Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesGAC Motor, one of China's largest carmakers, has postponed its launch in the U.S. because of the ongoing trade war between the world's two-largest economies, a company executive said Tuesday.
The automaker, headquartered in Guangzhou in southern China, said its entrance into the U.S., which was anticipated for this year, will be postponed.
“The current relationship between the U.S. and China, the trade war, the relationship is uncertain” said Hebin Zeng, president of international at GAC Motor. “We postponed the plan to enter the North American market.”
Zeng declined to give a specific timeline on when GAC could enter the U.S.
“In terms of when we will go into the market, we will have further discussions depending on the changes of circumstances,” he said.
Geely is the only Chinese carmaker that sells in the U.S. through the Volvo Car brand that it owns.
GAC has been expanding into several international markets, particularly in the Middle East.
Author: CNBC Online news
Apple bid to buy Tesla in 2013 for $240 a share, analyst says
GP: Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an event at the site of the company's manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019.Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWith Tesla's stock sinking to around $200 this week, Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told CNBC on Tuesday that the electric car company could have sold to Apple six years ago for a significantly higher price per share.
“Around 2013, there was a serious bid from Apple at around $240 a share,” Irwin said in an interview on “Squawk Box. ” “This is something we did multiple checks on. I have complete confidence that this is accurate. Apple bid for Tesla. I don't know if it got to a formal paperwork stage, but I know from multiple different sources that this was very credible.”
Apple and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Tesla is down more than 38% in 2019, to a share price of $197.76 at the start of trading Tuesday. The stock has plunged 46% from its high in August, when CEO Elon Musk said he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share.
Knowing there was a “very credible” bid on the table in 2013 keeps Irwin from being more bearish on the stock today.
“If Apple had interest then, they would probably have interest now at the right price,” he said.
VIDEO6:3806:38Watch a Tesla analyst weigh in on Morgan Stanley's revised bear caseSquawk BoxIrwin said that Apple's car project continues to develop in secret, and that the company is building large “dry rooms” in California to do something related to automotive batteries. According to Irwin, those rooms are designed to handle the environmental containment required for the production of lithium-ion batteries.
“My checks are Apple is building several dry rooms, including a couple that are much larger than what you would need for watch or consumer product battery development,” Irwin wrote in a follow-up email.
Irwin is not the first to suggest that Apple and Tesla have held discussions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2014 that Musk met with Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions and most likely CEO Tim Cook as well.
If the two companies were to combine, it would be by far Apple's largest acquisition ever and one of the biggest in the history of the technology industry. Tesla's current market cap is about $36 billion. The most Apple has ever paid is $3 billion for Beats Electronics in 2014.
For a deal to take place Apple would face the question of what to do with the outspoken Musk and his tendency to gain attention for many of the wrong reasons, whether it's tweeting out material nonpublic information or smoking weed on a podcast.
“Regarding the acquisition: my understanding is Apple wanted Elon Musk to step away, and that was a deal killer,” Irwin said in the email.
Correction: In August, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share. An earlier version mischaracterized his statement.
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Post Office to test autonomous semi trucks for hauling mail across state lines
U.S. Postal Service trucks sit parked outside a station in Chelsea, New York.Adam Jeffery | CNBC The U.S. Postal Service is testing its first long-haul self-driving delivery truck in a two-week pilot program that will use an autonomous tractor trailer to deliver mail between distribution centers in Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas.
TuSimple, a self-driving truck company, is providing the truck and will have a safety engineer and driver in the cab to monitor its performance and take control if there are any issues, the company said in announcing the test Tuesday. The postal service has been exploring the idea for some time, recently soliciting bids to put semi-autonomous mail trucks on the road in a few years that allow a human to sort the mail while being autonomously driven along their route.
“We are conducting research and testing as part of our efforts to operate a future class of vehicles which will incorporate new technology to accommodate a diverse mail mix, enhance safety, improve service, reduce emissions, and produce operational savings,” said postal service spokeswoman Kim Frum.
The pilot-program is limited, just five runs in late May. For TuSimple, the test drives are a chance to validate its vision of autonomous semi's changing the dynamics and costs of long-haul trucking. The start-up has been hauling freight on I-10 in self-driving trucks since last August. TuSimple, with 17 self-driving semi's, has raised $178 million in four rounds of funding since it was founded in 2015.
