Motor Mouth with David Booth Postmedia

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.

The evolving electric vehicle landscape is shaping up to be a heavyweight battle pitting good old U.S. ingenuity versus Chinese low-cost battery and vehicle production. In this episode of the Motor Mouth podcast, David makes the argument that if countries stick to the 100 per cent EV mandate of 2035 many have adopted, many of the traditional automakers — think Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors — will find it difficult to survive in a segment dominated by inexpensive EVs from Telsa and Chinese manufacturer BYD. Don’t miss this wide-ranging discussion that includes David’s hot takes on how protectionism, tariffs and union wages will inform the EV segment in the next decade.