00:00It's really important, a bit of relief for the industry. And yet I think it's also a case of kind of having to sort of accept reality just on the part of policymakers that this transition is turning out to be much more difficult than was reckoned years ago when this effective combustion engine ban was put into place.
00:22I think at that time we were seeing this real momentum in the transition to fully electric vehicles. That momentum has slowed substantially. And it's also a really patchy one where certain markets we're seeing, you know, in Norway, for example, it's, you know, on the verge of going fully electric in terms of new vehicle sales.
00:44In other parts of Europe, you're seeing, you know, way, way behind that level of adoption. I think it's a mix of, you know, just sort of the realities of where the consumer is.
00:56And I think we do have to sort of, you know, point the finger at least to some degree at industry and some failures on their part to really sort of bring to market compelling electric vehicles at affordable prices that, you know, people are inclined to buy as opposed to sticking with, you know, the combustion cars that they're used to.
01:17But, Craig, for example, this comes as Ford reverses its EV strategy. So what does it mean for who the big losers and winners will be?
01:26Yeah, I mean, I think with Ford, you know, they, of course, are highly dependent on the North American market. And I think, you know, this is a similar issue of, yes, there's some failures on the part of the company. I think, you know, the F-150 Lightning, for example, was, you know, hyped as Ford's answer to Tesla and, you know, really big bet on their part to fully electrify their most important vehicle.
01:52That has really sort of fallen flat on its face as a project. I think you also, though, have to look at the policy changes in Washington and this really dramatic oscillating, you know, from one direction to the other,
02:05you know, from Obama to Trump one to Biden to Trump two, you know, we were slamming the accelerator and slamming the brakes on whether or not we wanted, you know, in the U.S. to go electric.
02:18And we're now back in that position of really having no interest from this administration in pushing that change.
02:26And Ford is sort of responding in part to the consumer, but also to, you know, what the priorities are in Washington, which electric vehicles are just not on the agenda.
02:37So, you know, we're not going to be able to do that.
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