EV Insider by Recurrent

EV sales at Rick Vrablik's New Jersey stores fell from 10 to 15% of the mix to 2 to 3% after the federal tax credit ended. Since gas prices jumped this spring, they've doubled.

See what your EV is worth: https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell

In this episode of EV Insider, Recurrent CEO Scott Case talks with Rick Vrablik, General Manager at Nielsen Automotive Group in northern New Jersey, about what brought EV buyers back and what still holds them back.

They cover:

- Why most of Rick's EV customers still lease, and the battery fear behind it

- Why Rick says a battery problem often means replacing one section of the pack, not the whole thing

- The Ford Fathom, a midsize electric pickup starting at $28,350

- Which used EVs his stores want on trade, and which they pass on

- How Ford's mobile service brings recalls and software updates to the customer's driveway

See what your EV is worth: https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell
For EV owners: https://www.recurrentauto.com/for-owners
For dealers: https://www.recurrentauto.com/dealers
Subscribe to EV Insider: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

The Telo truck is 152 inches long, about the length of a two-door Mini Cooper. With the midgate down, Telo says it fits a full 8-foot bed.

We sat down with Telo co-founder Jason Marks in San Carlos, walked around the second prototype ever built, and took it for a drive.

Jason covers:

How the truck stays small: a 14-inch front crash zone, a cab-forward layout, and a bed that starts where the rear seats end

Pedestrian safety: why the flat front and breakaway halo are designed around child and cyclist impacts

The battery: Telo builds its own pack from 2170 cells, offers about 77 kWh and 106 kWh options, and targets 350 miles of range

Upgradeable packs: why Jason thinks EVs don't have to lose value the way they do today, and how swapping in a better battery later could change that

Timing: Telo plans first deliveries in 2027, with suppliers as the biggest risk

Specs, range and delivery timing are Telo's figures and targets for a vehicle still in development.

Thinking about what happens to an EV battery over time? See how real batteries age and what your EV is worth at recurrentauto.com.

The federal EV tax credit ended a year ago. New EV sales fell. Used EV sales now outpace the months before the credit ended, and used EV prices have risen every month since March.

In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Tim Levin, Senior Editor at InsideEVs, to break down the stories that shaped the first year without federal EV incentives.

They cover:

• Why EV technology kept improving through a down year. 400 miles of range is now the luxury benchmark, and 300 miles has reached mainstream prices.

• How Toyota and Subaru gained ground while Detroit automakers pulled back.

• Why Tesla held more than half the market as automakers that can fall back on gas cut their EV supply.

• How higher gas prices pushed shoppers toward used EVs, and why off-lease EVs are holding their value better than leasing companies expected.

If you own an EV, this conversation explains what is driving its value right now. See what your EV is worth: https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell

What happens to EV sales in rural, mountain country when a rebate disappears, comes back and gas tops $1.90 a liter?

In this episode of EV Insider, Recurrent CEO Scott Case sits down with Glen Trafford of Salmon Arm Toyota, the only Toyota dealership in a small city in the interior of British Columbia. Glen describes his market as a mirror of rural Montana, with long distances, real winters and no urban commute.

Glen explains why his store sold one battery-electric vehicle in all of 2025 and eight in the first seven months of 2026. He gives more of the credit to better range and charging than to Canada’s returning $5,000 rebate. He also covers why plug-in hybrids still fit buyers who need to drive 370 miles without worrying about a charger, and how Toyota went from cautious EV latecomer to a lineup he’s excited to sell. He and Scott also discuss how cross-border politics is changing which brands Canadian buyers choose.

For U.S. dealers watching incentives disappear and gas prices rise, Glen’s store is a real-world look at what moves EV demand in a rural market.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Most people selling an EV assume the dealer is working to pay them as little as possible. Chris Taylor's team calls sellers to tell them their car is worth more than they are asking.

Scott Case sits down with Chris Taylor, owner and dealer principal at Certified AutoBrokers outside Buffalo, New York, for a practical look at how used EVs actually get appraised and what sellers can do about it.

Taylor explains why his buy center now sources most of its inventory directly from owners instead of auctions, why third-party valuation sites lag a fast-moving EV market, and how his team pulls battery health reports before a seller ever arrives at the lot. He also breaks down the three factors that move an EV offer up or down, why you should never put new tires on a car before selling it, what changes as a vehicle approaches the end of its eight-year battery warranty, and whether you should pay off your loan first.