“Performing for the USPS on this pilot in this particular commercial corridor gives us specific use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress,” said Dr. Xiaodi Hou, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer of TuSimple.
Autonomous trucking has become a hot area for private equity investors with startups like Boxbot Ike raising millions of dollars to develop the technology for self-driving semi's The appeal of the space is simple: autonomous trucks could lower the cost of shipping goods by eliminating drivers.
While nobody expects regulators to approve driverless semi's anytime soon, the potential of autonomous trucks is enormous. It's the reason manufacturers are working on self-driving semi's. Tesla, which is developing an all-electric semi, has said all of its trucks will come with autopilot technology.
For the U.S. Postal Service, self-driving semi's could provide a huge benefit. In 2018, the USPS had more than 5,500 tractors and trailers in its fleet.
A self-driving shuttle bus is on the move at Brussels Airport
Initially, the autonomous shuttle bus will make its trips without passengers.Brussels Airport CompanyA self-driving shuttle bus has started making trips at Brussels Airport. In a statement earlier this week, the airport said that the vehicle, which is operated by transport firm De Lijn, would undertake several demonstration trips, without passengers, to test the technology.
It is hoped that, eventually, the vehicles, which use sensors to detect surrounding objects, will be able to navigate through traffic autonomously. The airport said it expects passengers to be able to use the vehicles by the middle of 2021.
The CEO of the Brussels Airport Company, Arnaud Feist, said intelligent mobility was “one of our strategic priorities for sustainable development over the coming years.”
Feist added that the airport wanted to encourage passengers and employees to travel there by public transport.
“This joint project with De Lijn, which commenced in 2015, is one of the initiatives specifically aimed at achieving this objective,” he explained. “We're now exploring how self-driving buses can be deployed to improve the efficiency of passenger transport on the airport grounds.”
Slowly but surely, autonomous vehicles are starting to be used in real world situations. In January 2019, Japanese airline All Nippon Airways announced it had commenced the second phase of testing for an autonomous and driverless bus at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
In April, Starship Technologies – which specializes in autonomous delivery services – announced it had made 50,000 commercial deliveries with its technology.
The firm's robots can make deliveries within a four-mile radius, and carry goods including parcels, groceries and food.
Ford recalls 270,000 Fusion cars to fix glitch that can cause vehicles to shift gears and roll away
Ford Motor Co. Fusion vehicles move down the production line at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesFord Motor said Wednesday that it is recalling more than 270,000 Fusion vehicles in North America to fix a transmission glitch that can cause the car to shift gears and roll away.
The recall is for 2013-16 Fusion vehicles with 2.5-liter engines that were built at the automaker's Flat Rock, Michigan, and Hermosillo, Mexico, assembly plants.
The company said the bushing that attaches the shifter cable to the vehicle's transmission may detach, which can result in “unintended vehicle movement.” Ford said it is aware of three reports of property damage due to the issue and one injury “potentially” related to the problem.
VIDEO2:2802:28Ford on the road to nowhereTrading NationAbout 260,000 of the cars were recalled in the United States. More than 10,000 and 3,000 vehicles were also recalled in Canada and Mexico, respectively.
Ford also recalled about 3,000 2019 Ranger pickup trucks in the United States and Canada that were built at the company's Wayne, Michigan, assembly plant. The automaker cited another transmission issue for the Ranger recalls, saying that the transmission shift cable bracket in affected vehicles may not have been torqued correctly and can eventually come lose.
This can cause the vehicle to shift into a different gear than the one selected by the driver, which can lead to the pickup truck rolling away and “increasing the risk of crash or injury.”
The company said it has not received any incident reports regarding the faulty Ranger vehicles.
Read Ford's full statement here.
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Trump administration will delay auto tariffs for up to six months
VIDEO1:1101:11Trump officially postpones auto tariffs for up to six monthsSquawk BoxThe Trump administration will delay tariffs on cars and auto part imports for up to six months as it negotiates trade deals with the European Union and Japan.
In a proclamation Friday, Trump said he directed U.S.Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to seek agreements to “address the threatened impairment” of national security from auto imports. Trump could choose to move forward with tariffs during the talks.
