Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg P and L Podcast. I'm Pim Fox.
Speaker 1: Along with my co host Lisa Abramowitz. Each day we
Speaker 1: bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for
Speaker 1: you and your money, whether you're at the grocery store
Speaker 1: or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg P L Podcast
Speaker 1: on iTunes, SoundCloud and at Bloomberg dot com. I want
Speaker 1: to bring in Lex Curse, the maker. So I pronounced
Speaker 1: that right? Yes, I fabulous. He is President and CEO
Speaker 1: of Volvo Cars of North America here at the North
Speaker 1: American International Auto Show. Um, Lex, what has surprised you
Speaker 1: about this show? Just looking in general? Has anything? Um?
Speaker 1: I think what you what you see here is is
Speaker 1: the trends, which is going on, more pickup trucks, more
Speaker 1: SUVs and UH and autonomost drive is the um let's say,
Speaker 1: it's the hot words out today. Yeah, but is that
Speaker 1: from demand from consumers or is it for auto companies
Speaker 1: to feel like they've got a toe hold in what
Speaker 1: could come perhaps in the next decade. No. I think
Speaker 1: we as automotive manufacturers, we need to be a little
Speaker 1: bit ahead of the of the gang, and we strongly
Speaker 1: believe at least I speak for Volvo. We we have
Speaker 1: a very clear vision by twenty twenty nobody should be
Speaker 1: killed or seriously injured in a Volvo car, and autonomous
Speaker 1: drive is a very important ingredient of of of reaching
Speaker 1: that target. So I think it's it's driven where the
Speaker 1: automotive industry is going in the future. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Volvo cars. You did what about a half a million
Speaker 1: at last last year? We we had a we had
Speaker 1: a third in a row record, a year in a
Speaker 1: row record for five and thirty four thousand units. Okay,
Speaker 1: five thirty four thousand units. Let's look at the sort
Speaker 1: of breakdown of those units and what you see for
Speaker 1: the future. Uh, the Let's start with what you're going
Speaker 1: to unveil or trying to unveil today. What is up
Speaker 1: with this T eight hybrid drive train with a combined
Speaker 1: combustion engine. Now we have we have the EXCE ninety
Speaker 1: and that is the the T eight. It's an electrical
Speaker 1: motor and it's a force clinder force clinder engine. So
Speaker 1: you have the best out of two worlds. You can
Speaker 1: drive electric and you can drive with your regular combustion engine.
Speaker 1: What will show today is is another step in what
Speaker 1: we again, I'm talking about autonomous drive. Um, we will
Speaker 1: start a project in Sweden end of this year where
Speaker 1: we hand over one cars too regular customers who are
Speaker 1: going to experience what autonomous drive means in their daily life.
Speaker 1: And that's the This isn't Goldenburg, Sweden? Where where where
Speaker 1: the Volvo headquarter is? What about in the US? I mean,
Speaker 1: how concerned are you lex about the political backtrap and
Speaker 1: interfering with Volvo's plans to unveiled both autonomous cars as
Speaker 1: well as manufactured things in the cheapest possible manner. Um,
Speaker 1: let me take a step back. We we have decided
Speaker 1: to build a factory in the United States because of Trump.
Speaker 1: That was far before President Electron came in came into
Speaker 1: the picture. We decided this is in South Carolina. This
Speaker 1: is in South Carolina. We decided that two years ago
Speaker 1: we will start producing cars mid two thousand eighteen. We
Speaker 1: built that factory in the United States because we wanted
Speaker 1: to be in the United States. Of course, Mexico was
Speaker 1: an option. There are other places where we could go.
Speaker 1: We wanted to be here because Volver has been here
Speaker 1: for sixty years. So it has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: with with the existing discussion. The discussion is about autonomous drivers.
Speaker 1: We believe in something as much we believed in producing
Speaker 1: cars in the United States, we believe in autonomous drive.
