Shadowing Practice: Inside The Crisis Facing U.S. Auto Giants - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Americans are paying more for nearly everything than they were a few years ago.
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But car prices have outpaced even inflation.
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I shopped around quite a bit before I was driving a Toyota Highlander, and the prices had went up a lot.
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The average car price is nearly $50 ,000, a 30 % increase over the past five years.
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Even so, automakers have resisted making cheaper ones.
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The Hemi is an icon.
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Even if you don't know what a Hemi is, you know the term.
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Oh, it's got a Hemi.
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But in an effort to get greener, Ram's then newly formed parent dropped it in favor of a high powered twin turbo inline six.
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Since its launch, Ram sales declined every quarter from Q1 2024 through the same quarter of 2025.
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Chrysler, once an industrial giant, is a shell of a brand.
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was meant to be the luxury vehicle.
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But sometime in the in the 80s, that notion was destroyed.
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It just wasn't getting the attention and the investment that it deserved.
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The average car price is nearly $50 ,000, a 30 % increase over the past five years.
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Basic automobile is $50 ,000 or more.
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Monthly payments are also close to an all time high.
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There are plenty of models that are going for more than 100K.
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A record number of owners are underwater, paying more on their loans than their vehicles are worth.
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Even so, automakers have resisted making cheaper ones.
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website.
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Chinese cars are cheap, but those are getting slapped with tariffs.
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Insiders say U .S carmakers can't depend on protectionism.
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They'll have to cut costs and sell cheaper.
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Even without government support, some Chinese firms have big advantages.
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We tried to lay out that it's not evolutionary change.
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Like you actually have to make quantum change to the organization, culture and approach to be able to achieve that.
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Americans are paying more for nearly everything than they were a few years ago.
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But car prices have outpaced even inflation.
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They're off pandemic era highs, but not by a lot.
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What do you think about how car prices have been over the last few years?
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They're astronomical.
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I mean, the technology keeps advancing.
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Technology isn't free.
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I shopped around quite a bit before I was driving a Toyota Highlander, and the prices went up a lot.
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And it was not all electric, and I wanted to move something more environmentally friendly.
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So I went with Oh my goodness.
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I was trying to repurchase the Camry and using the prices that I have years ago and it just wasn't Okay.
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It wasn't the same.
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So what does the industry consider an affordable car?
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According to the Center for Automotive Research, it would cost about $25 ,000.
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The average U .S household spends about 15 % of income on transportation.
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That's everything: car, gas, maintenance, and so on.
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So about 51 % of the population can reasonably afford a
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loan on a $25 ,000 car at 8 % interest for 48 months.
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If you extend the term of the loan, the percentage goes up from there.
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The issue is there are very few cars at that price.
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Prior to 2018, cars that sold for less than $20 ,000 made up about a fifth of the market.
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Since then, they have all but vanished.
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A few models might start there, but no car sold in September 2024 had an average sticker price below 20K.
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Only six are below 25.
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Meanwhile, models and sales of new cars over $60 ,000 have soared.
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You're selling directly to people who want a lot of bells and whistles.
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And so there isn't a lot of direct targeting of people who would want a small, cheap car.
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This might be a strategic mistake.
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Here's how they got so expensive.
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Factor one, the continued rise of the sport utility vehicle.
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They went from about 30 percent of sales in 2009 to over 50 percent in 2019.
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Americans just love big cars.
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When Ford released the now discontinued subcompact EcoSport SUV,
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it said the average price would be $4 ,500 higher than Ford would get from the Fiesta, even though the SUV and the car shared the same platform.
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Second factor.
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Priorities changed.
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- The legacy automakers in the US have been pretty explicit about We are going for profits.
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We are not going for volume.
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And so we are going to sacrifice volume if it gives us a bigger margin.
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And that's a different strategy than they've followed in the past.
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GM has become known for this strategy, especially under current CEO Mary Barup.
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Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, was very early to cutting high volume but low profit vehicles like sedans.
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In 2023, profits at GM and Ford were the highest in at least a decade, and Stellantis reported a record.
