The Heartland

[tonybelding]

This morning I did a little experiment. I went downtown, here in Hamilton, and I walked around the courthouse, the town square, and I counted all the parked cars. I tallied up the American makes and the foreign makes. (I did count Chrysler-Dodge-Ram-Jeep as American, even though they're part of FCA.) The result: 52 American cars. 4 foreign.

To be specific, there was one each of Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Kia.

The reason I wanted to report this was because I think a lot of people from the east and west coasts, and in the mega-cities, don't realize what it's like out here. This little town has one new car dealership, and it's a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram house. All the new car dealerships in all the neighboring towns are US brands too.

This is tangentally related to EVs, too. Just ask yourself. . . If the big names in EVs are shaping up to be Tesla, Nissan and Volkswagen, which of them are going to get traction in places like this, and how hard is it going to be?

 

[strider]

It's a little different up here. While people are patriotic, they are also practical. For that reason the Korean makers are doing quite well here. You get more car for your dollar from them than other brands. Many people here are surprised to learn that Teslas are made in the US, but they are universally viewed as being too expensive. Gas is crazy cheap here (though so is electricity) and people tend the keep cars for a long time so it will be a slow cycle. Also, Tesla is a very new company and their track record is limited. People here wait quite a while before doing new things.