Speaker 1: But do you think that from a regulatory standpoint that
Speaker 1: you will be allowed to test autonomous cars in a
Speaker 1: way that you'll need to be able to do so
Speaker 1: in the United States the way that you are saying, sweet, Well,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. And I think that the NIZA
Speaker 1: has released a report or proposal in in in in
Speaker 1: July or August where they try to come to a
Speaker 1: solution on a from a federal perspective, ALMO allowing manufacturers
Speaker 1: to test and because that's a prequisite you you we
Speaker 1: can't sell cars which you can't drive from California to Arizona.
Speaker 1: You have to stop. So I think that's a prequisite
Speaker 1: for the autonomous drive. Yes, just quickly, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: importing a car into the United States that's made with
Speaker 1: your partner Geely in China. We are we are, we
Speaker 1: are currently yes, we are currently already importing cars from
Speaker 1: China into the United States. Tell people just what the
Speaker 1: model is and what it's it. We we we we
Speaker 1: we we we imported the sd S sixty since since
Speaker 1: since one and a half year, and we are a
Speaker 1: global company. We have factories all over the world, and
Speaker 1: we import and export cars out of the US in
Speaker 1: the future and into the US from different places in
Speaker 1: the world. Might be the way for other automakers to
Speaker 1: do it as well. Thanks very much, Lexa kursen Maker's
Speaker 1: He is the senior vice president America's President chief executive
Speaker 1: for Volvo. We are ready for some transformation and we
Speaker 1: have two gentlemen that can help us. Kevin Tynan is
Speaker 1: our senior autos analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. He can be
Speaker 1: followed on Twitter at keV tyn in ten and also
Speaker 1: joining us is David Welch, our Detroit bureau chief for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg News. David Welch, I want to start with you,
Speaker 1: because first I want to thank you for having us
Speaker 1: here in Detroit and showing us the hospitality of the
Speaker 1: bureau and arranging for a very nice dinner last night.
Speaker 1: Thank you. What is the biggest theme we We've been
Speaker 1: going back in fourth year, whether the theme is autonomous driving,
Speaker 1: is it hybrid vehicles, or is it just or is
Speaker 1: it just really I'm gonna get to the Honda truck
Speaker 1: in a second. But is or is it trucks? What's
Speaker 1: the theme for you? Well, the market is always trucks,
Speaker 1: That's what everybody's buying. Um. But what I find interesting,
Speaker 1: honestly is the number of cars and evs that are
Speaker 1: here in an era when gas is cheap, No one
Speaker 1: is really buying either one of of those, whether it's
Speaker 1: electric cars or passenger cars. Um. And the Trump era
Speaker 1: is only gonna husher in more of that. He's drill,
Speaker 1: baby drill, He's franc baby frank. Um. You know, he
Speaker 1: wants to bring cold back. He wants cheap energy of
Speaker 1: every kind, which which means gasoline will be cheap for
Speaker 1: as far as the eye can see. And people buy
Speaker 1: big stuff. But at this show, we've got a new
Speaker 1: BMW five series and Mercedes E Class when that markets
Speaker 1: down this year. We've got a new camera you know
Speaker 1: that that has head here in five years, right, Um?
Speaker 1: And you've got uh many has plug in hybrid. You
Speaker 1: know who's gonna I mean, I'm a mini owner, but
Speaker 1: you know i'm the guy. Um, So it was you.
Speaker 1: You're You're the one. You were the statistic on the
Speaker 1: far chart. You know, Kevin, do you agree I mean
Speaker 1: what I mean? And also, why do you think that
Speaker 1: these automakers are rolling out and sort of advertising their
Speaker 1: sedans and their mid sized cars in an era where
Speaker 1: the truck is king. Yeah, and and we're basically unwinding
Speaker 1: car demand and car supplied. There's still significant segments. There's
Speaker 1: still a lot of univolume that goes to those segments,
Speaker 1: but it is declining every year. So I think what
Speaker 1: you're getting can you just put that into perspective and
Speaker 1: how much has the car segment declined is a proportion
Speaker 1: of overall sales? Well, if you look at the top
Speaker 1: three segments by volume as as we lay them out,
Speaker 1: compact crossover suv is the largest for the first time
Speaker 1: last year, UH, compact car and midsize car would be
Speaker 1: two and three, and those had formerly been the largest
Speaker 1: segments as as recently as UH those two segments combined,
Speaker 1: the car segment we're down in roughly eight percent last year.
