On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Detroit News editor and columnist Chad Livengood about his reporting on misperceptions and contradictions surrounding the development of electric vehicle battery production facilities.

As his Aug. 31 column observed:

All of this transition to electrification is backed by huge government subsidies — just like China does with its auto industry — so the Michigan-based domestic auto industry doesn't move more production to Mexico or offshore.

While EV adoption has not occurred at the pace expected by U.S. automakers, investments in plants to produce the batteries continues at the same time Michigan and other states make progress on supporting new charging infrastructure through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) process.

Other relevant links:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2024/04/28/why-america-remains-a-forbidden-land-for-chinese-carmakers/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/business/economy/china-electric-vehicles-biden-tariffs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ngrp=ctr&pvid=EA2E2D4F-A518-4BE7-A02D-690443CDEC23