The New Cold War: Why Your Car Is Caught in the Middle

Episode Summary

Could your car become a battlefield in the New Cold War?

It sounds like the plot of a spy thriller, but it's actually one of the biggest stories quietly reshaping the automotive industry.

This week, The Car Chick® connects the dots between several recent episodes—including vehicle data privacy, EV tax credits, tariffs, and "Made in America"—to reveal the much bigger picture behind the U.S. government's upcoming ban on certain Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles.

You'll learn why China became a global automotive powerhouse, why companies like BYD are dominating worldwide despite never selling cars in the U.S., how connected vehicles have become a national security concern, and what the new 2027 Connected Vehicle Rule could mean for future vehicle availability, pricing, and the cars you may (or may not) be able to buy.

This isn't politics. It's about understanding the forces behind today's increasingly unpredictable car market—and why they're likely to affect every car buyer over the next several years.

In This Episode

• What the "New Cold War" really means—and why cars are now part of it 
• How China built a massive advantage in batteries, semiconductors, and EV technology 
• Why BYD has become one of the world's largest automakers despite having no U.S. dealerships 
• How connected vehicles collect and transmit data 
• Why the debate over connected cars is similar to the concerns surrounding TikTok 
• What the 2027 Connected Vehicle Rule actually does 
• Why Polestar is exiting the U.S. market while Volvo was allowed to stay 
• Which automakers and models could be most affected 
• How these changes may impact vehicle availability, pricing, and future model launches 
• Why understanding what's happening behind the scenes makes today's automotive "bullshittery" make a lot more sense 

Resources

Subscribe to The Straight Shift Newsletter for twice-monthly automotive news, market updates, and consumer advice:
https://www.thecarchick.com

You can view a full list of resources and episode transcripts here. 

Connect with LeeAnn:

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Work with LeeAnn:

• Course: The No BS Guide to Buying a Car
• Car Buying Service

Copyright ©2024 Women’s Automotive Solutions Inc., dba The Car Chick.  All rights reserved.

Transcript

The Car Chick (00:03)
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Straight Shift, the podcast where we steer clear of all the BS and drive straight into the truth about cars, car buying, and the automotive industry. Over the past year, I've really been trying to make this podcast a little bit lighter, a little more fun, trying to stay focused on car buying and maintenance, safety tips, rather than sounding like an evening news broadcast. This is why I launched the Straight Shift newsletter. It gives me a place to cover all the breaking news, the

The Car Chick (00:31)
tariff nonsense, policy changes, recalls, all the other motive, all of the automotive bullshittery that changes faster than I can even record a podcast. So if you haven't checked out the Straight Shift newsletter, go to my website. I'll put a link below, thekarchick.com, and subscribe. You'll also get free access to my mini course on

The Car Chick (00:56)
What the hell is it called? It is called

The Car Chick (01:03)
The car care survival kit, so you can learn how to properly maintain your car so that it will last. Well, last week's newsletter completely derailed that plan. It was supposed to be a simple article about the upcoming ban on Chinese software in connected cars. Instead, I found myself going down a rabbit hole that tied together almost everything we've talked about on this podcast over the last two years. Remember that episode I did on Is Your Car Spying on You?

The Car Chick (01:31)
Why China has such a huge advantage in producing affordable EVs, the whole EV tax credit thing and its sudden demise, made in America and what that really means anymore. At the time I did those, they all felt like separate stories, but it turns out they weren't. They're part of a much bigger story that's quietly reshaping the automotive industry. And most car buyers and owners don't even know what's happening.

The Car Chick (01:57)
So today we are going to pull back the curtain on some very hush, hush things going on behind the scenes in the automotive industry. And we're gonna answer the question, could your car become a battlefield in the new cold war? Let's find out.

