Latest / Auto Collabs / Why Consumer Choice Is the Real Fight in Auto Policy with Drew Ferguson | Public Policy Day 2026

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Why Consumer Choice Is the Real Fight in Auto Policy with Drew Ferguson | Public Policy Day 2026 · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  On this episode of Auto Collabs, we're live at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show for Public Policy Day 2026, brought to you by our friends at Safeway.
• 0:09
  [upbeat music] All right, we are here at Policy Day with our friend Drew Ferguson, head of office of pol- of, uh, government affairs- Yeah... with Hyundai Motors. Nailed it.
• 0:19
  Uh, man, thanks for spending a little time with us again. We got to meet you back at the Merge with, uh, Automotive- Yeah... Alliance for Innovation a few months ago, and now sitting here, uh, at Policy Day.
• 0:30
  I'd, I'd love to hear, there's, uh, if a quarter can say anything about, uh, the auto industry- Oh, it's-... this quarter has done plenty- It's done a lot, yeah... uh, to, to say a lot about it.
• 0:40
  Um, what's kind of transpired in, in the world of Hyundai Kia, uh, over the last quarter and, and what are you, uh, what are the problems that you're, that you're working through right now?
• 0:50
  Well, look, I th- I think the thing that has shown through is that this amazing company, Hyundai and Kia and Genesis, has never lost its focus on, on building phenomenal automobiles, delivering those to a customer at value.
• 1:05
  And then I think it's also reinforced the, the commitment of the company to continue to invest here in America and play a bigger role in the automotive industry here.
• 1:15
  And, um, and so I, I, I don't think it's one of those things where you look at it and go, "What are the challenges?" We look at it and go, you know, "How do we get, how do we stay very focused on what we're doing?"
• 1:25
  Because it doesn't change. The, the policy changes a lot over a long ti- over a long period of time,
• 1:31
  and what the company has to do is stay steady and focused, and I think we've proven that we've done a great job of that.
• 1:37
  Uh, just, we were just on with Alex of US News, and you just had the opportunity, uh, to, to share in the celebration of being, of the Kia Niro, right? Yeah.
• 1:47
  Uh, being, it's, the, the most affordable or the, uh- Best value... best value in its class. Yeah. Uh, talk a little bit about that vehicle and its success and, and what it means to the market and to the brand.
• 1:57
  Look, it, I, I think it speaks a lot to innovation. I think it speaks to the company's innovation and, and again, focusing on meeting the customer where they are.
• 2:07
  You hear a lot, you hear that term used a lot, but, you know, I, I think, I think Hyundai and Kia and Genesis have done a great job of listening to what customers want.
• 2:17
  And the one thing I can tell you, it is a very broad array of products, right? And so this, this fills a niche.
• 2:25
  It starts, it has started down a road of innovation and creativity and engineering that has, that, that is, that is beginning to fill a spot in the market.
• 2:35
  And that's really what, that's really what we wanna do, is to f- is to be able to have stability and to be able to think about how we meet that customer's needs where they are.
• 2:47
  Just so happens, it happens to be a really cool car- [laughs]... with a really cool technology. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:52
  So when you think of government affairs, I think, uh, public sentiment could go multiple directions, and sometimes they might think like, "Well, if an OEM is involved in government affairs, they're just trying to get their way so that they can do what they wanna do."
• 3:05
  But really there's a whole focus of it that is delivering to the consumer what the consumer's asking for.
• 3:11
  So how is your office and your approach, uh, advocating for the consumer in these times when affordability and all these, you know, uh- Fuel economy and everything. Yeah...
• 3:19
  right, there's, there's like this soup of conversation going on. All right, so I'm gon- I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna put my former hat on, which was a member of Congress. Beautiful. Right. Yeah. Okay? I like it.
• 3:28
  All right. So as a member of Congress, you, you were, you're expected to know a lot about a lot of different things, right?
• 3:37
  And so i- when you, when you think about it from that perspective, how many members of Congress have actually designed and built cars? Hmm. Yeah. Okay? It's not, it's, it's- It's a really short list.
