Motor Mouth with David Booth

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.

On this week’s Motor Mouth podcast David recounts how a party weekend in Toronto turned into his first automotive writing gig 41 years ago. 

He tells some memorable tales from on the road, rattles off a number of ways the business has changed over the years, and finally, provides some sage advice to youngsters wanting to break into the automotive journalism business.

This week David Booth tackles some electric vehicle content, beginning with Motor Mouth channeling his inner Marshall McLuhan to explain that the problem with public skepticism about EVs isn’t so much the medium but the messaging.

Then we’ll switch gears, or at least powertrains, to find out why David has big praise, and high hopes, for the latest and coming-soon wave of plug-in hybrid models. PHEVs have been making headlines recently, with General Motors announcing they are getting back into the PHEV business, and other automakers doubling down on their efforts to bring all-new Plug-in hybrids to market. Possibly at the cost of new EVs.

And finally David will report on a recent trip to Southern California where he became one of the first automotive journalist in the world to drive the all-new Porsche Tie-con. And just as with his experience with the first-gen high-performance all electric sport sedan, he came away very impressed, particularly with some interesting advances in battery pre-conditioning temperatures.

We’re just a couple of weeks into 2024, so David Booth offers up some bold predictions for the year ahead on the hottest and most polarizing topic in automotive now and into the foreseeable future: electric vehicles. 

He glimpses into this crystal ball to opine if Chinese EVs will show up in Canada this year, if we’ll see a sub-$30k all-electric in the next 12 months, what a Donald Trump presidential win might mean for Canada’s burgeoning battery manufacturing industry, and what emerging battery technologies will make the greatest leap in 2024. 

And it wouldn’t be a Motor Mouth prediction list without a word or two about Tesla, in this case if the much-hyped and polarizing Cybertruck will be a success story over the next 12 months.

If you caught last week’s Driving to the Future panel, you’ll know there is much uncertainty surrounding Canada’s self-imposed 2035 deadline that mandates the discontinuation of new gasoline vehicles for sale. Other countries are following suit, but the hurdles to get there are numerous and, according to some panelists, insurmountable by that date. 

David Booth was part of the panel, and following the discussion decided to come up with his own version of the legislation: call it the Motor Mouth Mandate. He offered up his plan in a column last week that was crafted as an open letter to federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who if the polls are to be believed, could very well have this issue come across his desk at 24 Sussex Drive.

The Tokyo Motor Show was running on fumes before the pandemic shut it down for a few years, but it returned last month, renamed and reinvigorated. David Booth attended the Japan Mobility Show and on this week’s Motor Mouth podcast he reports on what he saw, what he learned and what all of that bodes for Japan’s automotive industry and the vehicles Canadians can expect to see in the coming years.

In particular, Toyota made quite a few headlines, including the reveal of several all-electric concepts — some of which David says look production ready. Our man in Japan also did a deep dive with Toyota engineers on some fascinating hydrogen powertrain systems they are working on, and also experienced a bona fide manual six-speed electric vehicle transmission that he says could fool long-time petrolheads.