The EV Politics Project: Getting More Republicans Into Electric Vehicles

The EV Politics Project: Getting More Republicans Into Electric Vehicles

I’ve been driving electric vehicles for over 15 years now and I’ve owned 11 of them I’ve driven about 400,000 miles in my own personal vehicles and I’ve also had the opportunity to at least test drive practically every production electric vehicle made since 2009 so I think I know a little bit about this

Industry but there’s one thing that I haven’t been able to figure out and that’s why electric vehicles have become such a polarizing political topic now I have a guest here today on state of charge someone who is one of the most well-known Republican political consultants over the past 20 years he’s

Worked with some of the top Republican politicians in our country for the past two decades and he shares the same concern about why it seems one side of the country is so proe while the other side is dead set against it and he’s not only concerned about that he’s actually

Doing something about it I have a special topic here today one that has always interested me since I first started getting involved with electric cars 15 years ago and one that I could never quite understand but I have an expert here today that’s going to try to help me understand and what

We’re talking about is how EES relate to politics and my guest here today is Mike Murphy Mike grew up in Detroit he’s a car guy but he’s been in politics his whole life he’s been a republican campaign consultant to some of the biggest names that you’ve heard of Arnold

Schwarzenegger Mitt Romney Jeb Bush Christy Todd Whitman here in my state of New Jersey he’s worked on presidential campaigns for McCain Dole HW Bush um and plus for a ton of senators so um Mike has about as much political experience and clout as as anyone he also been a

Pundit for ND NBC news for 20 years and he currently runs a podcast it’s called hacks on tap with a well-known Democratic political consultant David Axelrod so they kind of balance each other out and uh Mike is working on something really interesting that I want to talk about here today first of all

Mike welcome to stateof charge thanks for coming on um tell us a little bit about how you got involved with electric vehicles and then what you’re doing now oh excellent Tom thank you I’m very happy to be here I’m a fan of stateof charge you’ve sold me uh with your

Recommendations helped me choose a couple of level two Chargers so I’m a I’m a fanatic for it um I live in LA so I don’t have a freezer and I can’t do the reenact the cable test I’m very jealous about that any great to be

Here uh yeah you know I ran away from college to join the political C because back when we were all Reagan Republicans I was a foreign policy guy Georgetown originally but I got into this loved it had a great run working on all this stuff and I’ve always been a car nerd

One of the great things about being a campaign consultant is you get to know all 50 states because you’re there doing campaigns and driving all over them and everything and you know I was Captain ice I I I love a big high-powered engine I my last gas car was a Porsche GTS I

I’ve burned up about seven oil wells worth of fuel but I could not deny I mean I started scoffing a little you know the jokes would be I at my next car I’m going to see if I can rig it to run on Teslas blah blah or run on hybrids

But the more I learned about the tech and the more I experienced EVS I became a convert you know fewer moving Parts which is more elegant engineering they’re fast they’re quiet they’re fun to drive uh they don’t support the house of sod on every level they’re great uh

But I become frustrated with kind of the tribalism and politics now and particularly as an EV nut all the trash talk and everything from the Republican side on EV so I decided to do something about it that’s amazing and and you know as I mentioned you’re about as hardcore

A republican as there are and you know I think the the perception out there is that only leftwing Libs go for electric vehicles in some circles at least and that’s simply not true I have tons of friends that are Republicans that are into electric vehicles um you know and

Uh they might not talk about it as much as some of my other friends do they quietly Drive their EV and uh they don’t want to uh upset their friends but uh I I this has fascinated me and I I can’t understand why this is the case because

To me electric vehicles they’re just Pro us domestic energy domestic fuel 100% of the money that we spend on electricity gets reinvested into our local and Regional economies none of it goes to overseas to many of the countries that actually hate us so that always bothered

Me but so you I never did anything about it really you’re doing something about it now you started I’m a political hack so you know if I were a tuba player I’d be sitting in my front long blasting out in Tuba and the neighbors would be complaining but I’m I’m from the world

Of politics uh and I’m a never Trumper so we rent the same secret Hall that the EV driving Republicans have I I know it it’s like to be an oddball but you know what used to be great about being a Republican is you could be an oddball you could

Have unfashionable opinions about free enterprise and maybe we don’t need the biggest government and maybe taxes shouldn’t go up every year so you know if you’re a free market person who likes Choice the ability to choose what you want in a free market and you want the