Speaker 1: Now keep in mind this is a record year in volume,
Speaker 1: and car sales were down on midsize and compact while
Speaker 1: the compact crossover suv segment was up, so even outperformed
Speaker 1: basically a little bit better than flat market. You have
Speaker 1: a situation where you can't sell cars. Can't sell cars
Speaker 1: except if you've got big promotions, low cost financing, sure
Speaker 1: sure leasing. We're seeing record leasing levels also, which is uh,
Speaker 1: we're finding creating affordability as average transaction prices are at
Speaker 1: record highs as well. But it's also aligning the driver
Speaker 1: with the technology cycle. We're seeing new technology every year.
Speaker 1: A nice thirty six month lease aligns with what's new
Speaker 1: and what's coming. But I keep seeing that there are
Speaker 1: a leases for a lot longer and for the actual
Speaker 1: loan business is taken you out in terms of years
Speaker 1: to the point where I don't know whether there being
Speaker 1: more rubber or left on the tires by the time
Speaker 1: you turn it back. That's a FAIG concern right now,
Speaker 1: because resale values have also been going uh down. So David,
Speaker 1: why do you think, uh, is this just basically a
Speaker 1: PR push then to sort of give a sort of
Speaker 1: environmentally friendly uh sort of face to auto companies um
Speaker 1: with what they're showing versus the trucks that they're selling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's well, there are a couple of reasons that you're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of evs plug in hybrids and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing I don't auto show one is they
Speaker 1: want to talk to regulators. We're doing the right thing,
Speaker 1: because that's these vehicles are regulatory. You got that, got
Speaker 1: the cafe standards, right, I mean yeah, And you've also
Speaker 1: got a requirement in California that you have a certain
Speaker 1: percentage of your sales and it's not insignificant. Has to
Speaker 1: be zero emissions, nothing out of the tail play that
Speaker 1: typically means an electric car or and you get partial
Speaker 1: credits for a plug in hybrids. They have to make them,
Speaker 1: so they're putting them up there to make that statement.
Speaker 1: The other thing you have to remember, too, is the
Speaker 1: vehicles that we're seeing today, we're planned and developed. There
Speaker 1: were designers and engineers on the sketch board in two thousands,
Speaker 1: well when gas was three six gallon. Obama was talking
Speaker 1: about much tougher, tougher fuel economy rules and Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was every reality TV star, So it was a very
Speaker 1: different world. When these vehicles are on the drawing board,
Speaker 1: and now they're coming to market and the market is
Speaker 1: much much different than it was back then. We've seen
Speaker 1: three and a thousand, five and a thousand years of
Speaker 1: growth and it's mostly been SUVs and trucks, but the
Speaker 1: stuff they were developing when all that started was much
Speaker 1: more thrifty. So, Kevin, would you agree with that sort
Speaker 1: of lens to put on this that A lot of
Speaker 1: what we're seeing in terms of the electric vehicles and
Speaker 1: the a ton of striving in the midsized cars, a
Speaker 1: lot of that was produced in an era when people
Speaker 1: believed that we're moving to a more fuel efficient standard. Sure,
Speaker 1: And what I think automakers are doing is looking out
Speaker 1: whether it's five, fifteen, twenty years and saying, let's assume
Speaker 1: this endgame is electrification and working backwards. And I think
Speaker 1: what's different now than the pre bankruptcy period was that
Speaker 1: they're involved in the development of that technology. Rather than
Speaker 1: pushing what they want to the market and saying you'll
Speaker 1: come and you'll buy it. They're involved in that investment,
Speaker 1: and then it's able to be scalable. So if if
Speaker 1: electric vehicle penetration goes from three to five to ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen to forty, whatever it winds up being, they
