The Road Ahead

While much of the groundwork has been laid for the auto industry’s transition to carbon neutrality, many obstacles remain. This episode looks into the future of the decarbonizing auto industry, exploring the key developments, emerging trends and strategies that are shaping a more sustainable automotive landscape.

Transcript

Driving to Zero: The auto industry’s roadmap to carbon neutrality

Episode Eight – The Road Ahead

OPENING THEME

Jake narration: Up until this point… we’ve focused in on the very real ways the auto industry has evolved on its impact on the global climate. We’ve looked at the history… automakers unique decision-making on electrified products… how suppliers are transforming their manufacturing processes… how government can help or hurt efforts… and the technology that could accelerate these changes.

This has mostly been a story of hope… of progress… and of zeal.

But this story would be incomplete without acknowledging the substantial and very real obstacles in the road ahead. And even if the industry continues down this path without hitting major roadblocks… will it be enough?

This is Driving to Zero… the auto industry’s road to carbon neutrality. I’m Jake Neher… with Automotive News.

Jake narration: Perumal Arumugam leads the mitigation division for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Or the UNF-triple-C.

PLAY Arumugam 1 UNFCCC [:20]
 Arumugam: “Often people, they say UNFCCCC -- sometimes people use four Cs – which, we do not know which is the fourth C. So, now we call like when people speak, they normally say even Climate Change Secretariat.” 

JN: “Could be ‘Cool’ or…” 

Arumugam: “It could be the Cool Climate Secretariat.”

JN: [laughs] “There you go, there you go.”

Jake narration: Perumal says the UNF-TRIPLE-C essentially acts as the chief accountability office for the Paris Climate Agreement. He says we’re entering a critical period for climate action… and the news so far isn’t good.

PLAY Arumugam 1 UNFCCC [:05] “The science is quite clear. We have been listening to alarming bells from the IPCC, etc., we are still off the track.”

Jake narration: He says some of the big reasons include a lack of finance globally for climate-saving projects and methods… trade-offs and synergies between development and climate… and – last but not least in his mind – effective pricing on carbon.

PLAY Arumugam 3 [:16] “Once you have to pay a price for what you are emitting, you start looking at opportunities to reduce. So, it brings the culture of identifying an opportunity to reduce within a given sector that paves way for technological innovation.”

Jake narration: Regardless of the prescription, he says the transportation sector is a massive part of diagnosis.

PLAY Arumugam 4 [:14] “In 2021, the global CO2 emissions from the transportation sector is like around 7.7 giga tons, which is like huge, in terms of like, it's 4.5 to 5 percent of the total global emissions.”

PLAY Arumugam 5 [:12] “There are efforts that are being taken by industry, but still it's not sufficient.We are seeing from IPCC reports, other reports from IEA, et cetera, that the transport sector has to do more.”

Jake narration: Now… a significant amount of those emissions are coming from the shipping and aviation industries. But Perumal says the auto industry still has a very important role to play. In fact, he says, it is uniquely positioned to set an example to the rest of the world about how different sectors can work together to make the massive changes needed to save our climate.

PLAY Arumugam 7 [:23] “I think automotive industry is one area which will be a right blend between a producer and a consumer. And then, if you have the international financing community and the investment community putting billions and billions and dollars towards technological changes to look at transformative and paradigm shift(s) within the transportation sector, this can offer a template.”

Jake narration: For example… remember earlier in the series when we talked about the changing relationship between automakers and electric utilities in the shift to electric vehicles? Perumal says this is another unique opportunity to show how business leaders can help transform adjacent industries.

PLAY Arumugam 8 [:13] “OK, you can produce EV vehicles. But then you need to have storage, you need to have charging stations. So, how the system works may also be a template which can work for an energy sector, for example, in its supply chain and the value chain.”

Jake narration: But let’s look at that switch to EVs. Perumal says it’s an example of another big challenge… the inherently slow speed at which these kinds of solutions move.

