What if you could drive your smartphone?

 

By Roy Strasburger

The growth rate for electric vehicles in the United States is uncertain. While there’s no doubt that EVs will continue to grow as a percentage of the U.S. road fleet, what is uncertain is the future regulatory and incentive climate and how it will affect the EV growth curve. Within its first month, the Trump administration has raised the idea of rescinding, or not renewing, incentives and subsidies that were passed under the Biden administration, as well as changing the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) and emission standards that promote more carbon neutral vehicles.

Many EV enthusiasts think that the growth of EVs is dependent upon incentive programs to encourage people to buy the cars. They point to Norway, which has a comprehensive system of tax incentives, driving benefits (EVs do not pay tolls on the highways) and government subsidies that encourage EV ownership. According to Reuters, 89% of new cars sold in Norway in 2024 were fully electric. By comparison, in the United States, Cox Automotive reported that 8.1% of new car sales in the country were electric. (Keep in mind that 1.3 million EVs were sold in the United States and 128,000 in Norway.)

At the February 2025 Electric Vehicles Vision Group (evVG) meeting, Karl Doenges of the Transportation Energy Institute had an interesting observation: Only about a third of new EVs sold in the United States took advantage of the tax incentives available from the U.S. government, a surprisingly low percentage.  A major factor, Doenges noted, could be because the people buying the cars had income levels that were too high to qualify for the incentives or because the cars they purchased did not have enough components made in the United States.

Doenges floated another theory, this one related to convenience outweighing financial incentives: Most EVs, and especially EV startups like BYD (the largest EV manufacturer in China), offer consumers something that they cannot get in legacy internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles—a car designed around software. (The related Vision Report is at vgnsharing.com).

The new EVs are just an extension of the smart phone—everything you need located in one place—plus, EVs will take you places. Furthermore, the car’s functions are based more on software code rather than mechanics. Using over-the-air (OTA) software diagnostics, you don’t have to take the car into the shop to find out what is wrong with it; you just have the manufacturer do a software scan. This software-based model is why it is possible to have features such as self-driving, voice commands and a full media entertainment system operate together seamlessly at 70 miles per hour. With OTA, the car manufacturer can change efficiency, functionality, entertainment systems and almost anything else that it takes to keep the car operating safely—except for replacing the tires.

OTA gives manufacturers the ability to provide upgrades to the car’s performance at any time. For example, if new software is written to allow automatic parallel parking it’s done in an update. Even more intriguing are the financial opportunities. In the future, if you want your car to accelerate from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds rather than 4 seconds, you could purchase a monthly subscription that will allow your car to do it. Cancel the subscription and you end up in the slow lane.

The flexibility of software upgrades is going to become an important issue for convenience and fuels retailers. One of the programs that is under development is a “purchase from your car” option, Doenges noted, which will use AI in the car to shop without ever having to access your phone.

Imagine that you’re driving; you’re hungry and you want a sandwich. You ask your car to find the closest sandwich provider that has at least a four-star rating. Your car locates a shop, orders your favorite sandwich based upon your history and pays for it using your credit card. It then autonomously drives you to the store where you pick up the sandwich at the drive-thru window. Then you continue on your way, having lost the minimum amount of time for the diversion. Fast, easy and frictionless.

The question you should be asking yourself, as a retailer, is “Could that have been my store?” If the answer is anything other than “Yes,” your future is in question.

With that example in mind, here’s are critical questions to ask about your business:

  1. What is, or what is going to be, your offer to the customer?
  2. How can you ensure that it is the highest quality product available?
  3. How are you going to gather positive customer reviews?
  4. Is your store, and its offer, listed on every social media platform possible? (Check out NACS’ THRIVR program at org/thrivr for help with this.)
  5. Can you consistently deliver a quality offer?

Most importantly, change your mindset to consider how you adapt to change. In the future, the car will be your customer—not just a means of transport.

 

Roy Strasburger is the CEO of StrasGlobal. For 35 years StrasGlobal has been the choice of global oil brands, distressed assets managers, real-estate lenders and private investors seeking a complete, turnkey retail management solution.