Speaker 1: can scale up with. If it doesn't happen, those vehicles
Speaker 1: can go to the lift fleet, the uber fleet in
Speaker 1: low low cost leases and they hit their their cafe
Speaker 1: and their emissions requirements. That way free to sell as
Speaker 1: many trucks as they want. On the other side of
Speaker 1: the equation, there's something we haven't talked about here that's
Speaker 1: hugely important, and that's China. So China is now the
Speaker 1: biggest car mark in the world, and the air quality
Speaker 1: in its major city's is is just unbreathable. So they
Speaker 1: are really giving big incentives and big requirements for plug
Speaker 1: and hybrids, and over the last twelve day two months
Speaker 1: they've started to go from plug and hybrids being good
Speaker 1: enough to incentives for battery electric fields just just pure
Speaker 1: electric cars. And in some cases you know that the
Speaker 1: company are the government owned companies get massive incentives for
Speaker 1: buying these cars, and those guys lose money, but that
Speaker 1: the government props them up. So they're buying a lot
Speaker 1: of these vehicles that that lose money um for the
Speaker 1: people who sell them, but the Chinese wanted and as
Speaker 1: long as the Chinese want this, you're going to have
Speaker 1: to make them globally, and car makers tend to engine
Speaker 1: your global fleets of vehicles that they build and sell,
Speaker 1: So real quick, do you think next year you're going
Speaker 1: to see the same number of electric vehicles more more,
Speaker 1: more China leading the charge. Thank you so much both
Speaker 1: of you for joining us. UH. Kevin Tynan, senior auto
Speaker 1: analysts for Bloomberg Intelligence and Detroit Bureau chief David Welch,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. You get more perspective on this incredible,
Speaker 1: massive floor that we're sitting on with lots of cars
Speaker 1: in all sorts of positions. I saw one hanging from
Speaker 1: a wall. I want to bring in Sam Slaughter, chairman
Speaker 1: of the North American International Auto Show, UH with us
Speaker 1: here in Detroit. So can you give us some perspective
Speaker 1: on how this show compares to previous years in terms
Speaker 1: of scope, a number of attendees, and the types of offerings.
Speaker 1: Well as far as scope goes. We've added the whole
Speaker 1: automobility section downstairs, which really speaks to the technology that's
Speaker 1: coming in our cars. That a lot of it's here,
Speaker 1: but we're getting all the way up to autonomous self
Speaker 1: driving cars and and that's really the thing to talk
Speaker 1: about at the show this year. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: technology here. You can see it even in this play
Speaker 1: boost right behind they're doing this simulated drive and cars
Speaker 1: actually moving the way a car would actually move in
Speaker 1: the track, but it's virtual. Do you think that we're
Speaker 1: going to see true autonomous vehicles gained some popularity in
Speaker 1: the next decade? And if so, how to what degree?
Speaker 1: I mean, how how much will the perpetration be? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, John kraft Trek was here yesterday, the Google
Speaker 1: autonomous driving guy, and and and they've created this new
Speaker 1: company called way Bow, and they actually have this price
Speaker 1: of pacifica that does drive by itself. And they've logged
Speaker 1: three million miles on the actual vehicle, but five billion
Speaker 1: miles virtually. And so they're really, uh, they're they're they're
Speaker 1: perfected it in such a way that, in his words,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't get close with autonomous driving. It
Speaker 1: has to be perfect. And so yes, I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see increasing self driving capabilities, whether it's fully autonomous
Speaker 1: or not. I think you're gonna see more and more
Speaker 1: self driving capabilities. But someday, you know, it could all
Speaker 1: be self driving. The one thing I don't think it
Speaker 1: can be, at least yet, is it can't be self cleaning.