PLAY Arumugam 6 [:10] “The number of vehicles that are on the road today. The stock of the vehicles is 15 times more than the annual new car sales that are happening globally.”

PLAY Sam 1 [:16] “Vehicles are very long-life products.The average age of vehicles on the road in the U.S. today is over 12 years. And so, even if we stop building internal combustion vehicles today, you'd be looking at decades to replace the 290 million registered vehicles that are on the road today.”

Jake narration: That’s Sam Abuelsamid [ah-BOO-el-SAM-id]… a principal research analyst leading Guidehouse Insights' E-Mobility division. Guidehouse is a global consulting firm.Sam’s team – in part --  helps clients develop their strategies on a broad range of areas where companies are trying to decarbonize. I spoke with him and his colleague Mike Austin… a senior research analyst at Guidehouse. Mike echoes those worries about decarbonizing vehicles on the road… even under the best-case scenario.

PLAY Mike 1 [:22] “So, even if nationwide we’re above 30% of new EV sales by 2030, that's still less than 10% of the vehicle population. So, we have all this effort and all this energy, and it takes a long time to set up those pieces in the supply chain to get to EV volume. And even with all that effort, and even with all these increasing sales, it's still, you know, a fraction of the cars on the road.”

Jake narration: And Sam and Mike say there’s also plenty of things standing in the way of that best-case scenario for EV adoption. Sam says one of the biggest barriers might just be the consumer.

PLAY Sam 2 [:21] “The problem is consumers are not rational. Consumers buy for their worst case scenario, which is why you see so many people driving around in full size SUVs and pickup trucks that really don't need them. But they buy what they think they might want or need at some, on some hypothetical day. But most of the time they don't need it.”

Jake narration: And Mike says… one of the best solutions is one that automakers and customers alike probably won’t accept.

PLAY Mike 3 [:32] “On a societal level, if we want to decarbonize transportation, the biggest thing you can do is not drive, which kind of runs contrary to what the automakers are doing, which is trying to sell cars. But also, again, you have an irrational consumer where you could say you could live in a one-car household or you could use a bike or you could take public transit. Some of that we don't have set up. There's a lot of car dependency in the U.S. all over. So, there is a lot of the question of how do we reduce our overall carbon emissions falls on things that the automakers can't handle.”

Jake narration: But Sam and Mike say there are so many reasons not to throw in the towel on decarbonizing our roadways. In the last episode, we talked about the promise of technologies, including solid state batteries. Sam thinks faster-charging batteries and better charging infrastructure could make EV ownership appealing to a lot more Americans.

PLAY Sam 3 [:24] “As charging gets better, becomes more available and more reliable -- that's the key is the reliability -- and also faster, you know, if you've got a 150-mile EV that can recharge in 10 or 15 minutes, that solves a lot of the problem. And if you know that you're going to be able to pull into that charging station, plug it in, and it's going to work, that addresses most of the problem.”

Jake narration: Above and beyond the product… they’re also optimistic about broader decarbonizing efforts… as long as automakers keep ramping those up – which IS still a question.

PLAY Mike 2 [:11] “Maybe it's a little cynical but these automakers have made good pledges about decarbonization, but they're not quite saying we're doing everything we can right now before they get there.”

Jake narration: But Mike says auto companies are slowly but surely realizing the real economic benefits of cutting carbon in their industrial practices… beyond just the marketing benefit of attention-grabbing headlines.

PLAY Mike 5 [1:01] “Carbon neutrality is cool and fashionable now. A lot of corporations, not just automakers, like to tout it. And… some of it is playing a little fuzzy with the rules, like carbon sequestration or carbon credits from forests, and there's not necessarily great accounting with that or there's cases where that's being abused. And I don't really expect that most corporations are going say, no, listen, we're not doing any carbon credits. We are 100% carbon free. All of our electricity is renewable. There's a lot of reasons why they wouldn't do it. But as an optimist, I would also say the things that are coming along are going to help that, even if a corporation wanted or you didn't want to be carbon neutral, if you look at things like the advancements in solar and wind and how the cost of generation has dropped over time, as we're electrifying transportation as renewables become more usable and more integrated into the grid, all of these things are just going to make a stronger business case and not just a marketing case for that decarbonization. So I'm hoping for the best.”

