PolicyTorque is automotive engineering analysis for people who need to understand what's actually happening, not what the press release says. Written by an engineer who has spent eight years building the products at the center of the policy debate.
When events move faster than long-form series allow, PolicyTorque publishes standalone analysis. Engineering-grounded, strategically precise, written while the situation is still live. No hot takes. No partisanship. The argument that holds up after the headlines move on.
A live market surveillance tool built to detect anomalous dollar volume around presidential policy announcements and social media posts. Part 1 documented the April 2025 sequence: +262% and +233% residuals in SPY and QQQ two days before the 90-day pause. Part 2 adds the first-term control group, establishing the ceiling the April 7 reading cleared by 3.5x. Part 3 delivers the options layer: QQQ call/put ratio 1.29 on April 7, call-heavy in a falling market. Part 4 examines the congressional disclosure record.
Ten-part engineering and policy analysis from anode to cathode to electrolyte. Parts 1–6 solve the anode problem and arrive at a domestic EV at $30,004. Parts 7–10 cross to the cathode, map the refining strategy, and find the non-flammable electrolyte in the seafood industry's dumpster.
The battery series ended at the materials layer. This series begins at the intelligence layer: the Battery Management System, the data flywheel it feeds, the certification economics that have locked American entrants out of the market, and the offensive chemistry strategy that lets American companies climb over the wall rather than build a replica of it. Six parts from engineering reality to policy proposal to the leapfrog argument to the Stuxnet parallel that changes the frame entirely.
FEOC blocks the front door. The back door: remediation contracts, produced water operations, Good Samaritan permits, is open. Six parts map the threat, document the precedent, identify three zones of exposure, propose two achievable legislative fixes, map the commercial race already underway, and close with the talent shortage that outlasts every legislative fix. The Coda provides the strategic frame underneath all of it: Sun Tzu, Wu Wei, and the doctrine of patient accumulation that makes each specific vulnerability more dangerous than it appears alone.
From the automation threshold through the insurance problem, the supplier death spiral, and the sixty-three-year proof of concept Ford killed to make room for a van that couldn't compete against it. Seven parts. One argument: build it right or don't build it.
The Hamilton article argued that domestic battery-grade graphite production could be mobilized through three executive actions already authorized by existing statute. These are those three documents, written as they would appear if executed today. A DOD offtake agreement. A DOE loan guarantee. A Treasury rulemaking. The government's cash outlay may be zero.
PolicyTorque delivers engineering-grounded policy analysis directly to professionals who need to understand what's actually happening in the automotive industry. OEM strategists, policy staff, journalists, and engineers who want the real numbers, not the press release version.
PolicyTorque exists because the people making automotive policy and the people building automotive products rarely speak the same language.
I've spent eight years inside three of the largest OEMs in the world: Ford, GM, Stellantis, working on platforms like the F-150 and Lincoln Continental. I know what a tariff does not in the abstract, but on a specific part number, at a specific supplier, on a specific production line.
That kind of knowledge doesn't make it into think tank reports. It doesn't show up in Congressional testimony. The gap between what's happening in engineering and what's being debated in policy is enormous, and that gap is where bad decisions get made.
PolicyTorque is where I close that gap. Every analysis here is grounded in engineering reality. Every policy argument is tested against manufacturing feasibility. The goal is analysis worth sharing: work that earns a seat at the table.
Available for consulting engagements, media appearances, policy briefings, and speaking. Particularly interested in conversations at the intersection of EV policy, supply chain strategy, and the future of automotive retail.