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MAHLE acquires transmission specialist – evertiq.com

MAHLE is taking over the transmission specialist ZG-Zahnräder und Getriebe GmbH, based in Eching, near Munich in Germany. With this step, the technology group is further developing its competence in the entire powertrain. Through the acquisition of ZG-Zahnräder und Getriebe GmbH, MAHLE is expanding its expertise in the powertrain as a whole to include the… Continue reading MAHLE acquires transmission specialist – evertiq.com

Waymo plans to open a self-driving car factory in Michigan

Waymo and Magna plan to build thousands of self-driving cars at a factory in southeast Michigan, including autonomous versions of the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan. Waymo, the former Google self-driving project that spun out to become a business under Alphabet, announced Tuesday that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation voted to approve… Continue reading Waymo plans to open a self-driving car factory in Michigan

Why car groups Nissan and Renault need each other

When Nissan’s chief executive Hiroto Saikawa addressed employees shortly after the arrest and dismissal of Carlos Ghosn in November, he painted a bleak picture of a company that had suddenly lost its captain. It is a sharp contrast with the early days of Mr Ghosn’s leadership, when he achieved a rare turnround of Nissan from near… Continue reading Why car groups Nissan and Renault need each other

New Flyer launches service to help transit operators through the whole process of going electric

For transit operators, purchasing an electric bus is only the first step toward building a zero-emission fleet. The second, critical step is developing depot or en route charging infrastructure, and a successful deployment requires complex technical expertise. Bus manufacturer New Flyer has announced the formation of New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions, a service that will support… Continue reading New Flyer launches service to help transit operators through the whole process of going electric

Pininfarina’s Italian design may be good Karma for plug-in carmaker

2017 Karma Revero
Fisker, the luxury plug-in hybrid car company that went bankrupt in 2013, was founded by a car designer. Henrik Fisker, the brand's namesake was a designer at BMW before forming his own company.

Now that venture, renamed Karma after is primary product, following the company's revival at the hands of Chinese investors, has hired a new design firm to bring it into the future.

DON'T MISS: 2018 Karma Revero: first drive of reborn luxury plug-in hybrid sedan

The company announced an agreement with the most famous Italian design house, Pininfarina, to design its next round of products, which could include an update to the Karma Revero (the car that began life as the Fisker Karma), as well as develop future products.

Now owned by Indian automaker Mahindra, Pininfarina has begun developing its own cars under its brand name, but the company still designs cars for other brands.

CHECK OUT: 2020 Karma Revero spy shots

The companies announced that the first products of the tie-up should appear in the second quarter of 2019, which could indicate it is an update of the existing Revero. Spy photographers have caught a camouflaged version of the Revero testing on U.S. roads.

The company, now owned by Chinese auto-parts supplier Wanxiang, also plans other updates to the design, including connectivity, performance, and artificial intelligence. CEO Lance Zhou said in a statement that the company plans to join other partnerships to make that happen, but wasn't specific on what might be announced or when.

Company founder Henrik Fisker has gone on to start another new automaker, Fisker Inc., that revealed its first concept car last year and has made waves with announcements about solid-state batteries.

Lifting the hammer: Germany considers limits on Autobahn speeds

2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC
Efforts to curb global warming have led Germany to propose limiting speeds on its famous Autobahns.

Facing heavy fines from the European Union if it fails to meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets, the country's committee on the future of transport put forward a series of draft proposals that includes limiting speeds on currently unfettered sections of autobahn. Reuters obtained copies of the draft proposals.

The autobahn, Germany's freeway system, has long had speed limits in congested urban areas, but has until now also had long sections without limits.

READ THIS: Automakers face big fines in Europe for missing CO2 targets

The new proposals by the committee on the future of transport would limit speeds on previously unlimited sections of the autobahns to 81 mph (130 kilometers per hour.) They would not affect speeds in urban areas.

European Union nations agreed in October to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to levels 35 percent below those already agreed to for 2021, following a particularly dire climate report by the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change. That report showed that catastrophic effects of climate change could arrive by 2040.