Jake narration: And he says, perhaps the most likely thing to propel the industry toward zero emissions is the thing we don’t even know about yet.

PLAY Mike 6 [:43]“We, we can't predict where a lot of this is going to go. It's super early and there's a bunch of things that you won't anticipate 10 years from now might be a big deal. I mean, everyone points to the iPhone as the example. But, when the iPhone came out, you wouldn't have expected that it would be able to warn you of health risks because of something that it detected in your watch. Similarly, we don't know that about electrification and batteries and the changing transportation landscape. But … it's all interconnected. So, the more that you can put those pieces together and maybe make guesses at what's going to fit together or what's going to be that catalyst to make a bunch of change. That's where you're going to find the clearest picture of your crystal ball.”

Jake narration:When we come back… we’ll look back at what we’ve learned along the way while exploring the auto industry’s energy transition. And we’ll keep talking about some of the biggest challenges ahead… and whether the industry is truly serious about these efforts.

PLAY Hannah Pop Cut [:07] “If anyone was wondering if this is really going to happen, if we're really going to electrify our fleet, this proves that it will.”

Jake narration:That’s next… on Driving to Zero.

MIDROLL BREAK

PLAY Q&A With Jamie and Hannah Final [21:12]

JN: Well, we are coming to the close of our limited series here on how the industry is moving to cut carbon. And just to sort of close things out. Again, we have Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie butters with us, Jamie, thanks once again for joining us. 

JB: Glad to do it, Jake. 

JN: And Hannah Lutz, Automotive News electrification reporter who's been covering so many of these topics for us. Hannah, welcome back to Driving to Zero.

HL: Hi, Jake. Thanks for having me.

JN: So I think we should talk about a lot of the positive things that are happening in this space, and also maybe some of the biggest challenges ahead, let's start with the positive, as we've sort of uncovered, through our reporting, and through this series as well, you know, the investments in electrification are really substantial. I don't think you can argue against that at this point. But I'm curious, in your minds, both of you how significant they've been in Hannah, let's start with you.

HL: Yeah, so we've seen investments, really from all sides, which I mean, it's hard to really add them all together. But when you look at charging infrastructure, when you look at manufacturing, battery development, battery recycling, there's been so much investment just in the past few years, even earlier this year, $100 million for repairing and maintaining chargers, if anyone was wondering if this is really going to happen if we're really going to electrify our fleet, this proves that well, we don't know exactly when all of the vehicles on the road will be electric. But this investment is really making it happen.

JN: Yeah, Jamie, I think one of the conversations we had near the outset of this is this perception of greenwashing, you know, many industries have sort of been accused of this attitude that we're gonna put out press releases and say we're going green, when the actions don't really back that up. But in this case, as Hannah said, you know, we're talking hundreds of billions of dollars, I mean, you can't really argue that's not real.

JB: It's very significant investments. As you know, Mary Barra is fond of saying, we're going to see more change in the next 10 years than we've seen in the past 100 years. That's all true. Of course, you know, what we've really focused on with this series is the actual carbon output, its carbon as to borrow the phrase from Toyota carbon is the enemy. It's not necessarily gasoline, it's not cars. So it's a much more complicated thing. But electric vehicles are an important component of that probably the biggest part of the automotive picture. But it's also it's the energy industry. It's how the vehicles are made. It's there's a lot that goes into it.

JN: I mean, just kind of going off of what you both said, it's fair to say, the genie’s out of the bottle here, right? I mean, people have talked about what if there's political change in the future, all that sort of thing? But I mean, it seems to me at least correct me if I'm wrong, it just doesn't seem like the industry. At least it doesn't look like there's any going back at this point, both when it comes to the embrace of EVs, and also sort of the investments in cleaning up their entire sort of process. Is that fair to say?

