All Star Automotive Cast, VinFast Ships 999 Vehicles to the US, Black Friday Delivers

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Welcome back to a Turkey filled world as we throttle down on the last 5 weeks of 2022 starting with the Automotive News All Stars list. We also talk about VinFast delivering its first US vehicles, as well as the retail numbers from Black Friday. 

• The annual list of Automotive News All Stars was announced where 40 individuals are selected from across OEM, Dealer, and Industry Partners. According to AN, “Our All-Stars persevered, delivering excellent products and services to their customers, introducing innovations that are key to the future of mobility, and making other significant contributions to the industry in myriad ways.”
  • Elon Musk for being an early adopter or EVs, leading the US luxury segment, and turning Tesla’s Fremont CA factory into the highest producing factory in the US at over 500k vehicles
  • Gregg Ciocca Sr, pushing forward with 8+ acquisitions so far this year who stated plans to double his store count from 25-50. Since last year when he earned #83 on AN Top 150, Ciocca’s reported revenue of $1.1B has almost doubled to $2B in 2022
  • Today’s Auto Collabs guest and CEO of tech startup, UVeve, 37 year old Amir Hever has transitioned the vehicle image scanning company he originally started to detect bombs from under vehicles to a powerhouse in the service drive detecting and producing condition reports in seconds to help service departments provide timely and accurate services to customers
  • Joe Manchin, the W. VA Senator who aggressively and successfully pushed for an EV credit that brought manufacturing back to US soil. 
• New Vietnamese EV maker VinFast has shipped its first batch of 999 vehicles to the US on a company owned ship bearing its name on the side. The vehicles will be delivered to customers who ordered them by the end of December according to the company.
  • Some of the vehicles will be delivered to US EV subscription service, Autonomy, founded by Scott Painter (Truecar, Fair)
  • According to the company’s female CEO, Le Thi Thu Thuy, the second shipment of the VF8 crossover will be on its way in January 
  • $42,200 + battery subscription ($169/mo) or $57k
  • The company is building a North Carolina based battery factory scheduled to open in 2024 to take advantage of of the IRA tax credit for EVs
  • Parent company Vingroup has property and resort holdings
• Black Friday sees both increased foot traffic up 2.9% in physical stores and record online sales of $9.12B in spite of consumers’ concerns about the economy
  • Previous online record 9.12B in 2020, and 8.92B in 2021
  • Some growth is attributed to inflation while over 60% of Americans say concerns about the economy impacted their spending decisions
  • According to Adobe A

Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.

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