Speaker 1: And the reason I bring that up is because I
Speaker 1: know that you started off your real love of automobiles
Speaker 1: by washing cars at the dealership that you subsequently But
Speaker 1: that's correct. Yeah, and I can still detail a card
Speaker 1: just so you know. So that's something that you can't automate.
Speaker 1: And you cannot automate I wish you could. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: then let's talk about the automation and the detail because
Speaker 1: you've had to learn a lot of of terms in
Speaker 1: the last let's say five years. If I had said
Speaker 1: led ar to you five years ago, what would you
Speaker 1: have said. I would have no clue. I would have said,
Speaker 1: as it's something to eat, I don't know. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: tell people about what it is and maybe just give
Speaker 1: us let's say the five most important things that people
Speaker 1: ask for when they're looking for a car and they
Speaker 1: want this new technology. Well, they're not asking for lighter
Speaker 1: yet because nobody knows what it is. But what lightar
Speaker 1: does is it really can see in the dark, in
Speaker 1: the bright sun, in the snow, and it's really gonna
Speaker 1: enable self driving things to happen. But you know that
Speaker 1: technology is coming. Right now, I'm driving a car right now,
Speaker 1: a gmc Acadia that has adaptive cruise control. You set
Speaker 1: the cruise at seventy miles an hour. Somebody cuts in
Speaker 1: front of you to pass a truck, your car slows
Speaker 1: down automatically, it speeds up automatically, a panic stop and
Speaker 1: it stops. So there's a lot of things that we're
Speaker 1: seeing right now in our car, So customers are starting
Speaker 1: to ask for those kinds of things. Do you think
Speaker 1: that the first adopters for autonomous cars will really be
Speaker 1: the ride sharing services? And how much have you seen
Speaker 1: sort of an increase in representatives from the ride sharing company. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a great question, Lisa, And and that some
Speaker 1: of these ride sharing companies are are participating in the
Speaker 1: Auto Show for the first time ever with with automobility,
Speaker 1: And yes, I think that's where the most natural application
Speaker 1: for it is. The other natural application for his long
Speaker 1: haul trucking. That's where you know guys getting trucks and
Speaker 1: they have to drive for eight hours and they have
Speaker 1: to take eight hours off. Well, the autnos driving truck
Speaker 1: doesn't have to take time off. So you still might
Speaker 1: have a driver to keep it clean, to unload and load,
Speaker 1: but that driver can take his nap while the truck
Speaker 1: is still making its progress across the country. So have
Speaker 1: you seen the number of regulators attending this conference also increasing?
Speaker 1: Just as a result of some of the prospects of
Speaker 1: trucks barreling at uh, you know, but eighty miles per
Speaker 1: hour without a driver without a driver. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting you ask that question, because I think
Speaker 1: that's a whole, you know, wave of of litigation and
Speaker 1: planning that we haven't had yet. Is you know, right
Speaker 1: now you and I make a decision where they're going
Speaker 1: to hit the baby or hit the tree. Right, well,
Speaker 1: but hopefully not choice. You're going to have to make it.
Speaker 1: But how do you program that? And who programs that?
Speaker 1: And then who's responsible for what happens when that accident happens.
Speaker 1: The good thing about autonomous driving vehicles and all the
Speaker 1: safety features is we're gonna have a lot fewer accidents,
Speaker 1: and the ones we have are gonna be bumps, not collisions.
Speaker 1: Tracking devices that will be in cars to allow not
Speaker 1: only your family, but perhaps law enforcement or regulatory bodies
Speaker 1: him really paranoid and do you have something to hide?