CHECK OUT: Europe commits to 35 percent CO2 cut by 2030, after dire UN climate report

European countries have been making dramatic efforts for more than a decade to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from powerplants and other sources. Transportation, however, is the one economic sector whose emissions are still on the rise. To meet the new climate targets, Germany, the largest country in Europe with the highest emissions of any Western European nation, will have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its cars.

As the country which also has by far the largest auto industry in Europe, Germany has long prided itself on its hammer-down autobahns which show off the performance of its cars and its drivers.

After German automakers spent decades trying to improve fuel economy with diesel engines, the country's largest automakers are now facing scandals, criminal indictments, and billions of dollars in fines over cheating diesel emissions tests.

DON'T MISS: Catastrophic climate effects could hit by 2040, UN report says

Now those automakers are beginning to focus on building and selling electric cars. Germany's largest automaker, Volkswagen, has invested $10 billion in developing new electric models and battery supplies. Daimler and BMW aren't far behind.

Included in the proposals by the committee on the future of transport are California-style quotas for electric-car sales.

Several previous efforts to reduce autobahn speeds have been defeated, and it remains to be seen if the latest government upholds the proposals in the face of increasingly dire climate warnings.

Green Car Reports respectfully reminds its readers that the scientific validity of climate change is not a topic for debate in our comments. We ask that any comments by climate-change denialists be flagged for moderation. We also ask that political discussions be restricted to the topic of the article they follow. Thank you in advance for helping us keep our comments on topic, civil, respectful, family-friendly, and fact-based.

Dodge Challenger electric boost, Karma styling, limited autobahns: Today’s Car News

Uber-owned Jump electric bike-share
Plug-in luxury-car maker Karma brought in a new design house to carry it into the future. Germany revealed a plan to impose a national speed limit on its famously unlimited autobahns. And our latest Twitter poll asks readers how soon they expect Ford to come through with an electric F-Series pickup. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

The performance community looks to be getting the electrification message. Chrysler CEO Mike Manly announced that the next version of the Dodge Challenger muscle car will ditch is signature big V-8 for a smaller engine with boost from an electric motor.

After four years under Chinese ownership, Karma, which builds the car famously developed by ex-BMW and Tesla designer Henrik Fisker, plans to take styling in a new direction in a new partnership with Italian design house Pininfarina.

In an effort to combat climate change, a German government agency has proposed limiting speeds on the country's autobahns.

After a senior Ford executive announced last week that the company will build an all-electric version of the bestselling Ford F-Series—with no mention of when—we decided to ask our readers to fill in a date in our latest Twitter poll, in a gauge of how serious electric car fans think the company is.

BMW and its rival Daimler are reportedly in talks about joining forces to develop self-driving cars.

Finally, Uber plans to start a new division to develop self-riding shared bikes and scooters.

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Elon’s Latest Letter Sends Shock Waves Through Wall Street

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Published on January 20th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Elon’s Latest Letter Sends Shock Waves Through Wall Street

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January 20th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

As Tesla was going through “production hell” with the Model 3 last year, Elon Musk tweeted that he had underestimated the value of human workers. The Model 3 assembly line was the most highly automated in the world, but many of the machines were not calibrated properly or broke down, leading to slowdowns. Tesla responded by hiring more workers, expanding its workforce by about 30%.

On January 18, the company announced it is laying off about 7% of its full-time workers and warned that profits in the fourth quarter would be lower than in the previous quarter. Q3 saw a modest profit for the company of just under 4%. For Q4, Elon says the company once again will be profitable but that profit will be lower than in Q3. And for Q1 2019, Tesla might see a “tiny” profit. The actual Q4 numbers won’t be released officially until the next shareholder and analyst conference call in early February. (In the meantime, if you’re interested, Vijay has published his estimates.)

