Automotive State of The Union

Ford Wins Most Iconic, Stellantis Cancels PHEVs, Humans Winning at AI

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Episode #1239:  Ford earns top honors as America’s most iconic company, Stellantis drops every PHEV from its 2026 lineup, and McKinsey’s CEO reminds us there are still a few things humans do better than AI. A day of big shifts, bold moves, and even bolder expectations.

Show Notes with links: 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/ford-named-no-1-most-iconic-american-company-nationwide-survey-making-peoples-lives-better
Ford just topped Time and Statista’s list of the 250 most iconic American companies, beating household giants like Apple, Coca-Cola and Amazon. The ranking highlights not just commercial success, but each company’s impact on U.S. culture and society.
Time’s nationwide survey put Ford at No. 1 for its cultural influence and long-standing role in shaping American life.
Bill Ford pointed back to the company’s founding mission, emphasizing innovation tied to improving people’s lives—not just tech for tech’s sake.
Ford underscored its status as the largest hourly auto employer in the U.S., reinforcing its commitment to American workers.
Time credited Ford’s assembly-line legacy for transforming modern manufacturing and reshaping cities and suburbs.
“Innovation is not just about building batteries or technology for its own sake; it is about making people’s lives better,” said Bill Ford.

https://www.jalopnik.com/2071397/stellantis-canceling-all-plug-in-hybrids-2026-model-year/
Stellantis is pulling the plug—literally—on every PHEV in its North American lineup starting with the 2026 model year. Once top sellers like the Wrangler 4xe,  Grand Cherokee 4xe, and Chrysler Pacifica PHEV are being discontinued as the company shifts its electrification strategy.
Stellantis says every brandwide PHEV program in North America will be phased out beginning in 2026.
The automaker plans to pivot toward traditional hybrids and range-extended EVs, where it says customer demand is stronger.
Models like the Alfa Romeo Tonale and Dodge Hornet R/T will also lose their plug-in variants.
Stellantis says it will “focus on more competitive electrified solutions, including hybrid and range-extended vehicles where they best meet customer needs.”

https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-boss-shares-human-skills-ai-models-cant-do-2026-1
As AI reshapes knowledge work, McKinsey’s top executive says there are three capabilities machines still can’t touch—and they’re exactly what young professionals should double down on. The comments came as the firm shared how AI has already saved millions of employee work hours.
McKinsey’s 25,000 AI agents handled 1.5 million hours of search and synthesis last year and produced 2.5 million charts in six months.
With routine tasks offloaded, consultants are now tackling higher-order, more complex problem-solving.
CEO Bob Sternfels says graduates should focus on the three skills AI cannot replicate: aspiration, judgment, and true creativity.
He also says AI will shift hiring away from pedigree and toward demonstrated work—like engineers’ GitHub portfolios.
“What can the models not do? Aspire… That’s a uniquely human capability,” Sternfels said.

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Paul J Daly:

Good morning. It's Friday, January 9. Today, we're talking about, well, first of all, this is the automotive State of the Union. I'm Paul J Daly. That's Kyle Mountsier. Today, we're talking about Ford winning most iconic steland is canceling their Ph EVs, an actual humans winning over AI theme of the year, year of the human can we win the human Kyle. How many texts did you get before 8am this morning? 33 ish, I think, or something like that. There's so much. There is momentum around the place these days. Man, I just feel like, Yeah, going, moving. Everybody feels like this, beginning. We're motivated.

Kyle Mountsier:

Because if we don't, if we don't make a year that human shirt, we're doing it so wrong.

Paul J Daly:

Ooh, this feels like the playbook. You're the human playbook. Year of the human, making a note, makes note. Year of the human, sure. The human little more than cars thing at the bottom. Shirt.

Kyle Mountsier:

There we go. Okay, we've got our next we can keep going with the show team.

Paul J Daly:

Speaking of year, the human we have this website. It's called nada parties.com this is our third year. We just decided we were so sick of figuring out what was where, that we would just build a site three years ago called nada parties. That is a total, I can't say it's fully comprehensive, because some people don't get on there. They don't want their but it is the most comprehensive list of things going on at the NADA show all the ancillary things, the parties, the breakfasts, the things go to nada, parties.com we had another spike in traffic yesterday, Five 600 people checking out the parties. If you are having a party, go to the site, nada parties. Do com and submit it, because it's free and you want people to go to your thing.

Kyle Mountsier:

Everybody it's a phone call. And if you're trying to track it, just like track it, you know, track it. You can watch it. Yeah, actually, I think I can set up an RSS feed for when things get added.

Paul J Daly:

My goodness, that would be awesome. I should check into that. You should check into that. Thanks to our friends at Clara voy for helping us make that site possible. You know, they're into the data and the things like that. They're into it, all right, let's talk about some fun stuff today. For just topped time and statistas list of the 250 most iconic American companies, beating out household giants like Apple, Coca Cola and Amazon, the ranking highlights not just commercial success, but each company's impact on us, culture and society. So times, nationwide survey put forward it number one for cultural influence and long standing role in shaping American life. Put that plaque on the wall. Bill Ford pointed back to the company's founding mission, emphasizing innovation tied to improving people's lives, not just for Tech's sake. Ford did underscore its status as the largest hourly auto employer in the US. Re forcing commitment to American workers and time credited their assembly line legacy for transforming modern manufacturing and reshaping cities and reshaping suburbs. Bill Ford said, quote, innovation is not just about building batteries or technologies for its own sake. It's about making people's lives better.

