Oct. 10, 2025 | Ford scraps EV tax credit extension; Vehicle Management Systems’ David Prusinski
Automotive News Daily Drive
Oct. 10, 2025 | Ford scraps EV tax credit extension; Vehicle Management Systems’ David Prusinski
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Term
federal tax credit
A federal tax credit is money the government gives back to you when you pay your taxes. For electric cars, it helps lower the price you pay when buying one.
Term
electric vehicle leasing program
An electric vehicle leasing program lets you use an electric car for a few years without buying it. You pay a monthly fee, which is usually cheaper than buying the car outright.
Car
Chevrolet Bolt
The Chevrolet Bolt is an electric car that's small and affordable. The new version coming out in 2027 will cost less than $30,000, which is good for people looking for a budget-friendly electric vehicle.
Term
subcompact crossover
A subcompact crossover is a small car that has some features of an SUV, like higher seating and more room for stuff. They're great for city driving and families who need space.
Car
Chevrolet Equinox
The Chevrolet Equinox is a type of SUV that is designed to be comfortable and practical for everyday use. It has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo, making it a great choice for families or anyone who needs to carry a lot of stuff. Recently, there's been talk about an electric version of the Equinox, which shows how car companies are moving towards more environmentally friendly options.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a well-known car company that makes many types of vehicles, including cars and trucks. They have been around for a long time and are famous for their popular models.
Term
EVs
EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of gas. They are better for the environment and can save money on fuel.
Concept
fleet operations
Fleet operations involve managing a group of vehicles that a company uses for business. It includes making sure the vehicles are maintained and used efficiently.
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This tax credit extension, the Chevy Bolt returns for a limited run, and GM cancels its next-gen hydrogen program. Plus vehicle management systems, co-CEO David Prisinski, joins the show to talk about how AI is transforming fleet management.
It makes it much easier for the provider of the service to offer a high-value solution to end fleets and end retail customers.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry. Ford is canceling an electric vehicle leasing program that effectively would have extended the $7,500 federal tax credit that expired last month.
It comes after a similar move by General Motors, after pressure from two Republican U.S. senators who accused them of, quote, ''bilking the U.S. taxpayer.'' Ford said it would continue to offer discounted leases on EVs through December, but without claiming the tax credit.
Just as the U.S. EV market adapts to the loss of federal subsidies that helped improve affordability, Chevrolet's decision to bring back the electric Bolt subcompact crossover will give it a sub-$30,000 offering.
The 2027 Bolt launch trim in LT with a comfort package expected to arrive at dealers in January will start at just under 30 grand with shipping.
An entry-level LT variant is expected later in 2026, priced at 29,000.
But GM's mass market brand said the second generation Bolt also will be a limited run offering without sharing specific details.
Chevy did not disclose production volumes or timelines, but told reporters that the Bolt and the larger equinox EV compact crossover should make up most of the brand's EV sales next year.
And GM has cancelled its next-generation hydrogen fuel cell development efforts and scrapped a planned $55 million factory in Detroit.
That's after determining there's no path forward for the nascent propulsion technology.
GM said in the statement today that it will, quote, ''stop work on next-generation hydrogen fuel cell development through its hydratech brand.''
Our sibling publication cranes Detroit Business confirmed with GM that its project with Southeast Michigan's piston automotive would be scrapped.
And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all of those stories at autonews.com.
Last night automotive news celebrated our 2025 best dealerships to work for in Nashville, joining me now to talk more about it is automotive news senior retail editor Dan Shine.
Dan is always welcome back to daily drive.
Jake, great to be with you.
Yeah, from the hustle and bustle of Nashville, Tennessee there, where we had our best dealers to work for event.
Dan, tell us a little bit about this year's event. It's one of, I think, one of my favorite events.
I'm a little sad that I didn't get to go this year, but of all the events that we do every year, it's probably the most fun, I would say.
Absolutely. It is. It's a celebration of dealerships, of dealers owners, the GMs, their staff, and of their employees.
I mean, the employees are the ones who felt the surveys and say good things about where they work.
And, you know, their feedback puts their dealerships there in that room with other winners kind of be celebrated for all the good work that they do, the culture that they build.
And, you know, the outreach you do to community, all the good things are kind of celebrated at the dinner.
All right. So who won? And what were the attributes of the dealership that really put them over the top?
What was interesting, Capitol Nissan of Salem was overall winner. And there are new, a new group.
They're part of the Capitol Auto Group, who is no stranger to the best dealerships to work for this.
Other dealerships in that group have been on our best dealerships to work for for many years running.
This Capitol Nissan is kind of new to the group, but obviously that culture just kind of, you know, meshes in with all, with everybody.
And so I think they had a good, you know, mentors to show them around.
So they're, you know, an interesting group, small group, but they're, you know, known for kind of really empowering their employees.
One of the things we wrote about them is that they have kind of different company credit cards in different departments.
