Tariffs, EVs and China: A CEO Insider’s View of the Car Business

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For months, the complex global auto industry has grappled with the added challenge of navigating the Trump administration’s trade war. That gives Swamy Kotagiri, the CEO of Magna International, a first-hand perspective of how tariffs, trade negotiations and shifting supply chains are reshaping the future of the business, today. How is the largest auto parts manufacturer in North America adjusting its plans now that the industry’s traditional patterns have been disrupted? Kotagiri speaks to WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins on the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast. Check Out Past Episodes: This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? What This Former USAID Head Had to Say About Elon Musk and DOGE ‘Businesses Don’t Like Uncertainty’: How Cisco Is Navigating AI and Trump 2.0 Why This Tesla Pioneer Says the Cheap EV Market 'Sucks' Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	A wellness revolution is underway around the world.
0:03.7	Join Kenby with the break to hear how a $16 billion startup, as CEO Tebow Mongone calls it, became a leader in that revolution.
0:15.1	Mims, one of the biggest stories this year is tariffs, and we've got a guy today who's in the front lines of figuring
0:22.1	out this complicated matter. And I'm so excited that we get to bring him to listeners because
0:27.4	he's in a company that I really didn't even know existed and I certainly didn't understand
0:33.1	they were as big as they are. They have basically as many employees as General Motors.
0:40.2	Magna International is a big name in Canada. It is a big name in the automotive industry,
0:45.3	the largest North American automotive supplier out there. Huge business in the U.S.,
0:50.9	huge business in North America, huge business globally, and we have the CEO,
0:56.2	and that's next.
1:02.1	Magnet International is a powerhouse in the automotive industry, manufacturing the parts that go
1:07.6	into cars all around the world. Its clients are the car companies, or OEMs. To serve
1:14.2	them, Magna has 342 manufacturing operations in 28 countries. All of that means that CEO
1:22.7	Swami Kodakiri has his fingers on the pulse of global trade and what the trade war means for a major
1:30.3	industry.
1:31.3	I would say there is definitely stress in the system, right?
1:35.3	I think when we were dealing with the 2007-2008 financial crisis or COVID and then the whole inflation because of the Russia-Ukraine
1:46.4	war and the semiconductor, the one thing we all have come to understand better is the
1:52.9	visibility of the supply chain, right? And I think people have taken a calmer approach now.
2:02.1	I think nobody is reacting right away.
2:05.0	The automotive industry is trying to navigate the latest trade war,
2:08.4	while at the same time trying to pivot their businesses to a more digital world
	...

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