the market deserves concise and unbiased car industry news, presented in clear, straightforward English. From the latest stories in automotive to CDG podcast summaries, dealership-based practices, and even consumer deals, we're going to offer it all. And the best part, in the classic CDG spirit, everything's 100% free for you. Check it out at CDG.News, that's CDG.News, and please give us feedback. Tell us what else you want. Rip us apart. We're not scared. We just want to provide value. Again, visit CDG.News or click the link in the show notes below.
Talk to me about competition. So very simplistically, right? I'm not a complex or maybe I am a complicated person, but I'm being simple right now. I think about the last two or three years, right? Toyota, Honda, two manufacturers who are strong forces in the market have had supply challenges. I would say, you know, very, or Toyota specifically, was super low supply. Supply is creeping back up now.
How do you maintain your momentum in a market that is likely becoming increasingly competitive because there's simply more supply from other manufacturers in the market? I'm sure you have to be thinking a lot about this, and how you maintain your momentum and your growth. What's your thought on that? Yeah, I mean, for us, it's all about building the brand and improving the image of the brand in the marketplace and driving more consideration, driving more awareness and improving the overall opinion of the brand in the marketplace.
And you do that through a number of different ways, but probably one of the biggest ways to do that is through marketing and advertising. This is something that Angela Cepeda, my CMO, we talk relentlessly about on a daily basis. How do we improve the image of the brand in the marketplace? While at the same time, you know, leveraging, you know, sales events to help drive sales momentum in the marketplace as well. There's always that fine line, right, between too much sales advertising versus too much brand advertising.
And I think in my humble opinion, you can never do too much brand advertising. And I think from a Hyundai perspective, if we're going to win the minds and hearts of consumers out there that are considering buying other vehicles, it starts with great marketing and great advertising. Let me give you another example. There's been a lot of talk about EVs, right? And the demise of EVs, which could be the furthest thing from the truth.
The EV market continues to expand, it continues to grow. And we're doubling down on the future when it comes to EVs. EVs are the future. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when. And so if you look at our EV performance over the past year, including this year, we've had a lot of success. A big part of it is because of marketing and advertising. We're trying to get the consumer confidence.
If you're thinking about buying an EV, why not buy from Hyundai? For all the reasons that I'm going to mention. Number one, this past month, I should say this month, and including going into June, we've got an EV campaign in the marketplace right now. I don't know if you've seen it, but if you've watched the NBA basketball finals, we've been on the finals. It's a great ad. And it really touts EVs as being fun to drive and high performance, right?
How many other OEMs are actually pushing EVs that are fun to drive? And that, yes, they're EVs, but you also can, you don't have to compromise performance because of that, right? We're also trying to address the impediments or the objections that are in the marketplace when it comes to EVs. Number one, affordability, right? EVs aren't inexpensive. But if you take a look at our lease programs on IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 and the Econa EV, we've got some pretty aggressive lease programs.
Why? A, because we want to make the cars affordable, but B, because we can take advantage of the IRA tax credit, right? Because right now our cars don't qualify for IRA, but if you lease, they do qualify. And so we're really pushing lease in the marketplace. The second thing that we're addressing is the time it takes to charge an EV, which is another impediment, right? With the IONIQ 5 and the IONIQ 6 through a level 3 supercharger, you can get an extra 100 miles of range in seven minutes.
I mean, that's pretty impressive. The IONIQ 6, you know, you can get a range of 361 miles, total miles. Last but not least is having access to charging, right? If you purchase a Hyundai today, you get two years free of free charging through Electrified America. We're also part of a joint venture, if you will, with six other automakers to help improve the infrastructure in the United States in terms of building more level three superchargers throughout the US and starting in later this year, 30,000 additional charges are going to start to go in throughout the United States.
So as a manufacturer, we think it's part of our responsibility to help drive that infrastructure in the United States. It's all of that, right? So it's marketing, advertising, given the consumer confidence, if they're thinking about buying an EV, giving our dealers confidence in the brand to make sure that they do everything that they can do to take better care at the customer in terms of driving a better customer experience and ultimately driving a better opinion of the brand in the marketplace.
So it's not one size that fits all. It's a number of different things that go into generating consideration for your brand and improve the overall opinion of the brand in the marketplace. You mentioned EVs continue to grow rising and you're obviously investing a lot in that arena, advertising, big advertising campaigns. You just mentioned the NBA. Of course, you're building an EV facility in Georgia. How far are you willing to go on investing in EVs before I shouldn't say reconsidering. This is what I'm saying. Wait, one second, one second. Hear me out. Hear me out.
Is this in your mind? Is this inevitable? Is it you are all in on electric vehicles, on investments? Is this inevitable in your mind? Or is there a point? I mean, we've seen other OEMs who have been losing six figures worth of dollars per vehicle at the moment. Also, a pretty upset dealer body. How do you think about that?