Better solution you should be for EVS not to mention you know the issue about sending billions of dollars every week to people who hate us so what I decided to do and we’re we’re officially launching next week set up an organization called the EV politics project EVP politics. org we’re going to

Spin off e excuse me EV republicans.org off that in a little while and our purpose is to get over this partisan divide about EV so our initial thing and the website has a lot of content on it but we’ve started uh with a bunch of polling we did being campaign

Consultants we always want to take a campaign style poll not so much a market research poll but a poll to find out where the divisions are how you move voters what’s going on so we did a national poll of 600 people represents about 2third of the American electorate

The reason it’s 2third is we started with a family income of 50,000 and up which is about two-thirds of Voters because we wanted to touch the new car market too because I believe and the polling verifies this every marketer every seite executive in the auto companies be they the European companies

The American ones to a little bit lesser extent the Japanese are not quite as quick to the party they all see the biggest Market problem they have is two things range anxiety which is true it’s out there it showed up in our polling and price how can EV

Start to be they’re very successful in the luxury Market how do they move down but there’s a third wall and the cement is hardening which is the cultural political wall to EVS when you have half the market saying there’s some reason not to buy an EV that is tribal you

Can’t give that away so we got to have strategies to overcome that so we’re we’re going to provide a lot of that IP at EV politics. org and we’re going to get into the campaign because unfortunately you’re GNA have a lot of Republican politicians started over Christmas one of the senators from Iowa

Republican Joanie Ur she kind of won the huto award in my view because she went after the EV subsidies she’s from Iowa the king of ethanol which which makes the EV subsidies look like a penny on the the $10 bill but but anyway we’re going to be pushing back on all that

Then finally I’d say and we’ve got some data we can show you one of the interesting opportunities here is the states that have gotten the most billions of dollars in investment for Ev factories charger equipment batteries are the same states that are going to decide the presidential election Michigan Georgia North Carolina Nevada

They they represent 68% those states of the Electoral College swing that’ll pick the president and they’re full of EV investment and full of new EV workers so we’re going to organize them and communicate uh and we’re going to try to have a squelching effect on all this misinformation and kind of cheap

Applause stuff that’s coming out of far too many republican polition so we’re looking forward to entering the fight with the facts uh and try to move the needle here in the right way and you know we’re going to be reaching out to the industry to help us interesting and

I mean I start at the factories where all these people are working all these jobs that are being created that’s another thing that you know always surprised me why a certain percentage of the population seem to be against it with EVS we have an opportunity to reset the whole Global Auto balance now

China’s taking advantage of this and they’re saying we want to be the ones that dominate it it’s not too late we can also have tremendous amount of Workforce building batteries refining lithium you know the how about the lineman the electrical contractors that we could higher to light up the country

With with uh charging infrastructure I mean this could be like a new deal you know where where you know for a decade we we have you know hundreds of thousands of jobs dedicated to this new industry if not Millions um and one of the things I want to correct joh on a

Little bit yeah I I I don’t not correct you but talked about range anxiety and that it’s real yeah and while and I’ve been doing this a while I mentioned that earlier and range anxiety always was real and I think that’s a term that we should almost retire now and let me

Explain why there’s anxiety I know there’s anxiety but it’s charging anxiety now yeah in early on the EVS that I drove back in 15 years ago only went 70 80 miles that was true range anxiety because you were white knuckled wondering if you’re going to get home

Now all the EVS go 250 300 miles right or more um so for daily driving there is no range anxiety no no I agree range anxiety’s perception is reality there is no r anxiety in real life and you know all you got to do is turn into your

Podcast get a level two charger and you’ve solved all your range problems for 99% of the people of course but now when you go on these long trips Mike there is anxiety but it’s charging anxiety it’s is there a charger will it work how long will it how long will it

Take that’s the new anxiety now I believe has transitioned from range anxiety to charging anxiety but we still use that term range anxiety because it it is anxiety um I’m with you on this it’s just out in the public and you’re right we ask him

On the polling data and we’ll go to a few charts in a second here and it’s totally out there um but it is it’s driven here’s one of the most interesting findings we had if you say you have friends or relatives with an EV in every category you’re less worried

You’re more interested you’re more Pro th this is kind of like the the foreign dish that people are afraid to taste but once they taste it or their friends tell them about it they instantly want some and you know it it’s kind of that way of charging I actually and I wrote about

