00:00
Artificial intelligence dominated CES 2026,
00:04
but is the industry's pivot away from EVs,
00:08
putting the U.S. at risk?
00:09
This slowdown in the U.S.
00:11
and this pivot to hybrid and other powertrains,
00:14
my concern is, is how far will we fall behind
00:16
and how difficult will be for us to catch up
00:18
or can we catch up?
00:20
On this week's episode of the Automotive News Shift podcast,
00:24
EY's George Lenyo joins the show.
00:26
He talks about why U.S. automakers
00:28
skipped big displays this year,
00:30
the shift from EV hype to AI and robotics,
00:33
and his concern that the U.S.
00:35
is falling behind China in electrification.
00:42
available this Sunday, wherever you get your podcasts.
00:46
Hey, it's daily drive executive producer Jake Nier in Detroit.
00:50
Thanks for joining me on this bonus episode of the show.
00:53
Earlier this week, I spoke with Mike Murphy,
00:55
CEO of EVs for All America,
00:58
about the firm's new polling
01:00
that studies political attitudes toward EVs.
01:03
It revealed a significant long-term improvement
01:06
when it comes to GOP attitudes
01:08
toward battery-powered cars and trucks,
01:10
with resistance to EVs dropping among Republicans
01:14
by 20% over three years.
01:17
But in the short term, fewer Republicans said
01:20
they were interested in getting one
01:21
down five percentage points from a year ago.
01:24
If you missed the first part of that conversation,
01:26
go check out Wednesday's show.
01:28
Here's the rest of my conversation
01:29
with Mike Murphy of EVs for All America.
01:33
Your data shows only 28% of auto consumers
01:38
rate President Trump as a friend of the U.S. auto industry,
01:41
while 36% call him a foe.
01:45
You know, again, Trump is in Detroit this week
01:47
during the auto show.
01:49
What does this disconnect mean for automakers
01:51
trying to navigate this political landscape?
01:55
Yeah, so we asked the question, you know,
01:57
is he a good friend?
01:59
Is he a sometime friend or is he a foe?
02:03
The biggest number was 36% foe.
02:06
Sometime friend was 35.
02:08
Good friend, which as president,
02:10
you want to be over 50, was only 28.
02:13
And, you know, we thought we were gonna release
02:15
this thing on Wednesday and we thought,
02:16
oh, he's coming to Detroit, let's do it Monday.
02:18
Maybe, you know, there'll be some discussion of it.
02:21
So, and who are we polling again?
02:24
They represent two thirds of the presidential electorate.
02:27
So who's not in the poll?
02:29
People with a family income of 49,000 and below,
02:32
which is not a real Trump crowd, by the way.
02:33
There's some there.
02:34
So if you'd polled everybody,
02:36
the numbers would not get any better.
02:38
They might get a point or two worse.
02:40
So between tariffs and, you know,
02:43
the EV constituency among people who say they're,
02:46
you know, thinking about possibly
02:47
or in the future of getting an EV,
02:49
Trump's numbers are terrible,
02:50
because they know he's the enemy.
02:52
He's got a problem.
02:53
Trump has been elected in the past with the idea of,
02:56
you know, he behaves badly.
02:58
He's kind of a loudmouth,
03:00
but he's not part of that Washington back-scratching
03:02
establishment and he knows how to run the economy.
03:06
Well, now most of the numbers show people
03:08
have lost faith in Trump being able to run the economy.
03:10
He's more interested in crypto
03:11
or invading Venezuela for oil or whatever it might be.
03:15
So he's kind of like McDonald's
03:17
that no longer makes a hamburger.
03:19
That's a big problem.
03:20
He's going to have that problem in the midterm elections
03:23
and we'll see what happens.
03:24
But this is a warning sign,
03:26
because the old Trump would have done much better
03:28
as a friend of American manufacturing jobs.
03:31
And, you know, the truth is we've done a lot on this
03:34
and, you know, you can find it on the website.
03:37
Most of the factory CapX and new investment
03:40
in the last two or three years
03:42
has been EV manufacturing,
03:44
components and batteries.
03:45
Number one, state Georgia, number two, state Michigan.
03:48
And a lot of that's going up in smoke now
03:51
because Trump's done everything he can
03:53
to choke off the demand.