HL: I think that change at the political level, could slow down the acceleration of EVs. I mean, I think that the intentions of the automakers are clear. But if if some of that pressure was removed, then the transition could slow down a bit. But I mean, they've really, they've made their product plans, and they've made their investments. So that will all stay true. I think the development, at least for now is is really, really fast. But that doesn't mean adoption is is fast that will will take time.

JB: One troubling element of the political picture is that a lot of people, a lot of Republicans have come to see EVs as a luxury of the liberal elite. And they've politicized it and turned, you know, driving an Eevee into a political statement, which it can be obviously, if people are driving an Eevee, or you think back to when the Prius was first hit. People were trying to make a statement about being, you know, environmentally aware, but sometimes it's just a cool car. And people should be allowed to do that, without it having to have political baggage. And of course, we're just so early in the development of the technology to really make the superior economic offer. That'll happen over time.

JN: Well, speaking of the politics of this and going into policy, you know, the government incentives for zero emissions vehicle adoption in the infrastructure involved, is also some We've talked about during the series that seems like it is certainly ramping up and in a big way, Jamie, what are your thoughts on sort of moving forward looking down the road, you know, the government's role, it seems to be sort of solidifying in establishing this sort of transition.

JB: Yeah, the Inflation Reduction Act has been with us long enough, it, it kind of feels normalized, we're still there's some things we don't entirely know how's the foreign entity of concern rule going to be worked out. But it is still kind of amazing when you step back and think about $7,500 toward each electric vehicle, potentially. And the idea that that is targeted to reach 50%, or two thirds of the market, by 2030 2032, we could be talking about eight 12 million vehicles, getting $7,500 worth of federal incentives a piece, of course, there's the income limits on it. But if people go to leases, then all the vehicles can qualify. So it could be very costly, it could be a huge bill for the federal government. If 8 million vehicles get $7,500 of federal tax support. That is a $60 billion a year subsidy from the federal government to the auto industry. And then of course, we hit a cliff after 2032, when presumably the vehicles will be capable of standing on their own, but that's going to be very disruptive as well. So it'll be very interesting how it plays out. But certainly, yes, the government is right there at the cash register with the American consumer when they're trying to buy their EVs.

HL: Yeah, the government also has taken a big role in deciding where these EVs are going to be built and where their parts will come from, and where their the materials for the batteries will come from. So localizing the supply chain, has become a big push toward that because of these federal incentives.

JN: So let's talk a little bit also about one of the things that surprised me a little bit, at least in the way that it's framed. And that is the role of the investments that we're talking about outside of the immediate auto industry in some ways. You know, when we spoke with DTE Energy, the utility here in southeast Michigan, it became pretty clear that there are programs in place that would essentially allow the industry to pump money into just the greening of the grid writ large, not just for their plants, but you know, that they're playing a bigger role in, you know, being able to say, hey, we're offsetting whatever energy we're using at our plants, and, you know, producing renewable energy through that. But really, what that means is that, you know, the electrons that we bring into our houses and our cars, and you know, businesses, more of them are coming from green sources, because of some of the investments that the industry is making. Jamie, you know, I know, we talked about this in a previous episode, but it seems like that, that plus the investments that the industry is making in technology, this has a lot of tentacles that reach outside of the immediate auto industry, and sort of make everything cleaner.

JB: Yeah, the there's a lot of potential benefits that can sort of snowball over time that can build on each other. Part of it is, as we know, I mean, these technologies are still there, maybe not in their infancy, but they're maybe in their adolescence, solar cells keep getting more powerful, I think the wind turbines the progress keeps making in their efficiency, and of course, how the how the energy gets stored from those, the automakers stepping up and installing these, you know, solar fields or whatever else they're doing to jumpstart the greening of the grid. Once they get done, which, you know, this is a years long process. But once those get built by then the next fields that get built will be even more economical. So when suppliers or regular consumers are saying, hey, I want to solar energy as well, they'll be able to get a higher return on their dollars in the future.

