Will Trump change towards Electric vehicles?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, there’s a new era in the United States of America. A new president starts on January twentieth. What’s going to happen to EV’s electric vehicles and with us today? Is Tim Higgins, and Tim is the automotive and technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal. We also has contributed to CNBC. Well, Tim, it’s a new world now.

0:28 What is going on?

0:31 Speaker 2 It’s an uncertain time for the electric car industry. Sales are going up, but in the last year or so they weren’t going up as much as the industry had expected, which makes a lot of automotive executives very nervous. They’ve been pulling back on some of their plans, and a Trump administration is a little unclear what will happen for

0:52 the EV industry. The former president now President elect on the campaign trail talked about how he didn’t like the Biden administration’s incentives for that industry. A lot of talk about maybe that seventy five hundred dollars federal tax credit going away, which would make buying an electric car harder for a lot of people because they are just generally

1:14 more expensive than cheap cars.

1:17 Speaker 1 And the efficiency of them running well. Elon Musk, who is an adventure is made an investment of about one hundred and fifty million dollars in President Trump’s reelection and is not worth one up forty bigin Is that a good deal?

1:39 Speaker 2 Well, you know, more than just his net worth. I think he really got what he wanted, which is a seat at the table, an ability to talk to the president elect whenever he needs to or wants to. He is kind of in a lot of ways part of the administration. Musk had talked about how is frustration about

2:01 the way he felt treated by the Biden administration, and now it’s clear he’s being fully embraced down at mar A Lago, being pictured oftentimes next to the President elect, getting his opinions hurt on a regular basis. It would seem so that potentially has a lot more value than just the upswing in Tesla stock, which of course is

2:24 nice for him, But the real need he has is an ally in Washington who can help do the things that he needs to do in the industries that are heavily regulated. Musk in autos with Tesla and in space with SpaceX, he has said, get federal regulations or hurdles for him to kind of achieve his dreams of getting

2:45 to Mars and kind of having regular space missions, and so huge benefit there for him potentially.

2:52 Speaker 1 Understood, and I can understand. He took the President to watch the the launch of his new rockets. And he’s going to embrace Tesla automobiles, I guess. And the link satellites which might give you your cell phone, might give you cell service, internet service, and satellite service. I understand some of the T mobile phones have already have it.

3:26 Speaker 2 The interesting thing about Musk is he has his fingers and so much of industrial America, so much, so many levers he can pull in, so much influence he can have across the board. So you know, the relationship with Trump and Musk is interesting. It’s one of those things where you know that Trump likes to be next to

3:48 big players in the world. The first administration we saw a lot of that, and clearly we’re probably going to see a lot more of that here come the next few months.

3:58 Speaker 1 Now says he wants to take away incentives. So my estimation, I mean, you have to correct me too, because this is your expertise, is must and Tesla survive, they become an alternative car for the American people whoever wants to have an electric car, and then what happens to the rest of them.

4:24 Speaker 2 The interesting dynamic here. Musk has said he doesn’t he’s okay with subsidies going away as long as it’s for everybody. He doesn’t think there should be subsidies on evs or for oil industry or what have you. Thinks the market should decide that, said Tesla subside. The government help has helped Tesla become very strong. It is in a very

4:48 good position on a costwise, making electric vehicles has traditionally been very expensive, those batteries very pricey, and he’s figured out a way to make these vehicles profitable and to sell them the volumes of rate volumes around the world.

5:01 The rest of the industry is trying to catch up. Now, the idea of kind of that ultrick cheap car, the ultra cheap EV, that could be a challenge. I mean, even Elon Musks saying he doesn’t want to he’s out working now on a cheap EV for people to drive.

5:18 He thinks that’s going to be left up to the robots, which comes as a big kind of change. There had been this dream of a twenty five thousand dollars ev now others are still chasing it, but that’s a tough thing to kind of crack, in part because think about where the new car market is in the US. The

5:36 average car that sold last month was almost fifty thousand dollars, which is roughly ten thousand dollars higher than it was before the pandemic in twenty nineteen. We all know what has happened since then, inflation, and so the market, the car market, the new car market has has really gone to the higher end, leaving a very few cars that

5:57 are actually priced below twenty five thousand dollars. I think about the sticker price. About four models make up two thirds of the sales for vehicles that have an MSRP of twenty five thousand dollars or below here in the US.

6:11 So it’s just not a new car mark. If you want a twenty five thousand dollars car, you’re going to buy a used car.

6:17 Speaker 1 Yes, So that’s it’s easier to find gasoline and to go and not get stuck without a charge on your on your car.

6:28 Speaker 2 That’s that’s one of the criticisms and challenges for EBS.

6:32 Speaker 1 Yeah, well, Tim Higgins, Will Street Journal, thank you for keeping the American people up to date, and it will call upon you. If there’s anything different, let let us know, and it will call upon you to give the American people updates.

6:46 Speaker 2 I appreciate it.

6:47 Speaker 1 Thank you, thank you,