About Road & Reason

Road & Reason is an independent analytical publication covering the automotive industry through the lenses of strategy, product, technology, and brand.

Coverage focuses on seven brands navigating the most consequential transitions in the industry: BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Lexus, Genesis, Tesla, and Rivian. Each is working through a different version of the same set of questions—what electrification means for brand equity, how software-defined vehicles change what differentiation looks like, and where the next sources of competitive advantage are forming. Other brands appear when their moves become part of the story.

Articles draw on industry reporting, primary sources, and reviews to deliver interpretive analysis: what these decisions reveal about strategy, what the evidence actually supports, and where it leads. Road & Reason is written for readers who follow the industry closely—OEM strategy and product teams, suppliers, dealers, investors, and analysts among them—who want to think through what's happening and why.

About the Author

I'm Scott Francis. I've spent my career as a software product manager and product leader, working on the kinds of strategy and product decisions that are the focus of Road & Reason, which brings that work together with lifelong interests in the auto industry and technology.