Driving with Dunne

Driving with Dunne

Electric vehicles are the future. But with new technologies comes confusion! What's real? And what is hyperbole? Who are the people to know and what are their visions? Leading global electric vehicle innovators and executives join Michael J. Dunne in no-nonsense conversations about what that electric future looks like. Speaking with some of the biggest in the field like Fisker, NIO, Lucid, Xpeng and more, Dunne - author, entrepreneur and keynote speaker – knows the business of electric vehicles. He’s going to answer questions like: Which EV brands are the best? Why is the charging experience so unpredictable? Who makes the best battery? The electric vehicle revolution is a global race that China now leads with America way back in their rear view mirror. Who will win out - and why? Every episode of Driving With Dunne equips you with powerful new knowledge about the future of these battery-propelled computers on wheels.

Episodes

January 30, 2026 47 mins
What do we really know about Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Chairman Mao? Answer: Incredibly little.  Xi is the embodiment of inscrutability, the ultimate poker face.  And second, the Party he has led since 2012 is notoriously secretive and opaque. But, wait, there is a fresh glimmer of light. His name is Joseph Torigian, a highly respected scholar who has written an incredibly powerful book about Xi Jinping's fathe...
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Our guest today, Lizzi Lee, is smart, daring and unconventional. After earning a PhD in economics from MIT, Lizzi Lee took a bold right turn and dove into research and writing. A few weeks ago, Lizzi wrote a very compelling piece in Foreign Affairs about the risks facing Chinese companies - price wars and vanishing margins at home. The stubborn underlying problem is that China cannot shake itself free from chronic overcapacity. Wel...
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Earlier this year, I enjoyed a delicious lunch in Mexico City with Luis Lozano,  the former CEO of Toyota de Mexico. Luis immediately impressed me with his knowledge of the Mexican car market, the shock of hundreds of thousands of Chinese imports since 2020 and the possibilities that Chinese automakers will try to make Mexico a production base for exports to the United States. One of his goals, Luis told me, was to open American ey...
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President Trump and President Xi,  the two most powerful men in the world, met last week in Korea to try to, basically, calm things down.  China had just flexed its muscles, threatening to limit the export of key inputs like rare earth magnets and other critical minerals without which auto assembly plants in America could, within weeks, come to a standstill. America could inflict its own damage, by widening the net of sanctions on ...
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Here's a question I get a lot. How did China get so good so fast. People with front line experience in the People's Republic  talk about something called the China arc. Chinese leaders identify your company as the global leader. They entice you to invest in China. Chinese companies gradually extract know-how from you. Then they begin to compete with you inside China. Pretty soon, they are present in global markets, giving you a run...
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Dazed, bruised and confused. That's how leaders of global automakers and suppliers operating in China feel these days. Since 2020, they have seen their once formidable China sales and profit machines vanish. As a group global automakers will sell 8 million fewer vehicles in China this year than they did in 2020. Eight million! People at headquarters are asking some tough questions: Where did things go wrong? And could it have been ...
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In the good old days of driving, we needed to make sure the mechanical things worked: Things like the engine, of course, the steering and the brakes. We were in charge of driving the car.  Now, for better and for worse, technologies are moving in and taking over. Sensors, cameras, on-board computers, software. Those powerful technologies are mostly invisible to the naked eye. They give us directions and infotainment; they help to a...
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By now, you have probably heard that there are more than 200 million connected cars on the road today. But, wait a minute. What is a connected car – and how does a connected car make our lives better? A simple way to think about it is that a connected car is one that is linked to the internet, just like our phone. And like our smartphones, that linkage gives cars an ability to deliver countless new features and functions via over-t...
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It is hard for Americans to imagine not being No. 1. The US has been the leading industrial, economic and military power since the end of WWII. But now America confronts a challenger that appears to be bigger, faster and more ambitious. That challenger is China. The PRC now manufactures one third of the world's cars, sixty percent of EVs, seventy percent of batteries and utterly dominates battery supply chains. How did Chinese comp...
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How do we begin to get our minds around the global blitz of tariffs unleashed by the Trump Administration. Is it madness or is there a method to the madness? One thing is certain: Donald Trump has definitely captured the attention of  leaders in Asia, Europe, Mexico and Canada. They are trying to come to terms with arguably the greatest economic and trade shock in decades. Joining us today is Wendy, Cutler, one of the most skilled ...
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When it comes to China, most Americans are mostly in the dark. Don't believe me? Just quiz your friends. Ask them to name the five largest cities in China. Or to tell you the difference between people in Fujian and Sichuan, or Beijing and Guangzhou? Or how many cars China exported last year.  Is China's economy booming on the back of record exports or reeling from a property meltdown and tanking consumer confidence? How many of us ...
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When it comes to EVs, people seem to embrace one of two schools of thought. In school one, electric vehicles may have a role to play but that role is limited. Manufacturers should not be required to build them. And citizens should not be required to pay taxes to subsidize purchase of EVs. In school two, the belief is that electric vehicles are, without a doubt, the future. By 2040 the vast majority of all new vehicles will be prope...
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Chinese leaders believe overcapacity across industries including automotive is a cyclical problem that fresh growth will solve. Foreign investors with experience in the PRC see things differently. To them, overcapacity is a direct result of China's planned economy. Not only does massive overcapacity spark price wars inside China, it also threatens to spur an avalanche of exports into markets worldwide, undermining industries and ki...
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We're trying something a little different this week! Michael Dunne recently appeared as a guest on the podcast FACE-OFF: The U.S. vs. China, where he had an insightful and engaging conversation with host Jane Perlez. He enjoyed the discussion so much that he wanted to share it with you. The description below is from the FACE-OFF podcast.

