In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor John Beltz Snyder. John's been driving the new Chevy Traverse and the BMW X5 M Competition, and Greg gives his first impressions from behind the wheel of the new Fiat 500e. They discuss Tesla's abandonment of its lower-cost EV, and a report that it did so when the car was almost completed. They also discuss Subaru and Toyota teaming up again for another round of EVs, and discuss the remifgications of Biden's tariffs on China. Finally, they dig through the mailbag to give their opinions on the future of Rivian.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
TranscriptWelcome back to the auto blog podcast.
I'm Greg mcleary.
We have an awesome show for you this week, we're going to talk about the new Chevy Traverse the BMW X Five M competition, which I think really, you know, applies more to the awesome description and you know, maybe some of the other things, but hey, that'll be fun.
I've been in the fiat 500 E for the first time which is uh definitely a different take, an electric take on the 500.
We'll talk some news.
Uh Everything from the model two was basically done when Elon Musk killed it or delayed it.
So says the information we'll talk about some new tariffs imposed on evs from China and three more Toyota slash Subaru evs are coming by 2026 as that partnership deepens we have a mail bag question this week.
Uh So stay tuned for that with that.
We'll bring in senior editor for all things, Electric John Snyder, how are you?
I'm good.
I uh I am enjoying this.
It's like perfect driving weather lately when at least when it's not raining.
Um You can roll the windows down, you know, the roads are nice and dry.
Um, yeah, it's been, it's been good.
And then at night we've had the, the, uh, we had those beautiful northern lights, which was really something special to see.
That is the one night, the one night my dog did not demand to go out at like 11, which is really, when, you know, I think I could have seen him and I just, that was, I guess the trade off is I didn't see the northern lights, but I did get like 10 hours of sleep that Friday night I was exhausted.
I just fell asleep.
They were, they were cool.
Um They weren't as colorful as I've seen them before.
Uh But, uh you know, on a three second exposure on your iphone and really, you know, you could sort of look at them through your phone and just see beautiful colors.
Um So yeah, the, the photos make it look a little more dramatic than, than it actually was, but it's still a cool thing to see anytime you get a chance.
I wish I had seen it.
I have seen them like up north where it's, you know, clear skies, big skies, but I couldn't believe the things you were seeing from just people in like, you know, the suburbs of Detroit with the big, those big glowing greenish kind of lights.
It was really beautiful from what I saw on Instagram, I guess.
Um So it goes, um, all right, let's talk about some of these cars, the Chevy Traverse, uh you drove that recently.
I uh gosh, I went on a, I, I don't know if it was a prototype drive but it was like a short drive at G MS proving grounds in Milford.
This was in 2008 and they were launching this with uh the Saturn Outlook, uh the GMC Acadia, of course, and I'm missing one, the Buick Enclave.
So they were like the three or four row, four, row 343 row suvs that was meant to sort of articulate G MS move away from things like the suburban and the Tahoe big body on frame things.
Um, so I go way back to the Traverse.
I honestly can't believe for what it's worth.
I was extremely young.
That was like one of my first assignments that I was on the 08 Traverse in the auto business.
Uh, maybe it was 09.
Either way it's, uh, it's gone through a lot of iterations and ironically, these big three row things never really did replace, like the Yukon and the suburban, like, people still love those.
But these have a time and place.
Yeah.
Now they're, they're even going more toward that look of the, of Tahoe and urban, you know, they're looking a little more truck ish, which I think is a good look.
I think I thought looked a little bit dull before.
Um, I think the new look is, uh a lot more appealing.
Um And uh, yeah, with it, you know, we've got, I drove the, uh, the new Z 71 trim, this some sort of off road, uh version that, you know, everyone sort of doing that.
Now, you know, from Rock Creek to, you know, woodlands and the wilderness editions and things like that.
This is sort of their version of the Traverse.
Uh It's got like a little bit of extra ground clearance and, and all train tires.
Um, so I drove that and the, uh, Rs which is, you know, a little more, uh stylish and, and big 22 inch uh, wheels on it.