Kyle Mountsier:

Yeah, it's clear that time took a and Statista took a long look at the history. When you think about what Ford and Henry Ford did for manufacturing in the US, it's completely, radically changed and forever set in motion us as a powerhouse in manufacturing. And then, when you think about like, what logos Do you know are US logos, when you just at first glance and those, those household giants of Ford, Apple, Coco, Amazon, are just clearly, like etched in people's brains, right? And so I think that you know that it's a clear winner. Also look at US auto, I know, and if you're not

Paul J Daly:

a Ford dealer, tie it back to improving Americans lives, richest man in the world you know, number one iconic brand and helping people. Yeah, I think we're on a little bit of a tear, speaking of being on a little bit of a tear, tearing away from tearing away. Stellantis pulling the plug, literally on every plug in hybrid vehicle in its North American lineup, starting with the 2026, model year, once top sellers like the Wrangler four xe, that's kind of a forced top seller, Grand Cherokee four XE and Chrysler Pacifica plug in hybrid, they're all being discontinued as the company is shifting away and shifting its electrification strategy overall. They say brand wide pH EV program in North America is phased out beginning this year. The automaker plans to pivot toward traditional hybrids and range extended EVs, where it says customer demand is stronger, models like the Alpha Romeo tonali and the grand Hornet. RT will also lose their plug in variants. The last slant is saying quote, it will focus more competitive on competitive electrified solutions. Including those hybrids and HR. What are they? Erevs? We're calling them, yeah, because that's what customers are asking

Kyle Mountsier:

for basic vehicles. Yes, I think that E rev is a really smart play. Obviously, you see like getting in that game, you see a lot of manufacturers going that's the better way. When you think about just, hey, what does it take for someone to go install a charger. Go find do the do the activity of plugging in a vehicle. My sadness here comes from this being kind of that logical, logical next step of people getting used to that type of activity, because I still think there's a future for more attention in that. So it is question mark. But when you look at what consumer demand and political protocol on these phvs and plug in vehicles, plug in electric vehicles, full electric, I understand from a business perspective why they

Paul J Daly:

would do it. That's it. I mean, I think people are here's like the transition circle, as I see, people are going to get more used to driving an electric powertrain, and they're not going to want to go back to a gas powered powertrain, because the experience is so different that'll, I think, be a transition point as infrastructure continues to grow slowly, that people are moving. I think eventually we're going to get to full, full plug in electrics. I think one. I think we'll end up there at some point, but I think, I think it's smart Good to see slantus giving the people what they want, right? It's called good business, speaking about good business, segway talking a lot about this conversation around here these days,

Kyle Mountsier:

yeah, lots of AI as AI reshapes knowledge work. McKinsey's top executive says, There are three capabilities machines still can't touch, and they're exactly what young professionals should double down on. Listen up, everybody. The comments came as the firm shared how AI has already saved millions of employee work hours. McKinsey's 25,000 AI agents handled 1.5 million hours of search and synthesis last year, that's unbelievable, and produced 2.5 million charts across six months, a lot of charts. I mean, who's got time to read all that? With routine tasks, offloaded consultants are now tackling higher order, more complex problem solving. CEO Bob stern fell says graduates should focus on the three skills AI cannot replicate. Here it is. Ready.

Paul J Daly:

Pay attention, lean in aspiration, judgment, wait, say it again, because creativity, aspiration, judgment and true creativity.

Kyle Mountsier:

That's it. He also says AI will shift hiring away from pedigree and toward demonstrated work, like engineers, GitHub portfolios. What can these models not do? Aspire that's a uniquely human capability.

Paul J Daly:

I like this. It's like the dreaming. What could it be, right? What could we do with this? How creatively can we solve this problem? AI, naturally is constricted to a data, a data syntax of how to do things, restricted to a request, right? And it's not going to dream up something new. If it does seem to dream up something new, it's actually just going to be fed off of things that have already been done. I love that in the creative world, one of the things that AI can't do is taste make. Why is this cool? Why should we pay attention to it? It can help with a ton of stuff, but

Kyle Mountsier:

I think, like the way, like those moments when you're laying in bed at night or waking up in the morning and things come into your mind that that you don't know where they came from, that you now have a new perspective or a New idea, that right there is what totally changes the game when it comes to like, the ideation, the aspiration, the creative work. And that's going to be the staying power of the human.

Paul J Daly:

I'm going to say it's the spirit of a human. Ai, doesn't have a spirit. Humans have spirit. It triumphs. It makes up new things. Go make up some new things. Take care of the people around you. We'll see you here bright and early tomorrow morning. You.

Contributor

Kyle Mountsier

Host
Contributor

Paul J Daly

Host