EV Politics

[CaptUSA]

I'd like a report when you get back, if your time allows.

Splitting this out from my Travel Advisory thread to give a quick update on my first meeting with Mike Murphy...

The GOP political consultant who worked with McCain, Romney, Arnold, and a host of others.

My first impressions: Frail old guy with a really weak handshake. He says he doesn't believe in Independents and thinks they are either R's or D's, but say they're independent to sound smart to pollsters like himself.

He started https://www.evpolitics.org/ ostensibly to bridge the partisan divide with electric vehicles, however, he's really pushing EV subsidies. I asked him if he's more interested in republicans being a market for EV's, or if it was more about continuing subsidies. It was clear that he was more interested in the subsidies. His belief is that we need subsidies so that American Auto Manufacturers can compete with China in the global market.

He even went into detail about how to convince republicans to support the subsidies. "You have to get specific," he said. "If you just ask them to support subsidies, the polling is like 2%, but if you relate it to their brother who needs a job, or their auto dealer friends that want more sales, you get more traction with them" "If you get them to focus on who receives the subsidies instead of focusing who pays for the subsidies, their reps are persuadable."

From now until September, there's going to be a fight to keep the IRA and IIJA provisions to keep the subsidies going. His group is going to go after Republican politicians to do just that. They'll be telling them to let the subsidies "fade out" over time instead of just ending them. In other words, keep what Biden did until they don't have to deal with Trump anymore.

Then, he went into a diatribe lamenting X and new media, saying how that in the old days, there was a strong curation of information so the consultants could get out any message they wanted as long as they had the money to get the access. But now, you don't need money - you can spread misinfo online with the click of a button and even if it isn't true, at least 20% of the population will believe it.

Anyway, I'll be here for a few more days and will probably have more to share. If anyone has anything they want me to bring up, let me know. I'll be meeting with him and his Executive Director again this week. The one thing I want to raise is that we'll never out-subsidize China and America's competitive advantage lies in the innovation that arises from the free market. But I'm sure you guys wont' disappoint.

 

[nobody's_hero]

Well, the free market tells me I need to drive my 12-year-old gas guzzling (V-6 monstrosity in a world of 4-cylinders) Toyota until the engine blows up.

Then, when they stop making them . . .










I'll buy a horse.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Thanks for the update!

 

[CaptUSA]

Day 2...

Lots to add, but it's night and it's Vegas.

But noticed lots of Chinese manufacturers today and they were awfully pushy.

 

[CaptUSA]

I have a free minute...

Tried to test drive a Cybertruck yesterday - I don't get it at all! It's ugly. It's heavy. The car was baking in the Nevada sun and the stainless steel was hotter than my childhood slides on a summer day. You could literally see the heat waves coming off the thing and just trying to shut the door burnt my fingers. I couldn't imagine parking one of those things in a garage to let the AC cool it down! And, the guy couldn't get the key card to work and the thing was stuck in dealer showroom mode and he couldn't figure out how to fix it. I had enough and didn't want to wait. What a piece of unpracticable junk!

Again, noticed today LOTS of Chinese manufacturers and I got the feeling like they knew who I was and had a plan to pull me in. It may be paranoia, but my position provides me the ability to sell a bunch of product in this space... It's not outside the realm of possibilities that they checked the attendee list and were targeting certain people. Don't worry, protectionists... I'll take the best products wherever they come from, but commies piss me off.

The Tesla charging booth survived the expo unmolested.

Had another quick chat with Mike Murphy and his Exec director. This guy is clearly suffering from TDS. More accurately, he doesn't like that in today's world, the elite curators of information are losing their power. I'll probably have a follow-up call with them to get into more details.


Overall, the message of the expo was fairly optimistic that the industry can survive without the subsidies. There's going to be a much bigger focus on profitability and free-market test cases in the next few years as opposed to subsidies and mandates (although lots of these people are sill holding onto hope.) I also noticed that during the Biden years, the industry was overrun with gay guys and delusional climate alarmists. It's still early, but it seemed like lots of those people have given up in the EV space and are moving on to other things. Good riddance!