Media day at the Auto Show in Detroit saw more than 300 members of the media gather to hear Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz interview former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on the state of the auto industry.
Buttigieg recalled being born in South Bend, Indiana just after the close of Studebaker and reflected on the impact of the automaker’s closure on South Bend and also on his time as mayor of the Indiana city.
The former Secretary of Transportation expressed that he still believes that EV’s are the future of the auto industry. He expressed concerns that recent rollbacks of fuel economy and emission regulations could limit the research and development of American cars and trucks while China and other countries perfect and improve EV and other technologies. He believes that keeping US based companies focused on carbon-based fuel as a long term solution is a dangerous turn of events. As leader of a top US research University, MSU’s president was attentive about how the industry would approach the future.
Following the nearly hour-long discussion Buttigieg went to the Ford display to look at Ford’s Mach-E Mustang.