Well, first and foremost, I work for a guy that if I lose money on a car, I wouldn't be sitting here. So let me just say that, but that's a good way to start. Yeah, I mean, we're all in when it comes to EV investment as you just indicated, OC. It's all part of a $12.6 billion investment. Huge, huge footprint manufacturing facility footprint that we're building in Savannah, Georgia. We're going to go live in Q4 of this year. We're going to start producing EVs coming out of the plant in Q4. And as I said earlier in the conversation, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. And so we're putting our money where I'm out this, right?
Again, $12.6 billion investment between the manufacturing facility in Savannah, Georgia, the battery plants that are coming in alongside. We're going to bring 80 approximately 8,700 high paying manufacturing jobs to the United States. I mean, that's big. And that's coupled with our investment in Montgomery, Alabama, which is our first manufacturing facility. We've got a sister brand that's also made an investment in Georgia in West Point, Georgia. There's another facility or manufacturing footprint that we have. And so between the facility in Georgia, the facility in Montgomery, Alabama, as a Hyundai motor group, I think we're putting our money where our mouth is, especially when it comes to EVs, right? Because this is a huge footprint that we're building in Savannah. And we couldn't be more proud.
The state of Georgia has been absolutely incredible. They've supported us every step along the way. And I'm really looking forward to getting our dealers down to Savannah so that they can see this manufacturing footprint as well. Because I think they're going to get even more excited about the future when it comes to EVs. I love it. So some manufacturers have leaned into hybrids heavily as a stepping stone to EVs, or you could say or not. But either way, there's clearly been a resurgence on hybrid demand from consumers. They've been growing in market share pretty significantly. How do you think about hybrids?
Well, I mean, as I said earlier, we want to meet the customer on their journey to electrification. And if it means that we need to produce more hybrids, we're doing that as well. We're already studying that as we speak. But make no mistake about it, at the end of the day, if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, it has to be done through EVs. I mean, a hybrid is a good transition to an EV. But an EV is a heck of a lot more efficient when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, reducing your dependency on foreign oil, and doing something that's great for the environment.
But at the end of the day, if the consumer, if we need a pivot and the consumer wants us to produce more hybrids, we can do that as well. And that's something that we're studying as we speak. So very, very important in terms of the future. It's going to be a big part of our portfolio going forward as well.
But I think as the infrastructure starts to improve, we continue to build awareness regarding our EVs in the marketplace. Again, driving more confidence in the consumer's minds. I can't tell you the number of people that come up to me in the neighborhood that have invested in a third-party brand, if you will. And they're saying, wow, we love what you guys are doing. We love the investment that you're making in the United States. You guys are doubling down on the EVs going forward. And we absolutely love it. I will definitely consider purchasing a Hyundai the next time I buy an EV.
This is where the rubber meets the road, and that lets me know that we're doing the right thing in the marketplace. How has the Hyundai customer changed since you joined or have they changed, by the way, how do you view that? I think we're attracting more and more conquest buyers into the brand. More people that wouldn't have considered a Hyundai, say, five, six, seven, 10 years ago. They're now considering Hyundai today, which is really, really good.
And again, I think it's part of the the testament to our designers, building cars that people want, bringing the technology that people want, and then also taking us to a higher level in terms of gaining consideration because of what we're doing in the EV space. I think everybody recognizes the benefits of an EV. EVs have been around for a very, very long time. They're not going anywhere. The market continues to grow. I think there was, what, two million EVs that were sold last year and this year because of all the entrants, that market is going to continue to grow. But our job is to make sure that if people are considering buying an EV or an internal combustion engine vehicle, passenger car SUV, I want them thinking about buying a Hyundai. And for us, it's about, again, changing the image of the brand in the marketplace, moving away from being this low-cost producer, but now designing cars that the consumers really want.
You have a lot on your plate to keep the momentum going, right? And you've done clearly a killer job. You mentioned working with dealer partners. And so, I'm looking at it from a 3,000-foot view. There's no doubt about it that the market is cooling relative to the craziness of the last couple of years. And like I mentioned, other good competition in the market does have more supply. When you think about your dealer partners and your management, really, of the company, how do you continue growing but avoid, for example, we know that another brand in the market starts with an S, rhymes with Antis, put out, and well, you might not notice, but I'm sharing, they put out some spiffs out there in the market that did not really incentivize great behavior for their dealers, maybe incentivize them to buy more cars from them as opposed to offering great customer service.
So when you think about managing your business for the long run, right? How do you balance that scale of continuing to maintain the momentum with your dealer partners, but also making sure that we're optimizing for the long term? I know it's a pretty tough, fully loaded question. I'm just trying to put myself in the shoes of your position as CEO and balancing the short-term and the long-term. Honestly, speaking, it's not that complicated. Go back to a business school 101. It's all about the four piece of marketing, right? First off, it starts with great product. You got to put it out there at a great price, right? Your place, we talked about our dealers building new facilities and providing a better customer experience.