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General Motors, for example, has these activist investors sitting on their board, and if they don't buy back billions of dollars worth of stock, you know, Mary Barrett could be out of a job.
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And so it forces a more short -term calculation than she might want.
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But automakers have had to make investments in technology that they weren't certain would pay off, like EVs, software -defined vehicles, advanced safety, driver assistance and autonomous driving.
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That money has to come from somewhere.
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The one meaningful way to make that transition from a financial standpoint is to create a highly profitable,
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internal combustion engine business and continue to manage those profits
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while you reduce the number of vehicles and so you have to
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Continue to make good profits to generate the free cash flow
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you need to feed the EV ever hungry side of the business.
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The trouble for automakers, the business is not that profitable compared with others.
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About 70 percent of a vehicle's price goes to the direct cost of producing it.
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"Tough This Smart" can only be called F -150.
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About 20 to 25 % goes to marketing and everything else.
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That leaves a 5 to 10 % profit.
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Third factor, the coronavirus pandemic.
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Production shutdowns, supply chain shortages, and other constraints tightened supply.
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Dealers raised prices.
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Then automakers did affordability plummeted.
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Remember the story has been for much of the last six months, you either cut price or you cut volume and they've decided they're not cutting price.
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But profits come at the cost of increasingly alienated customers.
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Automakers meet with their dealerships on a regular basis and particularly they do this every January at one specific gathering.
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And the news that came out of that gathering last year was dealerships were saying, please send us more things that we can profitably sell for less.
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I guess that's the message they're getting from people walking in the door.
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So the question is, how do American automakers get those prices down?
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There is some wind at their backs.
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EVs are expected to get cheaper with time.
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Battery costs are falling faster than forecasted, with big drops to come.
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New, stronger forms of steel may allow carmakers to use less.
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The simple skateboard platforms EVs are built on are easily adapted to vehicles of different sizes, spreading out costs.
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The Chevrolet Equinox, GM's least expensive EV, is about $300 ,000 less than the Cadillac Celestic,
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GM's priciest, but they use the same platform.
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manufacturing methods can help too.
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Tesla said its proposed but not yet implemented unboxing method can cut costs in half and factory size by nearly that much.
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Automakers might also partner and consolidate.
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Two companies can share production lines and make similar cars with different brands.
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One can contract with another to build vehicles for a country where the first has no presence.
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Could be a BID setting up shop in Mexico, having a partnership with one of the U .S car makers
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or brands and they sell vehicles here with the appropriate sharing of the final assembly costs.
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On the policy side, Helper says regulatory certainty is another necessary condition for cheaper EVs stability and predictability around incentives,
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subsidies, and public -private partnerships.
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U .S rules change frequently, which makes it harder for companies to plan.
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In contrast, when China went forward on EVs, it stuck with the policy.
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The country has even benefited from unstable policies in the U .S.
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The cheap lithium iron phosphate batteries
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that contributed to China's dominance were actually created in the U .S by a company with a Department of Energy grant.
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But then: Gas was really cheap.
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Policies were not consistently applied.
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They went bankrupt.
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They were bought very, very cheaply by the Chinese.
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I mean, not to take away from the Chinese.
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They figured out how to scale it up.
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But they got a leg up, you know, based on American taxpayer research.
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The Alliance for American Manufacturing, a group formed by domestic manufacturers and the United Steelworkers Union,
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is in favor of tariffs and subsidies and incentives to boost the domestic industry.
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The group wants to keep many of the current policies in place.
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We're trying to gradually make a transition to new types of energy -run vehicles,
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whether it's electric, hybrid, other sorts of technologies as well.
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And we're trying to offset some of the capital costs that are involved with that.
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And there's a long tradition of doing that in the United States.
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Policies can only help so much.
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At the end of the day, it's the demand that dictates the business.
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It's a marketplace that makes the calls as we all know.
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And so you can have some amount of demand side subsidies like you get $7 ,500 off
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if you buy this EV with a certain mix up to a certain point.
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But these things cost a lot of taxpayer dollars as we all know.
