Electric Geography

Abstract Every major car company has an electric vehicle in its lineup. Electric cars made up 6.8 percent of the cars sold in 2024 and are now 9.3 percent of the cars on the road. The auto industry faces the prospect of massive reconfigurations and construction projects, and a once again morphing automotive terrain. That means there’s a one-in-a-century opportunity to remake the geography of a major American industry. If the car manufacturing can decouple from engines, transmissions, and the constellation of parts and subsystems that support them, then the auto industry wouldn’t have to be associated with Detroit.