This on substack I have Mike Murphy one I have a thing there being a pundit I can’t shut up it’s mostly about politics but I read a little EV stuff there I drove a a CCS car VW id4 all the way from New Hampshire to Los Angeles 3,000

Miles because I kind of wanted to see what the charging infrastructure was like I did it this summer and you you know it was not nearly as terrible as you would think reading the internet but there are some bumps you know we we all hear about them but in the polling the

Same people who said they were had charger anxieties 70% of them agreed with the question EVS are the future and I think eventually I’ll drive one once they get the problems worked out so you know what’ll solve that is better high-speed charging out there better experiences because there’s penup demand

You got 70% that think it’s in their future but the speed bump in front of them is their perception about and I’ll use your term charging anxiety and you know any marketer knows a good product will solve that but we got to get people to try them yeah and charging is

Improving and there’s a lot of money being dumped into that now um with the the you know the new infrastructure deal let’s say I me tons of money and also the fact that the in the industry here in North America is coalescing around a singular plug and what that’s going to

Do is give every everybody access to every station where we didn’t have that in the past half the vehicles could use these the other half could use these now everyone’s going to be able to use every station and there’s going to be more stations so that’s going to help things

It’s not going to immediately solve everything we’re the trend is great yeah the TR the fun thing about being a political blabber mouth is you know all the other political blabber mouths so I I was fooling around with a potential Navy project in New Hampshire and

There’s some flaws in that bill and by the way I’m I’m proud to say the Republican run states are the first ones to actually get them up Mike dwan in Ohio the governor has done you know he got the first one working so as much as the Republican leadership trashes it you

Got some good meat and potatoes Republicans that are Governors know how to get stuff done a lot of these states are just even taking the early applications now they’re way behind but anyway I got to call Pete Buddha judge’s guys and yell at them about it and to

Two the credit they are totally dedicated to getting this thing right and getting those Chargers built I I was very impressed I’ve been dealing with government a long time and uh the all the right forces are lining up and as you say knacks uh to get a lot of these

Barriers out of the way which is terrific news we just got to get the message out absolutely so you said you did some polling I’d be interested in maybe hearing what the results are in some of those sure let let’s take a look uh at the the first slide we have I

Think we can cut away to it and we ask people and this is accurate of the country again incomes over 50,000 about two-thirds of M but all the new car buyers uh what’s your opinion of the Ford Motor Company we tested a lot of Brands and the blue circle is Democrats

Red circle is Republicans Independents are kind of they look more like the Democrats but they’re kind of in the middle and look at the favorables 7771 you know just outside the margin of error about the same unfavorable 2329 port’s got a pretty good brand Republicans and Democrats agree well

Then we tried what about electric car brands like rivan Tesla postar Bingo two different planets look at Republicans 9% mostly favorable 49% mostly unfair that’s a 40 Point deficit Republicans and a lot of excuse me Democrats the numbers are a little lower because the brands like rivan or

Lucid are not as well known but there you go you know the Democrats are 15 points more positive than negative the Republicans are 40 points more negative which means between the two parties is a 65 point gap so the Republicans a lot of Republicans too many electric cars are

Like a tobacco company brand they don’t want to be part of it well over on the Democratic side you know they’re they’re in business and they’re growing fast so we we took another look if we can go to the next slide um I think we’re going to slide

One uh yeah so this is our we gave them three choices are you seriously interested in buying an EV in the next year or two or is your opinion I might buy an EV once all the problems are worked out and the prices are a bit

Lower or I’ll probably never buy an EV Democrats you can see 74% of them are either into it now or when things get easier less of that charge your anxiety you know they’re they’re open for business so they’re they’re ready to go look at Republicans 44% I’ll probably

Never buy one they’re only 50 6% open only half as many as Democrats want to buy one in the next year or two so if I’m in the industry I want to know why this is and and how to do it so we have some answers for that if we go to the

Next slide this is a fun question if you bought an i EV what would your best friends and relatives think about that you made a smart move you took a big risk you spent too much money and you’re becoming too political if you’re a Democrat you think 61% of your friends

Are going to tell you you made a smart move your Republican is only 19 big gap and too big a risk about half the Republicans say that only a quarter of the Democrats spent too much money Republicans you know buy 20 points are more likely to say spent too much money

And while it’s not a huge number which is you know a good sign it’s still twice as many Republicans as Democrats think your friends all say you’re becoming some kind of liberal politician you know riding a Biden mobile around so this is you know this is out there and it’s