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This is the challenge Chinese competition poses.
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Critics say Chinese cars are cheap because they are heavily subsidized by the government.
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There are other factors.
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Wages are really low.
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There's a fair amount of evidence of forced labor in part of the battery supply chain.
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There's also a lot less attention to environmental considerations in terms of cleaning up and having a clean battery operation,
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which uses a lot of nasty chemicals.
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As I said, the best of the Chinese EV startups have a 30 % cost advantage over legacy automakers, even without subsidies or government help.
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Mark Wakefield, a managing director for Alex Partners, says to compete with that, automakers have to completely change the way they operate.
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From an automaker's perspective, you can't count on that protectionism.
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You have to get ready to fight.
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This is the hard part.
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First, Chinese companies are software oriented.
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Established automakers elsewhere produce cars made with very limited software embedded in parts.
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Truly software defined vehicles, in contrast, are ones where hardware and software can be updated independently, more like computers.
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It's fundamentally different way of developing a vehicle.
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Chinese firms are also fast.
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They develop things quickly.
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They scale things quickly, which attracts attention from government suppliers or other stakeholders. in the strategic phase.
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They're much more willing to just go.
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They don't have the same sort of battles about what to do and what to make.
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Chinese firms rely heavily on methods like virtual testing, rather than the physical tests favored by others.
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This cuts months off schedules and hundreds of millions of dollars from budgets.
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They have a shorter time to market.
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Non -Chinese brands take about 5 .4 years to develop a new model, Legacy Chinese brands, 3 .5.
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New energy vehicle brands like BYD, 1 .6.
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Deadlines are hard, even if that means releasing a subpar vehicle.
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These companies have an intense overtime culture.
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Most of them do not allow this drift that Western companies do.
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And they're willing to put a bad vehicle out there
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and suffer the consequences because they consider the alternative to be a guaranteed loss.
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If I take 40 months to make the vehicle, I'm going to I can't make a competitive vehicle.
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They're also willing to endure large losses early as they get to scale.
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There are two benefits: higher volumes, which help spread costs, but also a lot of learning in that painful early period.
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This desire for short -term profits by American investors, these activist investors, makes that strategy hard.
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China has taken large losses for a long time.
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And this is their playbook.
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They do this in industry after industry.
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There's very little forgiveness for our CEO today.
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who says they make glasses on a vehicle, or a vehicle line, or a whole newt.
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propulsion technology and so they're questioned every quarter and
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so they're thinking of it every day and so it's in
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that sense where if you now move from a $60 ,000 vehicle
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or a $70 ,000 vehicle or a $40 ,000 vehicle to now suddenly announcing affordable vehicles at $25 ,000.
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you get doubly questioned because you're going to be making even more of a loss per vehicle.
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They also take a first principles approach, a willingness to question some of the most basic assumptions or practices.
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Tesla has been known for this in the US market.
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allowing over -the -air updates to the core safety and powertrain systems on the vehicle, things like brakes and motors.
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before they did that, even probably seven years after they did it.
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no other auto company in the world dare Vertical integration, doing a lot of work in -house rather than outsourcing to suppliers,
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also seems to be a key advantage for companies like Chinese BYD and American Tesla.
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The United States is also investing in a local EV supply chain.
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In terms of money spent, it's gone from trailing China to surpassing it.
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Implementing these changes may be hard.
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China's regulatory environment and customer base is totally different from the United States.
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But closing that 30 % cost gap might require a total revamp.
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It feels like you can't do these in small little bits and pieces in evolution.
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And you can't do it by just telling people, "Hey, behave differently." You need the systems, you need the organizational structure and incentives,
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and you need different power centers and what keystones people are going to consider to be sacrosanct versus changeable.
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you you
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In 2005, Chrysler sold 649 ,293 cars spread across seven models.
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Historically, it has been one of the most recognizable names in the U .S auto industry.
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One third of the so -called big three, the three major American automakers.
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Now, 20 years later, the brand has nearly disappeared.
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The only vehicle it currently makes is a minivan.