And employees are kind of allowed to, if they had a customer who's maybe stressed how it is going to be at the dealership for a while, then go out and buy them dinner.
Or if they've got like someone's got a kid in the kids crying, then go out and buy the kid a little teddy bear or something.
Yeah. Really empowered by the managers to do right by the customer without having to ask for okay and approval.
That's great. And so it's, it's not just necessarily working for the dealership.
It's sort of holistic, right? It's not just the employees. It's sort of how they treat everyone from employees to customers.
Correct. Yes. Right. It goes out through.
I think the whole kind of dealership group, but it's just dealership, you know, in particular, it's, you know, they really buy in.
They have a little coin. It's like a little golf ball marker.
And one side has the group logo on the other side that says, believe it or leave it.
And these, and the employees carried around in their pocket every day when they come to work and randomly a manager meet them up and say, let me see your coin or whatever.
And if they have it, they might give them a hundred bucks or things they have, but it's also kind of reinforcing this idea that you got to be all in with their culture and what they believe in and how they treat people in their hospitality or leave the group.
And so kind of this is reinforced every day with, you know, when everybody gets dressed for work and they split that coin in their pocket or their purse or whatever it might be that they're, you know, that they're all in for that, for that dealership.
Well, very, very interesting. Congratulations to them. Before you go, Dan, it's Friday, which means that it's fixed stops Friday here on daily drive.
You have an interview that we're about to hear in just a minute with the co CEO of vehicle management systems, just, you know, set that up for us. What were some of your big takeaways from that conversation?
So this group, these to be known as EVAI that were big into into the EV space using the predictive AI to help them manage fleet operations.
They've kind of now rebranded. They brought in, they've from, they used to be work, but Ford and they're now kind of trying to use that technology across all, all types, you know, ice vehicles, EVs, fleets.
It doesn't matter. And they're trying to like help kind of streamline fleet operations for dealerships and independence.
So they're kind of very excited about where they're headed.
Dan Shine coming to us live, well, sort of live from from Nashville, Tennessee, where we just had our best dealers to work for event and awards. Dan, thanks so much for joining us.
Jake, always pleasure.
Coming up, we'll hear Dan's conversation with vehicle management systems, co CEO David Prisinski. That's next on daily drive.
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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Jake Near. Former Fleet Management Enablement Company EVAI is now Vehicle Management Systems.
Its co-CEO David Prisinski spoke with automotive news senior retail editor Dan Shine about the company's rebranding and how predictive AI can deliver greater uptime and lower operating costs for service departments.
Dave, thanks so much for joining me on the Fixed-Ops Friday edition of Daily Drive.
Thanks a lot, Dan. It's great to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.
A couple of big news for you recently been named co-CEO and what people kind of knew as EVAI, which is now going to be rebranded as vehicle management systems.
Tell me a little bit about the rebrand and is EVAI and VMS kind of the same thing or is there new kind of maybe a new little mission with VMS that you maybe didn't do in the past?
Thanks for the question. VMS rebranding really represents a broader scope of the market that we're able to service.
I think EVAI did an amazing job building an AI first intelligence platform for fleets, dealers and for third party service networks.
The rebranding is an opportunity for us to tell the market, look, we have the ability to service a lot more than just EVs.
In fact, the tools are equally representative and valuable for ice vehicles, multi-brand, OEM doesn't matter the OEM and that it's an AI first platform.
So really it's opportunity to say listen, we're addressing a lot greater solution, a lot bigger of the market and this is our way to tell the world that we're doing so.
In your past you spent a little bit of time with Ford Motor Company, so what kind of experiences do you bring to your new role in this new company?
I've been in software for the past 30 years, for the past 25 and in SaaS businesses and for the past 15 I've really focused on the connected vehicle market.
For 10 years I started out with a very small company called Fleet Complete and helped turn that into one of the largest connected vehicle players in the world over those 10 years.
And then I moved on to Ford where I was the chief revenue officer for its integrated services, bringing software solutions to millions and millions of Ford vehicles all around the world.
And I helped to grow that business from a very nascent idea from Ford Pro to begin with back in 2021 until 2025 just recently when I moved over to a VMS.
What I'm bringing over here is my experience is really about scaling.
Yes, the question, why did I come here? It leads to that, which is I came here because I really had an idea and the idea is I wanted to create a solution that democratizes uptime solutions for underserved markets.
Those underserved markets being kind of SMB fleets, third party service networks and some dealers up there as well.
VMS's AI first platform allows these folks to be able to have the same competitive advantages of offering and using fleet uptime solutions and even retail uptime solutions for retail vehicles.
For those areas that don't necessarily have the scale or the scope of maybe large OEMs or national service networks, these solutions are typically very resource intense.
And the AI tools within the VMS platform really do make it easy for everyone to be able to take advantage of these solutions, make it easy and of course make it simple for them to for dealers and for service numbers to get vehicles back in the base and for fleets to keep their vehicles on the roads.
