"People don't want to buy an electric car, they want a Tesla" said Bob Lutz

Clearly Mary Barra doesn't know her arse from her elbow.

When you don't own the robotaxi it doesn't matter what it looks like so long as it gets to you quickly and coveys you without drama to your location. You haven't seen disruption yet.

Japanese small made sales after the oil embargo because the 3 made their 4 cylinder engines with cast iron cranks and rods just like their V8s. But the 4 cylinders had to rev higher for longer cruising on the e-way. 100k and done. Honda and Toyota came from high revving small engines with forged parts that could survive the revs for 2-3 times longer even with an added turbo.

I don’t think either of these guys has driven the new model 3. It is much much more than a refresh.

They should add a younger perspective in these type of conversations. Imo

Q. Do you ever have any guests under 40 years old? Lots of them out there that, may not be so set in their ways and / or deep into the ICE and oil pockets. 😊

The price of gas here in Vancouver Canada just went up to five dollars US for one US gallon. I really feel for the contractors making the way their way around to various jobs and having to pay these high prices for the fuel seems to me they can't waitto dump the pump and preference for a plug-in pick up at a reasonable cost. Sitting down and doing the math might just sway them to at least get a hybrid.

Good questions, Gary !!

Said this on the last video, I find the idea of automakers collaborating an interesting one. Obviously makes sense for when one group is significantly behind in development, like with Honda and GM. But this story shows more benefits than that. For example, multiple automakers might use the same factories and components to take advantage of IRA tax incentives for production and components. If volumes are low for a while, this might help keep factories busy and decrease costs - keeping jobs open and profits reasonable. And all the while, companies can work on the next home iterations of their tech, using lessons learned from the partnerships, without having to commit to the first try all in

I enjoyed watching Henry attempt to steer all conversation on EV to CAFE and government regulations. You know he's been lecturing his wife to greater effect at home. Autoline gave that about as much attention as an errant fart.

7:52 software is constantly changing. So software that works great in one car likely won't be the same in the next.

Why limit the shows? Let them run 90 minutes or more if conversations is good.

Lot of folks have a crew cab for a long trips running on gasoline but for just running around town they want a cheap inexpensive vehicle that has 40 mi of range. My great great grandmother had a Franklin electric running on let acid batteries and she never went more than five or six blocks at a time and it was perfect for her

Prolog is Honda’s first EV? I don’t think so. Remember the EV Plus from the 1990’s? How about the Fit EV from the 2000’s? How about the recent Honda Clarity BEV?

You say Jeep is a global brand. They are suffering terribly in Australia because of reputation and poor customer sevice

Electric vehicle owners continue to report far more problems with their vehicles than owners of conventional cars or hybrids, according to Consumer Reports’ newly released annual car reliability survey. The survey reveals that, on average, EVs from the past three model years had 79 percent more problems than conventional cars.

I wish you had shared your thoughts about the Tesla Model Y being the #1 selling car by volume and revenue in 2023.

Toyota has multiple decades of recalls to get that level of reliability today.

At one point in the discussion someone asked, I can’t remember word for word “who wants an EV”? I had a think 🤔, and decided that the question is really not that at all. It’s more like, “what does the average consumer want their vehicle to be able to do, performance, longevity, features, cost of running and availability of fuel, liquid or electric, and maintenance and ease of repair and reliability and resale value etc etc etc. The question is increasingly not, ICE or hybrid or plugin hybrid or EV. It is, “over the years I expect to own this vehicle how does any particular vehicle meet these criteria and my particular requirements? It seems to me that the EV hype is fortunately dying and that we are going to enter a period where the competing technologies will duke it out in a healthy way.

Any car manufacturer trying to sell gas powered vehicles beyond the next 5 years will be out of business by year 6.

Only heard about the ATAT cell service outrage this morning, but got bitten by it yesterday. About 10:00, dropped phone, quite a hard fall. Everything still worked, except the cell connection. Wifi, all apps, OK. But effectively like airplane mode, except no way back to normal. Thinking, oh crap, broke my phone, gonna need a new one, don't have time for this. Then, about 3:00, it starts working again. This was Consumer Cellular, but I'm thinking it uses ATAT. Well, sometimes s''t happens, and usually it isn't art.

Farley never said, or even suggested, that hybrids were "no good" and that Ford was going to leave that market. I don't know where the auto media came up with that belief. But it has been widely reported by by both auto journalists and Wall Street people. I have consistently followed Ford's earning calls and strategy presentations for going on 10 years now. They have consistently had hybrids as a pillar of their market strategy if any one cared to pay attention. They may not talk about it much and they are not investing a lot in it. But it was always in the slide presentations. The beauty of it is that Ford already has sunk the R&D and engineering costs for it. The Maverick more or less has the same hybrid system as the old Fusion. For that reason alone Ford was never going to leave hybrids.