If you are thinking about selling an EV in the next year, this one is worth your time. Recurrent will also help you find a top offer for it:

https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market.

Everyone says EVs go through tires faster. The service director who's been working on Nissan Leafs since 2018 says that's not what he's seeing — and his explanation is more interesting than the myth.

In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Chris Skinner, Fixed Operations Director at Granbury Nissan in Texas. With 18 years in the industry — from service porter to technician to director — Skinner has watched multiple generations of Leaf and Ariya come through his bays, and he has a blunt take on what EV ownership actually requires.

The conversation covers why EV owners who never visit a service department end up paying for it somewhere else, the three maintenance items that matter most on a Leaf, and why brake fluid is the one most drivers misunderstand. Skinner also opens up the dealer side: what EV certification really costs, why a single technician's resignation can knock a store offline, and why his team hired a product specialist whose only job is teaching customers their own car.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Ford built the best-selling electric pickup in America, then discontinued it. What went wrong?

Host Scott Case sits down with Sam Vesely, Director of Marketing & Public Relations at Ford of Cookeville in Tennessee — a store where pickups make up 30 to 40% of sales and the customers are farmers, construction crews, and pipeliners. It's the exact buyer the F-150 Lightning was built to convert, which makes Sam's diagnosis worth hearing.

His verdict is more specific than the headlines. The Lightning drove better than a gas F-150, he says, but it couldn't do the one thing full-size truck buyers refuse to compromise on. He walks through what the truck got right, where the price point broke down, why the Flash trim outsold the loaded version, and what his dealership actually lost when the Lightning went away.

Then they look ahead: whether Ford's extended-range F-150 can win over gas truck owners, how the rumored $30,000 mid-size electric pickup stacks up against Slate and Telo, and what Sam thinks his best-selling truck looks like in ten years. His answer surprised us.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Quick Clarifications:

1) EV Auto is the first used EV dealer listing on Amazon Autos, not the first used car dealer.

2. Dealers currently pay no subscription fees to Amazon. There may be a fixed, monthly subscription fee to display their inventory, with fees phasing in as the marketplace scales. But dealers remain the seller of record, control the transaction pricing, and keep the full revenue from each sale. Amazon also offers advertising products that dealers can use to increase their visibility on Amazon and in their local communities.

Show Notes:

What does it look like to build a used-EV business the rest of the industry is still afraid of? In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Alex Lawrence, Founder and CEO of EV Auto, the used-EV dealership chain that may have bought and sold more EVs than anyone in the country — out of just three locations in Utah and Tennessee.

Alex breaks down two big moves. First, EV Auto is the first non-Tesla car dealership in America to host Tesla Superchargers on-site, with plans to own and operate a network of charging posts independent of its stores. Second, EV Auto just became the first used-car-only dealer on Amazon Autos, and Alex explains exactly why he leaned in while most dealers stay wary.

You'll also hear why no-pressure selling works better for first-time EV buyers, how Alex thinks about charging-site economics and location strategy, why so many franchise dealers botched their charger rollouts, and whether Amazon could ever pull a "Toys R Us" on the car business.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market:

https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

The US doesn't have one EV market. It has two, and the national average hides it.

Recurrent's Scott Case sits down with Nathan Niese, who builds EV adoption forecasts at BCG, to pull apart the number everyone quotes. The "15% by 2030" headline is really two very different countries averaged together: CARB states on a path that looks like Europe, with parts of California potentially hitting three out of four new vehicles with a plug, and non-CARB states sitting near 5%, where a lot of buyers haven't seen an EV on the lot in weeks.

For dealers, that split is the whole story. A regional group in the Bay Area or Seattle is on a fundamentally different trajectory than one in the Southeast, and planning to a national average gets both wrong.

What Scott and Nathan get into:

Why CARB states track Europe while the rest of the country tracks an early-stage market

The math behind the national average (high-30s vs. 5%) and why "50% by 2030" was never going to be evenly distributed

The $30K, 300-mile EV that doesn't exist yet, and why building it profitably is the real constraint, not consumer demand

How federal policy dropped out of the forecast, and why state-level decisions now set the floor

The wild card that would rewrite all of it: Chinese vehicles reaching the US market

What Toyota's late, full-lineup EV push signals about where the industry actually thinks this is going

Nathan Niese works at Boston Consulting Group. The views here are his own.