“United States defense and military superiority depend on the competitiveness of our automobile industry and the research and development that industry generates,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “The negotiation process will be led by United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and, if agreements are not reached within 180 days, the President will determine whether and what further action needs to be taken.”
In his proclamation, Trump argued in part that “domestic conditions of competition must be improved by reducing imports.”
Vehicles wait for shipment at Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang, China.VCG | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesThe White House had to decide by Saturday whether to slap duties on autos. Earlier this year, the Commerce Department said Trump could justify the move on national security grounds. By law, the administration can push back its decision by up to six months if it is negotiating with trading partners.
In a statement Friday, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said “we completely reject the notion that our car exports are a national security threat.” She added that the trade bloc “is prepared to negotiate a limited trade agreement” including cars, but not so-called managed trade, in which the partners could set targets like quotas.
Malmstrom said EU officials will discuss the issue with Lighthizer next week in Paris.
Levying the auto tariffs threatened to open new fronts in a global trade war that could drag down the U.S. economy. The EU has already prepared a list of American goods to target with tariffs if Trump goes ahead with the car duties.
Automakers and some U.S. lawmakers opposed the potential tariffs. The American car industry said the duties would put jobs in jeopardy and raise prices for consumers.
The decision comes after the U.S. and China fired new shots in their trade war. The White House is working to salvage a deal with Beijing to address what the U.S. calls trade abuses amid the widening conflict.
Trump also used the national security justification last year to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including metals coming from allies such as the EU, Canada and Mexico. Europe previously retaliated after those duties.
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Usain Bolt launches two-seater electric vehicle which starts at $9,999
VIDEO4:1504:15Cities need help with congestion: Usain Bolt on electric scooter firmStreet Signs EuropeUsain Bolt's Mobility company has launched a two-seater, all-electric and zero-emission vehicle.
Dubbed the Bolt Nano, it was unveiled at the VivaTech conference in Paris Thursday. Whilst detailed information about the vehicle has yet to be revealed, prices start at $9,999, with deliveries starting in 2020.
Those interested in the Bolt Nano can put down a refundable deposit of $999 to reserve a vehicle, which has a swappable battery and seats one passenger in the front and one in the back. The vehicles are small enough for four to fit into one parking space.
The launch of the Bolt Nano comes in the same week that the firm announced it was rolling out its e-scooter offering in Paris. Users of the scooter service locate their vehicles via an app, paying for their ride through an account with the company. In the U.S., it costs $1 to unlock a vehicle and then 15 cents per minute.
Speaking to CNBC's Karen Tso Thursday, Bolt said that, having retired from sport, he was entering a new chapter of his life. “Through traveling, through my times as a track athlete, I've learned that the cities around the world need help with congestion,” he said.
Bolt, one of the most successful and iconic athletes of all time, is a co-founder of the business. The firm says its aim is to cut congestion and people's reliance on “personal vehicles” by partnering with city governments to “weave transportation alternatives into the fabric of urban environments.”
Sarah Haynes is also co-founder of the firm. She told CNBC that there was a “big, big appetite for finding solutions for transportation issues.”
“The cities that we have today are the same ones that have been there for centuries, and they're not made for this many cars,” she explained, going on to add that the firm was “looking at a fleet of transportation solutions that are electric. Our designs with our scooters are all customized so we can recycle every single part, including the batteries.”
The way people move around urban areas is changing, with ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft now offered in major cities across the world. Well established cycle-share schemes are also available in capitals such as London and Paris.
In the electric scooter market, Usain Bolt's venture is one of many looking to tap in to the shared transport sector. Firms such as Bird, Lime, and Bolt – formerly known as Taxify – also offer users a platform that allows them to locate and hire electric scooters using their smartphone.
Whether electric scooters take off and become a popular mode of transport for urban commuters remains to be seen. Regulatory hurdles pose a significant challenge to their mass adoption.
In the U.K., for example, e-scooters are considered to be “powered transporters.” This means that, currently, they are defined as being “motor vehicles” and it is illegal to use them on a public road without complying with several requirements, which in practice is difficult. Use of powered transporters on U.K. pavements and cycle lanes is also prohibited.
