Lisa Whalen, Automotive and Mobility Analyst at Morning Consult, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to break down the famed auto show's emphasis on electric vehicles this year, reflecting a shift toward electrification in the automotive industry.

Closing Bell

New York Auto Show Puts Big Focus on Electric Vehicles

Welcome back to closing bell on cheddar news everyone. The new york auto show returning to the Javits Center in midtown Manhattan today after a two year hiatus due to the coronavirus. Well, a lot has changed in the three years since the last show in 2019, of course, both in the world and the auto space. And this year's show reflects that with a big focus now on electric vehicles does come as major automakers like ford and Nissan shift toward electrification and as the US sets out ambitious goals of its own for Evie expansion. Well, joining me now is lisa Whalen automotive and mobility analyst at morning consult a market research firm. ELISA, thanks so much for taking the time this afternoon. How is this year's auto show reflecting this now worldwide push toward electrification. It's so exciting to see all of the real estate and resources being dedicated to electrification not only from a visual perspective with the vehicle models on display, but also experientially in terms of the test track and hands on, learning opportunities around charging infrastructure and electrification technology and just to be clear here at the new york auto show, I know attracting oftentimes automakers from all around the world would have been some of the most impressive or surprising things that you've seen leading into this auto show. Okay, well it's interesting because obviously in the short term we've seen a lot of pain at the pump with respect to rising gas prices. So consumers have really spiked up their interest in electric vehicles. We've seen a lot of online shopping for electric vehicles, both new and used on the part of consumers. And we see events like the new york auto show really rising to meet the interests of consumers. Having said that, we do also know it's going to be a long road ahead in terms of full, universal consumer acceptance around electric vehicles. So it was really interesting and very exciting to see all of the ramp up on electrification at the show as a result. And of course, the Biden administration wanting half of all new auto sales to be electric by 2030, you couple that with sky high gas prices as you mentioned here and really no signs of gas prices abating any time soon. And it would seem as if an electric vehicle might be more attractive to a buyer right now. What's the average price on some of these TVs lisa, is it something that americans at these levels can afford pricing at this point is certainly a barrier to a large portion of the population. The average M. S. R. P. Of an electric vehicle does approach about $60,000. So it's prohibitive to a lot of folks. Having said that is as more and more new, you new electric vehicles get purchased and pump up the used electric vehicle market. This is certainly going to help consumers who have lower price points and at the same time, manufacturers are working so hard to really round out their lineups from an electric vehicle perspective. So really trying to get at those lower price points that can meet demand as it's rising for electric vehicles in the future. The semiconductor chip shortage no doubt has impacted the auto industry. Perhaps the worst out of all industries out there, even though we know really know industry actually is immune any read lisa on how the chip shortage is impacting the auto space right now and whether or not that will be on display at this year's auto show, the strain on the global supply chain for automotive continues unfortunately. And the Russia Ukraine crisis is just the last of the most recent strain that we've seen because the area is so rich in natural resources and for instance, neon is a very big supply into chips. So we don't see much abatement in terms of the supply chain crisis in automotive At least until the back half of this year or going into 2023. So certainly uh, this does play a factor not only into regular internal combustion engine vehicles, but electric vehicles as well. So, uh, certainly it is a crisis and uh, it's great to get consumers excited and you know, experiencing electric vehicles and the technology, but the reality is that from a staff perspective as well as pricing perspective, it's gonna be awhile until a fully electrified future has realized. What about electric vehicle charging technology of course, the biden administration administration spending billions of dollars to build up public charging stations but is there an E. V. Charging option that might look attractive at the auto show? New technology that can be debuted to make charging easier and quicker. There's a lot of work that's being done around charging and it's really important and not only the work being done but it's the education to consumers on on these advancements and charging technology. We find that consumers at this point really don't know enough about charging technology. For instance, we asked our consumers how how many of them parked in the garage and over a third said that they park their vehicle in the garage. But then we asked them Uh if they have continuous charging access all the time and only 11% of consumers responded that they had continuous charging access. But when you think about it, most people would have a plug in their garage and the ability to plug in electric vehicle in. So it's really that disconnect in educating consumers. That is so important. And the New York Auto show is playing an important role in this aspect. But certainly there are other technologies being developed such as wireless charging uh in the lake. So the more effort on this on this road the better in terms of acceptance around electric vehicles. What about autonomous technology? Of course we know in some of these vehicles you can get to a certain level of autonomy basically hands free driving on the highway for instance but were not yet fully there on a fully autonomous car that can shuffle you around commute you around as a completely passive passenger. Is their autonomous technology lisa that's going to make its own debut or be on display here at the auto show which kicks off today. Yeah, absolutely. There are a lot of advancements happening with respect to autonomous vehicles, particularly in the commercial side, the commercial vehicle side of of the market. But that's important as these advancements start to get on the road and consumers see more of these deployments of of autonomous vehicle technology even on the commercial side so that they can be more interested from a personal mobility perspective in using this form of transportation. Uh so definitely autonomous technology is on display. Um and that's important because consumers similar to E. V. S need to learn more about the technology the benefits and be alleviated over their concerns around safety and their inability to trust the technology at this point. Do we know whether or not the semiconductor chip shortage is impacting any of these companies in such an adverse way that they won't be able to show off new technology at the auto show. We don't see an impact in terms of what they can show at the auto show. The chip shortage is more of a scale issue and the ability to supply a plentiful amount of vehicles. So in terms of being able to put their best foot feet forward in terms of the models that they want on display in the technologies they want on display. We don't see an issue and an impact with the chip shortage. When it comes to GM Ford, Tesla, I don't even know if Tesla has a presence at the auto show, I'd be interested to know lisa whether or not they do plan on attending. But of course this is a big monumental moment. Any specific vehicle types make or models that you think will be getting a lot of attention these next few days. We're probably gonna see a lot of attention around electric pickups with GM and Ford's recent debuts debuts as well as of course Caribbean coming out in the marketplace on pickups. So I think we're gonna see a lot of interest in, uh, consumers wanting to check out those trucks and uh, drive them around if, if they're available on display as well. All right, lisa Whalen, automotive and mobility analyst at morning consult Alisa. Thank you