How Do Automakers Handle Politics?
As regular readers know, the regulatory side of the automotive industry is hugely important. It's not as fun to read about as a well-written car review of some sexy sports car being tested in Spain, but it matters a lot. Not just to those employed in the industry (or in industry-adjacent jobs, like mine) but also to the car-buying public.
In order to make a bit more sense of how automakers navigate this part of the business, we spoke with James Bell, the head of corporate communications for Kia. He ran us through how Kia and other automakers handle the challenges of the regulatory environment, especially with ever shifting fuel-economy and tailpipe-emission rules.
Meanwhile, Matthew Guy joined us to discuss garage lighting for our "Stuff We Use" segment.
You can find our podcasts at these links: Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, and iHeart Radio. As well as here.
Thanks for listening!
[Image: Kia]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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The pendulum swings more fiercely due to an increasingly polarized party base. Both party's try to appease their base. That's how go get nominated.
In the past once that occurred, politicians would try to shift to the middle where most voters sit. Somehow, some where, that centrist shift has collapsed. Disfunction rules.
It's destabilizing since nothing gets done. One side tries to block the other side. If they gain more power then they try to undo what the other side has done.
Company planning cycles are longer than political cycles. Money gets poured into lobbying and political contributions aka bribes.
This time around it worse because the orange inmate was an erratic one shot wonder. Biden might turn out to be a onetimer.
How Do Automakers Handle Politics?
Answer: They pay up. It is called a campaign contribution.
I'll have to listen to the podcast, and *then* comment. 😉
Be real Govt friendly. Bailout may be needed.