MARY BARRA: So General Motors, for many, many years, has I was worked with every administration. We're ready to work with whoever wins the election in whatever administration is in place on the very important issues that you talked about as it relates to China, as it relates to trade, as it relates to the regulatory environment, the safety environment. And we're very much advocating for an all-electric future and doing what we need to do across infrastructure, across the regulations to make sure we encourage people to adopt electric vehicles.

Because when they get into them, they find that they love them. They're instant torque. They're fun to drive. And so that's where our focus is, and we'll work with, you know, anyone as we move forward as it relates to the administration and, frankly, governments around the world.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Is there right now-- and I know this is probably not a very easy question to answer unless you've really looked at their platforms in a big way-- but is there one presidential candidate over another who would be more friendly to the EV market, perhaps?

MARY BARRA: You know, I think as we look forward and see the importance of leading from an electric-vehicle perspective for competitiveness, I think it's going to be on the agenda of both parties.

BRIAN SOZZI: You know, Trevor, I'll put that question to you. You don't sleep. You just admitted it. I can't imagine you do get a lot of sleep. You've had to see Joe Biden's proposal Build Back Better here. How would that shape your future if he does get elected? And some of those green investments that he wants to put forward has to benefit your company.

TREVOR MILTON: I mean, look, anyone who's focused on helping, you know, clean things up and make this world a better place, I'm all for it. There's two things I don't do. I don't do religion and politics. And so I do Nikola Badgers. That's what I do. I love electric vehicles, and so that's what I focus on. And they're-- listen, I just hope they all stay out of my way. That's all I care about. Let me flourish. Let me do what I can do. That's all I ask. Let me be me.

BRIAN SOZZI: Good luck with that one. But Trevor, how did you center on GM as a partner? I imagine you have a lot of people interested in working with you. Why GM, and what is it like working with a more established company like a GM?

TREVOR MILTON: Well, it's awesome. It's also really hard. Look-- and not in a bad way. Just it steps up your game to a different level you've never experienced because your team is in meetings with the best of the best in the world, and there's a lot of answers we can't give them. Like, when they-- when they'll ask us something, we'll-- sometimes we'll just say, look, we don't know that. And they're like, it's OK, we know it. It's OK. Don't worry about it. And that's the good part about it.

The hard part is that we have to keep up with-- you know, they've got-- you know, these groups have got thousands of people on one project minimum, right? And so our whole company is only 400, so you can imagine that's a little bit difficult. But what was special about this is that we had term sheets from most every OEM in the world, and we got to choose who we were going to work with. It was a very unique situation.

I mean, I don't know of any other time in history where a not-- a so-called startup had the chance to work with every single group almost in the world. And we chose GM primarily for, I'd say, two or three reasons. One is Mary. I absolutely love this lady. She's as smart and brilliant and awesome as they come. They're very hard to find like that in, like, any CEO in the world. And so I can speak to her in a way that she understands me, and I love that. She's just awesome.

Number two is being able to leverage the battery. We're talking about a $4 billion savings. Leveraging the fuel sale, I mean, you're talking about instant integration into our Badger and also some of our-- also our trucks. If you think about what Honda has done-- good heck, Honda and GM have built an incredible, you know, fuel cell.

That gives us access to be able to put the Badger on the road in the time frame we promised. It also allowed us to prevent having to spend billions of dollars in a manufacturing plant. So all these racking up-- if you think about this, that's, you know, four, five, six, seven. I mean, internal numbers go up to-- you know, past those numbers in savings. And that's why we chose GM. Other groups brought certain things but not all that.

And it was really the people. I mean, I just-- I can't stress that enough. It was Mary's team-- just fantastic. It's-- that's what sold me was the people. Because you know, anyone can build a product, but the people are just as important.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Speaking of your team and your people, Mary, I understand that you are working to create a quote more flexible work culture within GM during this pandemic, post this pandemic. What will that look like for your workers and in particular, for your-- those workers who work in the GM plants?

MARY BARRA: Well, clearly, you know, getting everybody back to work and being able to do it safely was our number one priority. And so we worked with lessons from around the globe and other industries to make sure we have protocols that allow people to be back in-- back to work safely. And I visited 10 plants as we started up in the May time frame. And to every place I went, people said, hey, I feel safer here than I do when I go to the grocery store. So we think it's important that we maintain that because health and safety is our number one focus.

And then enabling work-- I mean, our people also said, hey, we want to get back to work. We love what we do. And so we're focused on that. I do believe we have the strongest team on the field across all dimensions of General Motors. So I'm glad that Trevor has gotten to see a little bit about that, and I can tell you that the team is very excited about working with Trevor. The passion and energy he brings to this space we think it's only going to advance it. So our people are our most important asset, and they stand ready to partner and do the work.

BRIAN SOZZI: Mary, we're still in the middle of a pretty bruising recession here in the country because of the pandemic. How would you grade consumer demand right now?

MARY BARRA: Actually, you know, it varies across the globe. We're seeing, though, China come back as well as the United States and North America in general a little faster than we thought. I would say it's still-- you know, it's-- we're cautiously optimistic. There's a lot that we need to see stay going in the right direction. But right now, we're seeing especially retail demand come back more quickly than we expected.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Trevor, I know that GM is going to be working with you on the Badger. Is that globally, or is that outside of Europe? Can you clarify that for us?

TREVOR MILTON: Yeah, right now it's North America, but we've talked to them about different markets that once the homologation, the certifications come through for other markets, we're definitely willing to open it up to other markets. And that'll absolutely be with GM.

I mean, look, we want to build that to every market that can actually accept this truck. As you guys know, it's a big truck, right? It's the size of, like, a-- it's a little bit bigger than a Ford F-150-ish, if you're thinking about it, but-- or like a Silverado. It's like kind of that size right in the middle. So it's a very unique truck, but it's not going to fit all markets around the world. It's really tailored towards North America, Australia, some parts in Europe, south-- you know, areas like that. But you know, who knows where it'll take us.

Right now, we're focused on North America. We'll spend the next few years selling it out here. And that's my goal right now is just to be profitable, be sustainable. And I've said this many times, even on your program, you can't be environmentally sustainable if you're not financially sustainable. And that was a reason why we did this deal.

BRIAN SOZZI: I mean, this is a big day. You're-- according to the press release, you'll be involved with Nikola a lead close to 2025. It's a big, long-term bet. But the market is sending your share price up higher. Do you think the market is really underestimating what you're doing on electric vehicles? This is a real commercialization-type opportunity. But it also could be said that maybe you should spin off the electric vehicle business because it is being undervalued. You really-- investors could look at it two different ways.

MARY BARRA: Well, we're focused on creating long-term value, and I've always said, that's our focus, and we're going to do what's right for our shareholders. We see this as an incredibly important day because it's a validation of our technology, both our battery electric technology as well as our fuel cell technology. So we think this is just the beginning of unlocking the value that's within the company, also the capability we have to engineer, to have scale, especially as we look from an electric vehicles-- in China as well as North America, and just to continue to build and be able to demonstrate that we are going to be a very strong player in the electric vehicle future.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Mary, I know you've committed to 20 new electric vehicles by 2023, sounds pretty aggressive. Is that still the number for you?

MARY BARRA: It absolutely is. It's a global number, but it definitely is what we're working on. And we have engineers working around the globe to make that happen.

BRIAN SOZZI: Big day, indeed, for both auto companies. Nikola's shares are surging 40% this morning. And in a down market, shares of GM are up close to 7%-- not too shabby.