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and more and over time it just wasn't getting the attention and the investment that it deserved.
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An enthusiast news outlet summed it up by saying Chrysler, once an industrial giant, is a shell of a brand.
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It is now just one of 14 brands in the stable of Stellantis, a struggling European -American automaker.
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Top managers had said they would consider killing brands that aren't meeting targets.
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One of founder Walter P.
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Chrysler's heirs fears that Chrysler could be one of them.
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I've seen the brand slowly whittled away over the years,
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but I feel I'm on a mission to protect some very important iconic brands
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part of American history that we do not want to lose.
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Chrysler says at least three new vehicles are on the way, including an updated version of its only product.
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Chrysler Grand is here to stay.
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It is being well invested in.
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The brand is not on the table for elimination and it has a very bright future.
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Chrysler is one of the four brands that used to make up what once was known as the Chrysler Corporation.
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There have been others throughout its long history.
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Examples, Plymouth, Eagle, DeSoto foundational in getting us to the point where we are now with personal transportation
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and the automotive industry as we know it.
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The Chrysler Corporation was
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and in spite of its current European ownership is sort of still considered one of the big three or Detroit three, along with Ford and General Motors.
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It has had a colorful and often difficult history.
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Walter Chrysler founded the company and in the brand.
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It was his intention to deliver vehicles that were beautifully designed with thoughtful innovation
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and features and top -notch engineering and quality all at affordable price.
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It nearly went bankrupt in 1980, and then actually did in 2009.
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To be fair, so did General Motors, fellow D3 giant.
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Chrysler has been owned by a private equity firm, by Mercedes -Benz, by Italian maker Fiat,
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and in 2021 it merged with French maker Group PSA to form Stellantis.
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The latest arrangement has suffered turmoil.
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After a record year of profits in 2023, the dealers that sell the North American brands sent an open letter severely criticizing management,
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especially CEO Carlos Tavares.
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Not long after, Tavares suddenly resigned.
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Despite their challenges over the decades, these brands have managed to endure and even succeed.
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The thing that comes across is that ability to develop products that are consistent with the DNA.
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And Jeep and Ram and Dodge are doing that really well.
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But Chrysler was never able to carve out a similar niche.
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Its only models in production are the Voyager and Pacifica, basically different versions of the same product.
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Chrysler is credited with mainstreaming these vehicles and is leading the segment.
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In addition, the minivans are made in Ontario,
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Canada, and the incoming Trump administration is threatening a 25 % tariff on all products imported from the country.
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Chrysler told CNBC it is looking forward to working with the president elect.
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Sales have increased since the pandemic, and the segment is targeting some new buyers.
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Empty nesters, single people and couples with pets.
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young people who are very outdoor active.
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I'm proud to say that when I came into leading the brand in 2021, we recaptured segment leadership.
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And we've held that for the last three and a half years.
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Chrysler was meant to be a premium or near luxury brand, but its problem was that some of its recent owners decided its stablemates did a better job of serving that market.
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The Chrysler was meant to be the luxury vehicle.
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So think about Lincoln and Cadillac, and that's what Chrysler was meant to be.
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But sometime in the in the 80s.
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that notion was destroyed.
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Right.
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And so Chrysler's were just rebadged.
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Plymouths and, you know, Dodges and nothing special about them.
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And recovering that became very difficult because it had persisted for a long time.
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If you want to look at the cars that that corporation makes now, that are the closest to being luxury cars, they're Jeeps.
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You know, they're the wagon, the grand wagoneer.
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Apart from the Jeep strategy, after Fiat bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2009, it sought to position its European brands, especially Maserati and Alfa Romeo,
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as the new company's main premium and luxury names.
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Chrysler's reputation for poor quality didn't help even if you made a Chrysler, that was really like, In every way,
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an engineer could go over it with a fine tooth comb and say, man, this is every bit as good.
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as a Mercedes.
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People wouldn't pay as much as they'll pay for a Mercedes because it'll have a Chrysler badge on it.
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And they're gonna be like, well, you know, what are my neighbors gonna say about that?
