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By Todd Allcock
Mike Murphy is a political consultant and Republican strategist who has worked for candidates such as John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has written a column for Time magazine and is a frequent commentator on political news programs like “Meet the Press” and co-hosts the “Hacks on Tap” podcast.
He is also an automobile enthusiast, drives a Volkswagen ID.4 and was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule (during the holidays, no less!) and let me pick his brain in an email conversation about EVs, politics, Volkswagen and one of his recent efforts: the EV Politics Project, an organization he founded in 2023 to understand and combat the partisan divide around EV adoption, and inform politicians, automakers, and car buyers about the importance of electric vehicles for American jobs, the economy and national security.
Thanks so much for taking the time for this. Could you give us the “elevator pitch” of how the EV Politics Project started and what it does?
My pleasure! And I love my VW ID.4. I’m from Detroit and a motorhead. My lifetime MPG average is probably 6 or 7. But over time the EV tech won me over; an engine with so few moving parts, no gas (which can cost up to $7 here in CA), instant torque! They are fun and I became a convert. So when I saw all the knee-jerk EV bashing from my Republican Party, it ticked me off. So I started EV Politics Project, and we launched with a national poll in late 2023 looking at voter attitudes about EVs. We learned a lot and started sharing it with auto OEMs to help them learn to message better to GOP consumers about the upside of EVs.
I don’t think ICE cars and trucks will ever vanish, nor should they, but EVs are going to be the future of the world auto industry, and the U.S. must decide if we are going to compete or melt away into the British Leyland of the 2030s and lose a huge amount of manufacturing capacity.
We recently polled just Republicans about EVs, and we found that two-thirds of GOP voters think the U.S. is either the world’s largest or second largest maker of automobiles! The fact is we are fourth! China produces nearly 3x the vehicles we do. If we put our head in the sand about EVs and don’t compete, it would be a jobs and national security disaster, and I think we should work hard to avoid that.
Taking the silly partisanship out of EVs (right now Democrats buy EVs at a 4 to 1 rate over Republicans) is a vital part of that mission. So we have to tell the EV story in a product focused, not dogma focused, way.
As our country has become increasingly divided politically, how did electric vehicles become one of the divides? When did the Republican party go negative on EVs and why?
Environmental dogma. When you poll both Republicans and Democrats about EVs, they agree about most of the benefits: save money on gas, less maintenance, fast and fun to drive, cool tech. Republicans also like the idea you get some money back from the government when you buy an EV, in fact they rate it a few points higher than Democrats do! But when you ask about EVs being good for climate change, the parties lunge into a big divide.
Most Republican consumers think climate change is way overhyped by the media. When you try to sell them a “green” car, it triggers lots of liberal “Biden-mobile” stuff and jams brands into partisan politics, which is a big mistake. You have to sell cars and trucks based on the vehicle’s attributes.
Alfred P. Sloan, the genius who created General Motors in the ’20s, used to say their strategy was to create “a car for every purse and purpose.” Not for every political ideology. Politics is a limiting factor you don’t want. “How’d you like to save your family $2,000 a year on gas?” is a much better pitch to nearly half of the new car buyers than “a worried polar bear will love you for saving the planet” stuff that the first Nissan Leaf EVs were sold as. That image stuck, and it’s become an EV barrier to many right-of-center people.
It all sort of crescendoed in the presidential election, where EVs became a big issue in the presidential race, especially in the key swing state of Michigan. We did a study on that, and the impact it had at EVPolitics.org, and you can read all about it here: bit.ly/3Dii1WDYour polling data also showed that people who personally know EV owners have a better opinion of EVs.
This is a big one. On every question we asked about EVs, people who say they have friends or family who have EVs rated EVs a lot higher. The best way to learn about EVs is from trusted friends and family. Test driving, more than just for a few minutes but for a full day, is the best way to sell them.
Now I’ll switch gears (if you’ll pardon the pun!) to Volkswagen and the ID.4. How did you choose the ID.4?
So, we own two EVs. I drive a BMW iX, which is a great EV, and we have the ID.4. The ID.4 story is funny. We have a summer house in New Hampshire and kept a Tiguan there to avoid the predatory cost of renting a car five weeks in the summer. But I took the Tiguan in for an oil change and saw an ID.4.