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Back in 2015 the Chinese government declared that they would become the worl...
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Alex Roy and his co-pilots recently made two historic coast to coast trips - California to New York -  in his brand new Model S. Their mission: Measure the efficiency and safety of the Tesla FSD system. How close was Tesla to mastering full autonomy? Roy and Team use two key metrics. The first is the total number of disengagements – whether voluntary or involuntary. The second: How quickly could the system recover after a disengage...
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What are the industrial crown jewels of the future? Most of us can name two of them right away: Chips that power the brains behind everything, including AI. And batteries or energy storage systems. Batteries power not only EVs but have a much wider application in delivering energy to factories and countless military applications. There is a third one that might be just as crucial: magnets. Magnets are produced with materials derive...
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What can we say for sure about China? Many of us can rattle off some incredible statistics.  It is a manufacturing and technology powerhouse. China ran up an astonishing $1 trillion dollar surplus in 2024. China builds more EVs than all other countries combined. And China has enough capacity to supply total global demand for batteries. We know these facts. But what we know much less well is how to engage with Chinese business peopl...
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Europe's aim is to become a global leader in adopting next generation clean technologies. In the first phase, beginning in 2020, the focus was on meeting ambitious emission reductions goals. Four years later, the European Commission is making an important adjustment to its strategy. The new goal is to have Europe be a global leader in adopting and producing those technologies.  They call it the Clean Industrial Deal. Some backgroun...
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Europe wants to go green in a hurry. China has EVs to help Europe achieve their goal faster. What's the problem? The problem is that too many Chinese cars are flooding into France, Germany and Italy And that is putting enormous pressure on Europe's auto industry. Making things worse, European brands' sales are skidding in China, which used to be their forever profit machines.  VW is now talking about closing three plants and laying...
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One of the most significant limiters to EV adoption in America is the dreaded charging experience. Where do I find the nearest station? Wil, the chargers work? Do I need an app? Will I be safe sitting alone in my car for thirty minutes? Who can I call if things go wrong? In this episode, we learn from Christopher Balcom of Schneider Electric that improvements are on the way. Specifically,  the mission  is to simplify the charging e...
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