TICK, TICK, TICK.
Editor's Note: Peter savages the incompetence in Washington, which has left the Detroit automakers reeling and will prove to be the end of a once-glorious American industrial icon. In On The Table, Stellantis is trying to convince us that the 392 Wrangler is a good thing. This just in: It's not. We also revisit the performance numbers for the 2026 Corvette ZR1X. And, in the next installment of Alain de Cadenet's "Victory By Design" videos, he covers the Corvette, including a look at one of Tony DeLorenzo's Owens/Corning Fiberglas racers. Our AE Song of the Week is "Heroes" by David Bowie. In Fumes, Peter recounts the emergence of the competition Cobra, and how it shocked the racing world. And in The Line, we preview the Cadillac Formula 1® Team’s Special Edition testing livery, and also, the new Red Bull Racing livery. We're on it! -WG
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
Detroit. It would be easy to beat up on the Detroit Auto Show again (Peter already did that in last week’s “On The Table” – WG), but there’s really no point. It is what it is – a regional auto show showcasing an industry mired in a holding pattern dictated by an maliciously incompetent administration in Washington that, with each passing model year, will not only put “Detroit” further and further behind the curve, but with what’s happening in the rest of the world too. You wouldn't know that, of course, by listening to GM CEO Mary Barra or Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, who both suggested that their respective futures are bright and that "It won't be long now!"
Frankly, this attitude will prove to be a giant bowl of Not Good.
Make no mistake, I’m a confirmed Internal Combustion Engine junkie, but I will shuffle off of this Mortal Coil eventually, and I know that the wonderful sounds of those spectacular powerplants will eventually fade from view too, except in vintage applications, motorsports (hopefully) and $1 million+ exotica reserved for extremely wealthy auto enthusiasts.
But even after delineating the long list of negatives associated with our current crop of EVs, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that with tremendous strides in advanced, energy-dense, lightweight batteries, dramatically reduced costs and a rapidly developing charging infrastructure, Electric Vehicles will eventually dominate our mainstream transportation landscape. Will ICE vehicles go away completely? Absolutely not. They will continue on almost indefinitely, extended by hybrids and such, but the writing is on the wall when it comes to our nation’s fleet: EVs will come to the fore.
But therein lies the quandary. While the rest of the automotive world accelerates EV development, Detroit is on hold because this administration’s industrial policy revolves around nonsensical tariffs, while at the same time punishing any and all EV development. This has caused the collective “Detroit” to eat billions upon billions of EV development costs, while switching their focus back to ICE architectures. At least for the time being, anyway.
So, the denizens of the Motor City are faced with churning out Crossovers, Trucks and SUVs – how much is that a month, again? – in order to generate near-term profits and keep the lights on, while maintaining more than a passing interest in developing EV technology on the side, until something concrete changes in Washington.
As you might imagine, this is simply not a sustainable scenario. The Detroit-based automakers, already crippled by the financial hits they took while pivoting away from EVs in order to appease the stumblebums in Washington, are reeling. At least some of the deep thinkers at these companies understand that the U.S. auto industry could end up going the way of England’s “cottage” auto industry, churning out vehicles popular in this nation, only. Again, this is simply not sustainable.
I’m as tired as probably all of you are of hearing how the Chinese are dominating the global stage when it comes to developments in battery and charging technology, and of course, EVs themselves. But being tired of hearing about it doesn’t make it any less ominous or any less true.
As I’ve stated repeatedly, the days of the “Motor City” being the center of the automotive universe are long gone. And the head-in-sand local media insisting that’s not the case during auto show “week” has been both tedious and pathetic.
And so here we are. Our domestic auto industry is being forced to march to a drummer that is grossly out of touch with reality, bludgeoned and beaten by the current administration in our nation’s capital, which is convinced it knows everything while it clearly doesn’t, and at the same time insisting that fixing the U.S. auto industry is just a matter of “flipping a switch.” The gross incompetence of these clowns is only surpassed by their egregious negligence.
We as consumers may find solace in the fact that we can still get somewhat decent buys and leases on our SUVs and pickups – who am I kidding? The costs of our transportation choices will continue to skyrocket – but the ugly reality is that this whole damn circus – aka “Detroit” as we know it – is on borrowed time.
We all may wish otherwise, but it won’t do any of us the least bit of good.
The clock is ticking on a once-glorious American industrial icon, and I don’t know about you, but it really pisses me off.
And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.
Editor's Note: Click on "Next 1 Entries" at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. - WG