Some VW Internet Drama, Dealers Prioritizing Parts, Trader Joe’s Putting ‘love’ At The Center

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It’s another wonderful week in Retail Auto as we cover new EV brand Scout and their touch-of-dramatic  announcement of a new plant in South Carolina. We also cover some notable parts movement from Kia, as well as take some culture cues from the popular grocery store chain Trader Joes

• It is confirmed that VW Group will be building a $2B EV Manufacturing plant to produce vehicles for its new Scout brand near Columbia, South Carolina creating 4000 jobs and producing as many as 200k vehicles per year. 
  • The final call to confirm the selection was captured in a video of Scott Keogh on one side, and officials from the state of South Carolina in which Keogh congratulated the group
  • Groundbreaking is set for mid 2023 and production for 2026
  •  Scott Keough’s linkedin post announcement:
• In an effort to help parts departments move through backorders and continued shortages to keep customers on the road, Kia had introduced D2D Express, a dealership-to-dealership parts program that automates and incentives dealers to obtain backordered parts directly from other dealers. Seven months later, the program is showing big success. 
  • “The program allows a dealership to look at Kia's national parts ordering system to find where a component may exist. Kia handles the shipping costs and sends the provider dealership a bonus for its assistance worth 15 percent of the price of the part.”
  • Since launch, the emergency backorder part delivery has improved four fold
  • GM, Honda, and Stellanits have similar programs with similar success stories
• A Retail Wire feature on the grocery chain, Trader Joe’s, gives a peek behind the curtain from “The Inside Trader Joe’s” Podcast, talking about why it has earned the extreme loyalty of some and has become an example of great company culture. The secret sauce according to Ty, a store manager in Colorado, is hiring nice people “who really love people.”
  • “It’s hard to talk about Trader Joe’s without talking about love because if you talk to anybody about Trader Joe’s, they’re eventually gonna mention it. They love a product, or they love shopping at our stores, but a lot of it is, they love working here, you know, and that in and of itself is sort of our culture, righ

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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