Truly an interesting show, appreciated the guesses today.

The difference in the cost of labor is marginal, efficiency is the key.

Awesome podcast great work

gas pumps go down when the grid is down as well - not all gas stations have backup generators. As for charge stations - check out Hyliion's Karno generator as an option (it's more efficient than the grid and runs on 20 different fuels - can even be used in nuclear applications and concentrated solar). transitions are never smooth. That said - I'm glad GM is going back to PHEV platforms as a bridge.

Awesome insights. I personally don't see any government as a primary driver for EV's. It will be consumers. As more consumers break through misinformation about EV's and prices for materials and manufacturing drop enough, people will buy them as the obvious best value.

Car design obsolescence: Some decades ago, I had an engineer for one of the major Detroit manufacturers he went scuba diving with me every year. We used to serve free rum and coke after the last dive and too old and old saying "in vino veritas". So someone asked "why don't cars last as long as he used to?". The answer from the engineer was, new engineers were asked to attend an orientation and they were informed what their designs had to be, such as a certain lifespan One cheeky engineer asked "what if we could design a part that lasts longer at lower cost?" The reply was "DON'T DO THAT! Because replacing in parts are how we make our money. Sounds familiar? Scientia Habet Non Domus. (Knowledge Has No Home) antiguajohn

Ya it's amazing a $24k truck is outselling $55k trucks. The market would buy a $24k EV truck and not a $55k Hybrid truck. It's the price people care about, not the drive train.

Car critics? That's is a complicated situation. First and foremost you have to know and experience first hand what you are criticizing. There are those that have never driven or really done a educated look at the physical vehicle. Some have an agenda and they will pick on a defect and magnify the heck out of it. Case in point cybertruck rust. Last night I saw up live and in your face a cybertruck in Deray FL just of the Ave . It was parked in front of a Ferrari. There was almost no interest in the Ferrari LOL The cybertruck had a small crowd of total stranger taking photos and taking to everyone around them. It was so interesting to see the interactions. Comments were at least 95 percent plus positive. So I posted I saw it. The first comment is did it have rust on the surface. This a perfect example of Eople hearing something and that becomes their focus. I think the esthetics and physical being of the vehicle were amazing. The heck with the un educated repeaters who don't know understand or think about what they say. The Tesla cybertruck is real. Amazing from my point and I have not driven the cybertruck but I am sure it will huge for TESLA. I love what I saw. The last car I saw that had this much buss was the 65 mustang.

First time that closed captions not available for the hearing impaired for this episode. Hope it is available next time!

1st we need to correct the ongoing lie. Cars made in Mexico are not cheaper to buy. They're more profitable for the manufacturer.

Toyota always said “whatever GM is doing, we’re not”. That approach worked out didn’t it?

Wasn't the Chevy Bolt made in the US and sold for less than $30K?

One of your guest wrote an article on Tesla, a while back, I challenged him and finally he admitted he hadn’t even been in a Tesla.

PHEV deadend design. All the disadvantages of ICE with only unrefueled range and refueling speed as advantages. Those PHEV are all higher lifetime cost than Tesla's even at the 5 year point.

Surprised that Nissan and Mitsubishi get no mention. These 2 have sitting on the hands for years and I don’t think they will survive the US market within 10 years. On the global market don’t count out Suzuki, with partnerships in India they have some of the most reliable, competitive, and best selling models. But you’re right the Chinese are coming for those markets. Honda Prologue is over 5k lbs?! This isn’t going to cut it for efficiency in the EV space.

The G wagon is a solid off-roader however the regular G wagons are no longer available. Only the AMG branded ones are being sold now

Range is important if you dont have charging at home. It is a pain if you need external charging chargers every day

Tesla needs to put out more models and make design changes more often. Elon thinks that everyone is concerned about the fundamentals of a vehicle - safety, technology, engineering- because that’s what he’s concerned about. The public is willfully dumb. They choose a car the way they choose a shirt - how pretty is it? That’s insane to me for a purchase that is 10s of thousands of dollars and could cost you your life or permanent disability, but you have to start with what people really are like, not what you wish they were like. If people want pretty, new-looking cars then give them that - with safety, technology, engineering underneath.