Recurrent tracks EV battery health, range, and used EV market data for dealers and shoppers. More research at recurrentauto.com.

John Iannone walked into his other dealerships one day with news: the EV-only store was outselling them.

John is CEO of Auto Outlets USA, three traditional dealerships in upstate New York — and Electric Car Corner, a standalone EV-only store that was named one of the best places in the country to buy a used EV by the Recurrent community. He's been selling electric cars since the early Tesla days, lost money when everyone else did, and doubled down when everyone else quit.

In this episode of EV Insider, John and Recurrent CEO Scott Case get into:

• Why his single EV store now sells more cars than his three gas stores — with no extra ad spend
• Why he ships 10x more EVs out of state than gas cars
• What second-time EV buyers ask about (it's not range)
• Why hybrid interest is plummeting at his stores while the industry narrative says the opposite
• The "grocery store" rule for EV inventory: never run out of eggs
• Why he hires customer service people instead of car salespeople — and pays salary, not commission

John's playbook is closer to an Apple Genius Bar than a dealership: salaried staff, no brand loyalty, education before negotiation. "We're not here to make any decision today if you don't want to."

Find Electric Car Corner and other top-rated EV dealers in Recurrent's guide: https://www.recurrentauto.com/guides/used-ev-dealerships

Thinking about selling your EV? Get offers from vetted, EV-savvy buyers: https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell

Subscribe for new conversations with the people building the EV market.

Can a dealership thrive on used EVs while half the industry pulls back? In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Matt Diorio of Ourisman Volvo Audi of Frederick — part of a 17-location group operating across Maryland, Virginia, and DC — to unpack what's actually moving metal in one of the country's densest EV markets.

Matt explains why Frederick County ranks among the top EV-registration areas in the U.S., how $6-a-gallon gas is pushing "fuel-price refugees" toward plug-ins and full EVs, and why his pre-owned strategy beats franchises that won't keep a traded-in EV on the lot. He and Scott dig into the federal rebate sunset that briefly made every used EV worth $25,000 — and the "rubber band" correction that followed — plus the cross-country pipeline moving off-lease California EVs to East Coast buyers.

They also tackle two undersold truths: three-year-old EVs are meeting or beating their EPA range, and the industry's 20-to-80% charging metric misses how people actually drive. Practical, specific, and refreshingly hype-free.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market:

https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Gas prices passed $4.50 a gallon in Pennsylvania this spring but according to Andrew Wright, that's not what's actually moving EV shoppers like some people suspect.

In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Andrew Wright, Managing Partner at Vinart Dealerships in the Lehigh Valley, to unpack what's really driving EV demand six months after the federal tax credit expired.

The conversation digs into the real barrier to adoption — what Andrew calls "refueling parity" — why charging perception matters more than charging reality, and what's exciting about the EV market right now.

Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

Most people drive a lot less than they think — and that one insight could change how you shop for your next EV.

In this episode, Recurrent's Scott Case sits down with John Murphy of Holler Classic Group — one of Central Florida's largest dealer groups and one of the country's top Vinfast retailers — for a candid conversation about the realities of selling and owning electric vehicles in 2026.

What we cover:

The small-plane analogy that explains how badly buyers overestimate their daily driving

How real-world EV range routinely beats EPA estimates — and why dealers should say so louder

What happens when cheap 2022 EV leases start coming back to the lot

How Holler Classic built one of America's most successful Vinfast operations from scratch

The state-by-state mess of EV registration fees — and the surprising places that don't charge any

Links
→ Subscribe to EV Cents, our weekly newsletter for EV owners and shoppers: https://newsletter.recurrentauto.com/
→ Sell your EV with Recurrent and get offers from vetted buyers: https://www.recurrentauto.com/sell
→ Recurrent's research library: https://www.recurrentauto.com/research

"We'd need a World War II strategy to pull this off."

Cliff Banks, founder of AUTOVATE and The Banks Report, has spent a decade bringing automotive investors, dealers, and tech firms together to understand the role of capital in retail transformation. Unlike many EV optimists, Cliff brings a decidedly measured view—one shaped by capital flows, manufacturing realities, and political headwinds. His forecast for 2030 EV adoption? 10-15%. Not 50%.

