STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have a tale of two auto shows, one in China, one in the United States. I had a chance to attend both. And they say something about the state of the global auto industry. The first was the annual Beijing Auto Show in 2024.
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INSKEEP: And over here is a sign for an emerging global brand, BYD, which briefly was the largest seller of electric cars in the world, surpassing Tesla.
It was a media day before the show opened to the public, yet thousands of people crowded in to see new vehicles unveiled. Our Beijing producer interpreted an announcer.
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AOWEN CAO: And these are not the only big model we will launch in this auto show. I have a surprise for you.
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INSKEEP: Dramatic shots of a red vehicle.
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INSKEEP: In the flowing crowds, we met an American auto analyst, Tu Le of the newsletter Sino Auto Insights.
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TU LE: Seven years ago, BYD vehicles were trash. But just like everything else in the China market, if you can't move fast, then you're not going to survive very long.
INSKEEP: That was the auto show in 2024 in Beijing. Just under two years later, in 2026, we attended another.
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INSKEEP: An American auto show in Detroit, where drivers can test out new models on indoor tracks.
GRETCHEN WHITMER: I'm excited to be back at the best auto show in the world.
INSKEEP: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called it that. We got a different view when we met the very same auto analyst we'd seen in China. Tu Le is a native of Detroit.
LE: When I was a kid, Steve, this show was enormous. And I was a car kid, and I loved it. It seems to be a bit of a shell of itself from back in the days.
INSKEEP: How does it compare to the Beijing auto show that you and I saw just a couple of years ago?
LE: Honestly, it doesn't. I think that Beijing and Shanghai are really the two auto shows that matter. There's still product introductions. There's still excitement.
INSKEEP: Chinese firms produce millions of electric and hybrid cars, some for just a few thousand dollar each. BYD improved its quality and more definitively passed Tesla in sales. In the U.S., Ford just abandoned its all-electric F-150 pickup truck. It cost too much to make. We discussed this in our interview at the auto show with Michigan's Governor Whitmer.
Why do you think it is that this industry that we're surrounded by is retreating on EVs, electric vehicles, which seemed to be the future a short time ago?
WHITMER: Well, we had policies that supported the transition, and now we don't. These are companies that have to make decades-long investments. They were making them. And then all of a sudden, a change in Washington, D.C., forced them to reevaluate.
INSKEEP: The Trump administration ended subsidies for electric vehicles and battery technology. EV sales were slowing in the U.S. even before that. Analyst Tu Le says Chinese firms still enjoy government support and economies of scale in a market far bigger than the U.S.
Do you look around at some of these American cars and see a sign of hope for the long-term future of the U.S. industry?
LE: I'm hopeful that we can figure it out. It seems like four or five years ago, the Detroit 2 1/2 - and I'm including Stellantis in here - they had a plan, policies that supported the plan from the U.S. government. But now that plan has kind of gotten blown up. I think poor decision-making from management but also lack of government support. This is not about clean energy now. This is about global competitiveness.
INSKEEP: U.S. auto companies have been spending much of their time responding to U.S. government tariffs, which target their manufacturing in Canada. Canada has also responded to those American tariffs. Canada's prime minister recently made a deal to lower Canadian tariffs on those cheap Chinese cars. China will reach that important market for the first time, where it will compete with American cars.
(SOUNDBITE OF RILO KILEY SONG, "PICTURES OF SUCCESS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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