Um And, uh, yeah, I, I think it's a lot more compelling of a buy than it was before.
Um, the new, uh 2.5 L engine is, uh, you know, they dropped the, the, the V six and went to a, a turbo four and, um, it's got a little, a little bit more power maybe doesn't sound quite as enticing, but, um, it works really well and it's, it's more efficient.
Um, and overall was plenty, uh, plenty of engine for this car.
Um, and then of course, you know, new tech, like the new, uh, two digital screens, one for entertainment, one for, uh, the instrument panel, um, looks a lot nicer.
Um, and yeah, they just, they drove really well.
I drove the Z 71 sort of off road.
Ish.
Um, and, you know, like kind of across a field and some ruddy dirt roads and, you know, sort of on this little trail through some trees and hills.
Um, I was shocked, I was absolutely shocked at how good that suspension was.
Um, it, that was, you know, that was probably the biggest selling point for me was, was the ride in the Z 71.
It was just, um, it was almost like, uh, you know, a junior version of, of the multi Matic.
It felt like it just really, uh, adapted well to the different terrain.
Um, soaked up bumps.
This would be what I would want to drive on Michigan roads in the spring before they patched up all the potholes.
It just, uh, really well composed.
I think you're like me, you like to drive like, what is it, the FX four or two or whatever trim that Ford uses.
I like to drive the off road vehicles on the roads of Michigan just because that's what our roads are like is off roading.
Yeah, but you could tell they took a lot of, of care into tuning the suspension of both of these and, and the, the Rs has the same suspension tuned differently.
Um, and, uh, you know, I, when I drove that, that was on like very smooth roads.
Um, but it seemed just fine.
There wasn't a lot of, um, you know, chatter from the road through those big wheels.
Um that one I'll be interested to try out on Michigan Roads and see if it holds up.
But uh the Z 71 sure does.
Cool.
What, um we've often tanned Chevy for their interiors, you know, the eight years of hard plastics.
How, how is the Traverse doing?
He still got, you still got some of that going on.
Still, still a lot of black plastics.
Um There's uh uh both of these had this sort of these black accent with red uh diamond pattern uh trim inside of it and it wasn't great, but um I mean it, it sure was comfortable, the seats were, seats were nice.
Uh Those materials were good.
Um And you know, the the big screens cover up a lot of real estate uh where you would just be looking at black plastic.
So it's uh there's less of it to notice but it's, it's still there.
Um still doesn't feel particularly high end.
Um But uh I will say that Chevy did hint at the possibility of um another sort of range topping version that um you know, would be sort of a more luxurious version of it with um uh maybe like some chrome I think, I think maybe a little bit Denali ish, you know, like country ish or something or yeah, and um and I'm going to drive the Acadia in, in a few weeks here, so I'm interested to see um you know, if, if the interior is an issue for you that might be, um, better choice.
I will find out.
I don't know yet.
But, um, but it is good to drive.
It's roomy, um, versatile.
Uh, the, uh Z 71 gets, you know, some train modes, a train mode and an off road mode.
The off-road mode allows a little more wheel slip.
Um, and the terrain mode is sort of like it's crawling mode, uh, sort of basically turns, turns it into a one pedal driver just keeps it in, in first gear and, uh, brings it to a stop and holds it on a, on an incline or decline makes it sort of really easy to creep over and around obstacle.
Yeah, because one would do that in a, uh, traverse.
Right.
That's, I guess, um, yeah, I mean, if you never know if you're trying to get to a, to a campsite or something like that, it's, it's perfect for that sort of, um, you know, like if I were gonna go up to my cottage in the winter and want, want it made my lanes not clouded and it's dirt and, uh, you know, this, I would feel, you know, decent about that.
I wouldn't be, uh, too, I wouldn't be staying home, you know.
Yeah.
Good point.
So, it's interesting about living in Metro Detroit is you see vehicles just parked in driveways before they're even, you know, really, really out.