And then the promotion is all about driving demand for the products. And we're trying to do that through a number of different ways. I mean, I've got a great PR team. They try to get us out there for us to help control the narrative or push our narrative in the marketplace to ensure that consumers understand the direction of the brand going forward. How many people? Obviously, we're in the automotive space, but how many people really know that we're building this massive plant in Savannah, Georgia? Phase one, we're going to be able to produce 300,000 vehicles out of that plant. Phase two, 500,000, 8,700 manufacturing jobs.
What other company is doing that right now? That's good for the US. It's good for the GDP. It's good for the environment. But it's our job to help push that narrative and educate the consumer. And of course, now marketing and advertising is so fragmented. We've got to make sure that we leverage our great PR team to help us spread the gospel, if you will. So being able to talk to you and your listeners today, obviously, making sure that they understand the significant investments that Hyundai is making in the marketplace to help drive demand. And I think the more that we can do that, you'll see the more that we're going to have success going forward. It's not easy.
Let me say this, it sounds so simple, and yet it's still so very hard. Well, we're going to get you in front of thousands of dealers and hundreds of thousands of consumers. That's going to be good. Absolutely. All right. So deviating from the brass stack for a second, what's on your mind nowadays? What's keeping you excited? And I don't want to put the manufacturing facility aside. Of course, your rises of brand, but just what's on your mind? What's exciting to you? What's exciting to me? Well, first and foremost, you're talking to a former athlete, right? I'm a former basketball player. And at the end of the day, my job is to beat the competition. That's what's exciting. I know sometimes people say defense wins championships. I call it bullsh-ing, right?
Great offense is what wins championships. The last night checked whether it's in baseball, basketball, or football. And of course, I'm a basketball player. You still got to outscore your opponents, right? Just go ask the Indiana Pacers that question, right? They didn't outscore their opponent. Now they're at home watching the NBA, soon the NBA championship, right? And so at the end of the day, to me, that's what's most important, right? Is that, hey, we continue to score points with Hyundai. And that's what I really look forward to is playing offense, man, always playing offense. Yeah, I'm a hopeless Sixers fan, so you're not due to your payover here. That's right. But you got a great legacy. If you can build off that legacy, I was a big Dr. J fan back in the day, Maurice Cheeks, some of those guys that used to Andrew Tony that used to play for the 76ers.
I was a big fan back in the day. Yeah, the only shame is that that legacy happened for us born. So that's most guys that just mentioned even who Dr. J is. Come on. He was actually, I was in a bot. I was in a box a couple years ago, and yeah, he came actually he was in came into the box. So I definitely know he is. We're good there. Okay, well, that's the easy one. You know, Andrew Tony? If not, you better go look at that. But Maurice but but I know Mo Cheeks. He was our coach.
Come on, man. All right. All right. I'm not that rusty. I'm just thinking something. I'm seeing where you're hard. You know, I love it. I love it. I love it. All right. So back back to, you know, back to the car business, right? Talk to me. You mentioned affordability earlier. You jumped to that topic. I wanted to ask you about that, but you specifically mentioned pushing leasing, which I think makes total sense. You know, I was I was in another channel the other day and someone asked me, do you think we're going to see, you know, like meaningfully cheaper cars? And I said, honestly, no, I said, you know, we might see a little bit of attraction incentives and all that. Sure.
But I think we're just going to see more lease penetration. It just makes more sense. How, how are you thinking about affordability? Is leasing is leasing sort of, is that really the big thing? Or are there other things that come through your mind? Because I got to tell you, every podcast I do with a dealer, the overwhelming theme for them is affordability. Whether it be, you know, if the financing, the new cars, the interest rates, whatever. Or by the way, insurance, a huge one, insurance premiums are up to 25% year over year in March. That was just announced. Insurance has been a big one.
I can tell you also candidly, I had some other Hyundai dealers reach out to me as well, asking me to, you know, bring up the topic of insurance to you specifically with, you know, high insurance premiums and how well, you know, what are ways to bring more affordability in these type of scenarios? What are your thoughts on that entire topic of affordability? Well, leasing is certainly a great product for the consumer, right? Especially if you're planning on, you know, changing our cars every three or four years, great product that you can leverage at a very affordable price, right? You know, at the end of the day, incentives as an example is just a consequence of being competitive in the marketplace.
And, you know, I feel pretty confident that we'll do whatever it takes to ensure that people can afford our cars. Now we have to do that smartly, you know, we just can't give away the farm. But we're going to continue to be competitive in the marketplace. But the more that we can drive demand for our product, the more that we can build demand for our product, you can charge a more premium. And I think that's probably the code that we need to crack, right? Because our brand has come from, you know, a very interesting past to where it is today.