The dealer told me they are tough to sell in NH because the highway charging is so limited. (I later gave the governor an earful about that!) One thing led to another and between no sales tax, the lease subsidy and a great deal from the VW store, I had an ID.4. After the summer was up, I didn’t want to just garage it in NH, so I drove it back to LA across the country, and wrote about it here: bit.ly/4iAK1Fc
It was fun, and I wanted to see just how bad CCS EV charging was (not as bad as people thought, but not perfect). Since then I’ve done the trip across the country to NH and back and this summer with charging was great. (Except in NH!).
What do you like (or dislike) about the ID.4? It has taken a bit of a beating in Consumer Reports for reliability. Have you had any major issues?
I like the ID.4. The updated version has crisper software and a few good powertrain tweaks, but all in all I’ve driven everything EV and I think the ID.4 is a strong, practical EV. Not bad to drive, great seats (get the Pro S), it has a crazy tight turning radius; a very useful weapon in LA traffic where a quick U-turn can be your best friend, it’s made in TN and we haven’t had any mechanical trouble, even on three madcap trips from Los Angeles to New Hampshire.
What’s your next EV going to be?
Soon, I’m heading back to VW group. The iX lease is up and since BMW has been pain re: supporting EVPolitics – unlike other OEMs I might say – I’m letting the siren’s song of the new [Porsche] Macan 4 EV pull me into ownership. It’s a terrific vehicle. As is the revised and impressive Taycan, I just need more backseat room.
Because the Autoist covers classic VWs, an obvious question for you as a motorhead has to be what other Volkswagen Group vehicles have you owned (I know there’s at least a Porsche or two in your past!) and which were your favorites?
A friend had a Thing back in the day and I loved it. So did former Tennessee Governor and Senator Lamar Alexander, who loved to tool around eastern TN in his. My assistant Holly loved her Bug, and I spent a lot of time as a passenger in that car. I was an early Golf GTI fan, of course. And since I’m Jurassic, I remember dating some great women long ago back in DC when the Rabbit convertible was the cool car for 20-something DC staffers.
In my pre-EV days, I had a Porsche 911 Targa, a car I still miss, and more recently a Macan GTS. Another VW Group car I had and really loved was the early Audi S4 with the six-speed in neon blue and the twin turbo six. Loved it. If I had garage space, I’d get an old clean one now as my guilty-pleasure car!
Legacy automakers are trying to balance the need for short term profits with the necessary investments to stay relevant in the energy transition to varying degrees of success. How do you think Volkswagen is doing? What advice would you give to VW’s top brass?
It’s a tough world to operate in; go too fast and losses will kill you, go too small and you can lose the future. It’s been tough for VW because they, and others, had such a gold mine in China for years and now that is going away.
I think on the product side VW is doing well. I think one secret weapon VW has is consistently good industrial design. The Porsche EVs are great, best charging curve in industry, and are very on brand. The ID.4 will need a big refresh soon, and I think they know what to do to make it really good. The ID.7 is great, but alas the U.S. sedan market is small. The Buzz should do well here.
But like all automakers, they have to align their capacity to demand, and without the China crutch – in fact, the opposite with the Chinese moving into traditional VW markets in Europe and Latin America – they have some very politically tough decisions to make to protect their future; the German plant closings being at the forefront of that right now. But I’m rooting for them. I just need to get them to join the other EV making OEMs that support us at EVPolitics.org!
Again, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to do this. This loony bleeding-heart East Coast liberal appreciates the work you do, and I encourage everyone on both sides of the political spectrum to check out your website at EVPolitics.org, as well as Directly Current, the EV Politics Project’s podcast. Anything you would like to add that I didn’t get around to asking?
Thanks for asking me to do this! Such fun. I’d just say check out our blog and some of our polling at EVPolitics.com. And if you have EV worries, take our Myths vs. Facts EV Quiz on the site and, of course, check out the merch store. You’ll get 15% off if you put ILOVEVW in the discount code box at checkout! 
Todd Allcock | tallcock@aol.com
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