JN: Let's talk about some of the biggest challenges now. In terms of EV infrastructure and adoption. Hanna, I mean, we talk about this a lot. But how far do we still have to go at this point to build out the infrastructure specifically and what's lacking?

HL: So there's a lot of building definitely that needs to be done there needs to be installation of of the chargers, both level two, which is a slower charge, kind of when you're out and about and need to just top off, and the fast chargers that can get you a charge in you know, 30 minutes or so. So you need to install those but then also you need to make sure they work. So that's been a very significant challenge in the end. history, the reliability of the Chargers. Just an anecdote over the weekend I was in Toronto and there was there were like probably 20. Level two and fast chargers in this parking structure that I was in, every single one of them was out of service, it must have been like a full, like system outage or something, they must have already connected, but they were all all out of service. So wow, that's a really big issue here and in Canada, apparently. And it's something that the industry is trying to address really fast, because it needs to be addressed very, very quickly, if the adoption of EVs service is going to scale.

JN: So what kind of manpower are we talking about when it comes to just maintaining and working on, you know, all of the infrastructure that's needed for electrification?

HL: So Qmerit, which installs EV chargers and does some training, they think that the US will need at least 142,000, more certified electricians by 2030. And that's to support the country's full electrification push. So that's Eevee, charging, solar panels, battery storage, smart panels, etc. So yeah, we're looking at over 100,000 more people to do that the skill set required to fix these chargers is something that we haven't really seen combined before. So for many of these charging requests, you need to be an electrician, you need that sort of expertise. For other issues, you need to have a software background. So there's this like combination of skill sets that you need, and maybe one person has them all, but maybe not. So it's really trying to put together this whole sort of new industry of people to work with these chargers.

JN: And Jamie, we talked about this a little bit in the last episode, too. But it is one of those things where it's not only a practical issue, but it's also a perception issue, right, in terms of convincing people to buy electric vehicles in the first place.

JB: You know, it is such a huge change of mindset for the consumer, right from the way most of us grew up, grew up in the 20th century, you know, you you had a car, you filled it up at the gas station, there's one on every corner, it seems like you never are very far from being able to refill. And so now you've got a new technology, you don't necessarily have the confidence about how much range it has, depending on the weather, depending on how you drive, and just an unfamiliarity with that. And then when you throw in the complication that charging the batteries re, which is sort of refueling can take a long time, you don't know where to find it, you don't know if it's going to work is just a lot of anxiety for consumers to overcome, especially with a product that typically costs you know, 10%, or more than the old fashioned technology that they're used to,

HL: It is just a complete lifestyle change. Like, if you are driving, you know, the vehicles, we're used to a gas powered vehicle, you don't have to think before you get in the car, even if you're out of gas, you know, you're gonna find a gas station with gas, like within 10 minutes. So you don't have to do much thinking when you drive an Eevee, you have to plan out your whole route. And just hope that the charger is working and hope that there's not a line so you can get to your destination on time and then also consider the weather is it freezing cold outside as my range is going to be less than it was advertised to be? 

JN: Right. And in terms of that convincing people to buy these vehicles and also to, as you said, change their lifestyle in some way. You know, we're seeing just recently really this unexpected slowdown in evey growth. Now, that doesn't mean that evey sales, you know, in general are down, it's just that they're not growing quite as fast as some people had hoped for. And that has some people nervous. I'm curious what you both think, is this a long term concern? Or do you think it's a short term blip that we're gonna get past?

