Latest / Auto Collabs / Senator Bernie Moreno on The Real State of the Auto Industry | The Merge 2025

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Senator Bernie Moreno on The Real State of the Auto Industry | The Merge 2025 · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  This episode of Auto Collabs was recorded live at The Merge 2025, hosted by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. This is Auto Collabs. All right. You know him, you love him, Senator Bernie Moreno.
• 0:10
  We're here at The Merge with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. Thank you for giving us a few minutes. Of course. It's been a- We had a great time in New York, right? Absolutely.
• 0:17
  Well, well let's talk about New York for a second because, uh, people were in a, in a m- in a mindset in New York. In a mood. In a- They were in a mood. [laughs] In a bit of a mood. [laughs] You sit.
• 0:25
  And it wasn't, and it, and it wasn't that long ago. How many months ago was this? Uh- Seven, eight months ago. Yeah, sure. Seven, eight months ago.
• 0:30
  And talk about the shift that's happened, how people were thinking then, what's actually occurred, and what you're focused on now. Well, look, the sky was falling, right?
• 0:36
  People were convinced that the auto industry was over, the economy was going to go into depression. Uh, that was the first whole half of the meeting.
• 0:43
  Automotive news, uh, was, uh, you know, top of, uh, the, uh, the panic button reporting. At the end of the day, what's happened is, uh, the- it's been a great year for the car business. Yeah.
• 0:52
  It's been a great year because what we did is we let consumers have choice. We got rid of the mandates on EVs. We got rid of California's tyranny on the auto industry.
• 1:01
  Uh, we've, we've allowed the industry to grow and thrive in America. We've seen more production come to the US. I got one stat for you that's really the most important one. Go for it.
• 1:08
  In the New York Auto Show, at that exact moment in time, 51% of the cars sold in America were made in America. That's amazing. Now it's 57. That's a- So in eight months- Big move in eight months. Yeah... we moved it six.
• 1:19
  You know what that means? A lot more good paying jobs in America. And it's not just the final assembly, it's all the tier one, tier two, tier three suppliers. We've created great high-paying jobs.
• 1:29
  So things could not be, uh, better in the auto industry right now.
• 1:32
  Obviously, as you continue, it's more focus on the same, but what are some of the pivots or moves that you're looking to, to, to push through now, uh, as you've kind of gotten that first wave of, of, of action, and, and what are the focuses now as we go into the winter?
• 1:47
  So we ha- we have to understand data. Uh, there's a lot of data being collected in automobiles. Who's the owner of that data? How do we protect privacy? We have now an AV push that is- Mm. Autonomous, yeah...
• 1:58
  re- eerily similar to the EV push. Yeah. Where all of a sudden it's like we have to go headfirst into AVs like we went ir- irrationally headfirst into EVs.
• 2:05
  We have to make certain that we have the right guardrails around that, especially around semis. Mm-hmm.
• 2:10
  Like, I don't, I don't know that it's a great idea to have, uh, autonomous semis all over American roads, just like you wouldn't fly in a plane with no pilot, even though, by the way, the pilot only flies 5% of the flight.
• 2:21
  [laughs] I'm still out on that. [laughs] You're like, "I'm out," right? That's amazing. [laughs] When you walk in, "Oh, there's no pilot," you're like, "I'm out." Yeah. [laughs] Right?
• 2:26
  So I think we have to be very careful. We don't wanna stifle innovation, but we also don't want to go irrationally into something that really may have some repercussions. What- You've got a great event today, obviously.
• 2:38
  Uh, you know John Bozzella, uh, someone bringing together, um, you know, manufacturers, policymakers, and, and investors into an event like this. You get to speak to this.
• 2:47
  What's your encouragement to this room as those three, um, uh, uh, you know, people groups are coming together to have discussions today?
• 2:55
  Well, at the beginning of the year, I would say it's, it's true, uh, now, it's true at the beginning of this year, which is it's the greatest auto market on earth. That's true. We made it dramatically better.
• 3:04
  So the message to everybody in the ecosystem is very simple.
• 3:06
  If you want to be in our market, if you wanna sell cars here in the United States, unless you have a very good reason, you need to make, make the cars here in the United States.
• 3:15
  Because again, these are the high-paying jobs that we need in this country. There's a lot coming to make the, the, uh, the environment even better. We did that with tax laws, where you can have bonus depreciation.
• 3:25
  We got rid of mandates. We're gonna harmonize the Western world standards. So if you make a car for California, Ohio, it also works in France, in Europe, in North Korea.
• 3:34
  So we wanna have harmonized standards because we have to lower the price of automobiles. That's gonna be my big message here today. Mm. We have to make cars more accessible to people.
• 3:43
  If you get to the point where you can't afford an automobile, that's not a good situation, especially for young people. All right, last question, 'cause I know you have to go.
• 3:50
  I'm gonna hand you the microphone and let you look right into the camera, and car guy to car guy, what are you saying to dealers right now? This has been a great market. Keep focusing on the things that you can control.
• 4:01
  Shut out the noise, the things that you don't control. Focus on the basic blocking, tackling. Take great care of your people. They'll take great care of your clients.
• 4:09
  Watch your expenses, and love the industry you're in because you're very lucky to be in it. There you go. If you get tired of this whole senator thing, you probably have a bright future as a consultant.
• 4:17
  [laughs] [laughs] [laughs] Thank you so much. There you go. Thank you so much. Thanks. Appreciate it. We'll see you over there. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it.