03:54
Now, one of our favorite statistics
03:56
at the EVsforallamerica.org
03:59
or the American EV Jobs Alliance
04:01
is 80% of EVs in America are sold in 15 states.
04:06
That one jumped right out at me.
04:09
Of the top nine states for EV sales,
04:11
six of them have blue state government.
04:14
That's why we just got $200 million
04:16
in Governor Newsom's budget
04:19
to put a new credit on the hood
04:20
of every EV you buy in California.
04:24
which I think is good for the taxpayers,
04:26
it's a conquest credit, first time EV buyers only.
04:29
So if you're going back for your fourth EV,
04:31
sorry, you know, no money for you, no soup for you.
04:35
But if you're a first time buyer,
04:38
because the whole idea is to convert people.
04:39
If you go from an ICE car to an EV,
04:41
we know you're 80% likely to stay.
04:43
So this means we're gonna be able to cut
04:45
about 100,000 checks of two grand
04:47
and maybe match industry incentives for another two grand
04:50
for new and used EVs in California.
04:53
Where the word of mouth,
04:54
even among Republicans on EVs is highest
04:56
because we went out of four,
04:57
we're selling a lot of EVs here.
04:59
So I think of the top 15 EV states, 80% of the market,
05:03
there are four or five others
05:05
that have blue government and may follow them.
05:07
We're even talking to Michigan.
05:09
Michigan has a pro EV governor.
05:12
Occasionally she's offline a little bit
05:14
because UAW leadership's a little too loud
05:16
in her ear in my opinion.
05:18
Never forget about the UAW.
05:20
The people who run it politically
05:21
are the older members who've been there forever
05:24
and care about five more years of good money
05:26
and I'm out of here.
05:27
The younger members who want to stay in the auto industry
05:30
and not learn Chinese are more pro EV
05:33
and the leadership doesn't really reflect them.
05:36
But anyway, you got Whitmer, you got the state Senate
05:38
and the Democrats who I am generally in my career
05:41
never been on the side of voting for
05:43
but Trump has made me reassess that.
05:46
They're only two seats away in the house from control.
05:48
If Michigan goes all blue,
05:50
you're seeing EV subsidy here too.
05:53
And then we're moving to the red states.
05:54
There are red straight governors
05:55
like Brian Kemp and Georgia.
05:57
Wow, I've got an eight billion dollar Rivian plant coming in.
06:00
I got a huge Hyundai plant.
06:01
I got battery plants.
06:03
The best thing to happen to Georgia since the cotton gin.
06:05
I got to be on the wrong side of this.
06:07
The red Republican MAGA governors of Georgia,
06:12
Alabama and Mississippi, all of whom have auto plants.
06:16
Mercedes and Alabama, a whole bunch of stuff in Mississippi.
06:19
They've created a pact with their state universities
06:23
to industrialize battery production.
06:25
It's run by a Honda guy out of Marysville.
06:28
Because they want to make batteries here.
06:31
They're not trying to find the new chemistry.
06:32
They're leaving that to the Kurt Kelty's of the world at GM.
06:35
But they're looking at how do we do the supply chain
06:38
to manufacture it here.
06:39
Not to catch up with the Chinese, but the leapfrog them.
06:42
And it's worth a little Googling.
06:44
It's fascinating auto industry thing
06:46
that I think Detroit people in that business
06:48
will be interested in.
06:49
So we're fighting back
06:51
and even some red state governors are involved.
06:53
So the politics are shifting.
06:54
The problem is thawing,
06:55
but we need President Trump to see the light a little
06:58
and we need people to buy EVs.
07:02
Mike Murphy is founder and CEO of EVs
07:05
for AllAmerica.org.
07:06
And also if you want to hear
07:07
some more political punditry for Mike,
07:11
you can check out the hacks on tap podcast,
07:13
one of my favorites.
07:14
Mike, thank you so much for joining us again on Daily Drive.
07:17
Always a hoot, Jake.
07:18
And I encourage everybody to go online.
07:20
We have 70 slides of fun data.
07:22
You're going to get into it
07:23
if you're in the auto industry.
07:25
Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive.
07:28
We're off on Monday for the MLK Day Holiday here in the US.
07:31
Come back on Tuesday for a brand new full episode of the show.
