Directly Current: EVs for All America

Jamie Butters was the Editor in Chief of Automotive News, has covered the Motor City at outlets like the Wall Street Journal, and is hosting a regular radio show called Auto Town speaking to folks inside the American car industry. Max speaks with him to get an idea at how Detroit is doing in the current US moment where oil prices are high, consumers love hybrids, and fuel standards are absent, giving automakers a spout of relief but also uncertainty for the future ahead as Chinese cars continue their global conquest abroad. 
Max and Jamie go over
- The pause in fuel economy standards giving American automakers relief
- Hybrid portfolios and the hype over "EREVs" in Detroit
- The tension of value per dollar to the consumer and privacy/national domestic manufacturing that Chinese EVs present to North America
- The enduring, emotional appeal of combustion to enthusiasts
🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

Resources and Links:
Listen to Jamie's Auto Town on Radio or Podcast Feeds

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Transportation electrification is often framed in environmental terms, but Ben Prochazaka and his colleagues at the Electrification Coalition present a different reason to plug in. Oil dependence is a dangerous addiction for economic and geopolitical reasons, as current events have reminded many Americans. He joins the show to explain the progress made in EVs, both passenger and freight, and how barriers like affordability are rapidly becoming less steep.
Max and Ben go over
- The roadblocks to EVs in charging, supply chain, and affordability
- Oil dependency in the US and why electrification is a must
- The progress in medium and heavy duty electrification with Tesla Semi
- The unfair surface transportation bill being proposed to unduly tax EV drivers
🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

Resources and Links:
Tell your Congress person about the unfair EV bill
Stay tuned to the Electrification Roadmap
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Many new EVs like GM's EV pickup trucks, Ford's upcoming UEV, and Tesla's Cybertruck are capable of exporting onboard power from their large batteries into someone's home to act as a bckup generator, or even back into the grid to act as a grid stabilizer that could save people money on their bill each month. This is the promise of vehicle-to-grid. However,. the rules around vehicle-grid interconnection are fractured, local, and still nascent. Zach and his team at the Vehicle Grid Integration Council (VGIC) have been working to change that, making sure EVs and utilities are ready for the future in a safe, responsible way.
Max and Zach go over
- The bottlenecks to adoption that have slowed the technology
- The promise VGI has for a more strained than ever grid
- The work some states like Maryland have done to advance the ball
- The interoperability problem around vehicles, chargers, and gateway switches
- Driving down the cost of V2G systems, which are expensive today
🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

Resources and Links:
Check out VGIC's work
Follow Zach on LinkedIn
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James Bell is the head of PR and comms for Kia in America, and he's overseen the brand evolve from being a budget/used car alternative into a premium competitor, particularly in the EV space. Hot on the heels of announcing the affordable EV3 for the US, James speaks with Max to discuss how Kia isn't letting up on its EV platforms and strategy despite the doom and gloom of some US market forecasters. In fact, he's quite confident EVs are an inevitable future for passenger transport, even if some of his colleagues at other OEMs are taking big writedowns and blaming EVs for strategy failures.
Max and James go over
- Kia's reinvention as a premium, tech-forward brand competing with European auto
- The Georgia plants where many Kia are built in the US and consumers wanting desirable product regardless of origin
- The new EV3 which competes with the Bolt and Nissan LEAF as an affordable but desirable compact car
- His experience almost running out of range in a tiny Mercedes B-class electric during the very early days of EVs
🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

Resources and Links:
Check out the new Kia EV3

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Alan Clarke, executive director of Advanced EV Programs at Ford, joins Max to discuss his team's work on the Universal EV Platform—an ambitious plan to make low-cost, next-gen vehicles that make the existing Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning look old-school. Ford's first BEV efforts were well received but had no path to profitability and were simply too expensive for consumers. Now, his team of Tesla vets and auto industry outsiders is using first principles engineering to do more with less, starting with a Ranger-sized pickup truck around $30,000.
Max and Alan go over
- The engineering tradeoffs going into the design like battery chemistry choices
- Emerging use cases like vehicle to grid and vehicle to home
- What first principals engineering looks like and the benefit of starting fresh
- Merging Michigan and California cultures to create a startup environment inside of one of the world's largest automakers
🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform
Resources and Links:
Check out Ford's Bounty Hunters video
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Support EVs for All America (and buy our merch!)