Speaker 1: I mean, are you worried about being But one of
Speaker 1: the things that I found most interesting is that the
Speaker 1: information that is garnered from the Tesla automobiles, that is
Speaker 1: all compiled and used by Tesla in order to then
Speaker 1: create the next iteration of whatever it is they're trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish, right, And that's one of the things that
Speaker 1: this technology, the technology actually learns from its own experience,
Speaker 1: and that's that's kind of an amazing thought in and
Speaker 1: of itself. But you know, the days of being anonymous anymore.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't be in a Walmart parking lot
Speaker 1: without being on camera. And now everybody's gonna know where
Speaker 1: you're going when you're going, how fast you got there? Uh,
Speaker 1: my bank denied a credit card charge because it said
Speaker 1: I drove too fast across the state of Michigan on
Speaker 1: my way to my cottage and I got gas here
Speaker 1: and I stopped to get groceries there and they wouldn't
Speaker 1: take my credit card. I guess I have a lead foot.
Speaker 1: But wow, we learned something new about you. Sorry, you
Speaker 1: have a lead foot and your your bank is schooled
Speaker 1: at you. I think, Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being with us. I'm sure it took months and months
Speaker 1: of planning, So thank you so much. Sam Slaughter, chairman
Speaker 1: of the North American International Auto Show. Here on the
Speaker 1: show floor. All right, we are broadcasting from the North
Speaker 1: American International Auto Show and Our guest now is Alan Batty.
Speaker 1: He is the executive vice president and president of North
Speaker 1: America for General Motors. Alan, thank you very much for
Speaker 1: being with us. Before we get to the cars, I
Speaker 1: want people, if you can, just to give them a
Speaker 1: very small capsule shot of your career to highlight the
Speaker 1: notion that this is a global business. And while we
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time and we will spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time talking about where products are made, your
Speaker 1: career I think highlights how global the business is and
Speaker 1: that's not going to change anytime soon, at least anytime soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you for that. Nice too nice to be on. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually started in the industry thirty seven years ago. Um,
Speaker 1: I've actually worked in eight countries around the world. Um,
Speaker 1: countries like Korea, the Middle East, all over Europe, Australia.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I have a very China perspective, and you
Speaker 1: have spent a lot of time in China actually on
Speaker 1: the board of our joint benches there. So sticking with
Speaker 1: that kind of global theme, do you expect that going forward,
Speaker 1: China is going to account for a bigger proportion of
Speaker 1: business that General Motors does internationally? I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think that the international market will account for more and
Speaker 1: more relative to US consumers. Well, you know, the automotive
Speaker 1: industry at General Motives is really about building where we sell.
Speaker 1: So most of the vehicles that we sell in China
Speaker 1: are made in China. Most of the vehicles we sell,
Speaker 1: for example, in North America are made in North America. Obviously,
Speaker 1: moving vehicles around the world, the logistics of that is
Speaker 1: very expensive. So yeah, China is a very very big market,
Speaker 1: biggest in the world today, coming off of a very
Speaker 1: strong two thousand and sixty, we expect seventeen to be
Speaker 1: strong and gain so and and sort of to to
Speaker 1: speak to my colleague David Welch's point earlier in the program,
Speaker 1: he was saying that in China there's a very big
Speaker 1: emphasis on electric vehicles, much more so than here in
Speaker 1: the US. Are you seeing that as far as you know,
Speaker 1: Are you seeing that represented in the mix of cars
Speaker 1: that you are selling in China? Yeah, David's correct. I
Speaker 1: would say that the future is going to be electric.
Speaker 1: I would say we're just beginning on that journey. UM.
Speaker 1: And obviously in China, UM, the regulatory environment is stipulating
Speaker 1: that we have to have a large proportion our vehicles
Speaker 1: which are electric and providing electric forms of transportation. So
Speaker 1: it is going to dramatically change, um the landscape over there.