Um it’s It’s Tricky so that’s why I think there’s a lot of work for us to do one more slight chart I think we got to look at is number eight which is a couple down we can shoot to that one it’s the one that says no more gas and

Yes so we ask people what’s the best reason to own an EV is it never paying for gas is good for the environment you get money from the government the new technologies interesting uh sends a positive message about me me me and my values and finally for the drums there

Are no good reasons to ever bu so look at Republicans 54% say gas Democrats 59% say gas Independents 53 even people who are favorable Donald Trump the most hardcore Republican kind of populist 44% they agree on what they like they’re the same the difference is look at good for

The environment the third one there third 33% of Republicans 60% of Democrats and the this question they get to pick two on a list so it’s combined that little minus1 under Democrats on not paying for gas versus the plus 19 and Republicans is First Choice second choice so first choice for

Republicans by 19 points is never paying for gas First Choice with Democrats by about 11 points is the environment the Republicans don’t give a damn about buying a green car for the environment in fact they think the Democrats are pushing it on them well the Democrats are all green green the Auto industry

Needs to know they get the green thing for free it’s already there they don’t have to spend a nickel advertising it’s like telling people ice cream is cold they need to explain to the Republicans who by the way are more than half the buying population at 50,000 a year or

More slightly more than half that they’re fast they’re quiet and you don’t pay for gas you get a subsidy etc etc Etc you got to go to them where they are and not give them a lecture on the environment you may want to my Democrat

Friends all do they want to duct take me to a chair and straighten me out I tell them you already got me I’m in an EV but that’s not how you move the iron with these things it’s product attributes uh that are the difference and price which

Is coming down but as you inferred earlier the future is going to be electric vehicles we got to decide if they want to have Maiden China stamped on them and give up the American leadership of the Auto industry you know with with close Japanese competition

We’ve had for 70 years I don’t think we want to give that up for America I don’t think we want to lose our manufacturing base but um we we got to go to this half of the market on their terms and we can

Sell a lot of EVS yeah I I I agree with you 100 perc I remember gez 10 or 11 years ago when Nissan first brought the leaf out maybe 12 years ago at this point the their big commercial on it was like this polar bear walking from the

Polar ice cap to like a city and how like we’re how we’re saving the polar bears and he hugs a guy at the end and I wrote a big article back then saying this is this is a disaster this is not what you need to Market this vehicle you

Need to talk about how compar it to other Nissan like in that same price range the instant torque the quiet smooth drivetrain right the the low operating cost the fact that you never have to go back to a dealership for maintenance Just Right Tires wiper blades unless I mean if it breaks you

Have to bring it back everything’s going to break and need maintenance but there’s no regular service maintenance intervals so that’s where you hat we really need to Market this stuff yeah there Martin pulled that up you know if we’re not careful if they ever do that

Again our friends at Fox News are going to get a real polar bear and ask somebody to get in a cage for a hug and it’s going to turn out very badly that is not good marketing yeah listen uh it’s it’s frustrating when I see that people are targeting the car

Manufacturers are targeting targeting the wrong points as you said they already have the Environmental right that that don’t spend another second on it talk about all the other reasons and the reasons why I drive an EV I didn’t get into electric vehicles for environmental reasons that’s an

Added benefit to me I did it because I was always a car guy and the instant torque and how fast and fun they were to drive that’s what hooked me and um you know it’s it’s frustrating so okay so now you’re starting this EV politics project did a bunch of polling um what’s

Next steps H how do you how how can you move the needle because I’m interested uh it’s almost as if that information that you pulled out on the polls you have to do polls to to to to prove your theory but I almost could have wrote the

Answers three years ago because I I’ve been living this listening to my Republican friends tell me I’m wasting my time and it’s a joke and um I’m you know I’m I’m I’m not do EVS are worse for the environment they you know the battery’s going to die in a year and all

This stuff um so know what the opinions are but how do you move the needle with this organization well in campaigns we break it down with polling you know we don’t really want to know who’s ahead we want to take people’s heads apart so we know what new information we can give

Them to move them that’s what every campaign is it’s about what new information goes to who so you go make the argument so we need to do more research we got a lot more polling but you know I don’t want to gum up the the the interview here with too much of it

We’re going to post a lot of it on EVP politics. org and we’re going to make our round of the industry but then we got to do the politics of it so I’m going to show you two things quickly if we shoot down to the Elon mus chart this

