Detroit is the heart of American automaking, and the great state of Michigan is seeing almost $9 billion in private investments and 14,000 jobs to craft the new era of electrified vehicles. Yet last fall, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin—a Democrat and a supporter of Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris—had to run ads with an “I don’t know about this whole EV thing” vibe in her run for the U.S. Senate.
Ultimately, for Slotkin, that approach worked. Or at least, it didn’t hurt her successful election bid. But anyone who watches the car industry or is just a fan of EVs must be wondering how the hell we all got here. How did EVs become so politicized over the years, and as the entire global auto industry trends toward electrification, what can be done about it?
That’s one of the big topics of today’s Plugged-In Podcast. In this episode, co-host Tim Levin and I interview Mike Murphy. He’s a longtime GOP strategist who’s worked with the likes of Mitt Romney and John McCain (he was actually the latter senator’s lead strategist on his 2000 presidential run) and, believe it or not, a big EV guy. That’s why he runs the EV Politics Project and the American EV Jobs Alliance, two related groups trying to de-politicize EVs across America.
Besides just liking the electric experience better than gas cars these days, Murphy, himself a Detroit native, is clear about what’s at stake here. “It will not be the end of the world if we’re all driving Chinese EVs that cost $27,000, but it will break my heart,” he told us.
Yet in polling, his group has found that years of climate change-focused messaging has turned off many voters to EVs, and that angles like jobs and competing with China haven’t broken through yet. He’s working to try and fix that.
In a wide-ranging chat, we talk about what turns many GOP voters off EVs (including the drawbacks that are justified, like costs and lack of a charging network); what role Elon Musk and President Donald Trump will play in the next few years of the EV transition; and what can be done to bring folks around.
Plus, we chat about some big extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) news from Scout and Ram, and the latest on solid-state battery prototypes from Mercedes-Benz.
Our podcast is available on the InsideEVs YouTube channel later today and all major audio platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and Audioboom. New episodes drop every Friday.
If you haven’t already, please go subscribe and leave us a review. Enjoy.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