Speaker 1: We think we're well equipped UM to be able to
Speaker 1: adapt and to pivot into that environment. But yes, it's
Speaker 1: going to look very different in the future. The Bolt,
Speaker 1: the Chevy Bolt, and the Chevy Bolt e V. Tell
Speaker 1: us about both of those, and congratulations. I know the
Speaker 1: Chevy Bolt was named North American Car of the Year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so thank you for that. Yeah. The Bolt ev UM
Speaker 1: is a vehicle now that we actually bought it here
Speaker 1: a year ago UM as a concept and said that
Speaker 1: we would launch it in two thousand sixteen. At the time,
Speaker 1: we were saying two hundred miles of range at thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars after government subsidies. We actually over delivered on that.
Speaker 1: We delivered a vehicle with two hundred and thirty eight
Speaker 1: miles of range UM and we executed it at thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars after government subsidies. The really important thing is
Speaker 1: I think winning their motor trained carver the year, then
Speaker 1: winning North America can carver the year. It's not just
Speaker 1: a great electric car, it's a great car period and
Speaker 1: so we're very, very proud of the team for executing
Speaker 1: that vehicle and it gives us a leadership position. So
Speaker 1: who is the buyer of this car at this point? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a great question. So the reason the thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars is so important is that is at the
Speaker 1: price of this car. And just to be clear, this
Speaker 1: is a long range electric vehicle and the objective is
Speaker 1: to be in an affordable price. Correct. And the reason
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars is important is that hits the midpoint
Speaker 1: of the US consumer today. So the midpoint of the
Speaker 1: range where people are buying is thirty thousand dollars, So
Speaker 1: it's right into the mainstream market. That's why it's so important.
Speaker 1: And who's going to buy this vehicle? Um, we think
Speaker 1: that with that amount of range, it takes range anxiety
Speaker 1: off the table. We think there could be a widespread adoption.
Speaker 1: Do you think about how many automobile companies and how
Speaker 1: many offerings there are. I believe there were over three
Speaker 1: hundred combinations you could get this year alone, and of
Speaker 1: course not everyone is a big seller. Do you see
Speaker 1: any consuler station increasing in the automobile industry? Um, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a board question. I would say a general motors,
Speaker 1: we're actually consolidating with ourselves were we were a big,
Speaker 1: big global company, but in fact in the past we've
Speaker 1: operated putty independently from each other. But going back to
Speaker 1: the that's that's still relate to let's say the Buick division,
Speaker 1: which really is a success story in China. That's a
Speaker 1: great example. So you know, the things that we're doing
Speaker 1: in the US, like the bold E v Um, we're
Speaker 1: able to then use that and transfer that knowledge and
Speaker 1: technology to give it global scale. And so no, I
Speaker 1: don't think there's anything on the cards right now from
Speaker 1: our perspective, but we're doing a lot of work to
Speaker 1: make sure around the world that we're staying as common
Speaker 1: and as as as similar as we possibly can. You know,
Speaker 1: we've talked to a number of analysts who said that
Speaker 1: the auto industry just in general has been plateau ing
Speaker 1: after a number of years of pretty rapid growth over
Speaker 1: the next three years. Do you expect some kind of
Speaker 1: decline or do you think that we're just going to
Speaker 1: stay at the sort of plateau. Yeah. I always smile
Speaker 1: when people say it's plateauing. It's plateau ing at the
Speaker 1: highest level we've ever seen. Last year was another all
Speaker 1: time record, not a bad time exactly. So look as
Speaker 1: we look into seventeen, we think the market is going
Speaker 1: to be very strong again. Um, it will either be
Speaker 1: another record, it will be very close to it. So
Speaker 1: we're expecting a very very strong two thousand side. And
Speaker 1: do you think that it will be largely composed of
Speaker 1: trucks the way that it has been Obviously trucks and
Speaker 1: SUVs have obviously been driven by the lower fuel prices.
Speaker 1: We expect fuel prices to stay pretty much where they
Speaker 1: are today through seventeen. So yes, we think that you'll
Speaker 1: see that continued growth. All right, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Alan Beatty, executive and vice president president of North America
Speaker 1: of General Motors, here with us at the International Auto
Speaker 1: Show in Detroit. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg P
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