Autoline After Hours
Dec. 18, 2025
John McElroy, Gary Vasilash
In an interview on Autoline After Hours with John McElroy and Gary Vasilash, MichAuto’s Executive Director and the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Chief Automotive and Innovation Officer, Glenn Stevens Jr. and Sino Auto Insights Chief Executive Officer and TechTown Detroit’s Expert-in-Residence, Tu Le, discussed how Detroit’s automakers, once dominant but now retreating from global markets, the passenger car segment, and affordability, must stop pulling back and finally go on the offense.
“It’s markets, it’s models, and the competition is very different today. China wasn’t an industry that long ago and today it’s a force that is literally spreading the world. Then regulation and policy in those different markets made a big impact too,” Stevens said.
“Ford had a cult following for the Focus and the Fiesta in Europe. The young kids loved it. Then in the early years in China, the Fiesta and Focus were doing super well in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. But then they kind of loss their mojo and stopped investing,” Le explained.