• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Tekion - EV Digital Retail solution for car dealers?

Jeff Kershner

Founder
Staff member
May 1, 2005
4,497
1,786
Awards
12
First Name
Jeff
General Motors chose Tekion.

And now Hyundai USA has selected Tekion Corp to be one of three digital retailing EV platforms for dealers, along with Roadster and Dealer.com.

Tekion is a relatively new company that more known for their DMS but began rolling out its digital retailing tool to dealerships in 2019. Their new EV Sales Tool was developed by a former Tesla executive. GM was an early investor, other investors include BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and some larger dealership groups.

I hadn't heard of Tekion until a few weeks ago but since they already offer DMS along with a Sales, Finance, Service and even Accounting solution, could they be a disrupter in the current landscape of digital retailing tool?

Anyone familiar with Tekion?
 
  • Like
Reactions: jscole86
I've seen an initial demo, but the deep dive is coming next.
The first look at the system was very "cool" - it seems like a very flexible and accessible system, which is exactly what I look for on my end.
That said though, I can't evaluate the core DMS product - I'm primarily interested in the APIs and how developer friendly they are.

If the digital retailing works the same way, it may end up being the flexibility that we need.
The issue I run into with some of the big players in this space right now is that you have to use all their solutions - their calculator, their trade-in appraisal, etc.
Just asking them (other providers) to put CarFax badges on their DR VDP is like asking them to move mountains.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jeff Kershner
I was reading where they have a robust API. Would it be a true statement in saying most of the DR solutions do NOT have?

In my experience, most of them are not that open.
Most DR solutions take the customer into their own portal or workflow, where you lose most control over the process.

I've worked with 3 and none of them have had an API with meaningful functionality (ie: send me an update when a deal changes status or let me update customer info via API)
 
You guys are right most DMS's have been and still are locked vaults for the most part with no incentive to think outside their code.

Which makes it really hard for OEM's to get their grubby little hands on all that sweet sweet dealer data.

So why not partner up with some other OEM's and venture groups to build their own DMS?

It makes sense for OEM's to build out these tools with tech partners who they fund (mostly). If anyone can make real time approvals happen in a DR tool its going to come from Tekion building those integrations between my site and GMF.
 
General Motors chose Tekion.

And now Hyundai USA has selected Tekion Corp to be one of three digital retailing EV platforms for dealers, along with Roadster and Dealer.com.

Tekion is a relatively new company that more known for their DMS but began rolling out its digital retailing tool to dealerships in 2019. Their new EV Sales Tool was developed by a former Tesla executive. GM was an early investor, other investors include BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and some larger dealership groups.

I hadn't heard of Tekion until a few weeks ago but since they already offer DMS along with a Sales, Finance, Service and even Accounting solution, could they be a disrupter in the current landscape of digital retailing tool?

Anyone familiar with Tekion?
GM offered dealers a 5% EBE Bonus in Q1 2021 for simply attending a 30-minute demo of Tekion. We attended the demo and got paid ~$50K in bonus funds, the best ROI on 30 mins I've ever seen :)