• 3:48
  Well, how many, uh... Yeah. And, and- And then you go down the list. It's not just cars. It's like have they ever plowed a field? Have they sat, stood in a restaurant and flipped burgers? Yeah. Have they...
• 3:56
  All of the, all of the industries that they- Mm-hmm... like you said, you have to pay attention to at some level, right? Ex- exactly.
• 4:01
  And so a lot of what happens is, is that, uh, information starts flowing around Capitol Hill, and you, you can't assume that a legislator, House member, Republican, Democrat, Senate, sometimes even within the administration, understands the impact of the policy decisions that they're making.
• 4:21
  Hmm. Right? And I think it's important to go in and really talk about how those, how those policy decisions impact the company's ability to do what we've been talking about, which is to meet the consumer where they are.
• 4:35
  Um, and, and, and, and I think that that's really what good, um, government affairs does, is that they g- they go in, not just with our company, but across the board. Again, I got my former member hat on here.
• 4:46
  Um, you know, if you give good information, okay- Yeah... uh, members can think through that. And, and, and at the end of it, every policy decision has an economic impact in some shape, form, or fashion- Right...
• 5:01
  on the constituents that you represent. Yeah.
• 5:03
  And making sure that you make sound, solid decisions based on really good information, um, from companies really helps the legislators do a, do a good job for their constituents.
• 5:14
  Sometimes you win those arguments, sometimes you don't, but at the end of the day, you know, we, we wanna make sure that, that legislators have the right information so that they can begin to think about, okay, if I vote this way or that way, what's the impact that it has on the s- roughly 750 to 780,000 people that you're, that you're pr- privileged to represent.
• 5:34
  Yeah, and I mean, w- we're here on Policy Day, and that's the, that's the whole point of this day- Yeah... is to kind of like share that level of education at different levels, right?
• 5:41
  All the way from Congress, uh, people to dealers that are involved in this conversation to the technology partners that provide OEMs or dealers with their technology.
• 5:51
  And, and marrying that and meeting in the middle, I think is, is the way that any OEM, any, any congressperson would, would desire to have that met, right? Yeah.
• 6:00
  And it's, um, you know, the, the comment a few minutes ago, s- you know, automotive industry in the US every year generates a $1.5 trillion of economic activity- That's unbelievable...
• 6:11
  accounts for a little over 5% of, of our gross dome- gross domestic product. These are big numbers. They have big impacts.
• 6:19
  Um, obviously, uh, we're, we're seeing the impact of policy on, on geopolitical events around the world.
• 6:27
  Um, but at the end of the day, it's a big number, and it matters because people are passionate about their cars for a variety of reasons.
• 6:35
  Whether you're driving one of our EVs, that happens to be about the coolest thing in, um, in, uh, you know, the, that you can drive on the road.
• 6:43
  Whether you're dealing, you know, whether, whether you're aware of hybrids are. If it's internal combustion engines. Really what you want is y- you, again, I go back to this. The consumer wants a choice.
• 6:54
  We wanna make sure that we've got the, the right environment to provide those, the, those consumers the choices that they want. And so I think that at, at the end of the day, if, if you're not,
• 7:05
  if you're not engaged with the consumer, then y- y- you're completely out of touch with what you should be doing. Hmm. Well, Drew, it, thank you for sharing a few minutes with us today.
• 7:16
  It's so good to know that even from, uh, something that I think a large part of our audience doesn't think of on a day-to-day basis, it's good to know that we have you advocating for the consumers, because all of that trickles down to the dealerships, to the front line.
• 7:29
  It does. So thank you for the work that you do and joining us today. And, and never forget, it's not just the consumer.
• 7:34
  It's the men and women across this country that have the privilege of building amazing vehicles, servicing amazing vehicles, selling amazing vehicles. It's, it, it is an entire ecosystem.
• 7:45
  And so when you, when you touch one part of the ecosystem, it sends shock waves throughout everything else-