The Car Chick (02:20)
Before anybody starts accusing me of watching too many spy movies, which may or may not be true, let's define what I mean by the new Cold War. Those of us who are old enough to remember the original Cold War, we're not gonna talk about how old we are, it wasn't exactly subtle. It was the buildup of nuclear weapons, missile silos, spy satellites, the whole space race, the Berlin Wall. And it was called the Cold War because the United States and the Soviet Union

The Car Chick (02:48)
never directly engaged in full-scale military combat. Instead, they spent forty years posturing and maneuvering and flexing their economic and military muscles and, shall we say, measuring male body parts. But everybody knew it was happening because it played out on the evening news every night, often narrated by the late great Walter Cronkite, he was my favorite. Today's Cold War is different. Not because military power no longer matters, it absolutely does, but the battleground has expanded

The Car Chick (03:18)
Today, countries are competing for economic and technological superiority, things like artificial intelligence, semiconductors, battery technology, robotics, all the infrastructure and supply chains that make our world work. And also data and cybersecurity. It may not sound as exciting as tanks and fighter jets, but they're becoming just as, if not arguably more strategically important.

The Car Chick (03:44)
Because in a world that relies so heavily on technology, those ones and zeros can do more damage than bombs. And that's why I call this the New Cold War. And I did not invent that term. Other journalists have been using it for many years to describe the strategic competition, shall we say, between the US and China, particularly. So the New Cold War is being fought with software and hardware and rare earth minerals. And again, most people don't even realize it's happening.

The Car Chick (04:13)
So okay, what the heck does this have to do with cars? This is a podcast about cars.

The Car Chick (04:20)
Okay, well that was stupid. I didn't dis I didn't snooze that, did I? Well we're gonna do that and we'll do that whole line again because we are an idiot. turn it off for an hour. Okay, anyway. So what the heck does that have anything to do with cars? This is a podcast about cars. It has everything to do with cars. Think about what a modern vehicle has become. It's not just an engine and four wheels anymore. It's one of the most sophisticated

The Car Chick (04:48)
Products that consumers will ever own. The average modern vehicle contains nearly 100 electronic control units, ECUs, basically dozens and dozens of small specialized computers. Luxury vehicles and electric vehicles can have well over 100. Plus, it's got cameras and radar, lidar, GPS, cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, over-the-air software updates.

The Car Chick (05:17)
Even artificial intelligence, that's thousands of semiconductors in your car. And on top of that, modern cars contain like a hundred million lines of software code. I'm not even exaggerating. That is more code than is in an F-35 fighter jet or a Boeing seven eighty-seven aircraft. It's insane. New research has actually shown that cars need more memory in those computers.

The Car Chick (05:46)
Than a rocket being launched into space. That's not even considering the self-driving cars, those little Waymo's that are running around wreaking havoc in San Francisco, running over fireworks and delivering teenagers to police stations. Yeah. Over 300 million lines of code. It's absolutely mind-blowing. And it's also mildly terrifying, especially to those of us who began our lives in software development and the computer industry. So today.

The Car Chick (06:15)
It's just gotten a lot more complicated. I'll delete that line.

The Car Chick (06:20)
Buying a car used to mean just figuring out which make and model you wanted and then which trim level, maybe which engine, what color you liked, and maybe figuring out if you wanted the leather seats and the sunroof and the navigation. We were asking simple questions like Forder Chevy, Honda Toyota, do I want two-wheel drive or all-wheel drive? Hey, does it have a CD player? Or can I get heated seats? Now we have governments asking questions like: Hey, who wrote that software? Who built the modem?

The Car Chick (06:51)
Where did that battery come from? Where were the earth minerals refined? Like who owns the data? These aren't questions that most consumers are even thinking about, but they are driving decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Car Chick (07:09)
But they are driving decisions worth billions and billions of dollars throughout the entire automotive industry. And they're raising national security questions. So are you starting to kind of see how cars have ended up smack in the middle of this new Cold War? Now, before anybody goes and accuses me of picking on China, let me be very clear: this isn't about China, whether they're good, they're bad. They are one of our biggest adversaries on the global stage.

The Car Chick (07:38)
But in this context, it's about understanding how they have become such a dominant force in the global automotive industry. A couple of years ago I did an episode on why we can't build affordable cars anymore, apparently. And that episode also explained why Chinese automakers have a huge advantage when it comes to developing cars, especially electric vehicles. And the answer wasn't simply cheap labor. That's part of the story, but certainly not the whole story.

