Latest / Auto Collabs / The Fight for America’s Auto Future with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell | The Merge 2025

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The Fight for America’s Auto Future with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell | 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.
• 0:09
  Here we are at Merge with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, with US Congresswoman from Michigan, Debbie Dingell. Thank you so much for giving us some time today.
• 0:16
  Thank you for asking for me to talk about my favorite subject. Yes. Ah, we heard that. Well, tell us, tell us about your favorite subject. As we were setting up, you gave- I'm a car girl... audience... Yes.
• 0:24
  Uh, but, you know, from Michigan.
• 0:26
  Worked for the auto industry for three decades, more than three decades before I went to Congress, and I think that the automobile is the backbone of the American economy, and we should all be proud of it.
• 0:38
  Tell, tell us about- That's incredible... this is the question we ask people when we have the first conversation, and they start to say, "I'm a car girl," "I'm a car guy." How did you get involved in the auto industry?
• 0:47
  What's your first, uh, first step into it? It, it, it... This gets a little complicated- [laughs] I knew it... in that... No, because I'm really proud of my roots, but I've also really worked hard my entire life. Yeah.
• 1:02
  But my grandfather was one of the Fisher brothers, so, you know, body by Fisher- [laughs] Yeah, yeah. [laughs]... uh, was kind of in my bones and blood. And, uh, so I always cared about cars. I always studied cars.
• 1:14
  I loved cars. And I went to college with the intention that I wanted to go to work for the auto industry. And what did you study in college? Foreign service. Ah. Wow. But, you know- Yeah...
• 1:25
  I mean, the auto industry is competing in a global marketplace. It, it really is- And-... especially today... especially today.
• 1:31
  And so that was, you know, I got some talents there, uh, or learned some skills there in, in terms of it. But I, I just, I don't think people appreciate how important the auto industry is to the American economy. Yeah.
• 1:45
  Why do you think, why do you think there's a gap there? Because we agree with you. And, you know, back in the day, it was General Motors, as goes General Motors, so goes the country, and that's kind of faded away.
• 1:54
  Um, why do you think there's a gap today? I think, y- you know, this is a really complicated issue. Of course. Um, I mean- Aren't they all? [laughs]... first of all, the world's changing, so, like, when...
• 2:03
  I don't- I'm not old, but I'm seasoned. You know, I, m- look, it, uh- We're gonna use that as a pull quote in the video.
• 2:11
  [laughs] But I was, like, when I was in high school, I was one of the kids going up and down Woodward Avenue. We cared about what our cars looked like. They were a reflection of who we were and what we are.
• 2:21
  And, you know, we just talked cars- Mm-hmm... you know, boys and girls. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Just we talked about cars, and I've always loved them.
• 2:27
  I don't think people love their cars the way that they did when, um, I was young, and the style and the... Just, you know, think of what... Yeah, they were- They were a center point of pop culture in a lot of senses.
• 2:39
  Yeah. I mean, and they were, the style of those cars, the body of those cars really just reflected who and what we were at the time. And yeah, they were bad for safety.
• 2:50
  They had too many polish- [laughs] Leaked everything from everywhere. Right. Everything that was, you know, wrong with them, but- Let's start somewhere... we lived. We survived. Yeah. You made it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know?
• 3:00
  I, we didn't even have seat belts. I mean, you can't- Hey, I remember, like, as a kid, laying on that back area between the back windshield- Oh... right? Like, a long trip.
• 3:10
  Very dangerous, and we- I had a backward station wagon as a kid. Yeah. I had no idea about you- Oh, so you remember it? Oh. It, and the wood that was on the- Oh, the wood panels...
• 3:16
  side of those, I mean, they, they were beautiful cars. Absolutely. They had style, design- [laughs]... energy, culture.
• 3:22
  You know, but I'm gonna bring it forward because I think as we've been talking, especially the last couple years, because of all the talks around EVs, autonomy, um, you know, uh, uh, you know, the, the global game of auto, I think there is a lot coming back to the public eye, to the perception of what it looks, what it means to own this brand or that type of vehicle, and so that's, it's starting to kind of, like, bubble up as- It's bubbling.
• 3:49
  Yeah. So I wanna, uh, I mean, like, you know, I'm s- sitting here, it's, we're bringing memories. I'm not old, guys. Just remember that. Seasoned. We got it. We got it.
• 3:56
  But do you remember the Volkswagen Bug and, I mean, how, you know, when you were in college, it was even an extension of your personality. Yeah.
• 4:02
  I do think, like, I d- have a visceral reaction when I see a certain Tesla vehicle on the, that looks like a tank. Um- Yeah. [laughs] It, uh, I don't But it's an extension of some per- people's identity. It's identity.
• 4:15
  It is. Right? That's what he's saying. So. [laughs] And that's probably one of the more identifiable models- Sure... on the car. I'd say the most identifiable model, I would say. Okay, the most.
• 4:22
  I'll go, I'll g- I would say that... agree with that 100%, which is why I brought it up. You know, uh, but you are beginning to s- s- I think, more attention given to design.
