Looking Out - The Podcast

Five months ago, we recorded our most incendiary episode yet. In The EV Inferno, we wondered whether EV sales were about to fall off a cliff, or whether we’d just hit a bump in the road.

With the benefit of time, the picture’s becoming a little clearer, if no cleaner.

In this episode, we look at how the EV market might be fracturing between the EU, the US, and China, and what that means for legacy OEMs and startups, particularly when it comes to plug-in hybrids.

Of course, we can’t escape the travails at Tesla, and we look at the strengths that old-school car makers are bringing to the EV market as companies like Fisker stumble and fall.

📨 Subscribe to Looking Out - The Newsletter, the partner newsletter to this podcast.
https://automobility.substack.com

🤝 Connect with us on LinkedIn
Drew -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewpasmith/
Joe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-simpson-92863a2/

📸 Follow us on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lookingoutpodcast/

⏰ Time stamps
00:00 Pre-roll
00:55 Intro
04:11 The U.S. Market View
08:10 Tesla cancels the $25k czar
19:03 The return of the hybridc
24:17 OEMs are failing to effectively educate consumers
32:14 Is China running a different race?
33:30 The risk to consumers of EV startups failing
39:49 We were wrong about BMW's EV strategy 
52:01 Outro
52:13 Post-roll

🎧 Listen and subscribe to the podcast
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/looking-out-the-podcast/id1636199763
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0YschSrj672jQOGt3R5eE5?si=a65818eba9de47c1
Other platforms and streaming - https://podcast.lookingout.io

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

Sibilio. Bravo. Stratos. Magnum. And Shamal. Joe and Drew celebrate Gandini’s life and his greatest hits.

We also cover the BMW Vision Neue Klasse X, Euro NCAP’s physical button mandate, and a conversation about great gas station meals leads to us pondering the future of the road stop.

📨 Subscribe to Looking Out - The Newsletter, the partner to the podcast.
https://automobility.substack.com

🤝 Connect with us on LinkedIn
Drew - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewpasmith/
Joe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-s-92863a2/

📸 Follow us on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lookingoutpodcast/

⏰ Time stamps
00:00 Pre-roll 
00:30 Intro
01:39 Joe's apology
02:59 The death of Marcello Gandini, and Gandini's Top Trumps
19:53 BMW's Neue Klasse X
29:28 Euro NCAP's knob incentive
41:59 Our favourite gas station meals (and the future of the gas station)_
52:08 Outro

🎧 Listen and subscribe to the podcast
Apple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/looking-out-the-podcast/id1636199763
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0YschSrj672jQOGt3R5eE5?si=b1fb76f852244649
Other platforms and streaming - https://podcast.lookingout.io

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

The death of the desirable hatchback has been exaggerated. In the space of two weeks, we've been gifted the new Renault R5 and the Rivian R3 and R3X. We discuss their design, and what they mean for their respective manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the death of the Apple Car is now (almost definitely) certain and we explore why Apple finally caved.

And we also discuss what's happening to design in the C-Suite, and whether maybe our time at the big table is up, and whether that's actually a bad thing.

📨 Subscribe to Looking Out - The Newsletter, the partner to the podcast.
https://automobility.substack.com

🤝 Connect with us on LinkedIn
Drew - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewpasmith/
Joe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-s-92863a2/

🔗 Links
 @apolaine interviews Peter Merholz about the state of the design nation: https://www.youtube.com/live/XLQ3hnbdKcM?si=G-SsdVC4fv7XqAPk

Robert Fabricant - The big design freak-out: A generation of design leaders grapple with their future: https://www.fastcompany.com/91027996/the-big-design-freak-out-a-generation-of-design-leaders-grapple-with-their-future

📸 Follow us on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lookingoutpodcast/

⏰ Time stamps
00:00 Pre-roll
01:58 How do we stay positive?
09:20 The Death of Project Titan
27:53 Rivian's new products!
40:13 The Reanult R5
49:48 The big design freak-out
01:01:52 The need for a new Baccara
01:04:45 Outro

🎧 Listen and subscribe to the podcast
Apple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/looking-out-the-podcast/id1636199763
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0YschSrj672jQOGt3R5eE5
Other platforms and streaming - https://podcast.lookingout.io

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

Tesla Autopilot. Hyundai Highway Driving Assist 2. GM SuperCruise. Oh, and a Waymo robotaxi. This episode has it all. 

Joe and Drew talk about their experiences of each and ask the crucial question: what's it all for?

📨 Subscribe to Looking Out - The Newsletter, the partner newsletter to this podcast.
https://automobility.substack.com

⬇️ Download Drew's free trend report from CES 2024: https://www.studiophro.com/ces-2024-report-download-form

🤝 Connect with us on LinkedIn
Drew -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewpasmith/
Joe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-simpson-92863a2/

🔗 Links
Dude, where's my self-driving car - the latest from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/24065447/self-driving-car-autonomous-tesla-gm-baidu
A crowd destroyed a driverless Waymo car in San Francisco: https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/11/24069251/waymo-driverless-taxi-fire-vandalized-video-san-francisco-china-town

📸 Follow us on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lookingoutpodcast/

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

For over a decade now, the Consumer Electronics Show has also been one of the most significant automotive shows in the world.