JB: It feels to me much more like a blip. I think it's possible. If you're a policymaker, if you're an investor, even if you're somebody in one of the companies, you might have a little crisis of confidence that that Americans aren't ready that the market isn't ready. And certainly, if these cars that are on the road today are all that we were ever going to have, we would not be getting to 50% or 40% Evie adoption. But we know there are a lot more and better cars that are coming, we know that the charging networks are getting built out. So I think this is just part of a long curve, but it's a bit of a gut check after a couple of years of really robust growth 50 7080 100% Growth to now be looking at just kind of ticking along at you know 7% market share maybe 8% That that path to 10 and then we'll we're starting to really get into the math market it's it's a tough, tough slog right now.

HL: And it was about it was just under 8%, I believe was the, the market share. So it's still pretty small. But I mean, it shows that we've already gotten through the early adopters, it's big enough that we've gotten through the early adopters. So now the industry is trying to market and sell to buyers that were not jumping on the wagon right away, like there's more selling to be done. Now, which takes a lot of effort from multiple groups from the automakers from the dealers, etc. So that is one thing I think that maybes is slowing the growth, there's a new new effort involved. Also, you know, there's been a lot of talk about affordable EVs, but we aren't really seeing any yet. So once there are more affordable EVs out there that people can buy, maybe we'll see some upward growth.

JN: We already talked about infrastructure and charging. And maybe that's the answer. But I'm curious what you both think, are the biggest consumer hang ups on EVs that are the most concerning for that longer term adoption? Jamie, do you have one or two that you think are going to be the biggest hurdles?

JB: I mean, price, right. I mean, it's, it's the vehicle and the charging, and so then how we break it down, I mean, it's the price, but it's also the right fit, you know, the vehicle that's big enough for a given family, you know, and doesn't maybe add a bunch of extra cost by having, you know, range that you don't need. But then the second thing that that is right there with it, right, whether you consider it range anxiety, or I think a lot of us now call it more charger, anxiety, or charging anxiety, that concern that we've been discussing about can I get where I need to go in the timely manner and get home safely. You know, those are, those are the big hang ups, it's the price and the charging availability.

HL: I mean, price, I think is number one, most buyers or monthly payment buyers, they they look at what their payments going to be, and that that helps them decide. But I think, you know, to put it in one word or a couple words, it's, it's really confidence, like you need to be confident in going out on the road. And if you have charging anxiety, you don't know if you'll find one, or if if it will work for you. And you don't know if you have time to charge because at the fast chargers, it's 30 minutes, but that's sort of best case scenario. So charging anxiety, range, anxiety, safety, there's been lots of reports about UV fires, that all goes to lack of confidence. So I think the price and the lack of competence are really what standing in the way.

JN: So I think the last observation that I have from doing all of this, and talking to the people that we've talked to, is about how none of this sort of happens in a vacuum that the auto industry can't really solve all of its own carbon emissions problems, without big help from the outside, whether it's utilities who are still working on Greening the Grid, or consumers who are still deciding whether or not they're on board with, you know, Full Tilt into electrification, mineral suppliers, it seems to me like a lot of the things that are going to happen in the next 1020 years, the industry itself is going to need a lot of help the government, one that we are the mentioned, you know, Hannah, what are your thoughts on sort of the things that might not be in automakers control here that, you know, are going to be maybe the biggest factors?

HL: Yeah, I think this will be really exciting to watch, I'm excited to cover it. The utility companies have such a big opportunity here, I I can't predict exactly how they're going to take advantage of this. If they're going to be kind of the educators for consumers, when they buy EVs, how they're going to expand energy to support all these EVs, they really, they could have a really big presence in as a big public presence in this. And then when it comes to the mineral supply side, when I cover batteries, I'm just like, I wish I was a scientist or a chemist like I just wish I understood this more easily because it's so complicated. And there's so many different chemistries to power, a battery and so many variations and the minerals and materials that people use to make batteries. So the miners and the mineral companies, there's going to be a lot of fluctuation there. The automakers and battery makers are looking at different types of materials for better energy density and to bring costs down. So there's there'll be a lot to keep track of, and I mean, once we have a solution that we think is the one we'll probably have another one around the corner. So it's really all hands on deck, and it'll be very cool. I'm excited.