What we cover:

The manufacturing reality check: Where will the plants come from to hit 50% EV adoption? Ford and GM are getting criticized, but could they have done it differently?

China's unfair advantage: Why their EV dominance is a national strategy (like World War II mobilization), not a legacy automaker innovation story

Detroit vs. Phoenix whiplash: Living between two markets shows wildly different adoption curves and consumer mindsets

Political polarization hurt EVs: The conversation became politicized from day one, damaging innovation and development

Tesla's market share rebound: Despite Musk's White House ties, Cliff predicts Tesla gains share in 2026 as political affiliation recedes

Autonomous + EV = the real demand driver: Rivian's CEO predicts autonomous features will be expected by 2030. If true, EVs will surge because autonomy requires electric platforms

Used EV growth is guaranteed: 5x growth over the last 5 years, another 5x coming regardless of Trump administration policies

This is a capital markets lens on the EV transition—grounded, skeptical, and deeply informed by what investors are actually doing (versus what regulators or advocates want them to do).

About Cliff: Founder of AUTOVATE, a premier conference for automotive investors and dealer executives, and creator of The Banks Report. Based between Detroit and Phoenix, Cliff has been tracking capital flows in automotive retail for over a decade.

🔗 Learn more about Recurrent: https://www.recurrentauto.com
🔗 Learn more about AUTOVATE: https://www.autovate.org

Can EVs work in rural Texas? Christopher Singleton says yes, but only if dealers get the strategy right.

Christopher Singleton, Managing Partner at Mike Terry Auto Group, oversees four dealership locations across central and east Texas—markets where diesel trucks dominate, charging infrastructure is sparse, and shoppers prioritize reliability over technology. In this conversation, Christopher shares how his team is navigating the EV transition in communities where the use case has to be proven, not assumed.

What we cover:

Why most of buyers end up purchasing something different than they planned, and how that creates EV opportunities

The myth of range anxiety: Why Christopher changed his mind after personally owning EVs

Why hybrid technology may be the smarter near-term strategy for rural dealers (hint: it's about service margins)

How to match inventory to local demographics: income levels + infrastructure = success

Why education (not pressure) is the key to converting skeptical shoppers

Christopher brings a refreshingly honest, business-focused perspective to EV adoption. He's not anti-EV, but he's meeting his rural customers where they are.

🔗 Learn more about Recurrent: https://www.recurrentauto.com

Is 2026 the year used EVs finally break through? EV Insider host Scott sits down with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier of ASOTU to unpack what's actually happening in the market right now.

Their conference:
https://www.asotucon.com/

They dig into why there's historically no tight correlation between gas prices and new EV sales — except for one notable six-month stretch in 2022, when EV share jumped 50%. With gas prices spiking again and CarMax reporting a 28% year-over-year increase in used EV searches, the question isn't whether demand is building — it's whether it will convert before prices stabilize.

A big part of the answer is supply. The wave of 2022-era EVs is coming off lease right now, flooding the used market with affordable inventory at exactly the moment consumers are feeling pain at the pump. But there's a catch: many of those original lessees had payments as low as $200/month thanks to aggressive captive finance rates and incentives that no longer exist. How dealers navigate those returning customers — and whether they trade up, buy used, or walk — is one of the most interesting storylines of the year.

Scott also shares some of Recurrent's most surprising findings from six years and 35,000 vehicles worth of real-world data: EV batteries are lasting longer than expected, and most EVs are actually exceeding their EPA range estimates after three years on the road. The data suggests dealers and manufacturers have been underselling the product — and that EV retention rates sit above 90% once someone makes the switch.

The group also debates whether dealers who've pulled back on EV education are walking into a trap, and why Toyota's decision to go all-in on EVs in 2026 — while everyone else is zigging toward hybrids — might be the smartest move in the industry.

EV Insider is produced by Recurrent, the company helping dealers and consumers make smarter decisions with real-world EV data.

https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

CDK Study 👇
https://www.cdkglobal.com/insights/new-study-reveals-sharp-shift-evs

Electric vehicle adoption faces a surprising challenge: shoppers believe things about EVs that simply aren't true. And according to automotive leader David Thomas, from CDK Global, these misconceptions are getting worse, not better.

In this episode, David shares eye-opening data from his latest research on EV shopper perceptions, revealing a massive gap between what people believe and what's actually true about electric vehicle ownership costs, charging infrastructure, and long-term value.

