Shift: A podcast about mobility

Mike Murphy, CEO of the EV Politics Project and the American EV Jobs Alliance, discusses how electric vehicles became political and the future of sales once the federal tax credit is eliminated, plus how the public views EVs.Murphy also shares how he became an EV advocate after spending his career as a Republican strategist and political consultant.

Automakers shouldn’t count on Chinese vehicles’ exclusion from the U.S. market forever, warns Larry Dominique, previously with Stellantis and PSA North America and now president of LD Management Consulting.If automakers “don’t push for innovation and push for technology, when those gates do open, they’re going to have that much more of a gap to catch up on,” he said on the Automotive News Shift podcast.Dominique and Jerry Hirsch, senior editor of technology and innovation coverage at Automotive News, discussed China’s threat to the legacy automotive industry, among other topics.

The elimination of the federal electric vehicle tax credit, scheduled for Sept. 30, will reduce EV sales initially, but charging infrastructure improvements, supply chain efficiencies and more EV options will push the sector forward long term and open the door to more efficient vehicles across powertrains, panelists said at Automotive News Congress in Detroit Sept. 11. Elaine Buckberg of Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Elizabeth Krear of the Center for Automotive Research and Jeffrey Morrison of General Motors discussed the future of EVs with Hannah Lutz, Automotive News director of technology and innovation coverage.

Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate and a former presidential candidate, says the auto industry moved too quickly on electric vehicles and needs to devote energy to making internal combustion engine vehicles more efficient.He acknowledges his 2000 presidential campaign overshadows his crusade for automotive safety, an effort that created regulatory agencies, saved lives and won him a spot in the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Anshuman Saxena, vice president and head of ADAS and automated driving at Qualcomm, details the company’s long-simmering efforts to deliver driver-assistance technology on a global scale.Underway for years, those efforts will debut aboard BMW’s Neue Klasse platform during the IAA mobility showcase in Munich next month. Saxena discusses that development, plus broader driver-assistance plans at Qualcomm. The company has roughly $45 billion in expected auto industry revenue, and roughly a third of that is from driver-assistance products. Further, he discusses how AI will upend motorists’ experiences inside their vehicles — think KITT and Knight Rider come to life.Finally, Hannah Lutz and I mentioned last week’s 100th anniversary of Automotive News at the start of the podcast. You can find more information and a retrospective on a century’s worth of major automotive milestones here. 

Greg Brannon, director of automotive research at AAA, details the results of a new technical evaluation of traffic-jam driver-assistance technology. Researchers found it experiences a “notable event” every 9.1 minutes.He examines the differences in performance between hands-off and hands-on traffic-jam assist technology and offers automakers solutions for improving future systems. Further, Brannon looks at how even well-performing systems can lull drivers into a state of automation complacency, which brings its own set of problems, and he discusses the gap between automotive marketing promises and the real-world reality of driver-assistance performance and limitations.

Harry Campbell, known in the mobility world as The Rideshare Guy, explores how an influx of new driverless deployments and self-driving partnerships are disrupting the status quo in the ride-hailing realm.He examines the new tie-up between Lucid, Nuro and Uber, and probes the latter’s widening influence in bringing robotaxis to cities across the U.S. in meaningful numbers.Further, Campbell, a ride-hailing driver himself, details how the rise of robotaxis are affecting human drivers who rely on the Uber and Lyft platforms for income.

Gabe Klein, former executive director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation under President Biden, delves into the implications of federal EV policy rollbacks on U.S. global competitiveness, especially against China. He highlights the urgent need for private investments in EV infrastructure and discusses the pressing challenges faced by American startups like Rivian and Lucid. Emphasizing the inevitability of EV adoption, Klein also explores innovative solutions like bi-directional charging to boost energy resilience.

David Liu, CEO of automated-driving tech company Plus, discusses how $300 million in proceeds from an expected SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX will fund the company’s next phase of growth.He details ongoing partnerships with Volkswagen’s Traton Group, Hyundai and Iveco, and underscores the company’s vision for rolling out autonomous trucks at global scale. Further, Liu discusses efforts to develop trucks equipped with both autonomous-driving software and equipped with hydrogen-fueled powertrains, and how the two might make a potent team for long-distance trucking.

Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery, propulsion and sustainability at General Motors, discusses a flurry of recent battery developments that underscore the automaker’s long-term electric vehicle outlook.They include a new foray into energy storage systems alongside Redwood Materials, for which GM will provide both new and second-life batteries, production plans for lithium iron phosphate batteries with Ultium Cells in Spring Hill, Tenn., and work on a lithium manganese-rich chemistry. Kelty, a Tesla veteran, also talks about his time building Tesla’s Gigafactory with JB Straubel and Elon Musk, and why it was so important that the upstart make its own battery cells.