• 4:31
  People are, will al- there'll always be Corvette collectors and- Yeah. Right... Corvette, but the Mustang. You know, think about those vehicles that we all loved, and you are seeing some of them come back.
• 4:41
  And then for some people, they don't care what the car looks like. It's an affordability issue- That's right... on both how much it costs and how much it costs to run it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:50
  Well, let, let's get into this 'cause we don't have a, a ton of time, but, um, you're doing a lot of work. You've always been an advocate in Congress for the auto industry. What are you focused on right now?
• 5:00
  Well, I think that, believe it or not, it's been almost 20 years, uh, since 2008, which was one of the worst- Oof... times for the auto industry in the history- I remember it very distinctly. Yeah. Yeah, all of us do.
• 5:14
  Uh, and nobody in Congress ever wanted to talk about the auto industry again. It was just a very hard, divisive time- Mm... for everybody involved. Well, like it or not, w- we need to be worried about the auto industry.
• 5:27
  Uh, they unfortunately become a ping pong ball between administrations. Mm. There's never any certainty.
• 5:33
  Uh, we're competing with other countries, China being the biggest, that wants to put us out of business, wants to become the world leader, and I am not gonna secede one inch to China on innovation, technology, or our being a global leader.
• 5:47
  So we gotta work to make sure that w- we put the world on wheels, and we wanna stay at the forefront of that. So how do we do that? And I focus on that.
• 5:55
  Like, what's, what's one thing, 'cause we've been hearing from other guests about, uh, one, one guest called it whip sawing- Well, it is... just the back and forth from one to the next.
• 6:01
  It is whip sa- but, you know, I, when-I'm trying to find people inside this administration that you can work with. Yeah. But one of the, um, we're still, EVs are... We can say th- this,
• 6:16
  I'm trying not to point fingers at anybody, but they are being whipsawed. Mm-hmm. Let's be really clear about that. So you get one administration that comes in and EVs are it, wanna go to 100% EVs.
• 6:26
  You get the next one that hates EVs and doesn't wanna see one on the road. Well, here's the reality.
• 6:31
  The reality is we're competing in a global marketplace, and we may have an administration that doesn't like EVs, but there are lots of other countries that do.
• 6:40
  So we have to make sure that our domestic auto industry is competitive- Yeah... that it's building for both the domestic market and the global market. And so we gotta be more intentional.
• 6:51
  So- And the consumer has a say, too. Uh, the consu- A lot of consumers love EVs. A lot of consumers- Maybe not to the level that we try to mandate, however- But we got-... um, it's growing...
• 6:59
  pro- people want them, but they can't afford them. Yeah. You know, what ha- we had a tax credit that was there as you're transitioning. Mm-hmm. You know, any transition period where you're
• 7:10
  b- b- building up, building what you need to do to actually get volume, and when you get larger volume, prices go down.
• 7:17
  Well, instead of letting the normal marketplace work that way, we've just, like, pulled out the rug and demonized them. And, and it, one of the pro- I mean, there are a thousand problems we could talk about.
• 7:27
  We could do this for days. [laughs] But we also, and people who are in EV wanna be able to ch- jump, wanna n- we've just, like- Yeah, the charging network, yeah... cold stopped the charging network, too.
• 7:38
  So people don't have the confidence- That's a chicken and egg conversation... that they're gonna... It's a chicken egg conversation. So these, everybody's being whipsawed. Mm-hmm.
• 7:45
  And it's not, every company needs certainty. Yeah. That's one of the things that, uh, we need to be demanding, uh, in a bipartisan way, certainty. Yeah. We cannot whipsaw businesses 'cause we will not be competitive.
• 7:57
  Because then they won't get the investments. Yeah, everybody- They won't get the people backing them. They're not getting them. That's- The retail side of the business won't back those businesses- No...
• 8:03
  because they don't know what's next. I mean, it's a problem. Yeah, yeah. And w- that's a compe- that's a global marketplace issue. That's right. We got other count- China wants to destroy the industry. Mm-hmm.
• 8:10
  They wanna take over. Well, it's not only an economic security issue, it's a national security issue. Yeah, fully agree. Yeah. Fully agree. Uh- I, I, well, uh, you're not passionate about it at all. [laughs] Oh, no. No.
• 8:22
  We have one last fun question for you. What's your favorite vehicle of all time? Probably hard. It is hard. I mean, but- You can give me two... uh, um, I mean, my first car was a Camaro. Oh, wow.
• 8:34
  Um, so I, I, y- I like to have a little slickness in it. Oh, fun. I have to say this to you now.
• 8:40
  You know, I mean, I obviously told you what my background was, so, um, but I lived in Dearborn, and when I got elected to Congress, I have a lot of workers that work for Ford and for GM, so I have two vehicles.
• 8:55
  [laughs] And one's always a GM, and one's always a Ford, and y- you have to like the Mustang, too. There you go. Yeah. That's good. Congresswoman, thank you so much for- Thank you so much for your time...
• 9:03
  fighting for this industry- Love them... and, and giving us your time today. It, thank you