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Of course, some say these strategies haven't worked out all that well either.
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Alfa Romeo sold fewer than 7 ,000 cars in the U .S through the third quarter of 2024.
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Some blame Jeep's sales declines on its aggressive move upmarket.
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The 90s and 2000s were good years for Chrysler in the 90s, the Chrysler brand really benefited from,
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you know, this sort of an overall revival at Chrysler Corporation.
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Bold, risk -taking, a little outlandish.
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We're talking about the same broader company that made the prowler.
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I mean who makes an open wheel, hot rod, retro looking thing in the middle of.. they did.
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That was risk taking.
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The Hellcat is risk taking.
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That's the kind of thing that needs to come back in order for people to look to Chrysler again.
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The PT Cruiser's retro -styling polarized opinion, inspiring both ridicule and devotion.
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Still, it sold well: 1 .3 million.
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During its 10 year run, But there were also more conventional vehicles, such as the Chrysler 300, which in 2005 sold nearly as well as the Jeep Liberty,
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a high volume midsize SUV and nearly twice as well as the Wrangler.
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That was a car that really just took the market by storm.
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I mean, everybody had to have one.
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Cars like the 300 embody what many argue was Chrysler's true identity, an affordable combination of upscale design and performance.
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They brought us to a point where we started to equate power with luxury.
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And I think that's still true.
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Founder Walter P.
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Chrysler, who had already built a reputation as a kind of turnaround executive at brands such as Buick and Willis Overland, began working with some ex -Studebaker engineers in 1920.
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luxury cars.
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Their first, the 1924 Chrysler Six, came with a pretty modest sticker price.
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Walter also had four children.
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Frank Rhodes is the grandchild of one of the daughters, a very die hard Chrysler person.
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It was like six months before she passed away.
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I think Chrysler was going bankrupt at the time and she says do what you can to keep the engine running.
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And that's all I've been doing ever since.
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In August 2024, Rhodes wrote an open letter to Stellantis saying he wanted to acquire the Chrysler, Dodge and Mopar brands.
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I don't have an actual.
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monetary proposal.
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I just want to see what Stellantis is going to do
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and what the executives are going to do to make this right for our country and keep these brands alive.
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This is an American icon from Stellantis and making sure that they live on for the future.
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But I can assure you that both brands have a really bright future in the Stellantis portfolio.
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In a public statement, Stellantis said none of its brands are for sale.
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Rumors and reports of Chrysler's potential demise have circulated as its lineup has shrunk and sales slowed.
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I just wanted to set the record straight and bust some of those myths that Chrysler's future is intact.
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It's being invested in and we will continue to grow the brand for the foreseeable future.
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To illustrate what lies ahead, Chrysler has unveiled some concept vehicles over the last two years.
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a 2022 crossover called The Airflow, which will not be going into production.
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And in 2024, a sporty coupe called the Halcyon.
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We found a new audience for a really cool sporty looking coupe.
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And if you take a look at the design elements of that vehicle, both on the exterior and interior,
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it is very much the direction that our future design language is going in across the entire portfolio.
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So very modern, leak, not overly complicated in terms of design cues and elements,
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but just very clean.
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As far as the Halcyon goes, well that to me is just smacking of pure concept car fancy.
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I mean, you know, it's got a fully glass cockpit, you know, like a jet fighter.
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I mean, pretty much all of it is unfeasible for an actual real production car.
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But Chrysler did say some kind of production version is in the works.
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I mentioned the Halcyon concept
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that we are working on bringing to market in a real industrialized form that's affordable for customers as well.
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In the short term, it is focusing on the Pacifica and Voyager minivans, a refreshed Pacifica in 2026 with a new exterior design.
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The powertrain on that will be an updated version of the plug -in hybrid system on the current model,
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one shared with the Jeep 4xe models. by a date.
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Chrysler will still offer the 3 .6 liter gas version through the end of the decade.
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In 2026, it also plans to release a large crossover that will come out in both fully electric and hybrid versions.
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The company is confident the new lineup will help repair the relationship with dealers that has plagued all the American Stellantis names.
