Ford and GM Are Running Out of Time to Reinvent Themselves

The essential accoutrement for auto executives this year was a cap. As in, of the red baseball variety. Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk had one virtually glued to his head (for a little while anyway). His more measured counterparts in Detroit donned them virtually via flattery to President Donald Trump, even (especially?) when he was tormenting them. Most surprisingly, Toyota Motor Corp.’s Chairman Akio Toyoda ditched the protocol of neutrality to sport the real thing, along with a Trump-Vance t-shirt, at a Nascar event in Japan.

The fortunes of the auto industry revolved largely around Trump this year. That applies especially to Detroit. After taking an initial salvo from the president’s haphazard trade war, General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. rallied on his subsequent carve outs and war on fuel economy and electric vehicles. Both should beat the S&P 500 Index handily for the first time in four years.