Change is afoot, however. In March 2019, the government announced what it described as “the biggest review into transport in a generation.” The review will look at regulations surrounding vehicles such as e-scooters and e-cargo bike trailers and will explore modernizing old laws that date back to the 1800s.
Europe’s ride-sharing unicorns call for reform to help the sector thrive
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Volvo Cars signs ‘multi-billion dollar’ supply deals with Asian battery firms
VIDEO2:0002:00Volvo Cars wants open trade and zero tariffs, CEO saysSquawk Box EuropeThe Volvo Car Group has signed long-term, “multi-billion dollar” deals with two major battery makers in Asia. In an announcement Wednesday, the car firm said that the agreements with firms CATL and LG Chem would ensure a supply of lithium ion batteries for its next generation Volvo and Polestar models.
The deals chime with Volvo Cars' wider strategy to electrify its vehicles. In 2017 the firm committed to ensuring all new Volvo cars launched from 2019 would be electrified. In addition, it wants fully electric cars to account for half of its global sales volume by 2025.
“The future of Volvo Cars is electric and we are firmly committed to moving beyond the internal combustion engine,” Hakan Samuelsson, the president and CEO of Volvo Cars, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Today's agreements with CATL and LG Chem demonstrate how we will reach our ambitious electrification target,” he added.
CATL and LG Chem are Chinese and South Korean businesses respectively. A major player in the automotive sector, Volvo Cars was bought by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding in 2010. The business sold 642,253 cars last year.
Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box Europe on Wednesday, Samuelsson emphasized the importance of infrastructure being in place to support its commitment to electric mobility.
“That is really going to decide the pace we have in the transition,” he said, going on to add that the “supply of batteries will be crucial.”
Overall, 408,000 plug-in vehicle units were sold across Europe in 2018, according to analysis from EV-Volumes.
In 2017, there were more than 3 million electric and plug-in hybrid cars on the planet's roads, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Global Electric Vehicles Outlook. This represents an increase of 54 percent compared to 2016.
Almost 580,000 electric cars were sold in China in 2017, according to the IEA, while around 280,000 were sold in the U.S.
Tesla may be about to lose a key group of investors that have stuck with the struggling stock
Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an unveiling event for the Tesla Model Y crossover electric vehicle in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2019.Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTesla's recent move to raise cash may quiet down its skeptics. Yet Elon Musk has given them new ammo as he shifts his focus to autonomous vehicles — which pushes out the automaker's path to profitability even further.
Musk last week tapped Wall Street to raise $2.7 billion in stock and bond offerings, which sparked a relief rally in its stock that had been struggling amid disappointing production and the company's legal woes.
But on an investor call hosted by the deal's underwriters, Musk changed his tune, talking up Tesla's self-driving strategy right off the bat, confidently saying autonomous driving will transform Tesla into a company with a $500 billion market cap.
VIDEO2:5002:50Trading Nation: Tesla picks up speedTrading Nation “Case for a trillion-dollar market cap used to center around high-volume, high-profit auto sales … now it's all in on autonomy,” Barclays autos analyst Brian Johnson said in a note Tuesday. “Tesla [is] apparently pivoting from auto profits to autonomy profits.”
The pivot to autonomy now means growth investors will have to wait around even longer for any payoff, Johnson notes. The so-called rational bulls, typically large institutional investors with a growth mandate, believed that “Tesla will be a multi-product automaker in the next five to seven years with its light vehicle lineup,” Johnson said.
Now that's changed.
Shares of Tesla surged more than 4% the day the company announced its the stock and bond offering, and they jumped another 4% a day later when Tesla decided to upsize the deal to $2.7 billion from $2.3 billion as the offering eased the concerns about the company's liquidity and financing. Tesla's stock is still down more than 24% this year.
Musk first touted the idea of robotaxis on the company's investor day on April 22, saying Tesla would be able to offer robotaxis next year and it will be making cars with no steering wheels or pedals in two years.
Barclays rates Tesla at underweight and has a 12-month price target of $192, which would represent a 25% loss based on Monday's close of $255.
“We believe the appeal of Tesla shares to growth investors may fade,” Johnson said. “Some of the rational bulls may need to reassess the idea that Tesla will become a profitable auto market.”
— With reporting by Michael Bloom
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