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We've shown the silhouettes and the properties to dealers, and they just cannot wait to get these products on their lots.
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We've also done market research with consumers because we wanted to make sure
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that this new direction that we're taking Chrysler brand in is going to meet their expectations.
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dropped at how beautiful the cars look.
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And they were literally saying, if this is the direction that Chrysler is going in, sign me up.
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I think going forward, it's critical for Chrysler to regain some of that spirit of atlanticness and emotion.
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And you know, these Chrysler products that we've been talking about, these are all products that really hit people in the fields.
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Music.
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In the world of American muscle cars, SUVs and pickups, the Hemi is an icon.
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A big, loud eight cylinder engine found in many of the vehicles collectively known by the Mopar or Chrysler names.
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Hey!
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That thing gotta hear me?
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Yeah.
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Sweet!
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Even if you don't know what a Hemi is, you know the term, oh, it's got a Hemi.
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It's associated with the muscle car era of the 60s.
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Obviously, there were a lot of very iconic, very powerful, very fast, very fun muscle cars.
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The Hemi was especially important to Stellantis' profitable pickup brand.
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Ram.
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But in an effort to get greener, Ram's then newly formed parent dropped it in favor of a high powered twin turbo inline six.
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The engine is arguably superior.
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That didn't matter.
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Since its launch, Ram sales declined every quarter from Q1 2024 through the same quarter of 2025.
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When they feel betrayed by their brand, that brand then has to really earn that buyer back.
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you Now the Stellantis CEO that made that change, Carlos Tavares, is gone.
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Tim Kaniscus, a longtime company veteran, is back in charge at Ram.
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Reviving the Hemi engine has been one of his first moves.
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And the first day we opened up for Hemi orders, we took 12 ,000 orders.
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CNBC dove in to find out why this engine is such a big deal,
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what this saga says about the bigger problems at Stellantis, market.
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you Thank you.
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Up until 2019, Ram was a growing threat to rivals in the ever important and highly profitable North American pickup truck market.
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After Chrysler was brought out of bankruptcy through its merger with Italian carmaker Fiat, Ram, like its Chrysler Corporation stablemates,
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experienced something of a renaissance.
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Ram trucks, we eclipsed the volume of Chevy Silverado and got close to F 150.
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It is one Motor Trend Truck of the Year seven times since becoming a standalone brand.
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It also took home the prestigious North American Truck of the Year Award twice last in 2019.
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It ranked high on various J .D power lists, such as initial quality and driver appeal.
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today.
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This is where many say Ram and the other Chrysler /Mopar brands hit choppy waters.
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Ram trucks never totally lost their critical appeal.
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The light duty 1500, which makes up about half of Ram's U .S pickup truck volume, won three of its total Motor Trend Awards since 2019,
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including for the 2025 model year.
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It has also won a top award in Texas seven years in a row.
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Texas is about 20 % of the total US truck market.
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The Ram 1500 is a truly outstanding truck.
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It has absolutely the best ride quality of any full size pickup.
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Also, the interior, in my view, probably the best in the segment.
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Ram pickups really feel expensive.
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They feel like quality pieces.
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But over the last several years, it has lost market share to rivals.
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Other Detroit brands have lost sales since 2016.
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But after hitting a peak in 2019, Ram finished 2024 100 ,000 units below where it was eight years earlier.
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Meanwhile, GM's premium GMC Sierra had grown by about the same number in the same time frame.
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Stellantis had a slew of problems, including sale product, high prices,
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and a lineup dealers and industry analysts said didn't fit what customers wanted.
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It finished 2024 with a 70 percent drop in profits.
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Its troubles trickled down to all of the American brands.
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CEO Carlos Tavares also pushed hard to cut costs and green the fleet.
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More EVs, lower emissions.
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But fans and insiders say some of these measures were too swift, too severe and ignorant of the U .S.
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We want cars that you know, that make us replace the tires every year.
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We think about burnouts.
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The wrong people were trying to guide America, American enthusiasts in a direction they did not want to go and still don't want to go.
