Board member of General Motors and former Tesla President Jon McNeill said on Friday that rising oil prices are already driving US consumers toward electric vehicles — despite policy-related uncertainty.
Speaking on CNBC‘s Squawk on the Street segment, McNeill pointed to research notes from Goldman Sachs and TD Cowen that flag a potential hardening of EV demand as a result of the current conflict in the Middle East, which has led to elevated fuel costs.
According to Goldman Sachs, the current period is “a critical turning point where governments redefine their electrification support from the perspective of energy security,” leading to renewed interest in battery electric vehicles.
“The longer this extends, the more compelling EVs get,” McNeill said.
McNeill, who served as Tesla‘s President between 2015 and 2018 and later as Chief Operating Officer of Lyft, has been part of GM‘s Board of Directors since 2022.
He is also the co-founder and CEO of DVx Ventures, a venture studio that has launched 12 companies over the past six years.
Demand Changes
The executive cited a recent JD Power survey showing that 97% of EV owners do not intend to return to combustion vehicles, describing the decision as long-term.
At the same time, the changes are also being reflected in the second-hand market.
“The used market is actually bigger than the new market,” McNeill noted, stating that used EV sales are climbing 28% last month alone.
McNeill acknowledged, however, that demand for new vehicles remains uncertain in the near-term — mainly due to policy changes.
A significant pull forward occurred last fall when the $7,500 federal EV tax credit expired on September 30, which was then followed by a steep decline in sales for the final quarter of the year — typically the best for auto sales.
According to McNeill, it remains unclear where demand will settle over the next several months.
“Nobody really knows where demand is going to settle. I don’t think, for the next couple of months, honestly. We had a six or eight-month pull forward,” he stated.
Multiple automakers adjusted their strategies following the credit’s elimination. Cantor Fitzgerald warned in December that US EV sales would continue declining, even after the market had two months to stabilize following the policy change.
“I don’t think anybody foresaw these oil prices either,” McNeill said.
Legacy Automakers
Questioned whether traditional carmakers — such as the Detroit three — are prepared for a potential demand shift, McNeill drew a sharp distinction between GM and its competitors.
“General Motors is in a pretty good position, because they designed EVs from the ground up that are pretty compelling cars,” the former Tesla executive stated.
On the other hand, “Stellantis and Ford just took regular gas cars and put an electric drivetrain in them, and those weren’t compelling vehicles,” he added.
Ford Motor Co. announced last December it would incur a $19.5 writedown on its EV strategy shift, which included ending production of the fully electric F-150 Lightning pick-up — a leader in its segment.
The company’s EV unit posted $4.8 billion in losses for 2025. Ford does not expect ‘Model e’ to turn profitable until 2029.
The company’s US electric vehicle sales plunged 71% in February.
Stellantis announced a €22.2 billion charge last month, with management acknowledging the automaker overestimated the pace of EV transition.
“So they’ve written off basically all those efforts, and GM is sitting now with a demand set that is pretty favorable,” McNeill said on Friday.
The auto industry executive noted that “if the market moves to gas, they’ve [GM] got a compelling, brand new product. If it moves to EV, they’ve got a brand new, compelling product.”
GM’s EVs
GM also warned last October of a $1.6 billion charge tied to the realignment of its EV production strategy, which jumped to over $7 billion in January.
Of the $7.6 billion total cost, $4.6 billion will be paid in cash, largely for contract cancellations and supplier settlements.
Earlier this month, CFO Paul Jacobson said the team is “working very aggressively to put this behind us,” adding that the goal is to resolve all related payments by the end of the second quarter.
Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra indicated late last year that the company intends to keep pushing for better fuel economy and lower emissions across its lineup — regardless of the Administration’s plans to ease regulatory pressure on automakers.
The CEO also acknowledged the difficulty of planning long-term EV investments when government policy swings dramatically between administrations.
BYD Position
According to Jon McNeill, BYD has benefited from the shift, particularly in markets that are more dependent on oil imports than the United States.
“BYD has had a pretty nice run,” he noted. “They have in China and, obviously, globally. Some of these other countries need oil more than we do.”
The Shenzhen-based automaker sold 4.6 million vehicles in 2025 and is targeting 1.6 million overseas sales in 2026, as it expands both sales and production around the globe.
BYD ceased production of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles in March 2022.
Manufacturing both battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid models (PHEV), the Chinese giant has surpassed Tesla in fully electric vehicle sales last year.
In Europe, the company’s sales have tripled year over year in key markets including Germany and the United Kingdom.
BYD‘s Shenzhen-listed shares jumped earlier this week on an impending, substantial hike in China’s gasoline prices.