And I saw a Traverse and I thought it was interesting because my brain went through a bunch of different, like, mental calibrations.
I'm like, wait, what is this large crossover, like vehicle that suddenly looks more truck like than it used to?
And I'm like, oh, that's the new Traverse now.
I thought it looked pretty good.
They, I think they've given it a, yeah, it's, it's what the people want, they want kind of tough looking off road themed vehicles even when ostensibly they're buying three row crossovers which are themselves substitute for minivans.
So, uh, I saw it literally in some guy's driveway.
It looked pretty good.
Uh, I, I think it's gonna be a good upgrade for, for Chevy and for those buyers who, you know, veer toward it.
Yeah, I agree.
And, um, you know, it didn't change much in terms of actual size.
I, I think the exterior dimensions are maybe even a little tighter than the, than the last gen. Um, so it drives pretty well on the road.
I was, you know, like, uh, on these curvy roads, it drives a little smaller than it actually is.
And, you know, it sort of, uh, when I was sort of off road, I was surprised at how I was able to sort of maneuver around trees and, you know, there's a camera too in the, in the Z 71 that you could turn off and it doesn't automatically that you can turn on, it doesn't automatically turn off when you, you know, hit a certain speed or something.
So you, you can actually use it, um, when you're driving, which is nice, you can get a better look around you and in front and like directly in front of you and under you.
Sort of, well, I'm literally about to this week.
Gotta go drive the equinox EV and the Silverado, uh, ev, it's, I believe it's the RST variant.
So I'll be interested to see how all the Chevy DNA carries through to these, um, you know, electric versions.
Yeah, I, I drove the Silverado work truck and it, it felt like Chevy, you know.
Um, so I'm, I'm excited to see what you think of the RST I to drive that and then the equinox, uh, you know, that's a sort of a big vehicle for, for GM, you know, that, that's their new, be the new entry level EV, until the next bolt comes along.
It really is the linchpin of their electric strategy for like the next year or so until the bolt gets built.
And I think they're gonna build it where the Malibu used to be built or is still maybe being built and soon will be discontinued.
So, exactly.
It's gonna be interesting couple days for me looking forward to it.
Uh It'll be fun.
Yeah.
Well, you know what's fun is driving an X five M competition?
Uh, that'll get you to elementary school pretty quick and your kids will uh, enjoy that.
I imagine.
It sounded pretty good.
Uh, oh, yeah, it sounded great.
What, what did you do with it?
Um, I just did a lot of driving, a lot of like family driving and then, you know, would, would just sort of take it out, um, you know, on some of the country roads, uh, that where, where it starts to get, get a little more curvy.
I've got, it's really nice.
I've got some, some roads just not far from me that it doesn't take very long to get there.
It's not quite as good as like Hanker Road out, out by Chelsea, but it's, um, that they're, they're good roads and, uh, you can carry a lot of speed and really nice sweepers.
Um, but I did a lot of in town driving with it too.
Um, you know, I, I get, uh, you know, am GS trying to challenge me and stuff.
But, uh, yeah, I can imagine.
You do.
It was, you know, it's a good, it's a good, uh, crossover.
It, um, it's despite being an M, you know, if you get in, uh, like an M five or, or like, you know, some of the other, uh, cars, uh, and you start getting all this carbon fiber in places you don't necessarily want it like between your legs and, uh, and you get like, really sort of brittle suspensions.
Um, you don't, you don't get that with the X five.
It's it still remains, uh, comfortable for, for cruising around town and for, you know, hauling your family around.
Um, but it's just also happens to be really fast and pretty loud and, uh, uh, decent in the corners.
Um, it's, it's a little unruly, you know, I could really get the, the wheels doing funny things underneath me.
Um, with it, it was, uh, it was a lot of fun.
Uh, but yeah, it's, you know, and some of some of the uh other M cars I feel like the sound is, is at least from inside the car you don't get the full, full treatment.
But in the X five M, I was, I was able to actually enjoy the soundtrack, um, especially, you know, when I would switch it and start using the, the paddles to shift and you can really coax a lot of noises out of the, out of the exhaust.