Is just an interesting thing where Elon for some is a headache for others a savior as we know he’s he’s you know the original he gets more credit than anybody for kind of mass adoption of modern electric vehicles but he’s become more of a conservative so he’s now a

Polarizing figure it would worry me if I were the CMO at Tesla when we ask people Elon musk is a good Ambassador for electric vehicles you know uh two-thirds of Democrats disagree with that they don’t like Elon anymore and that’s where the core EV Market has been on the hand

Hand hand those Republicans who are always saying I’ll never buy or I don’t like EVS two to one they think elon’s great so Elon could be the key to unlock some of these folks but they’re not going to ask him to hang around many Tesla dealerships now so if we shoot to

The final chart I’ve got which shows where all the investment is going because politically in the hard world of politics we’ll go down to the one with the state maps uh if we could which is down one or two more uh and it shows basically so these are of the top 10

States for investment in those battery factories in those assembly factories um many of them are swing States you know the presidential election is really only about 2 million people because of the Electoral College who are the fulcrum voters in a couple of states interestingly enough Michigan Georgia North Carolina Arizona and Nevada are

About five of the big seven states they cast just those states that are full of new EV jobs new EV investment billions they cast 68% of the deciding votes in the Electoral College so we’re going to go organize that and we’re going to make it harder for Republican politicians to

Attract EVS because we want to make it the same as going to my hometown of Detroit and attacking you you know the V8 engine so we’re going to go out and organize we’re going to have a big digital presence we have a lot of ideas and of course we’re shamelessly going to do

Visibility uh with Merchant stuff and I’m sending you one of these I own an EV I like it and I vote hats t-shirts we got all that stuff because we want people to feel visible and be active as voters to go out and do their thing and

Stand up for EVS in the EV supply chain in America that’s great and I will proudly uh put that uh sticker on one of my my uh EVS I have three EVs and uh I’ll wear you showed me a t-shirt uh I think it was a t-shirt that you had I think I’ll

Wear one of those for sure yeah we send you a whole a whole crate of this let’s see yeah this is this is going to be big in Milan with the models here and we have EV Republicans too so it’s all coming it’s all gon to be at I’ll plug

It again uh EV politics. org or EV republicans.org and we’re excited we’re we’re we’re g to engage the battle that’s great and I will put links in the description of this video um I I know the video the your websites aren’t live yet but this is going to take me a few

Days to put out so I I’ll probably wait until the website’s live to publish this this uh this video um next week by the time the video’s done it’ll be up we’re just yeah well next week C for me I got a lot going on I’m not sure if I’ll get

It out C some point really soon yeah I’ll be out C CES probably when this airs so um uh you know I have a question for so you know I always knew this was an issue and have you ever encount like have you had run-ins with your fellow Republicans over electric vehicles or

Because I have it’s crazy I remember one time I had just got my F-150 Lightning my Ford F-150 Lightning Electric pickup truck I’m in a parking lot a Home Depot and I park the truck I get out and I start walking toward the show the store

And all of a sudden I hear Hey so I turn around because it sounded like it was coming in my direction I look and there’s a guy standing next to his truck he also has a Ford pickup truck and a lot of people ask me questions about my

Vehicles oh is that electric how far does it go do you like it whatever so he’s like is that the electric Ford and I said yeah and he like just like went like he goes yeah you probably can’t drive that out of you know more than 10

Miles in the winter and uh and I looked at him and I said well actually I just came back from a 500 Mile round trip to Vermont and and he goes yeah you had to stop like 10 times and I was like actually I didn’t have to stop at all

Did stop once but that was go to bathroom and I didn’t charge and he made a he he had a couple of words that I can’t stay online now and I just turned around smiled said have a good day and walked away and you know as I’m walking

Away I saying myself why would somebody feel the urge to to do that and and you know he had the American flag sticking out of the back of his truck and he had stickers on the back of his truck that indicated he wasn’t happy with the

Outcome of the last election um and you know it’s like it just drives me crazy when people like he the guy probably assumes that I’m some you know uh tree hugging sandal wearing you know tofu eating total lib that you know believes in open borders and there’s not that

Anything’s wrong with that live life the way you want to live life but believe it or not I’m I’m I’m actually a registered Republican I’ve been my whole life most people don’t realize that I keep it out of um really what I do um but I’ve

