Ask most anyone who followed the recent U.S. presidential election, and they’ll tell you that one of the many things that Donald Trump is ‘anti’ about is electric vehicles. He plans to scrap the EV consumer rebate credit and put in place policies that favour Big Oil. 

On the latest episode of the Motor Mouth Podcast, David Booth offers a stark contrast to those sentiments, and in fact also sees Trump promoting another one of his favourite ‘antis’ - China.

As always, David’s provocative thoughts and conclusions serve for a rollicking ride down the automotive highway.

Much has been written and said about U.S. President elect Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, some flattering some not, but what cannot be denied is that neither man does anything in half measures. Now that Trump has won the election, in fairly dominant fashion it must be said, much speculation is making the rounds as to what role Musk will have in the 47th president’s administration. 

Musk poured a reported US$130 million into Trump’s campaign war chest, so he’ll be looking for some kind of input into how the US government moves forward on segments near and dear to his wallet: namely, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, social media and space exploration.

Today we’ll hear David’s thoughts on what role Musk will play in the administration and what policies he’ll promote. And why that US$130 million is looking like money well spent, particularly in terms of turning Musk’s robotaxi dream come true.

The stakes are high south of the border as U.S. voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president, but lost in all the hype and hot air is how a Trump administration could have dire impacts on Canada’s automotive sector. David Booth has done the research and crunched the numbers and discovered some existential threats to our domestic industry, one of which we have no remedy for.

David has been burning the midnight oil this week researching such diverse subjects as the 60-year-old Canada-US Auto Pact, the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, the Inflation Reduction Act, Trump’s proposed car loan deductibility and why the hell is Elon Musk cozying up to Trump?

As always, it’s a rollicking discussion covering issues you probably haven’t even heard about, but are serious enough to have even David fearing what might be to come.

Game changer. Two words that seemingly crop up every time an emerging electric vehicle technology, or even a new EV itself, make headlines. But in almost all cases, that new tech or that new vehicle is far from game-changing, and so stokes more skepticism, if not outright cynicism, about the electric vehicle industry. 

David Booth, aka Motor Mouth, has long called the bluff on many of these so-called game changers, but on this week’s episode of the Motor Mouth Podcast we find the man himself bestowing just such a description on some tantalizing zero emission sorcery from, of all automakers, Renault. Has the French company really solved the puzzle that has perplexed the industry for over a century now? That is, zero emission running with no associated range anxiety. 

Following that discussion David recounts an amazing experiment he experienced first hand in an Alberta laboratory involving a very unorthodox method of creation of hydrogen that could very well be, well, game changing.

Season 4 of the Motor Mouth podcast kicks off with one of the hottest topics in the automotive industry, and that is the stunning rise of Chinese manufacturers and the subsequent stumbles of century old legacy automakers. Could we really see one of the world’s biggest car companies go out of business?

David has written extensively on this topic in his weekly Motor Mouth column, and not surprisingly has some unique hot takes. From there he weighs in on a related subject, and that is what should be the bigger priority when it comes to building electric vehicles, the economy or the environment? And should we be building, and supporting, low-cost EVs at the expense of lower wages to produce them?

Looking back on Season 3 of the Motor Mouth podcast, we tackled some weighty subject matter, from the existential threat the Chinese electric vehicle industry poses to Western automakers to the continuingly weird Elon Musk/Tesla saga, and from the looming cancellation of EV mandates in North America and Europe to asking will it be the economy or the environment that determines the future of cheap EVs. 

But we started the season out with a fun episode about David’s unlikely path into automotive journalism, so we’re wrapping things up with an equally joyous ride recounting exotic supercars Motor Mouth’s driven in the past few months in Europe, along with his raving review of France’s National Car Museum.

With conservative political movements sweeping across North America and Europe, many automotive industry observers believe one of the first things on the chopping block will be the EV mandates established over the past few years, many of them designed to discourage the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles come Jan. 1, 2035. 

How will that affect EV adoption, and for that matter, how will automakers respond? Will they ratchet back EV production? And what about consumers? Will they continue to demand EVs, particularly lower priced ones. David weighs in on these topics and more on this week’s Motor Mouth podcast.

Yes, it’s been a week or so since Tesla shareholders approved Elon Musk’s multi-billion dollar payday, but you’re never truly full informed on this or any other automotive-related topic until you hear from David Booth, aka Motor Mouth. As usual, he’s in fine form with a number of original takes on Musk, and then provides some interesting scenarios for the future of the man and his remarkable electric vehicle machines.

David then turns his attention to a couple of incredible new automobiles, the first the fire-breathing, 16-cyclinder Bugatti Tourbillon that is a showcase for a one-of-a-kind powerplant and with a reported top speed north of 400 km/h. And the second the Lotus Emeya, an all-new electric vehicle that is said to be the fastest charging EV on the planet. Yes, two very different kinds of propulsion systems, but each worthy of David’s attention, admiration, and as you’ll hear, astonishment.

David draws comparisons to the disastrous consequences U.S protectionism had on the Big Three in the Seventies, he wonders — as do we all — if Tesla is really serious (capable?) about building a $25,000 electric vehicle, he ponders will the economy or the environment decide the future of cheap EVs, and finally his opinion on the fate of all those 2035 EV mandates.

Trying to figure out what’s going on with Elon Musk, and by association Tesla, is always a challenge, but Motor Mouth has never shied away from offering his opinion on the motivations of Lord Elon. 

And with Musk’s somewhat erratic behaviour over the past few months roiling the good ship Tesla, it seems only sensible to question what might be behind some of those controversial moves. 

As usual, David has a fresh take, that while perhaps not a popular one amongst the Tesla fan club members, is worth listening to and one that you won’t find anywhere else. He also squeezes in his opinion of the 2026 Kia EV3, a just announced model that has piqued his interest.