That sounds sounds really good and you get people turning and, and looking and, uh, and this one was in this really cool green color.
I'll have to find the color but it was this beautiful, beautiful sort of forest green.
It was called Urban Green.
Um I really, really liked it and other than that, you know, it still serves its purpose as a sort of family friendly uh crossover with, you know, tons of cargo room.
It's got that sort of split lift gate, the part that goes up and the part that extends down, which is sort of a double edged sword.
It gives you an easy load surface, uh, for putting stuff in there.
But if you want to say, attach the car seat latch to the, to the anchor on the back of the seat, you have to sort of crawl up and inside the car because you've got that extra length of, of cargo area when that thing is all the way open.
Um, but I, I'd rather have that and be able to fit all the stuff that you can fit in there.
Um, so, yeah, good for all the family stuff and, uh, a lot of fun, you know, when you, when you, after you drop the kids off.
Ok, sounds good.
Uh, now one thing that blows me away is you're talking about 617 horsepower from that 4.4 L V eight, you get 13 MPG in the city.
It's kind of rough, right.
Uh, yeah, I was averaging about 15 MPG.
Um, even, you know, after I was driving it pretty hard.
Um, so it wasn't too terrible.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's a lot of power.
Um, more than, definitely more than it needs.
Um, like I said, like it, it can, you, it's easy to break, uh, traction on the tires.
Um, you know, if you give it a little too much accelerator, um, from a stop or like through a corner.
Uh, yeah, it can and it's not as planted as a sedan.
So it's a little, little bit more of a harrowing endeavor, uh, driving it like that.
But, um, yeah, it's certainly quick, very quick, uh, sort of, you know, makes your stomach float inside your body.
Which is kind of neat.
Yeah, I, I think the, the latest M cars and crossovers really have that good exhaust note too.
It's, it's a little buzzy but it's still, definitely is like, uh, it's got that sinister feel almost like a insect that is coming to bite you or something.
And I, I think if they do a good job of affecting a very sporty performance with that sound, yeah, it's kind of always there.
You're like, always hearing it there is, you know, the, the exhaust mode that, you know, you can make it quieter or louder.
Um, but it, it does sound really good, uh, on downshifts, you know, you, you get a little bit of a nice flutter.
Um, and then, you know, when you're under heavy acceleration and, and, you know, hitting the paddles to switch it, uh, you get a big sort of bay boom out the back and, uh, it, it gets your heart going for sure.
Ok.
Sounds good.
All right.
So anything else we should know about, uh, the X five M competition?
Let's see, the one that I was driving, I will give you a price for it.
It was 100 and $41,445.
Yeah, uh, that included, uh, the, you know, upgraded audio system which is 3400 and then the, uh, M drivers package which is 2500.
Um, and then that, that urban green color, that's a $5000 option.
Oh, ok.
Uh, yeah, and then, yeah, uh, thir $3500 uh, brown leather interior.
So, um, starts at, uh, what about 1 22 1 23 with uh, with destination but then yeah, add, add a few things in it.
It's pretty expensive.
I mean, they tend to do that.
That's, you know, usually how these uh, are for the show.
Yeah, how these things go.
So.
Ok, cool.
Just one.
At least it's sort of, it definitely like feels like it's, you know, that expensive.
Some cars are just like what, what, you know, they're missing features or something.
Porsche.
I feel like you just, you know, for the price you pay, you just don't get much content.
Uh, it's all, it's all in the car.
It's just, it's all the, the driving dynamics but this, you get a pretty good luxury experience with it too.
All right, fair enough.
All right.
So I guess, uh, we'll do a little preview here of uh, the fiat 500 E uh, this is the first time I've been in a fiat 500 in years.
Uh, one is coming through my fleet this week.
I still have the long term Mazda CX 90 also in my driveway.
But for the most part I've been driving the fiat, which is pretty fun.
Um, it's, again, again, the first time I've driven a, a fiat 500 in quite some time.
