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Table of Contents
⚡ This Week’s Big Charge
💡 Detroit, China, And The Risks Of Backing Off
The Detroit Auto Show press days were this week, and thanks to some crud I picked up at CES, I could only be there in spirit. But two things have been on my mind as I covered it from afar.
The first is how important this show was, once. When I started covering the auto industry nearly 15 years ago, Detroit was our Super Bowl—the year’s biggest news event, with days of press conferences as automakers battled for headlines and buyer attention.
We used to wear suits and ties. We wanted to look nice for the cars.
The second thing is that Detroit was where I saw my first Chinese car: a GAC, then primarily a maker of licensed Hondas and cars with American-developed hybrid tech. Back then, we thought it was kind of a joke.
It’s safe to say no one is laughing at China’s auto industry anymore.
But the Detroit show raises a key question: is the American auto industry positioned to thrive, struggle, or fall behind China in 2026—and what would falling behind actually look like?
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🇺🇸 The State Of Things In Detroit, And Beyond:
“The show will always reflect what’s happening in the industry at the consumer level,” Todd Szott, car dealer and 2026 Detroit show chairman, told the AP. “Obviously, things have changed in the EV landscape.”
That’s a bit reductive: General Motors actually had a great year selling EVs in 2025, up 40% year-over-year and the top EV seller behind Tesla.
But GM’s EV sales slowed sharply in Q4, echoing a broader industry slowdown. Ford and Stellantis fared worse, posting weaker year-over-year results while canceling models and facing a more uncertain path ahead.
The culprits: no more EV tax credit, and weakened fuel economy rules are no longer driving a more electric market by the 2030s.
Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, President Donald Trump said he “loves” electric cars (and Elon Musk), but also boasted of ending “the crusade to kill American energy” and “the radical left war on oil and gas.”
Thus, the Detroit show meant a pivot back to gas, which is more profitable anyway. Take Ford: its big story was the debut of various Ford Racing initiatives, and new high-performance Mustang and Bronco models.
Yet the latest data shows those moves seem to put the U.S. out of step with global trends.