JB: Like Hannah, I'm going to be fascinated to see how it all unfolds. I think what we're seeing right now, is the automakers Like getting involved in parts of the economy they haven't had to do before. You know, they didn't put gas pumps in your home. But a lot of dealers are being asked to help consumers figure out how to put a charger in their garage. We saw it with Tesla as they tried to create this Eevee market. And I think we're seeing it from especially General Motors. But I think, you know, some, some companies are a little more obvious in how they're planning ahead to ensure all the pieces are where they need to be that there is the mining going on that there's the refining that there's recycling, that's going to be in the right locations. Now, maybe they invest to get this all up and running, and then sell it off and get it back out to other people who are real experts in that field. But they're not leaving it to chance. They're not just waiting and hoping some other industry or the government is going to take care of their problems for them. Because of course, the demand is so huge. And if you're a General Motors or a Toyota or Volkswagen, it's just too you can't let your whole business be left to other people's visions.

JN: Hannah Lutz, Automotive News electrification reporter, and Jamie butters, Automotive News Executive Editor. It's been so wonderful to have people much smarter than me along for the ride throughout this entire journey. I really appreciate all of your insights. Thanks for joining us. 

HL: Thank you.

JB: Glad to do it, Jake.

Jake narration:Before we put a bow on it… we’ve talked with dozens of people for this podcast… and asked many of them to talk about the stakes on this transition. We’ve spoken to environmentalists… industry leaders… analysts… government officials… reporters… tech innovators… None of them have offered an answer that had an impact quite like the person who kicked off this last episode… the UNF-triple-C’s Perumal Arumugam. His thoughts on why you – dear listener – should take any action you have the power to take… will stick with me for a long time. He started by addressing business leaders directly.
 
 

PLAY Arumugam 9 [:34]  “The business profits and benefits can only be achievable if you have a congenial environment in the society to live in and the effects of climate change can really bring imbalance in terms of climate migration.For example, human migration, which can also be detrimental for the business growth.Every investment that you are doing today, like we talked about billion dollars of investments, if you do not adapt today to the cause and the effect of the climate change, all your investments can be washed away.”

Jake narration:But even if that argument falls short for you… he says there’s an even more basic… more existential… more human reason to simply do what you can…

PLAY Arumugam 10 [:17]  “Your mere existence is in question. And then whatever that you are making choices today, every irresponsible way of you emitting today, you are taking away a day from your future generation of your own kit and kin.”

Jake narration: This has been Driving to Zero… the auto industry’s roadmap to carbon neutrality. Thank you so much for joining me along this ride… I hope it’s provided some insights and shone light on something new for you. If you enjoyed this podcast and want to learn more about the auto industry’s ride into a greener future… I highly recommend checking out our daily auto industry news podcast Daily Drive hosted by Jamie Butters… who you’ve heard in this and every episode of this series… as well as my colleague Kellen Walker. And check out our weekly podcast Shift… a podcast about mobility. Host Pete Bigelow talks with some of the people who are leading the way on technology and innovation in the automotive industry… and they hit on many of the subjects we’ve covered here in even greater detail. 

And, of course, consider subscribing to Automotive News. We’re the paper of record for the auto industry… and there you can find the incredible reporting from journalists you’ve heard here including Hannah Lutz… Michael Martinez… Lindsay VanHulle… Hans Greimel… and Audrey LaForest. You can find all of their reporting at auto-news-dot-com or on the pages of our weekly print edition.

-          All of the original music and sound design that you heard here was done by the incredible… one and only Sam Beaubien.

-          We got additional help along the way from Kellen Walker… Elisha Anderson… Lindsay Chappell… Victor Galvan… Tim Reck… Jack Hallauer… Marisa Marcinkowski… and Dean Storm. 

-          I’m Jake Neher. Thanks again… and hope to talk again soon.