It's, um, it's a beautiful shade of red.
It, uh, it looks very Italian.
Let's put it that way.
Um, let's see.
It's, uh, this is the first, um, battery electric from ST anti in North America, which I was unaware of, but it is, it's basically in the city class uh, of car, as they say.
Uh, so it's very small.
It's about the size of, I would put it between a fit, a Honda fit and a golf cart somewhere in between those.
So it's pretty small.
Um, a little bigger than a smart for two maybe.
Yeah, that reminded me too.
It, it took me back to, um, driving a smart for two, driving the fit in, you know, a fiat 500 you know.
So they're pretty small.
Side note.
I did take the 500 to a wedding one time and I put like four people in it.
Um, nice.
So, um, yeah, the old 500.
I was sometimes I was kind of surprised by what you could sort of fit in there if, if you don't care too much about humans being squished, you know, there was, I feel like you could almost fit like a keg of beer.
I think you could.
I think you could.
I think you can probably, well, it depends on how big, like a full keg might be tight.
Um, you know, but I got a car seat in there.
Half barrel, half barrel.
There you go.
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, how, how the, how the car seat work.
It was tough.
I, I had to take off one of the headrests which if you pull them all the way up, you could detach them.
So that gets the, it's like a booster with a high back is I think what they're called.
So the roof line is a little tight, but you get it in there.
I don't think I would take, uh, my kid anywhere far, like in this, but it's fun to drive the school and back, you know.
Um, you know, because it is so tight and frankly it is such a small car that, you know, but it's, it's great for parking lots.
You can just like the, the turning radius is crazy.
Like I park wherever I want.
Then I just pull like a 360 I'm out.
It's the exact opposite of the Mazda CX 90 where I've got to dock it and then prepare my escape in a crowded parking lot.
So that's good.
Um I've only had it for a day so it arrived this time yesterday.
So maybe I have a, like a full review next week.
We'll see how much time I get more with it.
But, uh, favorable first impressions, the starting price is $32,000.
So you've got to really want Italian charm.
You know, because to me a car this small, that's a lot of money for 32 grand.
But yeah, it's, it's fun so far.
It's electric.
Um, and, uh, it's apparently in showrooms now.
Fiat tells me it was the first half of 2024 which is literally right now.
There's only about, I believe, six weeks left in the first half of 2024.
So, um, and you know, it, it's kind of a neat alternative to the, the mini Cooper se, um, because it, it gets a, a little more range.
Uh, I think it's closer to 150 whereas the mini Cooper is, you know, less than 120 I think.
So.
That's, that's another thing it's got going for it.
But I do like cute little hatchbacks.
Um, you know, they're, they're really zippy and, yeah, they're really great when, when it comes to tight parking, tight parking lots and, uh, you know, little one way city streets.
Uh, it'd be a great car for here.
Ann Arbor.
Yeah, I could picture like the way, you know, going somewhat.
Exactly where, like you live, you could zip into downtown park wherever you want.
I mean, there's pretty good ev infrastructure in Ann Arbor so you could probably park even maybe for free and juice it up.
This one will give you, uh, I think it gives you like 31 miles in five minutes.
So they really play up on the, like the quick, quick charging and then of course, the overall range is, uh, I believe it's, uh, it's about 100 and 51 miles.
So, uh, you know, we'll see, I, I really, this is one I really wanna charge, I think just because it's, the battery is relatively small and I'm intrigued to see, like, how quickly I can juice it up.
Um, 150 miles of range ish, they say, and it also, it sings the sound of 500.
There's an acoustic vehicle alert system is what it says.
Uh, so it does make kind of fun little chimes as you enter and exit and turn the car off and on.
So it's kind of, it's cute.
Yeah.
Yeah, I look forward to trying that, especially, especially if I don't have to drive the kids.
Yeah.
There you go.
It's like I said, I live so close to the school just like, just far enough to drive.
So that's why I currently like, I'm like, throw them in there, just, you know, enjoy it.