The Car Chick (08:04)
China's advantage came from a combination of geography, government policy, economics, and just good timing. For starters, they happened to be sitting on top of significant deposits of those rare earth minerals that are so needed in the development of semiconductors. Batteries, electric motors, pretty much every modern electronics. But more importantly, they invested very heavily in the mining and refining of those minerals, while much of the rest of the world was content to sit back.

The Car Chick (08:32)
And just let somebody else do the dirty work. Because that isn't that kind of mining and refining is not environmentally pretty. I mean, it's really nasty. It's credibly energy intensive. It's very dangerous to the people doing the actual work, and it can have serious environmental impacts. China was willing to accept those costs in a way that the rest of the world, especially Western countries, just simply were not. And then their government identified advanced manufacturing techniques, battery technology.

The Car Chick (09:01)
electronics. They realized that these are strategic industries and they poured enormous resources into building an entire ecosystem. Not just building cars, but building the batteries, the battery factories, the refining, building the computer chips, creating the hardware and the software, then putting together all the supply chains and the manufacturing capability as well as that workforce. They were building the infrastructure needed to build all these cars and to build them very economically.

The Car Chick (09:31)
It's a very different strategy. Now, does that mean every Chinese car or every piece of Chinese technology is just fantastic? No, of course not. They build their share of junk just like everybody else. Just go on Amazon. You can buy a lot of it. But when you develop new technologies or you buy technologies that were actually developed in the US or other countries but ended up not going anywhere because they lost funding, they can produce it quickly and cheaply. And they're also not concerned about long-term.

The Car Chick (10:01)
And they're also not concerned about short-term profits and the immediate ROI that drives a lot of US investors. So remember when I talked about how some of the Chinese automakers can develop a brand new vehicle in less than two years and get it to market, while the traditional automakers take five, six, or seven years? Yeah. That's not because Chinese engineers are just magically smarter. It's because they've built an ecosystem that's designed to move much more quickly.

The Car Chick (10:29)
So for years most of us looked at China and thought, wow, they're building some pretty impressive electric cars and selling them at way lower prices. Why can't we have some of that? Well, because the government looked at this situation and asked a very different question. Hmm, what happens if one country, particularly a country that is not on our friends list, becomes a little too important to one of America's biggest industries?

The Car Chick (10:56)
And then you stop looking at this as just a story about cars. It starts looking like a national and it starts looking like a global economic and national security story, and that changes everything. China played the long game and they played it by a totally different set of rules than we did. And whether you agree with those rules or not, China's winning it. If you've never heard of a company called BYD, don't feel bad, most Americans haven't, because BYD doesn't sell cars in the United States.

The Car Chick (11:25)
But everywhere else in the world, they're kind of a big deal. They should probably be called BFD, because they are a big F and deal. BYD started making cars around the same time as Tesla, so like twenty, three years ago. And yet they are now producing roughly three times as many vehicles as Tesla is, which Elon's not particularly happy about. Last year, BYD sold about four, a little over four and a half million vehicles worldwide, which puts them

The Car Chick (11:54)
Firmly in the top 10 automakers in the world. It makes them larger than Ford. It makes them larger than Honda. Let that sink in for a second. Most people have never heard of them in America, and yet they're bigger than Ford and Honda. They're also now the world's number one largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, which again, certain someone's not happy about. And then you add in plug-in hybrids, which they also build in huge numbers. They're not just number one in the electric vehicle space.

The Car Chick (12:23)
They are number one by a country mile, as we say down here in the South. In fact, BYD has publicly said that they intend to become the largest automaker in the entire world, period, over the next five years. Five years. They're looking at Toyota square in the eye and saying, We're coming for you. All without selling a single car in the United States of America. It's very bold and also very doable for them. So why aren't they selling cars here?

The Car Chick (12:52)
Well, mostly because tariffs. Right now the US has a hundred percent tariff on Chinese built EVs. So that means if BYD builds their very nice yet affordable-ish thirty thousand dollar EV, they import it to America, boom, that suddenly becomes a sixty thousand dollar car. So they have effectively been priced out of the market. But even before those tariffs were put in place in twenty twenty-four, and even before the previous nearly thirty percent tariffs that were put in place in twenty eighteen.

