It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

First of all, apologies for the lack of a Thursday issue last week. Between work travel and the associated jet lag, I wasn’t able to complete it on time. This week there’ll be this bonus free issue, along with the free one on Thursday to make up for it. Now, let’s get into it!

In This Issue

• EV Politicization is a Mostly American Phenomenon

• How Do We Move On From That?

• Air Travel is Completely Fucked

EV Politicization is a Mostly American Phenomenon

I spent the last week with Volvo near the Arctic Circle playing around with electric vehicles on snow and ice. While I was there, though, I had a ton of opportunities to interact with all types of people who are responsible for building and selling Volvos around the world.

As with all media programs, representatives from the company are briefed ahead of time about what they can talk about and what they shouldn’t talk about. Media training isn’t perfect — that’s how some scoops are had — but generally speaking, the brands want us to stay on topic and not cause a ruckus. That’s why OEMs often tell their people to not talk about politics.

I’ve seen screaming matches between journalists over politics, so it’s understandable why the topic should be avoided.

However, as I contended to my Volvo friends, you can’t talk about electric vehicles in the United States without talking about politics. Even though there is a wave of conservative politics in Sweden that would possibly vote for someone like Donald Trump, the mode of transportation used and what powers that transportation is mostly left up to the individual buyer.

How quaint.

“Why is it like that,” one of the folks from Volvo asked. “Here, you just choose what you want to power your vehicle.”

Volvo, unsurprisingly, is the largest OEM sold in Sweden, and nearly 90% of all new Volvos sold in Sweden have a plug. Politics aren’t playing a role.

Here, on the other hand, buying an EV or a vehicle with a plug is “making a statement” that offends many people in the middle of the country. Why? Because the television tells them to be offended. There’s “EV mandates” that aren’t mandates. “The government is coming for your pickup truck.”

The relief is these statements sound as ridiculous to the Swedes as it does to me.

One gentleman did ask me when I thought this politicization of electrification began. You know what? That’s a good question.

If I were to guess, we need to go back to when the first Toyota Prius came to market. Al Gore was hitting the subject of climate change pretty hard (and accurately, I might add), and “Hollywood elites” were all talking up and bragging about owning a Prius. A Prius was the car to be seen in. Flyover states hate the “Hollywood elites” for a litany of ridiculous — and probably anti-semitic — reasons. So when saving the planet and driving an electrified vehicle became their cause, then it became the cause of the right to work against it.

Owning the libs has become a detriment to our society, our government, and our planet.

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How Do We Move On From That?

So if a powertrain is so political, how do we move past it? We could just kill the entire battery-electric vehicle and move on to something else. Of course, there is nothing else that makes as much sense right now as an EV for the mid-term future, but Elon Musk is working pretty hard to convince people to not buy EVs.

What will be interesting to see is, now that people see Musk as the Nazi that he is, if people who aren’t buying Tesla are opting for other EVs, or if they’re going to a petrol-powered vehicle. If I were an automotive analysis firm, I’d be looking into that.

If they are moving to other EVs, they’re making some pretty solid choices. In the United States, we have a growing number of alternatives to Tesla at nearly every price point. While cars in general could be cheaper, vehicles like the Volvo EX30, Chevrolet Equinox EV, upcoming Kia EV3, and others are great ways to add an EV to your garage.

During Tesla’s last earnings call, Elon again reiterated that a less-expensive small EV is coming from Tesla. While I’m not a financial expert, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Moving on from the politicization of EVs is through EV adoption. The more people who own an EV and live with it every day the more they’ll be seen more often and be seen as mainstream. In the not-so-distant future, not owning an EV will be in the minority and it’ll just be normal.

We get there now through competitive pricing and butts in seats. There’ll be no help from the federal government in terms of building out infrastructure or helping to move metal. Our government loves to subsidize putting more corn in gasoline or helping prop up the oil and gas business through any means possible. But those are “good” subsidies and wanting to save the planet is a “bad” subsidy.

Pricing is something automakers can control, and as I alluded to in a previous post, the first automaker to step up and help crush Tesla through a strong conquest strategy will come out as a leader when the dust settles.

RELATED: Playbook: How to Dominate EV Sales Right Now and Forever 

Next, you gotta get the butts in the seats. When people experience an EV, even in the passenger seat, they’re much more likely to consider an EV as their next purchase. Automakers are doing a pretty solid job at this through national and regional auto shows with ride-and-drive events, but dealerships need to do better.

Unfortunately, many dealerships are run by principals who would rather you buy anything other than an EV and also are perfectly fine with what is happening to the federal government right now.

It’s no wonder that when VW decided to make Scout a new thing it chose to not include dealerships in the process. How much VW dealerships are whining about it right now, after many signed the letter to Biden to cut out the EV crap, proves just how right Scout was to cut them out. Why do those dealerships want the product that they don’t want to sell?

Air Travel is Completely Fucked

The star of Road Rules: All Stars and the new Secretary of Defense is calling for a modernization of our air traffic control system. Now that planes are falling out of the sky— and killing innocent Americans — regularly, you might think this is a good idea. Of course, you’re smart enough to know that every action taken by the Trump and Musk Administration since taking the oath of office has led to those planes falling out of the sky in the first place.

In a recent tweet exchange with Secretary Road Rules, Musk pledged SpaceX engineering support in modernizing air traffic control, stating it’s a “non-partisan issue.” Just forgot about those SpaceX rockets that keep blowing up.

Recently Forbes reported something else that makes matters worse. Tesla, again, has the highest accident rate of an automotive brand. Elon Musk claims that Tesla makes the safest cars on the road, yet they sure do appear to be in a lot of crashes.

Structurally, Teslas that have been tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have scored well in crash testing. I tend to go to IIHS for crash information, since they represent insurance companies, and have a financial interest in making sure cars are safe so the insurance companies they represent don’t have to pay out claims.

Musk’s approach to safety, combined with Musk’s approach to beta testing, would be an absolute disaster for the airline industry. I know that airlines like Delta are looking forward to some deregulation because money is more important than lives, but there’s no way Ed Bastian — or any airline CEO — is ready to deal with the horror that will be unleashed if Musk controls the skies.

American Airlines 5342 was a Bombardier CRJ700 with 64 people on board. Combined with the 3 on the Black Hawk helicopter, 67 Americans died for no reason. But imagine if it’s an Airbus A350-900 with some 250 passengers in Delta's flagship configuration. Or even worse, an Emirates A380-800 in a 2-cabin configuration with over 600 passengers.

There’s a reason why you haven’t really heard about plane crashes after September 11th, 2001. Airline safety has significantly improved, and while not perfect by any stretch, air travel is a safe and effective way to travel. That American Airlines crash was the first major incident in 16 years.

With Musk running the show, it’ll only get worse.