Electric Vehicle Adoption: Consumer Choice and Costs

We still have out there that goal of completely all electric by 2035. Do you think we'll see US automakers begin to pump the brakes on that, given what you said earlier about demand? Yeah, I think you're already starting to see automakers pull back some of those targets. And it's really going to be, at the end of the day, I think it's going to be up to consumers to really decide what's going to happen, what the adoption rate is going to be. Obviously, there can be a lot of kind of interest from the automakers, but where they want to be. But it's really going to be up to consumers on that front. And I think at the current state where the prices are, consumers are saying let's go hybrid. And then as we start to see those costs come down to E VS, I think you will see more adoption of E VS. But it's really going to be dependent on the cost on that front. What's been the impact of of the interest rate environment And as we get closer we think to a potential cut, how will that impact? So I mean, interest rates have definitely been a headwind on auto sales due to the fact that we saw a new and used vehicle prices increase so much during COVID time period, semiconductor shortage, lack of supply, really high demand really had upward impact on prices. We've been seeing the moderate, but they haven't come down as much. So interest rates are definitely making purchasing a new vehicle much more expensive. And then also auto insurance rates have gone up a ton too. So if you kind of look at the whole auto kind of package right now, a lot of headwinds on the pricing front. So obviously, once we start seeing rate cuts start to come down, we'll start putting downward pressure on the monthly payments. We'll be nothing but a positive for the auto industry globally. One of the biggest stories that has not received as much attention here has been what happened with Toyota and these safety tests. Have you seen any impact of that? And where are we with regards to safety tests? No, a scandal, Yeah, I haven't seen that much of an impact so far. In fact, if you look at Toyota, they have some of the tightest inventory on the new front. So definitely doesn't look to be any type of impact from the US side of things. Really, really tight inventory and really tight supply for Toyota that we mentioned. Tesla prices falling. The Elon Musk pay package comes up for a vote tomorrow, which would be an interesting story to follow. Where do you think Tesla is in terms of demand in this country? So I think Tesla was definitely ahead of the game on the EV front and a great kind of early adopter on the EV front. But I, I think right now we're starting to see the difficult kind of leap for the auto industry, which is moving from kind of early adopters to more mainstream consumers for E VS it's a little bit more difficult kind of making that leap. And so we've seen Tesla reduce prices on that front to try to drum up demand on that front. And so I, I think it's going to be a little bit of a difficult challenge period for Tesla to kind of adopt a little bit kind of more of a mainstream perspective on that. Do they need a, a more diverse group of models? I think price point is the key thing for them, a lower price. We can see that as EVs get lower price, there's a lot more demand on that front. So I think, you know, a lower cost vehicle could be a benefit on that front to get more interest on that front. But I mean, it's they're in the kind of main segments right now. So it could help, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Really interesting story with Ford investing millions in reopening a Michigan Central station. This past Sunday, a whole special on NBC celebrities rolled out like Diana Ross and Eminem. How do you think Detroit's resurgence will continue to bolster the industry? Is is Detroit anywhere near back to where we were? So as a native Detroiter, I, I'm very happy to see the Michigan Central Station get refurbished on that front. And so, yeah, I mean, I, I think any type of resurgence we see in Detroit is a definite positive. Still three large automakers headquartered there and really kind of helped to improve the city on that front. So Detroit was doing great. I think kind of pre COVID, COVID kind of held it back a little bit. But I expect that momentum to kind of continue moving forward. Final question, as we move forward, tariffs are the big question. The impact of tariffs from Chinese Ev's. Donald Trump has promised to slap that equal tariff on cars imported from Mexico as well. What will be the impact, do you believe? Yeah. So I mean, I think the concern was potentially, you know, Chinese automakers sourcing or building plants in Mexico to try to work around USMC eight kind of tariffs on that front. I think it's too early to tell right now on that front. But I mean, we're seeing Europe look to be making some movements on the tariff front as well today. So obviously protectionism isn't great overall. It could be a little bit of negative on that front, but still a little too early to tell on that front.