Musk justified the decision to lay off about 3,000 workers by saying the company needs to find ways to reduce the cost of its cars. “Looking ahead at our mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transport and energy, which is important for all life on Earth, we face an extremely difficult challenge: making our cars, batteries and solar products cost-competitive with fossil fuels.

“While we have made great progress, our products are still too expensive for most people. Tesla has only been producing cars for about a decade and we’re up against massive, entrenched competitors. The net effect is that Tesla must work much harder than other manufacturers to survive while building affordable, sustainable products.

“[T]he road ahead is very difficult. This is not new for us — we have always faced significant challenges — but it is the reality we face. There are many companies that can offer a better work-life balance, because they are larger and more mature or in industries that are not so voraciously competitive. Attempting to build affordable clean energy products at scale necessarily requires extreme effort and relentless creativity, but succeeding in our mission is essential to ensure that the future is good, so we must do everything we can to advance the cause.

“Higher volume and manufacturing design improvements are crucial for Tesla to achieve the economies of scale required to manufacture the standard range (220 mile), standard interior Model 3 at $35k and still be a viable company. There isn’t any other way.”

The news sent Tesla stock into free fall, shedding 13% during the trading day on Friday and knocking Tesla down a few notches on the list of most valuable automakers — from #4 to #7.

And, of course, it brought the usual assortment of “I told you years ago Tesla would never amount to anything” naysayers on Wall Street. One of them is Forbes contributor Jim Collins, who wrote that going backwards on quarterly profits is exactly the opposite of what investors want to hear.

“That margin decrement would indicate that the benefits of scale are not occurring at all at Tesla, and that is a virtual death blow to the bullish arguments for the stock. Auto companies are generally perceived to have some monstrously large mass of fixed costs that can be amortized over production, and thus more output should equal both higher dollar profits and higher profit margins.” (Collins ignored what anyone following Tesla very closely knew — Tesla sold a large number of very high-cost, high-margin versions of the Model 3 in the 3rd quarter, and then many of the more affordable Model 3 Mid Range in the 4th quarter.)

Bret Kenwell, writing for The Street, worried that the decline in share price would make it difficult for Tesla to pay off the $920 million in convertible bonds coming due on March 1. “In the third quarter, Tesla was cash-flow positive and profitable, and so long as that’s the case in the fourth quarter, Tesla should be able to make the payment in March, even if it is all cash. However, it will come at an unfortunate time for Tesla, as it tries to get its Shanghai factory open before the end of the year, continues to expand its Supercharger Network and has a number of new models in the pipeline.”

Tesla has been doing a high-wire act for the past 15 years. Many analysts and journalists were claiming Tesla’s imminent death 10 years ago. Its stock is one of the most volatile and always has been. Chances are, it will continue to be. The conversion price for those convertible bonds is $359.88. “[I]t’s always possible that Tesla stock will be able to rally above that conversion price in time to pay part of the debt with stock. After all, it’s more than a month away and we’ve seen crazier things than a 20% rally in Tesla’s share price in a short time period,” Kenwell writes.

What it all comes down to is, do you trust Elon Musk or not? Some very large investors — like Tencent, Baillie Gifford, Ron Baron, and Larry Ellison — have placed bets on Elon and Tesla. Perhaps jittery stockholders should pay more attention to what the company’s major investors are saying rather than the words of a few so-called analysts who get paid to stir the pot.

As Elon says, the road ahead will be difficult. The 3,000 people getting laid off can’t be very happy about being out of work. Despite the pressure and difficult working conditions, Tesla is still viewed as one of the best places to work in the industry. The bottom line is that Musk knows his overall plan relies on making electric cars that more people can afford. That’s good news for the electric car revolution going forward but the path will not always be smooth.

About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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Tesla Raises Supercharger Prices Worldwide, Flirts With Chinese Battery Manufacturers

Tesla is busy searching out ways to improve profitability whether by laying off workers, ending its referral program, or doing business with battery companies other than Panasonic. That's good news for long term investors as the company reaches maturity.

Lexus Introduces Antidote to New “Roughing the Passer” Rule

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