Kingsview CIO Scott Martin on Fox News Business Cavuto Coast to Coast 2.16.23 (Part 2)
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Program: Cavuto Coast to Coast
Date: 2/16/2023
Station: Fox Business News
Time: 12:00PM
NEIL CAVUTO: All right. Add New Jersey to a growing list of states that wants to go all electric vehicles, in this case by the year 2035. And this, of course, at the same time, Tesla, the largest player in that EV field, is going to expand its charging stations to other types of vehicles as well. That could be a very, very big development. Scott Martin following all of this. Scott, first off, on the New Jersey requirement, I don’t know what the Illinois situation is, but in California and some of these other states that are toyed with the idea, they’re saying, yeah, ten years, 12 years, whatever, that’s the way we’re going. And America, follow the ride. What do you think?
SCOTT MARTIN: We’ll deal with it. Yeah. Let’s take a little ride. Neil, for Illinois’s sake, let me speak for the whole state. When I say that, we don’t really know what we’re doing, so we’re just trying to not lose more money, which we don’t seem to be able to do. So therefore, I don’t think we’re going to move on to the EV requirements just yet. But your point is well taken. You mentioned New Jersey is doing this. California made some stink last year about doing that as well. And I get the push. I think the push makes some sense from an environmental standpoint, but forcing folks to do it by a certain date seems a little bit of a bit of an overreach. And also the fact, too, that you mentioned the infrastructure that’s out there, some of the charging stations, some of the highways and so forth may not be prepared for a big rush of EVs if we do indeed adhere to these stipulations, these timeframes. As far as what they’re stipulating.
CAVUTO: You know, I think, though, that don’t push this on me. I mean, obviously let people decide for themselves whether they want it or be can afford it. And as things stand right now, good. Many cannot. And I’m wondering this all out push to sort of shove them into these vehicles when we’re not ready. Certainly now with the charging stations, the batteries, that all might change in 13 years. But the fact of the matter is, there are hybrid vehicles that do both. I just feel that we’re going to be forced into a corner here.
MARTIN: I agree. And I think that’s the thing that the market will eventually choose for itself. Neil, I mean, if the EVs are the ways to go for the future, the market will do that. People will do their own free will and they’ll buy the electric vehicles instead of forcing folks to kind of adhere to that stipulation. But also you mentioned the hybrid vehicles. There’s a lot of other choices out there that folks have that they can kind of ease their way into the electric vehicle kind of area, which and I think there’s a lot of things that folks are doing now where they’re thinking about EVs, but maybe they’re not ready to jump all the way in. So therefore, I think people will make their own choices on it over time. And therefore, if it’s best for the economy and best for folks, they’re going to buy those cars.
CAVUTO: Yeah, but when you’ve got a sticker price that’s averaging north of 65 grand, that’s a slow transition. I do want to get your thoughts on Tesla. I mentioned they’re the key player here. I don’t know what happened at the White House where they buried the hatchet, you know, with Elon Musk. But his agreement now to expand his charging stations so that other types of vehicles with different type of connectors and all can can charge on these fast charging Tesla, you know, battery stations. What do you make of that?
MARTIN: Well, it’s a good idea because I think Tesla, with their technology being so good, it’s obviously great to have them expand it to other vehicles and other ways that they can help out the environment and help out folks that maybe don’t have Tesla cars but have a need to charge. And Tesla probably needs to play some ball, Neil, with DC anyway, with respect to getting some say good favor back from the folks in DC with respect to some more, as you mentioned, some more stimulus packages that may be for buying an electric vehicle in the future. And therefore I think Tesla is playing a good round of baseball here with the fact that they’re going to come out and show that they can be accommodative to other companies and other other companies and other cars that will need their charging stations.
CAVUTO: Real quickly on Tesla, just as a stock gets down about a half a percent right now. But I think it has, you know, moved up about 98% this year to date. Of course, of course, it was tumbling last year. So, you know, it’s obviously climbed a lot from its lows. And when people were dismissing it. Do you like Tesla just as a stock? Think, you know it’s not a ride for the faint but what do you think?
MARTIN: No, it’s not. And I mean, this year has not been a ride for the faint. It’s been a ride for the ones of all time here. But I don’t believe you chase Tesla here just because of the fact that it’s ridden up so much this year. But, Neil, it was overdone on the downside. In December, Charles Payne and I talked about this a lot in his show with respect to how bad Tesla was out of favor, how much people were dumping it, how much people were calling for them to almost go out of business again, it seemed like. So I think Tesla’s a great company. They’ve got technology, they have the cars, they got the batteries, etc. But up here with this big rise that the stock price has had, I’d wait for it to come in a bit before I bought some more.
CAVUTO: Got it. Thank you, my friend. Always good catching up with you, Scott Martin. Scott, keep us posted if Illinois does go this whole EV route. But I guess they do have some bigger headaches to worry about in the time being.
MARTIN: Just a few
CAVUTO: Just a few. All right. Scott Martin on all of that