The Car Chick (13:21)
No Chinese brands have been sold in the US. Not as the same. No Chinese cars have been built in the US. And this is not the same as cars that are built in China by American and European car makers. That's a whole different thing. But the Chinese brands themselves have not been sold here. And part of that is because the US market is the hardest market to enter because of safety and environmental regulations.

The Car Chick (13:49)
But also from a consumer acceptance standpoint. But we're gonna talk about that just a little bit more later. The hundred percent tariffs on Chinese EV specifically were put in place to try and protect US automakers from, quite frankly, getting creamed by cheaper and better products from our biggest economic rival. And more quietly, they were also put in place to keep a huge piece of data collecting technology off American streets and out of our driveways.

The Car Chick (14:18)
So you might be thinking, well, problem solved, right? Chinese automakers can't sell cars here. Why are we so worried about this? Well, what if I told you that China doesn't actually need to sell us Chinese cars? Well, what if I said, well, what if I told you that China doesn't need to sell us Chinese cars to have a huge influence on the American automotive industry? Hmm, the plot thickens. The concern is not the badge on the hood of the vehicle.

The Car Chick (14:48)
It is the technology underneath the hood of nearly every single car on the market, regardless of the brand. So this is where we go back to that episode I did on Is Your Car Spying on You? If you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. At the time we talked about all the data that your car collects, where you drive, how you drive, where you charge it, if it's electric, where you park it, who's in the car, all the contacts in your phone if you're connected your phone to it.

The Car Chick (15:14)
Your voice commands, all the stuff that we just don't really think about because it's so convenient to have that technology in a car. But this is the next chapter in that story. Because once your car became a rolling computer that is connected to the internet, it stopped being just a car. It became another connected device, just like your phone, your laptop, your ring doorbell.

The Car Chick (15:41)
Your Lexi device, I can't use her full name because I have one in here and she'll wake up and say hello. Your smartwatch. Remember that whole TikTok mess a couple of years ago? The debate about that was not about teenagers dancing or getting in trouble or injured by doing these stupid TikTok challenges. The concern was that the app was owned by a Chinese company and that the Chinese government could potentially gain access to all the data that it was collecting on Americans.

The Car Chick (16:10)
And it could be used for, shall we say, nefarious purposes that might go against our national security interests. Whether you agree with that concern or the way it was supposedly resolved or not isn't the point. The point is it's exactly the same conversation we are now having about cars. We're not just worried about how much data the manufacturers or insurance companies or potentially American law enforcement is collecting about us as consumers.

The Car Chick (16:39)
It's about whether or not foreign governments that are not our friends may have access to that data that our cars are collecting. So instead of the app knowing everything about you, your car knows everything about you beyond just where you live and work. It knows where your kids go to school. It knows where you stop for coffee in the morning. It knows when you're home and in your driveway or in your garage, when you are not.

The Car Chick (17:06)
Some vehicles even record video in and around the car. They listen for voice commands. They record your voice. They download software updates over the air. And they communicate with the manufacturer's servers every time you drive. That is so much information. And what if that information were compromised? Now, am I saying that your car is secretly spying on you for the Chinese government? No.

The Car Chick (17:33)
Want to be really careful here because that's also not what the US Department of Commerce is saying either. They're simply looking at the risk. Their concern is if software or hardware in a connected vehicle is designed, developed, or supplied by companies that ultimately answer to the Chinese government, because every Chinese company does answer to their government, could that technology be used to collect sensitive data on Americans or

The Car Chick (18:00)
potentially even be manipulated in some way in the future. Gosh, I mean the little Waymo's are wreaking havoc on their own. Can you imagine if a foreign government got control over those things? That would be a really interesting Netflix series. Might have to pitch that. Anyway, it's a national security question that's being addressed by people with top security clearance and it's way above my pay grade, but it is a risk.

The Car Chick (18:23)
And because that risk and likely acting on in intelligence information that you and I will never know about, and I'm really glad about that. I don't wanna know. Our government has started looking at connected cars through that national security lens.

The Car Chick (18:48)
So now we're no longer caring about who built the car for GM, Vovo, Polestar, but rather who built the technology inside it and who could potentially have access to that data and even be able to control that vehicle. So we have a new law.