Always voted in the center and I voted for both parties I’ve always voted uh for the individual not the party and um uh I I I’m having a hard time with how far right the Republican party’s gone these days uh and it’s it’s difficult for me to to understand that but you

Know I haven’t switched and I might go to Independent but um I’m keeping my Republican affiliation now at least I a about parar and everything and hopefully affecting a change but um have you had instances like that where your fellow Republicans have been like Mike why are

You driving that stupid thing don’t you know that’s a Biden mobile yeah yeah I i’ I’ve been gently mocked by a few friends that Murphy hit his head and turned into an remember the old mic you know um but it’s most of my Gearhead friends back in Detroit kind of

And some of them are in the industry kind of look each way and say you know elegantly engineered they’re better machines but I I can’t really say that uh and I’ve gotten a few dirty looks but part of it was me I’ve been anti-trump since the Whitman days when he was down

In stiffen everybody in Atlantic City so I’m on TV a fair amount as a pundit on NBC and I’m tough on Trump so I get a little of that too when they see I’m drivve an electric car their head really explodes because you’re right they think I’m in a conspiracy because our politics

Now to our great National loss is I’m right you’re evil it’s not you’re wrong it’s not let’s talk about it it’s your evil so you’re the tribal enemy and if Biden likes electric cars they’ve got to be terrible you got to be a Traer to drive one you know it’s stupid tribalism

And it’s it’s the problem with our American politics and if we don’t get that fixed we all better learn Chinese by the way you know it is a real problem everybody forgets that George Bush is the one that initiated the federal tax credit for electric vehicles everybody

Assumes it was Obama because it really started during the Obama Administration well that’s when the EV started coming but but before he was President Bush is the one that signed it to law or or or or created that that initial Electric Vehicle tax credit so um you know it

Wasn’t political until you know the last seven or eight years it seems like it I I I don’t understand why it’s it’s been bothering me ever since I got into electric vehicles why uh and and why do you think why do you think that’s happened do you think it’s because you

Know as you just mentioned you know if if I like something and I’m on the other side of the aisle you have to hate it is that is is that really what it’s come down to now or the mandates I know the government mandates I don’t like where we’re saying

We’re going to ban combustion by this date or whatever I don’t I’ve never supported those yeah no exactly and very few people do it’s a free country and by driving an EV ought to be part of that what it is is is is people are because it’s so tribal you’re not an opponent

You’re an enemy you know and if you’re driving an EV you’re part of the whole conspiracy you stole the election now this isn’t the whole country it isn’t even all Republicans but it’s there’s enough of a populist chunk there it’s about 40% of the Republican primary electorate and they kind of get energy

Because it sure makes your life simple when you have a little rule book that if they’re wrong on this one issue they’re wrong on everything and you’re supposed to flip them off in the parking lot or honk on them or in some states you see the green paint in the charging station

You go pull your ice vehicle in and you leave it there for three hours because oh I got them they can’t charge that Biden mobile now oh I’m a real Warrior I’m a patriot and that psychology which is very high school and stupid is out

There but what we know from this poll is when they talk about the attributes they like it and they again even among the Republicans more than half say it’s the future and one day I’ll probably drive one and if we can get the EV world to 60% of Republicans

And just about 80% of everybody else we won so that’ll move the culture and nothing works like using them or peer-to-peer if I were Ford and I had a couple hundred extra Lightnings I would pick about 50 to 80 dealers in the right places and I’d say start losing money on

Oneye leases just to get people let them put 10,000 miles on one then we’ll do it again for another 10,000 get people to touch and try I think this new Ram uh series hybrid will be a big number mover too uh and so we got to get the products out

There got to get people to try them and talk to each other and and and push back on the BS which is gonna there’s going to be a lot of in the election year we’re going to be in the front line of doing that yeah and I’ve always

Advocated for having the EV experience dictate whether you like them or not and it’s easy to hate them from 50 fet but when you when you actually drive one live with one for a while I always said Elon years ago should have sent a a Tesla Model S to to

Cong 100 of them to Congress and said these are free for all all all of Congress to drive around town and uh and and see if they if their their minds change and I actually did a small thing like that recently when I got my lightning last year um I mentioned I

Live in a I live in a rural part of New Jersey very red here all my friends drive pickup trucks it’s a farming area there’s Farms there’s horses right down the block from me all my friends have pickup trucks so I gave e five of my friends I let drive my F-150 Lightning