Have fun.
It's, it's a, it's a golf cart.
I've driven golf carts that I believe are, or at least they feel bigger because they're so upright.
This things like a hatch.
So, all right.
So let's talk about the model two.
This is an interesting story that kind of crossed our radar last week uh earlier, you know, even a few weeks ago.
But the information had an interesting story and I wanted to kind of lead up the new section with this uh before Elon Musk.
Uh you know, he basically delayed or dry docked, postponed the model two for his pivot to robo taxis, which apparently we're gonna even see one in as soon as August.
What I found very interesting is the model two was like done according to the information, which is a interesting tech site.
If you uh you know, if you subscribe or you get their emails, which is what I do.
So what do you kind of make of that?
Like to me that just seems so crazy to have the project done and then just pull the plug for now.
I mean, I guess it's very on brand for Tesla, but I think that's so crazy.
Yeah, it's, it's wild but I mean, Tesla is like all over the place right now with, you know, laying off the supercharger team hiring him back today.
Uh uh you know, just all these things that are super important to the company, like an affordable car.
It's all fun.
It's a fun.
Um I wouldn't be surprised if, if it, uh you know, does make its way to reality.
Um You know, Elon Musk could change his mind tomorrow and then decide to uh show a model too.
You know, you know, when it shows the Robo Taxi.
Yeah.
Um but then you know, who knows how long it would take to, to get to production.
Uh seem, seems to always take a while for Tesla but I don't know, I, I think a model two would be a, a good addition to the portfolio.
Um just bring more people into the Tesla fold.
Although you can get you the model three and the model Y for, for cheap if, if you buy it the right time of year.
And it's true.
But uh I think, you know, having something, you know, in the twenties, uh 25,000 ish uh would be a great thing.
We need more of that stuff on the market.
Yeah, I think it's interesting because, you know, the average new car price has been hovering in the forties anywhere from like 42 45 48.
So a $25,000 Tesla seems like a really good deal to me.
Um We'll see, you know, I, when he made the announcement a few weeks back now, a lot of people were, the model to itself was a little undefined.
It was a little unclear if, hey, is Tesla gonna do a, just a decon to model Y or model three?
Is it gonna be its own model line?
And now that's what also struck me about this report is it does shed light on the fact that uh it sounds like the model two was pretty fully formed and ready to go and I would be surprised if they don't use this at some point, uh, in the next year, you know.
Yeah, I, I bet, you know, once they sort of, um, you know, perfect the, their, you know, batteries and, um, you know, that sort of thing though, bring it back.
Um, they're, they're working on, on, you know, updated battery technology.
Uh, I think that we're planning to put in, uh, in this lower price car.
So if they, you know, they've, they've got sort of juggling a lot of things at right now as well, you know, um, getting more cyber trucks out there and, um, yeah, the robot taxi going all in on that.
So, um, and still got, uh, launch a Roadster at some point.
Yeah, that's true.
I, frankly, that's the one I'm most looking forward to.
I heard he had recently cut the 0 to 60 time, like in half for some crazy figure.
That sounds like it defies the laws of physics.
But, uh, it'll enter supercar territory apparently.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that would be neat.
Um, yeah, we've been waiting on that one for a long time though.
We have and the semi and the semi.
Yeah.
No, I mean, there's some, some semis out there but, um, I think there's other challenges with that that aren't necessarily, um, specific to Tesla.
But, uh, you know, in terms of infrastructure and um, just the logistics finding the right sort of routes that, uh, where a battery power truck makes sense, some of the shorter hauls and whatnot.
But yeah, it, it, it Tesla does have a lot going on.
All right.
So let's talk about uh another layer to the Toyota Subaru Partnership.
Uh We got word this week that the, uh, let's see, Toyota and uh Subaru are gonna work together on three new evs by 2026.
And really, it's, you know, the headline is Subaru to lean on Toyota.
These are gonna be Toyota basically EVs that Subaru is going to kind of, you know, repurpose and maybe do some development work uh for its own guises.
