July 22, 2026 | Toyota stays the course with EVs and hybrids; Penske Automotive Group may go private

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Welcome to Daily Drive for Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026. I'm

Kellan Walker in Las Vegas. Today on the show, Toyota stays the course with EVs and hybrids.

Penske Automotive Group may go private, and American Honda shuffles their top sales executives,

plus how an automotive mentor is using social media to sell more vehicles.

I teach people how to buy cars. I kind of peel the layers back off of the dealership so they can

have an ideal. What happens during a car deal? Let's run through all the news you need to know

to keep up in the auto industry. While some automakers are pulling back on electrification

plans in the US, Toyota is sticking with its strategy. The automaker, which has one of the

broadest light vehicle lineups in the country, is continuing to invest across multiple powertrains,

including new EVs, hybrids, and updated technology. One of the biggest additions is an

all-electric three-row highlander expected to arrive later this year.

Toyota is also rolling out its more efficient fifth-generation hybrid system across more models

while continuing to enhance its Toyota Safety Sense Driver assistance suite. It's Toyota's latest

sign that the company is betting on a multi-path approach to the future investing in EVs, hybrids,

and conventional vehicles. Penske Automotive Group could soon be going private. Penske Corp

and Japanese conglomerate Mitsui have offered about $3.8 billion to buy the roughly 28% of

the dealership group's shares they don't already own. Penske Corp already owns about 52% of the

company, while Mitsui owns another 20%. The companies say taking Penske Automotive Private

would give them greater flexibility to navigate the industry's technological transformation

while continuing to invest in growth. They also say Mitsui's global network could help expand

the retailer's business and create new partnerships. Investors reacted quickly. Penske Automotive

shares jumped more than 22% after the announcement, trading above the offer price. Analysts say the bid

underscores the value of the dealership group, although some believe shareholders could push

for a higher offer before any deal is finalized. An American Honda is shaking up its sales leadership,

rotating key executives across the Honda and Acura brands while also moving a long-time

executive to its aircraft business. The changes take effect August 3rd. Jessica Laundermilk

will move from leading Honda national sales to head Acura national sales,

just as the luxury brand prepares to launch its first hybrid models. Luis Guerrera,

a nearly 20-year Honda veteran who currently leads the company's central region sales operations,

will take over as head of Honda national sales. Meanwhile, Michael Angel, who has led Acura

sales, is leaving the automotive side of the business to become assistant vice president of sales

at Honda aircraft. The executive shuffle comes as Honda and Acura continue expanding their electrified

lineups and prepare for the next phase of growth. And those are today's headlines. You can find

more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com. Coming up, Lindsberg Pettyway of Feldman Chevrolet

joins the show to talk about how he's leveraging social media to educate buyers and sell more cars.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Social media has become a useful tool for dealerships to sell more vehicles,

but Lynsburg Pettyway, auto advisor at Feldman Chevrolet, has found a way to leverage social

media to sell more vehicles while educating buyers. He spoke with automotive news reporter

Mark Homer and explains how he's created a dealership within a dealership. Here's that conversation.

I started on social media nine years ago with Facebook, and then I transitioned to Instagram

and specifically TikTok, probably. This is 2026, so maybe 22. I started with TikTok.

So what kind of videos do you make for TikTok? Describe a few for me.

Well, I am an automotive mentor. So all of my videos on TikTok specifically, but not all of them.

Some of them are a little funny, but I teach people how to buy cars. I kind of peel the layers

back off of the dealership so they can have an ideal. What happens during a car deal,

debt to income ratio? What do you need if you're a first-time buyer? Things of that nature.

How is that held in terms of bringing customers to the dealership?

Well, Mark, I believe it gives them a perspective of who I am, number one.

Unfortunately, car salesmen don't have the best reputation, unfortunately. So when they see me

giving knowledge, it gives them the ideal or the belief that I'm trustworthy because all of my

stuff is transparent. So it has brought several clients in. They just call me. I've seen you on

TikTok. Some of them have specific questions about a topic that I went over, but some of them just

come in and say, I want to buy a car from you. And they come in because they saw you on TikTok

or elsewhere on social media first. Yes, TikToks, Facebook, Instagram, or my repeats and referrals,

yes. Okay. Let's focus on TikTok specifically. So since 22, do you have any senses to have what

TikTok has done in terms of increase? Like how many came in when you started and now that you've

been doing it for a while, how many have been with the TikTok referral? I don't have exact numbers.

If I had to give a guesstimation, I'll say maybe on average, maybe three a month.

From TikTok? On average, that's from TikTok. Yeah, maybe three a month.

Okay. How many followers do you have overall on TikTok? On TikTok, I think I have about

49, 50,000. That's pretty impressive. Did it take long to reach that level?

I'll say within probably eight to 14 months. Because when I first started, we did, I would

record 50 reels a month and we would put out two a day every day. So we were really just hitting

them with organic content, some Facebook, some TikTok lives, but we were just hitting them

with content and my growth kind of grew very, very fast because I was different.

Now you'll see a lot of things on TikTok now, maybe funny content, but I think my niche was

giving information about how to buy a car. What do you need to buy a car? Do you need a down payment,

debt to income ratio? What is a subprime or prime credit score? So my information was more

learning based than, no, I threw some funny stuff in there to kind of get people interested,

but mainly teaching people what happens at the dealership.