I think the Prologe pricing is fine. It should be a smidge above the Y, Ioniq 5 and EV6. Hyundai motor group is outpacing all the Japanese and US companies for growth. Genesis backing off all EVs by 2030 is not that negative for the EV market, that was a very aggressive goal and now they will just be more in line with others but still leading most.

John, will you be going to the big Tesla event in Muskegon, Michigan, this June? The Highlander PS kindness is always free.😊

The political undercurrent to the conversation is fascinating. I'm with Mark Phelan...

The average maverick on the lot is over 30k, it was supposed to start at 22k thats a huge reason it's out selling 70k gas or electric 150's

The question of a PHEV is will the consumer ever plugin the car?

I wonder what happened to those unmanned taxis in San Francisco during the outage 🤔

GM needs to PHEV the Express Van

The Big 3 lobbied hard against taxing gasoline so they can keep those factories humming. Good in a way but they lost track of competition and stopped being competitive. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot. But in fairness, the Big 3 have to take care of their retirees so they are really in a tough situation.

Detroit Auto Journalist powerhouse gang!

Cyber visibility looks bad with the pillar blocking so much view in the goofy cybertruck and buyers will maybe never admit their mistake ❤😂

I don’t want an auto that updates itself and is full of quirks like my darn phone. I just want one that works the same, allows me to open the door by hand not with electricity ❤😂 When my engine goes out it’s better than a $10,000-$20,000 battery pack replacement 😢 But I want an EV that can have batteries cheaply swapped or ‘fixed’ with some new cells.

Boy does Henry exemplify exactly why the big 3 will die. Totally incorrect viewpoints. "hard to make margin"...while Tesla makes massive margins at average prices. He should watch the Matt V interview pronto.

I believe the Tesla strategy for EV transition is to: 1) Develop the underlying technology to allow EVs to perform in both in terms of drivability and efficiency; 2) Develop the supply chain and production process that allows the EVs to be made at volume and cost to drive the retail price to greater affordability; 3) Then expand the product class selection to appeal to a greater number of buyers; 4) Finally, expand and update the designs to make models "New" and "Improved" from a design perspective. // By concentrating of the technology and the production volume to drive the retail cost down at a rapid rate, Tesla expands their Total Addressable Market (TAM) to further drive the retail price down. Their mission statement is "to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible". It is not to make as many models as possible or to earn as much profit as possible. After their next "$25K car" that they plan on introducing at the end of 2025, then they can expand their models and do full updates on their existing designs.

Ford/GM backing away from BEV because they can't make cars that successfully compete with Tesla.

So is this a re-enactment of the chatter in the Tack room of 1900 New York Carriage works? It could also be a meeting of the almost extinct Dodo society during the Whaling heyday. Not facing reality is the Human condition!🤔

It’s my opinion that charging infrastructure is critical and therefore should by law require debit card readers for payment. Just like gas stations. Also level 1 & 2 as well as fast chargers. In the case of level 1&2 there should just be a socket at the pedistels and drivers carry their own cables. Should be pedistels along streets and in parking areas. Keep cables out of the weather and drivers have the correct connectors for their car

1:00 Without saying the "T" word Gary... People who own EV's don't want to buy legacy EV's and non ev buyers either don't want to spend more to get an ev or are talked out of them by legacy dealers and media. I think mass adoptions will happen when the EV becomes cheaper than ice. Mass EV adoption can't happen until automakers are able to make enough quantity anyway. An increase in battery and charging technology will also boost EV sales as well. In a summary EV"s are in a perfect place right now.

Compare EV purchase price with ice purchase price, without mentioning total cost of ownership, no one says anything!? Purchase plus fuel plus maintainance.

25:59 A 3 today does not look, perform, drive like a 3 from yesterday. I'm guessing Henry hasn't been in the new 3 yet? It's a big improvement on an already near perfect car.

Bob Lutz said a lot of things Andy had to retract a lot of options. Nuff said

Autoline: Bombastic, Grumpy Old Men flexing their wisdom. Active listening: not so much. Still a fan, but John and Gary will have to retire soon as their audience dies.

Henry is Wrong on PHEVs being more expensive. The extra cost o f an ICE powertrain is offset by savings on smaller battery

Reliability and affordability suffers at the hands of progress! There is much to learn from if it's not broke, don't fix it! With this said, we have come a long way and car have improved tremendously. However, in many cases we take one step forward and two steps back. ie.: Ford had a bullet proof 6 speed longitudinal transmission in the F-150 and Mustang only to replace it with a very troublesome 10 speed that offers very little performance gains in terms of fuel efficiency or transfer of power. We also see turbo chargers on everything! Why? I have a naturally aspirated Ford 3.7 V6 that performs just as good as any 3.5 eco boost. engine. The entertainment systems have become the focus and they too are drastically over engineered. I am all for progress, but not at the cost of affordability or reliability. This is NOT a good time to be buying a new car imo.