So I've seen a lot of and maybe it's I'm curious, but I think I see more and more with this dealership service departments to independent repair shops getting into fleets along with their consumer customer pay type work.
Why do you think that is? Is it just makes good business sense? Is it as simple as that or is it the keep the base full or what?
It seems like there's more and more who are kind of maybe discovering you know that fleet is can be a very important part of their business.
Well, I think it really comes down to the value proposition that fleet repair represents fleets of a fleet vehicle goes off the road. That's a huge cost.
And specifically in the SMB fleets where we're kind of focusing, which is if I'm a 10 year in a fleet and I have one vehicle walkthrough that's 10% of my revenues that are gone.
If it's two, it's 20% and that's a catastrophic number for small business.
So I think that the third part of your repair facilities who have these great relationships are understanding that being able to offer uptime solutions such as VMS, give them the ability to create a much stronger relationship.
And then of course bring them back into their own base as opposed to losing that that business to another service provider.
So it's all about increasing margins for service networks. It's all about increasing margins for dealers and it's about solidifying that relationship between that dealer and service provider and that fleet.
And of course it's about keeping those vehicles on the road and creating that great relationship to make sure that business continues to prosper.
Everything these days seems to be about AI. It's AI, AI. My inbox is flooded with the latest AI tools for everything that we do in this world.
And that's kind of creeping into service and parts as well. I think there's kind of a slow adoption because it's one of these tools out there you're not quite sure how it works and how to get started and how it can maybe benefit your service department.
But it's kind of telling me the role AI is playing and can play to make a service in parts department, whether again it's a bigger, bigger group down to independent mom and pop, independent repair facility was just one of them.
How does that AI kind of really help them do their job better?
Yeah, absolutely. The AI is going to be crucial to helping these smaller players be able to compete.
We know that the large folks out there are moving into this realm. They're really driving to create stronger relationships with the fleets that they work with.
Our platform VMS gives us, or gives the independent repair facilities or monopop shops. The ability to have that same, again we are aims to democratize uptime and democratize that relationship and create solutions that drive vehicles back into base.
The AI that's inherent into the VMS platform takes away a lot of the heavy lift. It's difficult for small shops to be able to, you don't know what's going on with the vehicle, you don't know where DTC code's going on, you don't know if regular service schedules have actually been tripped over.
And this connection and this intelligent platform allows a dealer to say, oh look at a DTC has been tripped and or a service scheduling has been done.
And then the AI will then actually go off and say listen, this is a critical thing and it will alert the driver and it will alert the service retailer.
And then create an automatic connection and communication back to help to create and schedule that RO or that appointment for the dealer or the service repair network.
So it makes it much easier for the provider of the service to offer a high value solution to end fleets and retail customers.
And again, it makes it easy. They don't have to deploy major amounts of systems. They're not having to put a huge operation over capital expense.
And so doing their and even with that all that, they're creating a much stickier relationship and filling the bays of their of their shops much faster.
Of course, post warranty retention is one of the toughest businesses out there. It's super, super low, specifically at OEMs and it's low anywhere else.
People will go where it's easiest to cheat this. But really, people want to go where they have a they have trust.
They know that the job will be done correctly and they're taking care of along with a reasonable price.
Dave, exciting times for you and for VMS and interesting, you know, I think in fleet, fleet management, fleet maintenance seems to be kind of a growing trend in service apart.
So I really appreciate you joining me and talking about that. Thanks so much. Thanks very much. Dan's good to be with you.
David Prisinski is co CEO of vehicle management systems. He spoke with our own Dan shine. That's daily drive for today. I'm Jake Nier, in for Kellen Walker.
Thanks to automotive news journalist Michael Martinez and Lindsey Van Holy for their reporting for today's podcast.
We also had reporting from Kurt Nagel of our sibling publication cranes Detroit business. You can get the latest news on service and parts, manufacturing and everything happening in the auto industry at auto news.com.
Come back over the weekend for our weekend drive edition of the show. Our own Larry Velliquette and Molly Boygon talk about the week's biggest news stories, including what a costly fire at a key Ford supplier tells us about the fragility of automotive supply chains.
It goes down at probably exactly the wrong time as Ford and the other automakers are even more dependent on domestic aluminum and steel.
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About this episode
Ford has decided to scrap its electric vehicle tax credit extension, following similar actions by GM, amid political pressure. Meanwhile, Chevrolet is reviving the Bolt for a limited run, offering a sub-$30,000 price point. The episode features David Prusinski, co-CEO of Vehicle Management Systems, discussing how AI is revolutionizing fleet management by enhancing uptime and reducing costs for service departments. The conversation highlights the importance of AI in streamlining operations for both large and small service providers, ensuring they can compete effectively in the evolving automotive landscape.
Original notes
Ford joins General Motors in canceling its electric vehicle lease tax credit extension. The Chevy Bolt EV returns for a “limited run.” Plus, David Prusinski, co-CEO of Vehicle Management Systems, joins the show to talk about how artificial intelligence is transforming fleet management.
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