In January 2024, after the year in which generative AI changed everything, Drew’s hopes were high for a few radical new takes on what the car might become when fused with artificial intelligence.

What he found was lipstick on a pig.

Join Joe and Drew as they take a look at the lowlights from the world’s largest trade show, and, yes, find some cause for joy.

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

Back in 2019, Drew and Joe disagreed on what the Tesla Cybertruck represented. Has anything changed in the past four years?

In this episode, Drew and Joe take a look at what the most polarising car in living memory means as a piece of technology, as a piece of design, and as a cultural artefact.

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

For two decades, China has been the goose that laid the golden egg for Western automakers.

Now, it might just be the market that screws the pooch.

Joe heads to Shanghai after a few years away to see just how far the Chinese manufacturers have come. 

We explore how automotive culture is developing, and paint a picture of the challenges ahead for both Chinese and Western automotive manufacturers in this critical market.

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

The Tokyo Motor Show, now known as the Japan Mobility Show, has always been one of the most surprising on the circuit.

Historically the launchpad for some of the wilder concepts the industry has seen, Tokyo has also represented something of a forbidden garden, full of of pocket-sized delights that preview new Kei car models that are soon to hit the streets.

Once upon a time, we’d look at those cars and think “Cute…” and move on. Yet in a world in which automobility desperately needs new answers to the challenges of increasing urbanisation and increasingly limited resources, Japan’s tiny car and sub-car concepts look more and more relevant.

In this show, Joe and Drew survey the Japan Mobility show, covering the hits (Toyota’s IMV 0, Mazda’s Iconic SP, Honda’s CI-MEV and Motocompacto) and the misses (Handa’s new Prelude and every Nissan at the show).

They also look at the opportunity that micromobility represents for Japanese automakers, and why it might just slip through their fingers.

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

There’s been a flood of news these past weeks about the slowdown in EV sales.

Challenging market conditions and the high cost of funding the transition to EVs is giving manufacturers cause for pause. Tesla is halting work on further factories, and GM and Honda scrapping a partnership to produce affordable EVs, for example/

Meanwhile, Mercedes EQ models are sat unloved and unsold on dealer lots, and the Chinese are struggling with overcapacity.

So what the heck is going on? 

Is this just the expected chasm between the early adopters and the early majority of consumers in the EV adoption curve?

Or are there more fundamental issues with the product, sales, and service being offered by OEMs that will make that chasm so much harder to cross?

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com

This episode is *really* visual. To see our line-by-line review of the Toyota Century SUV in real time, watch along at https://youtu.be/BtDJNCnuVlY?si=WAzJXEJ55_KeWa8c

Criticism and the automotive industry make for uncomfortable bed fellows.

We put so much heart and soul in to creating a car that when someone points out its flaws, it can be like being told that someone doesn't like our child.

Except the cars we design are not our children.

They're manufactured products that have an enormous impact on the world around us.

They influence the way we think and behave.

They shape our understanding of public space and how we share it.

And they consume vast quantities of natural resources in their manufacture and use.

So, as car designers and design strategists, alongside the engineers, product planners, and leadership we work with, we reckon we have a responsibility to question intently the impact that our work has, and to think deeply about what we have to do better.

That the Toyota Century SUV is the object of our critique in this episode is almost neither here nor there. There are any number of new cars that fail to meet the needs of the moment in which we find ourselves.

But as way to understand how design and product planning decisions can have such a remarkable impact on the perception of a brand, the big SUV, and the way it toys with the ethos and mythos of Century, is hard to miss.

We’re not here to denigrate or mindlessly criticise.

We are here to get people to look up from their day-to-day, look out for the shifts and signals that are going to impact their work, and connect the dots that lead to a more sustainable, more equitable future.

With this episode, we’re making our first, messy, and very public attempt to create a template for having critical conversations about the future of the automotive industry, and the role of design within it. We're not going to get it right first time, but we'll keep trying.

So whether you yelp in agreement with us, or shake your fist with rage that we dared question the status quo, take this as an invitation to speak up and share your views, not just with us, but with the Looking Out community.

Over the coming months, we’ll be developing a series of Looking Out interviews. Our aim is to present a diverse set of perspectives on where we should be headed. And if you’re reading this newsletter, or listening to or watching the podcast, chances are you’re someone we’d love to hear from, or you know someone we should speak to.

So drop us a line at theautomobilitygroup gmail.com and let’s start a conversation.

That's it for this episode! Thanks for listening.

If you like what you hear, please leave a review for us on your favourite podcasting platform. It helps other folk like you find us!

And you can sign up for Looking Out - The Newsletter, the sidekick to our podcast, here: automobility.substack.com