@ 7:00 on GMs battery & software problems - “they seem to have that figured out” - based on what? Only 7 mins in and it sounds like a bunch of grand dads loyal to who is writing their paychecks.

Japanese cars dominated the California market since the early 70's... correction , maybe not dominate but were a big player

The AutoLine car of the year judges are NEVER fair to Tesla and for some odd reason sucks up to a failing gm.

Why only old people are on this show?

The cost of batteries is dropping. The price of EVs from Tesla, China and others will come down. The ease of charging, speed of charging, efficiency will steadily improve. Meanwhile ICE cars can't improve much and will cost more than comparable EVs. So it won't be long before nearly everyone will want an EV.

People always bought horses, and they looked the same for decades

General Motors absorb Honda? Please no! I don't want to see Honda get trashed. A GM acquisition is the kiss of death.

God John stop cutting the guy off let him finish his statement seeesh!

Ford and GM better not wander away too far away from EV. Those who snooze too long wake up to the back of the line.

Henry should go back to cartoons until Mark can school him some more.

The short plad clad dude won’t shut up and let people respond. His guests start to respond, and he just immediately starts talking over them. Witnessed in a few videos with him in it.

What. Happened to the Korean car co discussion.?

John, thanks for checking Henry's bs

But you don't need good software at launch. You can OTA them later

The difference between Hybrids and Plug in Hybrid is a lot more than just the battery size and a plug. Plug ins need DC Fast charging, a much more powerful electric motor to move the vehicle at higher speeds. It’s much more expensive and complicated to build and I don’t it can be done at scale profitably. Then there’s the repair cost for long term ownership and packaging sacrifices.

gm ultium is a joke. It's just a silly name. It's whatever gm want it to be.

So, you had to manually navigate your car to work, so what? Oh poo poo…

Make most vehicles to ride around the city streets smaller lighter not these electric land yacht

@ 6:00 “GM EV engineering is great… but they have a software problem.”. How do you say ‘I don’t know anything about electric cars, without saying it”?

I felt like both Henry and Mark were just talking heads and didn't really add much value to what could've been an awesome show given the topics. I didn't learn anything new. Just my humble opinion 😏

Re Toyota PHEVs, reliable???? We have a class action suit up here due to a main power cable deteriorating too quickly and needing replacement. Expensive cable apparently. They are MUCH better than the others (except those who licensed their tech, like Ford), but on PHEVs and certain AWDe vehicles, not so sure. The fact that they have basically decided to emulate Tesla’s unboxed approach shows they can make a change when required. As Sandy Munro once stated, if Toyota decides to go all in on BEVs, watch out.

Please sir, can i have more.

Why don't you tell us why the roads are in such sad shape.

Has GM announced anything about going 48 volt?

Canoo, any other car or truck is featureless.

fuzzy picture

Yes, Toyota knows whar IT"S customers want.... ICE.

Tesla styling - looks like a fifties VW beetle.🤣🤣🤣

So why can tesla make a 38k ev and gm cant? I completly agree that lyric commands the higher price but Chevy? They crossed their own brands and didnt do enough research on battery costs. Nothing to do with government. This is what happens when non engineers make decisions they have no idea about. Gm is done.

Bridgestones got a flat tire.

I am sorry guys but if my math is right, at a progression of 30% per year, in 2030 7.5 million BEV will be sold in the US. That is roughly 50% of the car market. I predict allot of mergers and/or bankruptcies in the very near future. I think that the Ultium platform is not competitive at all and GM will go under before 2030 shortly followed by Dodge and Chrysler. Tesla, the Chinese and the Koreans will have the bulk of the sales in the US. The europeans are also going to be in a world of hurt. Tesla ig going to start production of the compact car sometime next year and i predict it will be a hatchback and a minivan. They will sell like hotcakes. GM, Toyota and BMW are talking about Hydrogen... bankruptcy for sure.

What is the resale value?

Iceberg ahead, let the band play

Got to give a shout-out to Musk for realizing that the luxury segment was the way to go for EVs. The GM/Honda joint venture may point to the future. It would make sense to have a few skateboard suppliers to achieve economies of scale and spread the huge capital costs across more units.

Toyota, bring out an electric Celica!!!

EV's are the path to Soylent Green.