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Among those moves, Stellantis briefly disbanded the American Street and Racing Technology Division, better known as SRT.
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It's the Chrysler Mopar version of the performance shops many automakers have.
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A Chrysler, Jeep, Ram or Dodge vehicle with an SRT badge on it is a high performance one.
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Stellantis also spiked the V8 engine across most of its lineup, except for a handful of models.
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Ram's sister brand Dodge had found a fair bit of success reviving its muscle car heritage through its challenge.
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Challenger and Charger, especially with eye -popping versions like the Hellcat, Hellcat Red Eye, and the Demon.
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- It even started calling itself the Brotherhood of Muscle.
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Under Tavares, the Charger and Challenger were combined into a single model.
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But more importantly for fans, all those over the top V8 powered versions were gone and replaced with a new Charger that came with two powertrains,
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one fully electric and one with an inline six engine called the Hurricane.
398
There are practically pitchforks at Stellantis headquarters when that happened.
399
Carlos did something that wasn't appreciated.
400
You know, they lost a lot of fan base because they went to electric.
401
I've driven the Hurricane.
402
It's a very nice engine.
403
It's very refined.
404
It's very smooth, which on paper, it's better in every way.
405
Well, it's better in many ways.
406
Yes, on paper.
407
The standard engine has more horsepower and more torque than the Hemi, out of the water.
408
It is a fantastic offering, but there are some people that They count cylinders.
409
They want the Hemi, they want the V8, they want the sound of that naturally aspirated V8.
410
They want the rumble, they want the drama.
411
Americans associate truck performance with V8 engines.
412
The Ram customer in particular really, really, really loves the idea of having that big American V8 under the hood.
413
You take away what made them love the brand and love the trucks to begin with, well, yeah, they're going to revolt.
414
I grew up a tuner.
415
I, you know, to stuff,
416
you know, a inline six twin turbo into a very heavy vehicle,
417
you're not going to get the same performance as a very torquey V8.
418
When the 25 model debuted in quarter one of 2024, sales dropped off a cliff.
419
Here's what that looked like.
420
These choices really cost the brand customers, which in the truck segment, you cannot afford to risk.
421
Here's how Caniscus put it.
422
There are about million people driving a Ram with a Hemi engine in it.
423
About six to 8 % of them buy a new truck every single year.
424
And of that six to 8%, 40 % of them said, I won't shop you if you don't offer that engine.
425
They didn't say I won't buy because I need that engine.
426
But they said, I won't shop you unless you have the opportunity for me to look at your current offering
427
and what I drive today so I can compare and contrast.
428
That's about 30 ,000 units a year automatically that I would have lost.
429
And with loyalty running in 75, 80 % of the truck segment, you don't want to lose any of those customers.
430
Caniscus expects about 40 percent of Ram buyers sooner or later to settle on the Hemi.
431
That's a lot higher than the Ford F -150's V8 take rate of about 25 percent, but slightly lower than GM's, which Caniscus attributes to the fact that apart from a diesel,
432
GM offers a choice of two V8s or a four cylinder.
433
Ford F -150 buyers can swap in a V8 for free on most versions of the truck.
434
Ram buyers have to pay an extra $1 ,200 unless they get the high -end Limited or Longhorn trims.
435
Kniscus thinks a lot of people will choose the Hemi anyway.
436
Hemi is not really just a V8.
437
It's kind of a brand in and of itself.
438
It's become a thing.
439
And Ram isn't giving up on the hurricane.
440
The reality is, as attached as some buyers are to V8s, customers are choosing smaller engines.
441
Toyota has already dropped its V8 from the Tundra lineup with less pushback.
442
You're gonna want to see what the new engine is compared to what you're used to.
443
It's all about the choice.
444
It's not about one versus the other.
445
It's about having the choice.
446
It's also not giving up on electric.
447
Ram is planning two new EV trucks.
448
One fully electric and another with a gas burning generator.
449
Caniscus was also CEO of Dodge when that brand unveiled the electric Dodge Charger.
