Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Wednesday, Nov. 19.
It's been 17 years since the Detroit 3's CEOs have been asked to testify together on Capitol Hill.
Remember what happened that time?
For anyone who lived through the Great Recession in the auto industry, it's hard to forget seeing Rick Wagoner, Alan Mulally and Bob Nardelli being excoriated for flying private jets to plead for an industry bailout.
"It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo," Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat who retired in 2013, quipped at the time.
The trio humbly road-tripped back to Washington the following month in hybrid cars.
Congress has extended another invitation to the companies' top executives, as Automotive News' Michael Martinez reported today.
Republican leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee want to grill the CEOs about why cars and trucks have gotten so much more expensive in recent years. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a former dealer from Ohio, raised the issue of vehicle affordability at a committee hearing this month and revealed that he had collected information on his Democratic colleagues' vehicles to see what safety features they purchased.
We don't yet know whether the CEOs will appear at the Jan. 14 hearing, which inconveniently overlaps with the opening of the Detroit Auto Show. (The committee also asked Tesla to participate, but it invited Vice President Lars Moravy rather than CEO Elon Musk, who publicly feuded with President Donald Trump after helping to get him elected.)
Since the companies aren't looking for money this time, Mary Barra likely won't be asked to produce a receipt from the Ohio Turnpike. But as politically divisive as electric vehicles and other costly new automotive technologies have become, there's still plenty of potential for fireworks.
In another instance of politics intersecting with the auto industry, photos taken by Automotive News Asia Editor Hans Greimel of Akio Toyoda at Japan's Fuji Speedway caught the attention of the New York Post. Our editorial today calls Toyoda's choice of wardrobe a "tone-deaf mistake" for the head of a company that typically takes great pains to avoid alienating any portion of its customer base.
That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your day. If you want to view this story on your browser, click here.
— Nick Bunkley, leader of the automaker team
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