Uh I think it's a great move for Subaru.
I'm a little uh curious to see what Toyota gets out of this.
Although I think, you know, kind of, you know, looking at this from a high level, I think Toyota has kind of backed away a little bit from evs, they've actually been a little slow to even move in that direction trying to stay with hybrids and plug in hybrids.
So I think it does make sense in this sense that you can have Toyota, which is kind of hedging its bets.
Uh they get some scale from these platforms and thus probably monetize them better and Subaru gets new products which they don't have the money to really develop on their own.
So I guess it's a win, win.
It's also a little weird because I do think there's a fair amount of people that would cross shop both showrooms.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I mean, you, you, I think you nailed it with the, what they get out of it but also there's the, um, you know, the possibility that, you know, depending on how they, uh, set up the manufacturing that could get done in, in North America us and then maybe uh help Subaru uh qualify for uh tax credits uh which would, you know, which it sort of needs?
I feel like that's something really holding Subaru back from, from selling.
Uh Solterra is uh the price if they could, yeah, put some, some cash on the hood uh to offer a federal tax rebate.
Have it built, you know, maybe at a Toyota factory or, you know, it might really, really help them, especially if they um yeah, make something more affordable too than the Sotera.
Again, we need more affordable evs we just the marketplace needs more of them and uh they're coming.
But yeah, cool.
Well, so one place it sounds like in the near term they won't be coming from is China.
Uh at least in the, according to tariffs recently announced today, we are uh just kind of breaking this down.
Uh you know, hours after the announcement from President Biden.
Uh you know, great.
I'd say a great contextual, you know, approach to this is uh we've got the stories on our site.
And we also have kind of an in analysis from Yahoo finance, our friends, uh you know, over there our sister site uh where they break down really what vehicles are impacted by this, the part of the, the, the tariffs that, you know, frankly, I think from an enthusiast and automotive perspective that auto blog readers would care about.
And I think what's interesting is in the near term, the implications aren't super intense.
It's, you know, obviously it's election.
Uh but there's only one P star that really is applied that is covered under this and then a Volvo which could be covered under this.
Um So, I mean, that's kind of how you break it down.
I think, you know, when you look at some of the, maybe the rhetoric, it's sort of, you know, feeds into the narrative that it sort of prevents like a flood of, you know, lower cost, you know, EVs from China coming here.
But, you know, I've sort of said this on previous podcasts.
I don't think that's gonna necessarily be the case.
It's gonna be, you know, different manufacturers are probably bringing over vehicles that they assemble over there.
Like Buick has done this for years uh with one of its crossovers that is a gas powered vehicle.
So, um but again, that wasn't controversial.
It's not an EV So, um you know, again, I think the best thing, check out the story, uh we have it from our friends at Yahoo Finance and any takeaways from, uh, from this, from you John.
Yeah, I, I think, uh, you know, there's, there's Pole Star who, you know, catches the brunt of it.
Uh, the Volvo Ex 30 is gonna be built in, in China.
So I don't know how that will affect that.
The ex 90 will be built here in, in the States.
So it won't affect that.
Uh uh Lotus uh is another one that's uh building in China.
But um yeah, they're, they're uh lower volumes um manufacturer uh that was, they were planning to uh expand that globally.
They might just have to waited out a little bit longer for, for the US market um before they, you know, are able to get the foothold that they wanted here with their new generation of UVS.
Um I'm interested to see, yeah, sort of long term.
Um If it, if it adds to uh inflation, you know, all the different parts and things that go into cars that might be assembled um el elsewhere.
But, you know, a lot of their, you know, pieces come from China, um that's gonna sort of raise the prices on things over time.
And then of course, it could start, you know, uh deepen the, the trade war with China, which had will have um, you know, unintended consequences uh here and there.
And um you know, anywhere that does business with, with either of us.
Uh, um, yeah, might not be that big of a deal.
Um, for evs.
Um, but just for the general economy it could, especially further down the road.
Yeah, from the, actually the vehicle manufacturing side of it, it's a relatively small piece.