450
Kind of typecast with, you know, I'm the Hemi guy, I'm the supercharger guy, I'm the Hellcat guy, all that kind of stuff.
451
And it's weird to hear you talk about electric vehicles.
452
A lot of times people that bash electric vehicles have never driven one.
453
Electric cars, they have their faults.
454
There's no question they have their faults, but they are fantastic.
455
Electrification will ultimately take over, but for the time being, while gasoline engines are available,
456
gasoline engine enthusiasts want the ultimate expressions of those gasoline engines, and a big V8 engine is certainly one of those things.
457
I'm an ex Tesla employee.
458
I've never owned an electric car.
459
But if Dodge really wants to sell vehicles, they have to sell customizable cars that scream drive me.
460
We are in the very early days.
461
500 mile range, lighter solid state batteries, inductive charging, sufficient infrastructure and prices that are comparable to gas engines.
462
Caniscus is confident all these will happen.
463
When you get there, you will get mass adoption.
464
The problem is we tried to force mass adoption before we got there.
465
The car displaced the horse because it was better.
466
The electric car is going to be better.
467
We just have a lot of challenges in the industry that we have to overcome first, and we will overcome them.
468
We have to, because as an industry we've invested about a half a trillion dollars in this.
469
- Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Inside The Crisis Facing U.S. Auto Giants”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Chrysler, brand, vehicle. This video has 469 sentences and 5701 words to shadow. The speech runs for 38:47. The speaker talks at a steady 147 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| automaker noun | A person or company that manufactures automobiles; usually used to refer to a large corporation such as General Motors, Toyota, and so on. | |
| buyer noun | /ˈbaɪ.əɹ/ | A person who makes one or more purchases. |
| lineup noun | /ˈlaɪn.ʌp/ | A physical or photographic queue of people allegedly involved in a crime, allowing a witness to identify them. |
| dealer noun | /ˈdiːlə(ɹ)/ | One who deals in goods, especially automobiles; a middleman. |
| subsidy noun | /ˈsʌbsɪdi/ | Financial support or assistance, such as a grant. |
| profitable adjective | /ˈpɹɑ.fɪ.tə.bl̩/ | Producing a profit. |
| bankrupt adjective | /ˈbæŋk.ɹəpt/ | In a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay outstanding debts or meet financial obligations; specifically, having been legally declared insolvent. |
| turbo noun | /ˈtɝ.boʊ/ | A turbine. |
| gasoline noun | /ˈɡæs.ə.liːn/ | A flammable liquid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, mainly used as a motor fuel; petrol. |
| investor noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | A person who invests money in order to make a profit. |
| incentive noun | /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/ | Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages. |
| hurricane noun | /ˈhʌɹɪkeɪn/ | A severe tropical cyclone; an intense storm rotating around a central eye. |
| hybrid noun | /ˈhaɪ.bɹɪd/ | Offspring resulting from cross-breeding different entities, e.g. two different species or two purebred parent strains. |
| icon noun | /ˈaɪ.kɑn/ | An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion. |
| carmaker noun | A manufacturer of automobiles. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| buy back verb | To purchase (something already sold, misplaced, destroyed, or given away). |
| clean up verb | To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy. |
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
| come out in verb | to be afflicted by (a visible disruption of the body) |
| drop off verb | To fall asleep. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You know, they're the wagon, the grand wagoneer.
- I don't have an actual.
- That thing gotta hear me?
- I've never owned an electric car.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been doing · we've been talking |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have outpaced · have resisted · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was meant · was destroyed · be called |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who want · people who would · frequently, which makes |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 79 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dealership /ˈdiːləʃɪp/, protectionism /pɹəˈtɛk.ʃə.nɪ.zəm/, inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, notion /ˈnoʊʃən/, adoption /əˈdɑp.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: enthusiast /ɪnˈθuːziˌæst/, protectionism /pɹəˈtɛk.ʃə.nɪ.zəm/, automotive /ˌɔtəˈmoʊtɪv/, automobile /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbil/, portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like automaker, buyer, lineup.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.