[Mattedfred]

Interesting discussion

 

[TT97]

The issue they did not discuss is that it is a "Prisoner's Dilemma" scenario for the auto manufacturers as well. While currently there are multiple shortages of materials (most notably, chips), that will not last forever. They can all say they plan on keeping production down and it is fine in the short term when all companies are having supply issues; however, once supplies come back, the strategy only works if they all keep production down. GM can say they will keep production down, but if Ford, Dodge, Toyota, etc. all bring their production back up; GM will no longer be able to manipulate pricing but will just lose out sales to the other brands that have the inventory.

 

[RITVT]

The other issue is that the dealership model is eventually going to go the way of the dinosaur, and that the new entrants are going to sell direct to consumer, and by doing so, they are (theoretically) savings manufacturing costs by building to spec/ building to demand. This principle should result in a lot less inventory, smarter manufacturing decisions, and a whole lot less costs to move stale or surplus inventory. Times are a changing. The other impact is that OEM's are being forced to do more with less. They need to automate more processes and reduce the burden on manual labor. The entire paradigm shift in the workforce is impacting all aspects of the supply chain. This is a massive tectonic shift, Rivian, Tesla, Lucid, etc. should actually be in a decent place to succeed because of this, but will be interesting to see how it all plays out.