Sandy Munro, CEO of Munro & Associates, is one of the automobile industry's most well-known and respected advisers and analysts. Munro, a frequent contributor to the YouTube channel E For Electric, takes his latest appearance to discuss how the Coronavirus shutdown will impact the automobile industry, particularly Tesla.
Munro & Associates in the news
One of the interesting things Munro says is that this industry shutdown might actually slow down the proliferation of electric vehicles with the established OEMs. That's because they will need to focus on their more profitable offerings once production begins again, in order to appease stockholders.
Pick-up trucks and large SUVs are the most profitable vehicle offerings for the US-based automakers General Motors, Ford and Dodge. Therefore, Munro believes they will get the most attention, making sure the supply chain is fully operational for those vehicles first. The automakers may even elect to pull back some R&D dollars for plug-ins because they aren't currently big money-makers.
If that does happen, the domestic brands will fall even further behind than they already are in the electric vehicle market, which could prove a catastrophic mistake for them in future years.
Munro also notes that Tesla is probably better equipped to come out of this with less impact than the other OEMs because of how vertically integrated they are. Munro points out that you can't just turn off the parts supply chain and expect them to be ready full-steam when the car manufacturing plants are ready to reopen, and you can only go as fast as your slowest supplier.
"If the buying public loses confidence in the products being sold, or just loses confidence in general with the economy and the companies that are trying to survive, then we're all doomed - Sandy Munro, CEO, Munro & Associates
Munro also believes that the consumer will ultimately decide how quickly we recover them this crisis. He says confidence will play an important role in how long and how painful the road to economic recovery for the automotive industry will be.
On the bright side, Munro announces that he'll be getting a Tesla Model Y soon to tear apart, and offer his expertise on how well the vehicle is engineered and assembled. We'll definitely have his opinions on that posted here once he's had some time to do the teardown and gather his thoughts on what was learned.
So check out the video and let us know if you agree with Munro. As always, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.