We Now Have Proof That Elon Musk Should Buy An International Scout

One of my side projects is psyching myself out over the impending election, which means I will dive deeper into polling data on occasion to see what’s what. Much to my amusement, one of the bigger national polls decided to poll Tesla CEO Elon Musk. How’s he doing? Ehh…

I’m having a little fun with the headline of The Morning Dump this fine day because there’s a campaign video of Governor Tim Walz talking about his International Scout and there was some internal debate over whether we should cover it or not. Is it too political? We don’t want people turned off from this site because they have a specific political view.

But it would be a mistake to pretend as if politics doesn’t dramatically impact the way we enjoy our hobby. Rather than stick our heads under our hoods, it’s important to see what’s going on in the world. As we’ve seen lately, enthusiasts have won big concessions recently by actively engaging when necessary. So I’ll do a quick thing on the Musk/Walz.

Here’s something not political: The White House is touting its $1 billion fund to help suppliers make the transition to electric cars. Nope, not political at all. Neither is Italy seizing millions of dollars from the Chairman of Stellantis and his siblings over possible tax fraud. And, finally, Europe is freaking out over how far ahead China is on software and everything else as it confronts a future where they can’t just print money in Asia.

We Now Have Data Showing Tesla CEO Elon Musk Is Losing His Appeal

We have already established here that VP candidate and Democratic Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz is probably a car guy , and his new political ad’s brief explanation of how to keep your early cruise control running on an International Scout II is likely more proof (this appears to be a dealer-installed/Dana-designed system available for many similar vehicles like David’s old 1979 Jeep Cherokee). I’d like to interview Walz to know exactly what he did and what he had a shop do on his vehicle, but it seems reasonable to assume from all the evidence that he knows his way around a car and that he enjoys cars.

This may contribute to his overall likeability, which a recent poll from NBC News shows is quite high. In fact, if you dive into the crosstabs and details (Note: don’t become the person who dives into crosstabs if you treasure your sanity) then you’ll discover that Walz has the second-highest net positive score of anything polled, behind the concept of Capitalism and just ahead of Taylor Swift.

If you’re looking for actual information about how to work on your car in the short video you’ll be disappointed as it’s mostly a way for Walz to try and link former President Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance to “Project 2025,” which is less popular than Socialism and, presumably, genital warts.

What struck me most, however, was that NBC News is still polling Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He is one of the richest and most influential men in the world, so it sort of makes sense, but he’s also the only automotive CEO (or ever, really) regularly polled. This particular poll has been intermittently looking at Musks’s popularity since August 2021, and he’s gone from a net positive (+5) to a net negative (-11). Last week I asked if there was any hard data to support the idea of Musk bleeding popularity and it looks like we have some.

It’s been previously shown that what Musk does is a turnoff to some buyers, though Tesla remains popular either because of or despite his views. It’s a strange time to live in, however, as they’re not polling Mary Barra’s favorable/unfavorable ratings and I assume GM shareholders are quite pleased they’re not. Though automotive companies and CEOs do give to campaigns, it’s extremely rare for car execs to make a big deal out of their views while actively being a part of the business. The risk just seems extremely high.

At some level, engaging in politics at all is going to drive people who were neutral about you to suddenly have strong opinions. Even Taylor Swift saw her “Very Negative” rating jump from 9% to 19% post-endorsement. As Musk has made his opinions more widely known his “Neutrals” have dropped from 33% to 18% as, via Twitter/X, he’s basically made people have to care about, or at least be aware of,  his political opinions.

I don’t know the politics of most car execs and, frankly, I’m probably happier that way. To some extent, this also shows the power of people not knowing or caring too much about you. Part of the reason why Walz may have a net positive favorability is that a lot of people don’t know much about him.

After a few years working in politics, my advice for both Elon Musk and anyone entering into politics is the following:

• Don’t tweet everything you believe.
• Buy an old truck like an International Scout, vintage Bronco, or Dodge Raider.
• Rake in profits from people who love you and your cars

How The White House Will Raise $1 Billion To Help Suppliers Transition To The Future

It’s not possible to shift all of the auto industry in this country, or any country, without bringing along the many suppliers that make up a large percentage of the parts that make modern vehicles operate. To that end, the Biden Administration has tapped Monroe Capital to help raise a $1 billion fund to provide low-cost financing to suppliers who are trying to pivot from greasy bits to electrons.