There's a lot of like, it's, you know, more sweeping, um, you know, approach than just the automotive side of it.
So, um, yeah, so, I mean, while we're talking about evs, why don't we go to the mail bag?
We have a mail bag question this week and let's see, this week.
Cool.
Uh No, spend my money.
So if you'd loved, uh we'd love to spend your money.
Uh If you'd love to send one in, that's podcast at auto blog.com, Justin writes in, hey, my name is Justin Great podcast every week.
Thank you.
Question from a little bit ago.
Uh You guys were talking about Rivian.
I had to go back and listen to it again because I didn't remember you guys talking about it.
Uh He was apparently at this EV show in Orlando, which sounds kind of cool and he saw the new R two.
It looks great.
I'm just curious what our thoughts are about the R two and Rivian.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
Hey, Justin, thank you for writing.
Uh We've talked about Rivian uh a few times in the last few weeks.
Uh Especially since they did that big uh new product showcase.
That was, I wanna say February or March.
Um But good chance to dive into it again.
Uh I'm pretty, uh I would say cautiously bullish, how is that for somewhat hedging their products look really compelling.
Uh especially the R two, the R three.
So I'm, you know, they seem to have a strong plan and they seem to be smart about trying to execute, execute it in an orderly fashion and they also um they're bringing in significant revenue, but they did have a rough first quarter.
Something that I think is enough to kind of uh maybe not put you on your heels, but raises some questions because they lost like $1.5 billion which is, there's no way to sugar coat that.
But uh you know, maybe growing pains, they keep this up.
It's more than growing pains.
But uh it's the path to profitability is tough.
So right now, I think, you know, Rivian is, I think on a, a positive trajectory, I think, you know, much more so than some of the other ones, you know, like say Lordstown, that's out of business.
Fisker that appears to be heading that way.
Uh So what do you, how are you feeling about Rivian?
Um I agree with you.
II I think Vivian is um in a decent position.
I mean, yeah, they're burning cash and, you know, if, if you're looking at from like an investor standpoint, um I think they'd be a good investment.
I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket.
It's, it's, you know, definitely a very high, pretty high risk, um, sort of thing.
Uh, but I think, um, you know, I've been seeing more and more Arians, um, the, the r ones, uh, all over the country everywhere I go.
I see them now.
Um, and people, friends, family are always asking me about, about Rivian there that everyone's very curious about it and they've got their, uh, you know, deal with Amazon, you know, providing the delivery trucks, which is, um you know, big part of their business model, uh and presumably a big part of their future.
Uh So I think um everything points to uh them being all right, you know, it's just scary when you see, you know, your bottom line sort of dropping, you know, burning cash running out of, out of that runway.
But they've still got, you know, I forgot how many months uh left worth of cash to burn and then they're coming out with the R two and the R three which look like very compelling vehicles as well.
Um cheaper than the R ones.
And uh no, I the R three, I think looks amazing.
The R the R two looks good.
It looks like a shrunken R one S but um I think those more, a little more mainstream uh products will, will help, will definitely help them in the future in terms of getting actual cars into people's driveways.
Yeah, I mean, we were talking about the model two earlier, uh, which we haven't seen, we have seen the R two and the R three, which I, I don't think they'll be quite that cheap.
Uh, Rivian has been priced a little bit higher than most, you know, many Teslas.
But, I mean, those two look frankly more compelling to me than whatever a model two is.
And model threes are very fun to drive.
We just drove one.
but um you know, we'll see model threes.
Model Y uh I think they uh they're gonna be up against it with some of these new Orian.
So, so that's kind of what we think, Justin.
Yeah, fairly, fairly positive.
Not, not all doom and gloom.
Um And yeah, cool products.
Sounds good.
Sounds good.
All right.
Well, that's all the time we have this week.
Thanks for hanging out John.
Uh If you enjoy the show, please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, send us your, spend my money.
That's podcast at auto blog.com.
Be safe out there and we'll see you next week.
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