What We Cover:

🔧 The Maintenance Myth – Why all shopper types (including current EV owners!) wrongly believe EVs cost more to maintain and repair

💰 The Leasing Landscape Shift – How 77% of shoppers changed their preference when offered great lease deals, and what happens now that those incentives are gone

⚡ The Charging Infrastructure Paradox – 30% more DC fast chargers added in the past year, yet shopper confidence is declining. Why?

🚗 Tire Wear: Myth or Reality? – Unpacking whether EVs really chew through tires faster (spoiler: it's complicated)

📊 The Plug-in Hybrid Shopper Advantage – Why PHEV shoppers are the most informed group, even more than current EV owners

🔮 2026 Predictions – Where David is putting his money: luxury EVs and what that means for dealers

🏠 The Home Charging Blind Spot – Why 80% of households have the charging solution already (their driveway), but don't realize it

Guest:
David Thomas is an automotive industry leader at CDK Global specializing in market research and consumer behavior insights.

About EV Insider:
EV Insider is produced by Scott Case and the team at Recurrent, bringing you ground-level insights from automotive dealers, executives, and industry experts navigating the electric vehicle transition.

Learn more about Recurrent: https://www.recurrentauto.com

Subscribe for weekly EV industry insights from the people who live it every day.

In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott sits down with Laura Perrotta, President of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers (NJCAR), to get a ground-level view of the EV market from someone representing 523 franchised dealers across the Garden State.

New Jersey is the #7 state for new EV sales and the only Northeast state in the top 10 — but that position is under pressure. Laura breaks down exactly what got New Jersey there, what's threatening that momentum, and what needs to happen next for EVs to truly go mainstream.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why NJ outperforms other Northeast states in EV adoption

How state and federal incentives (up to $4,000 + $7,500 federal) drove the EV rush — and what happened when they disappeared

The real sales drop-off dealers experienced after September 2025's incentive cliff

Why NJ's charging infrastructure ratio (40–45 EVs per public charger) is a hidden crisis — and the multifamily housing challenge making it worse

How Tesla Supercharger network access became a game changer for EV driver confidence

Who's buying EVs now — and who the next wave of buyers will be

The growing used EV market and what it means for dealers

The legislation NJ dealers are pushing for in 2026, including sales tax holidays and expanded charging infrastructure

What New Jersey's EV landscape could look like by 2028

Whether you're a dealer, a policy wonk, an EV enthusiast, or just thinking about your next car purchase, this episode gives you a candid, data-driven look at where the EV market really stands.

Subscribe for weekly EV industry insights, dealer perspectives, and the latest on electric vehicle trends across the U.S.

🔌 Get more EV Insider: https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider

🌐 Learn more about NJCAR: https://www.njcar.org/

Scott Case sits down with Pete Berkey, General Manager of Lee Johnson Kia in Kirkland, Washington. This dealership is posting 30–40% EV sales penetration at a time when some of the industry is still in the single digits.

Pete shares what's really happening on the ground: the split between EV6 and EV9 buyers after the $7,500 federal tax credit expired, Kia's decision to scale back EV builds and increase Telluride production by 50% in 2026, and why he believes the EV3 could open the market to buyers who've been priced out.

His take on EV sales training (modeled on the Apple Store) is worth the watch alone.

Topics covered: EV sales trends, Kia EV lineup, federal tax credit impact, EV leasing, EV3 preview, dealer training, used EV market, EV infrastructure.

First-time EV buyers say they need 300 miles of range. Experienced EV drivers say they could have gotten by with 250. So who's right—and what does that mean for how dealerships sell electric cars?

In this episode of EV Insider, Recurrent CEO Scott Case sits down with Nathan Shaver, Managing Partner of Shaver Automotive Group, to unpack what's really driving EV sales in 2026.

They cover:

Why the 300-mile requirement is a first-timer's myth

What's actually happening in California's EV market post-tax credit

Why 300,000 off-lease EVs hitting the market in 2026 is a massive opportunity

How EV service contracts are failing dealers and consumers

What Nathan sees coming nationally that California is already living through

Recurrent tracks battery health data on over 30,000 EVs. Find out how that data changes the used EV conversation for buyers, sellers, and dealers alike.

🔋 Learn more: recurrentauto.com

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