From Crain’s Chicago Business via Automotive News:

The White House has chosen Chicago’s Monroe Capital to raise a $1 billion private credit fund devoted to funneling money into the U.S. automotive supply chain.

The Drive Forward Fund will raise money from institutional investors and receive additional capital from U.S. Small Business Administration loans, Monroe Capital’s chairman and CEO, Theodore Koenig, said.

“This is an underserved market from a financing standpoint,” Koenig told Crain’s in an interview. “There is a ton of demand. We have got the EV industry, autonomous driving. We have got batteries. We have got all kinds of software.”

Koenig said the automotive supply chain is a trillion-dollar industry, representing 5% of the U.S. GDP. He added the White House reached out to them when developing the program.

The timing is curious as electrification has slowed a bit, so the addition of autonomous driving and software is interesting.

Stellantis Chair Part Of $84 Million Tax Seizure

It’s been more than a year since I’ve written about the ongoing lawsuit over a huge inheritance from the Agnelli estate. Here’s how I explained it at the time:

This all goes back to Gianni Agnelli, the legendary head of Fiat who turned the company (and the country of Italy) around after WWII. His daughter Margherita inherited about $1.3 billion from the estate and agreed to split that up between three of her children. Margherita, though, had five other kids with her second husband, and she’s trying to make sure they’re not going to get cut out.

There’s no resolution, yet, but an Italian judge did seize a bunch of money from Stellantis Chair/Ferrari Chair John Elkann (pictured here with the Pope, Olivier Francois, and an unknown man) this week. The dispute seems to be over whether or not Elkann’s grandmother, Marella Caracciolo, lived in Switzerland or Italy:

Prosecutors in the northern city of Turin said in a statement that their investigation showed that Caracciolo was a resident in Italy from at least 2010 and not Switzerland, and that her inheritance therefore should have been taxed in Italy.

They said claims she had been based in Switzerland were part of “a criminal plan to hide her substantial assets and related income from Italian inheritance and tax laws”.

The Elkann/Agnelli family have been the country’s most important industrialists for at least the last half-century, though the Italian government has been a little less favorable to the family’s companies lately. I don’t have enough insight into Italian politics to know if this is related or not.

The Video That Freaked Out Mercedes

Chinese automaker Nio put out a short clip earlier this year (you can see it here if it doesn’t embed) of a Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, a LiXiang L9, and a Nio ET9 doing this test where they try to balance a set of champagne glasses on the hood of a car while driving over offset bumps.

This works because the ET9 has “Sky Ride,” which is its version of an active suspension system that uses independently controlled shock absorbers with hydraulic pumps at each corner. It’s an interesting trick and, according to Manager Magazine (Google Translated), it caused quite a concern for the folks back in Stuttgart.

“[T]he management reacted nervously to Nio’s attempt. The model’s business class version is longer than the long version of the S-Class, Nio offers it at a similar price but with more features, one of the top executives summarizes: “Why do I still need the S-Class?”

And – this is also what the video that went viral in China shows – in addition to Nio, other Chinese car manufacturers also want to be premium. Li Auto, Xiaomi , Aito, Zeekr: companies that didn’t even exist a few years ago or that didn’t build cars until recently and are now barely out of the prototype phase.

The speed of change has taken the Germans completely by surprise.

Almost half of S-Class models are sold in China, but so far those sales are down 9% for the year, causing the plant that makes the S-Class to drop to a single shift. Mercedes also warned of lower profits because of China.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

I usually try to do songs here because, I hope, I’ll continue to do TMD for a while and I don’t want to run out of artists or albums. Today will be an exception because I found a link to My Bloody Valentine’s full album “Loveless” on YouTube, like a sleeve of Oreos, once you start you just gotta finish the whole thing.

The Big Question

What would you like to see polled? I don’t particularly care how popular Taylor Swift is (and the less I hear about RFK Jr the better, apparently). Personally, I’d like to see the popularity of “Romantic Partners Who Can Drive Stick” polled.