The Car Chick (19:08)
This is called the BIS, which stands for Bureau of Industry and Security, Connected Vehicle Rule. This restricts the import and sale of vehicles using software and hardware linked to foreign entities of concern, i.e., China and Russia. So beginning with a twenty twenty seven model year, some of which are already on dealer lots, like the exciting new Kia Telluride Hybrid, which I will talk about in another episode.

The Car Chick (19:36)
But automakers won't be allowed to sell new connected vehicles in the US if they contain certain software tied to China or Russia. And by the 2030 model year, similar restrictions will kick in in certain hardware as well. Now notice what I have said: connected vehicles. Not every vehicle, connected vehicles. Of course, these days that's basically nearly every new vehicle. So if your car has built-in navigation, if it has

The Car Chick (20:07)
Cellular capability, the 5G LTE or whatever we're on now, if it has remote start through an app, if it has over-the-air software updates or connected safety features like OnStar, congratulations! It's probably considered a connected vehicle by our government. Because it is. It is talking to the outside world through the internet or cellular networks.

The Car Chick (20:32)
Now, before everybody panics and thinks their existing car is suddenly illegal, no, this is not how it works. The rule applies to new vehicles being sold in the US going forward. So if you already own a vehicle that has these features, and even if those features are implemented by underlying Chinese components, nobody is going to confiscate your car. This applies to automakers selling new 2027 and beyond model your vehicles.

The Car Chick (20:59)
So does that mean that no 2027 models can be sold here? No, but some manufacturers are in more trouble than others. And it's not simply a blacklist where the government looked at a list of automakers and said, you're in, you're in, nope, you're out. They were looking at where the connected vehicle software was developed, who wrote it, who controls it, where the hardware comes from.

The Car Chick (21:24)
Who has access to the data that it collects and whether any of those companies could ultimately be compelled by our enemies to turn over information or to influence how that technology operates? That's way more complication. That's a way more complicated question than simply asking where was the car assembled or where were the parts manufactured? So how does it work?

The Car Chick (21:50)
Automakers are now required to file a declarations of conformity and conduct a supply chain due diligence audit before importing or selling in the US. It's a self certification system rather than an approval process, but it is legally binding with some very, very severe civil and criminal penalties, including potential national security violations. So the automakers, even though they are self certifying,

The Car Chick (22:19)
I don't think they're gonna risk lying about this one. It's it's not like the whole diesel debate and the emissions standards, you know, Volvo. It's not like the whole diesel emissions testing that Volkswagen got in so much trouble for. This is way more serious than that. So any automaker that has what they're calling a sufficient nexus, I love all these terms. It's so ridiculous.

The Car Chick (22:45)
That means if they are owned, controlled, or directed by either a citizen or entity, meaning another company of a foreign adversary. If that is true, then they cannot file this standard declaration of conformity. They have to apply for a special authorization, in other words, a waiver to be allowed to sell cars here. Now, why does any of this matter? Well, because it is already affecting the car makers, and one of the biggest names affected by this new rule is Polestar.

The Car Chick (23:14)
Polestar, if you haven't heard of it, is Volvo's EV luxury spin-off brand. They launched in 2019 and they only make three models, one of which is actually made down the road from me in South Carolina. They're beautiful cars. But you're probably thinking, wait minute, Volvo is Swedish, aren't they? Yes. And Polestar cars are designed in Gothenburg, Sweden. The problem is that Volvo and Polestar are both majority-owned and controlled.

The Car Chick (23:42)
By a Chinese automotive giant called Geeley Holding Group. So, because of that ownership structure, Volvo and Polestar both required that special authorization to continue selling cars in the US under this new connected car rule. Polestar was denied. Volvo scraped by and got the exception. So why one and not the other? Well, good question. And the approval disapproval criteria have not been made clear.

The Car Chick (24:11)
Clear, at least publicly, and even within the automotive industry, all the manufacturers are kind of wondering what the criteria really are. But it's very likely because, in addition to Chinese ownership, the Pulestar vehicles are built directly on Geely sustainable experience architecture. It's a platform that they use for all of their electric vehicles, and it relies on software and hardware.