And it's our job to continue to build on the momentum that we have right now and really, really drive more demand for our product. And again, we do that through great marketing and great advertising, pushing, you know, the right narrative in the marketplace and at the same time producing and building great cars and SUVs. So that's what really keeps me up at night is just making sure that, hey, we continue to build a brand because the more we can do that and the better customer experience that we can provide, you don't have to discount your cars as much.
All right. So I have a fun question for you. I want to celebrate brand from marketing for a second. So I think I know you're going to answer it. I think I know your response, but I'm going to ask it anyways, because I think the audience will appreciate it. All right. So the founder of the founder of Geek Squad, Robert Stevens, ready for this, he has a line famously and he says, marketing is the price you pay for being unremarkable. True or false? True or false? Marketing is the price you pay for being un. Hmm. That's an interesting one. Part true, part false. How about that? It's both. I knew you were going to. Well, so I agree, which is why I separated brand and marketing, but I wanted to hear your take on this.
It's a pretty famous line. Well, you know what, there's another brand out there that I think has done a really, really good job for the longest time without any marketing and advertising, if you will. And I think that's a testament to the product that you bring into the marketplace, but that you control your narrative in other ways. So we're learning from a lot of these brands. I'm not too proud not to plagiarize as much as I can. Plagiarism, I think, is the best form of flattery in a lot of regards. I mean, we always want to push our own narrative, but at the same time, if I see something that's working in the marketplace, we need to study it. We need to take a look at it and to try and understand it and how can we learn from it, right? And so that's where I would say we're at.
So I think the guy from Geek Squad, he's on the something, you know? I think I know what he's saying. And the more that we can do that, you know, with our brand, the better, you know? For marketing advertising, obviously, very expensive. I mean, to push your own narrative in the marketing space or to be a sponsor of, say, the NFL or college basketball or major league baseball or soccer for that matter, of course, all manufacturers, these are kind of traditional ways of advertising. But it's super expensive. And so I think the more that you can build your brand and get people to think about your brand, you can spend less money on marketing and advertising and less on incentives. And we try to balance that, you know, those levers every single day, you know what I mean? And it sounds so simple and yet it's so hard.
Talk to us a little bit about the outlook for Hyundai. You know, what's next? I know we've clearly talked about a lot of specifics here, but, you know, to wrap it up, generally speaking, how do you think about the future? Well, I think the value of the brand is going to continue to grow. The value of the franchise is going to continue to grow. You know, you talked about surveys early on, you know, the Kerrigan study highlights the fact that we move from being 15th in the marketplace in terms of franchise value, now down to eighth place, right? So that's a significant growth over the past five years. And so I like to see us, you know, move into the top five. And, you know, that's something that we're going to continue to push, you know, going forward is how do we continue to build a brand? How do we get more consideration for the brand? How do we generate more awareness? How do we improve the overall opinion of the brand and improve the value of the franchise going forward? I think we're in a really good place.
We're good, but we're not great. You know, my boss likes to say that we need to operate in chaos mode, right? And he's being somewhat facetious, but I understand where he's coming from. It's that, hey, don't be complacent, right? Complacency is the enemy of success, right? And so we're going to continue to push forward. We're going to continue to drive the Hyundai business going forward and hopefully, you know, get people to consider buying the brand more and more over time. I like to tell my super tiny team, which is much smarter than yours. I like to say, you know, every day we wake up, we want to think of, you know, how did we get 1% better, 1% better, no matter what, you got it every day 1% better.
And then, you know, compound interest, it plays, it's, you know, does its work over the years? So that's definitely my philosophy as well. 100% 100%. You know, Kobe Bryant used to talk a lot about he didn't focus so much on, hey, you know, why did we lose the game? He focused more on what did I do and didn't do and how can I improve to help our team win the game? So every time he lost, he didn't take it, you know, like the loss personally, what he took personally was, hey, I didn't do enough to help my team win, right? And that's a big part of my responsibility as a CEO of the company, servant leadership, that's what it's all about.
How do I make other people better, right? And so that to me is what's really, really important is how do we, how do I think about helping the organization to improve? How do I help employees improve? How do I help dealers improve? That's what's really important to me. And I can't sit here and tell you that I've mastered it. It's something that I work on every single day. And it's something that I got to continue to work on, you know, going forward. Randy, you're a legend. I'm excited to see how the company progresses and how you keep growing.
So like I said, your dealers are super enthused. I don't blame them. They're the brands have gone up in value. And you know, the consumer demand has been stellar. Great, great to have you on. Thanks for coming on and sharing your insights. We'll definitely have to do this again. Absolutely. Yolsey, thank you so much for having me. All right, hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating, consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.