And at the time I had a rivian r1t pickup truck I had the two electric pickup trucks I let five of my friends each Drive each one for three or four days these are guys that laughed at me that I was getting an electric pickup

Truck and four out of the five when when I when we were done we’re like I want one of these can I get one now and they couldn’t because at the time that’s when the rivan and the lightning just launched and they weren’t available to

Purchase one of the guys put an off an order in online for a Chevy Silverado EV he still has that that reservation um and these are guys that like were like no pick I can’t get a pickup truck not electric pick TR now the fifth one the

One that was a hold out is admittedly a real strong farri Trump supporter that you know has really kind of believes a lot what he hears on on on the farri news sites and blogs and he has a big farm and he said just well this would

Never work for me I need to haul hay and do this that even though I know what he does and I know it would work he doesn’t tow yeah for hundreds and hundreds of miles you know it’s all New Jersey driving and stuff and it would work but

But I think it’s just you know he’s in that tribalism that polarization where listen they like it so it I I can’t like it I can’t I can’t agree that this would work giving up all your free choice and your brain power you become basically a chimpanzee at that point which is crazy

I’ve always thought if I were a for it I’d give Hannity a lightning I bet because it works I I again I’m I was a Porsche guy burning up gallons I drove a BMW iix around for an hour the Porsche was on a truck an hour

Later I love that car I have it when I got I have a great story really quick though when I got my first EV back in 2009 it was a Mini Cooper it was an electric Mini Cooper I was in a a PR with BMW my daily driver was a Porsche

Boxster yeah sure and I got this little Mini Cooper all electric three months later I sold the boxer yeah I was like I it just sat in the garage I was like addicted to driving this little electric Mini Cooper it was fantastic so the Driving Experience is what hooked me

More than anything but totally in the elegant engineering and I’ll tell you the reverse side of the guy driving by with the jacked up truck and the Trump flag giving you a dirty look I get to do a wild mon iCal laugh every time I drive

By a gas station in LA with $6 a gallon gas I sound like the joker I’m very happy yeah well you know I did something similar to that back back in I think it was 2011 Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast oh yeah and it just wiped out

Everything and everyone says well what did you do during that you know you had to charge your electric car I was charging my car just fine because there were there were pockets of electricity available but there was no gas because all the gas pumps need electricity to

Pump and the lines there were hundreds of people standing on with gas cans and I was just driving by I even loaned my EV to all my friends because they’re like I can’t get gas I need to pick up my mom was here come come take the

Electric car and I was actually in the The New York Times did a full page article on on me and had a big picture of me driving my car with all the G gas lines and everything but I digress listen um uh I I know you have limited

Time here today this was fantastic Mike um I really appreciate you coming on I wish you luck with this Venture hopefully we we could reconnect in the future maybe do a followup once once you’ve been doing this for a few months or maybe in the summer maybe as the

Electric the elections ramping up we could talk about what you’ve been doing what progress uh you’ve had um and I wish you luck on this because uh you know this is a topic that has baffled me since I’ve been driving my EV is I it’s been so hard for me to understand why

More people don’t understand why well I won’t say more people I’ll come out and say why Republicans don’t understand that electric vehicles are good for the country and uh it’s it’s it’s been it’s been you know something that’s baffled me and I’m I’m so happy that you um in

The political sphere which I’m not are decided to take this on and try to enact change and make a difference it’s a good fight we got the facts on our side and I think our next bumper sticker will be EV Patriot which will really drive him

Crazy but that’s the argument and we can hardly wait so thanks for having me on my favorite YouTube channel in the electric space I become a nut for L2 Chargers so keep up your good work because you’re a great Ambassador for the cause here thanks Mike I appreciate

It and we will reconnect and do a followup at some point in the future I want to see what your progress has been all right thank you Pal

I talk with Mike Murphy, a well-known Republican political pundit and consultant, to discuss his latest venture, the EV Politics Project, which is aimed at getting more Republicans into electric vehicles.

Visit the EV Politics Project website: https://www.evpolitics.org/

Check out my new EV charging website: https://evchargingstations.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:05 The interview begins
02:22 How Mike got into electric vehicles
04:44 What are you doing to break the partisan divide?
14:10 Mike shows up some of the polling he’s done to better understand the issue
26:33 I ask Mike if his Republican friends have a problem with his EV support
36:52 Outro

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