Who films your videos? Well, I have a young lady that I've been working with. Her name is

Toria Davis. She has a company, TD Creative. And we come up with the concepts and she films me

and edit those for me. Do you still make two videos a day? I'm posting two, but I don't create

as much now because I have a larger database. I've been busy. I've been busy with some other things

based upon my following. I've been doing some brand ambassador stuff for some things. I got

some stuff I'm doing for Capital One. It'll be coming out next month, some insurance companies.

You know, TikTok and Instagram has kind of helped my brand grow of avenues.

But your dealership supports what you're doing? Definitely. I'm selling their units.

So at the end of the day, yeah, you know what I'm saying? The units I'm selling belongs to

Bellman Chevrolet. I have a great relationship with the owner, Mr. J. Bellman. He supports what I do.

I do some sponsorships. If I have to sometimes pay out of pocket for certain sponsorships,

they support me with that. Okay. So how important, I know versus when you started with TikTok,

how important has TikTok become to selling cars? I think TikTok is very important in your brand.

I've recently created a 10-week automotive mentoring program and included in one of those

weeks is the importance of social media, specifically TikTok, because it's such a large

platform. And people go to TikTok for information, for entertainment. And if you can combine those two

and catch people's eye, then they can believe in you and your brand. I believe every salesperson

should have a TikTok account. And I think every salesperson should understand that

even though you work for a company, you are an independent contractor and you are responsible

for your marketing. Okay. Without it, would you be selling fewer cars? I'll be selling probably

less than three. I mean, you know, the other platforms are good. That's a very direct question.

I don't know. I've been using it. So I mean, based upon the numbers, if I didn't have it,

I'd probably be selling three less than what I'm selling now, because I'm averaging at least

three people from TikTok a month now. Okay. So three fewer a month. Well, that's not insignificant.

I'm sure you've been following TikTok, created a platform that focuses more on businesses,

and then last year launched something specific to retail auto. Is that something you've been

aware of or involved with? It hasn't not directly. I've viewed it, but I haven't been directly

involved with it through TikTok. What are your thoughts then on that? What has that

added? Do you think more dealerships will sign up and be part of that?

Probably once they realize the importance of social media. I was doing this on my own,

and here recently, within the last year and a half, my dealership, because Feldman has

several dealerships, so we kind of run independently. Within the last year and a half,

my general manager and the dealership finally decided to do social media. Sometimes larger

dealership groups don't see the value in it until they do, but I was doing my stuff independently

from the dealership before they even had a TikTok page. Okay. Now, your general manager,

what is his or her name? It's Greg Lambert. And Greg, is he on TikTok now also? He's not physically

on TikTok, but he does have our dealership on TikTok. Yes. So the young lady who was working

with me is not working with the dealership because of my growth, and she's on TikTok,

Instagram as well. The content is more, I wouldn't say commercial, so it's not like just running ads

or anything like that. It's kind of informational. One, and then two, we're doing a series now on

the back end. We're doing a lot of things based upon what happens in the service department.

So we're showing how cars are taken apart. If you bring your car in for service and you're

waiting for two to three weeks, you're upset, but we show you that the car has been totally

breaking down and we're waiting on a part. So it's giving people a different perspective of

the totality of a dealership, not just a sales portion of it. And that's the dealership TikTok,

not your personal one. Yeah, that's the dealership TikTok. Now, because of my

social media influence, I'm doing a lot of the videos for the dealership. So you'll see me,

yeah, you'll see me as the person talking, breaking the stuff down. When you started,

was it hard to convince the dealership owners to do what you're doing?

It wasn't hard, yeah, because I had support, because like I said, when I started, I kind of

started my own brand for real automotive group. And I was doing different things around the city,

different sponsorships. I was doing television commercials. I was doing radio ads, gas giveaways.

So when I came with the social media, it was already in the vein of me marketing. So they

was like, okay, you had success with these other things. You want to try this? We support you.

So in doing this for years now, what have you learned? And also, where do you see TikTok

going in the next few years? I've learned that you have to be consistent with your content.

Once you have a certain group following you, you have to kind of stay in that vein.

You know, I've lost, I have one point on TikTok, I had almost like 53,000 followers.

So then I started to kind of change the narrative a little bit, and then I lost a couple of followers.

I think where TikTok is going, I think it's becoming a, I'll say this all due respect,

a trusted platform. You know, at first, TikTok was kind of, you know, something for entertainment.

You know, people say you're doing TikTok dances, but now TikTok has really solidified themselves

as being a place to go to, to get information, to buy things. So it's becoming a trusted,

I think a more trusted platform. Fair enough. Linsberg, thank you for your time and the

conversation, and I hope we can talk again. Sure, no problem. That's Daily Drive for today.

I'm Kellan Walker. Thanks to our own Larry Bellaquette, Irvash Kakaria and John Hutter for

their reporting for today's podcast. You can get the latest news on Toyota's future product,

Penske Automotive Going Private, and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a conversation with one social media expert that says

TikTok and Instagram might not be the winning tool for some dealerships.

And we actually have fewer dealers today running on TikTok than we did back in 2024.

Back when it was the hottest channel out there, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It just means that it's not for everyone. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know to

think of the show and the topics we covered today. Send us an email at dailydrive at autonews.com

or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774. And if you enjoy the podcast, remember to like,

leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Toyota Highlander

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