The Car Chick (24:36)
And a supply chain that is deeply, deeply, deeply integrated with China. They are so far in bed with China that they can't get out of it. They're essentially a Chinese EV wrapped in a nice Swedish sweater. So Volvo's EVs, on the other hand, the XE30, sorry they Volvo's EVs, on the other hand, the EX30, the EX40, EX60, EX90, they're all built on a different European-developed platform. So Volvo Cars USA.

The Car Chick (25:05)
got ahead of the problem because this connected car rule was developed under the previous administration and it got overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, but it didn't go into effect until March of 2025. So Volvo knew what was coming and they immediately sat down with the Department of Commerce and clearly laid out their independent governance, their data security protocols, everything that they needed to do to prove that their connected cars are safe from Chinese influence.

The Car Chick (25:35)
Polestar couldn't do that. They were completely built on a Chinese platform. Everything in that car, practically, from a technology standpoint, is Chinese. And so they are being forced to completely exit the US market after this year. They will pull production out of the South Carolina plant. They're gonna have to close their 32 franchise dealerships across the US. It's a little bit crazy. So

The Car Chick (26:01)
What does this mean to you if you currently own or lease one of these Polestar vehicles? Well, the dealerships and the affiliated Volvo dealerships are expected to remain open and be able to provide maintenance and parts and software updates at least for a little while. And they will also be able to maintain the warranties. And if you have any existing warranty claims or you have one, they will be able to satisfy that until those warranties expire.

The Car Chick (26:28)
Similarly, if you have a lease, you'll be able to return your leased vehicle under the original terms, which I strongly recommend you do. Do not buy it out. Because the resale values of the Polestars on the used market, yeah, expect those to plummet the way the Fisker Ocean has and some of the other startup EVs that didn't succeed. Dealers are already having fire sales on their remaining new car inventory just to clear out their lots, and that drives down the used car prices.

The Car Chick (26:55)
Then top that off with future service and support being uncertain. Yeah. And then top that off with future service and support being uncertain. Yeah. People are going to be very hesitant to buy one, and rightly so. Volvo and Pulsar are not the only automakers to have to go through this. Other models are also vulnerable to this new connected car rule. And the Department of Commerce is looking very closely at certain very specific models, like the Lincoln Nautilus.

The Car Chick (27:23)
The Buick Envision. Both of those are made in China, in Chinese factories with lots of Chinese parts. So Ford Lincoln has already applied for waivers for their future models and they're kind of keeping their fingers crossed, but they are very concerned because their criteria are not clearly laid out. And they're afraid it's a little vague and could be potentially at the whim of politics. So GM is saying, you know what?

The Car Chick (27:51)
We are not even gonna risk it because we see the way the winds blow and how the winds change every five minutes. So we're just gonna pull production and move back to Kansas. They're going back to Kansas, everybody. They've clicked their little heels on their little red slippers and they're going right back to Kansas. So they're making those changes well ahead of the 2030 hardware deadline, which will make even more manufacturers vulnerable. So in reality, they're all scrambling, they're all worried because.

The Car Chick (28:17)
They don't directly produce the technology components in their vehicles. They're sourced from third-party tech companies. So not only are the automakers frantically auditing all of their suppliers, but now they have to look at their suppliers' suppliers. Because no one company makes the whole widget.

The Car Chick (28:38)
Somebody makes this piece of hardware, that piece of hardware, and then somebody assembles it, and then probably three other companies may make software that goes into all those little components that then make up your widget. It's so complicated. And nobody wants to suddenly discover that their Bluetooth module or and nobody wants to discover suddenly that their Bluetooth module or their telematics controller or some Wi Fi chip.

The Car Chick (29:03)
Is buried three layers deep in a supplier that suddenly has a compliance problem. So they are automatically

The Car Chick (29:17)
So they are looking deep into their supply chain as if they don't have anything better to do. They were already responding to the whole tariff mess, touting how you know American their vehicles are and having to show what percentage of their parts come from where. It's like, hey, our car's built in Kentucky, our engine's made in Ohio, we have 70% North American parts content. And now they're having to look at their software too. Like, is the next marketing campaign gonna center around their

The Car Chick (29:45)
Software and hardware content, like, hey, introducing the all-new, fully redesigned 2027 Thingamajig, same great features, now with 37% less geopolitical risk. I can just see the ads now. I mean, this is seriously the current state of the automotive industry. So, how does that affect you? Because we've talked about how it affects the manufacturers, but it all trickles down. So, how does this affect you?

The Car Chick (30:12)
As a car owner or a potential car shopper going into the 2027 model year. Should you avoid buying a car with Chinese parts? Should you hurry up and rush out and buy a leftover 2026 model before the 2027 models arrive? No. Don't panic. The the biggest impact of this new rule isn't that you're gonna suddenly lose access to certain vehicles, unless it's a Polestar. It's that this is one more

The Car Chick (30:39)
major force that's reshaping the industry behind the scenes. And for the past six or seven years, you know, it's been one thing or another. It's been, well, we had a global pandemic and we had semiconductor shortages and then we had tariffs and then EV tax credits came in and went. And now it's this whole software and hardware and connected cars. That constant state of chaos for the industry when the automakers used to spend five to seven years planning that nice new vehicle,

The Car Chick (31:06)
And they had a pretty good idea of what the market would look like when that vehicle finally went on sale. Yeah, today, forget about it. Everything is changing too fast. Not only policy change, but technology changes. So it's so difficult for them to plan. And when they have to change course suddenly, it costs them a lot of money. And then guess where that trickles down to? Yeah, we consumers start to feel it.

The Car Chick (31:31)
Not only in price increases, but we may see a model that we've been looking forward to get delayed because they suddenly had to move production to another country again. Maybe a feature disappears like it did during the pandemic when they had to pull like heated seats or blind spot monitoring because they didn't have enough computer chips. Well, now it might be because they had to suddenly change suppliers because they found that supplier had a supplier who had a supplier who got all their software from China.

The Car Chick (32:02)
So it just creates a lot of chaos. So we're might see some of the things that we saw during the pandemic. And yeah, prices are likely to go up again. So I am not trying to judge whether or not this latest rule is a good idea or not. This is national security concerns, and that is way above my pay grade. My job is simply to educate you the best I can on what's going on because I think that understanding what's happening behind the curtain.

The Car Chick (32:31)
makes a lot of the craziness in today's car market make a little bit more sense. And the podcast episodes I've done over the years about tariffs and the tax credits and why affordable cars are disappearing and what made America means, these weren't separate stories after all. They were all different pieces of the same puzzle that is coming together. And I have a feeling it's only just begun.

The Car Chick (32:57)
So I will do my best to keep you all updated on whatever bullshittery comes along in the industry, both here and more in the straight shift newsletter. Again, subscribe withkartrick.com if you haven't done so. That comes out twice a month in the weeks opposite the podcast releases. So it's gonna get a little bit crazier, but you know, hopefully at least, you know, the automakers have had a little bit of warning that this was happening.

The Car Chick (33:22)
And the fact that it does have overwhelming bipartisan support and has spanned across administrations, that probably indicates that this is really important and it really is an issue and it needs to be addressed. So again, don't panic, but just be aware that there could be a little bit more craziness. That doesn't mean you gotta run out and ask the car salesman, hey, you know, where where does the software in this car come from? Who built it? They're not gonna know.

The Car Chick (33:52)
So don't even bother asking. And we're still figuring all that stuff out. The automakers have not made that public. That's why it's all going on behind the curtain. They have to tell the government about it, but they don't have to tell us about it. So we just have to kind of sit back and watch the shit show kind of unfold and just do our diligence. As we always have, as I always preach as consumers.

The Car Chick (34:17)
Do your homework, understand, you know, the models and the features you want and whether those are available. And if any craziness happens and things suddenly aren't available, or if a model gets pulled from the market, I will tell you. And we will just go on from there, like we always have. The pandemic taught us to be a little bit more flexible and to go with the flow. And so that's what I'm gonna do and what I would encourage you to do as well. So until next time, folks, whether you have a connected car.

The Car Chick (34:45)
Or if you're like me and you're enjoying your old analog car that has none of those things, drive it safely. I'm outta here.