Possible_Terrorism_Warfare – Page 1070 – I wish I had more to offer

Ford dreams up a way to kill ‘new car smell’

Car companies often tweak their vehicles for different markets in order to comply with regulations or serve varying customer tastes. But Ford is apparently considering a novel change to cars bound for the Chinese market: removing the “new car smell.” Yes, the fresh but sometimes dizzying smell of a brand-new car might be popular in… Continue reading Ford dreams up a way to kill ‘new car smell’

Trump is reportedly obsessed with tariffs on foreign cars and sees them as his best trade tactic

Rebecca Cook | Reuters
A Ford Motor assembly worker prepares to attach a door to a 2018 F150 pick-up truck at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, September 27, 2018.

President Donald Trump is focused on crushing overseas automakers with heavy tariffs, now seeing the threat of further car duties as his best trade negotiating tactic, Axios reported Monday.

The president has told aides privately that his perceived trade deal success in Canada was because of threats to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the U.S. would levy painful auto tariffs, Axios reported. Trump is now reportedly considering using the same tactic with the European Commission.

“Trump says gleefully that the moment he started talking about maybe tariffs on cars, that [European Commission President Jean-Claude] Juncker got on the fastest plane known to mankind, comes straight over to Washington and starts offering deals,” a senior European official told Axios.

GM and Ford shares were up fractionally Monday morning. Tariffs would be negative for the companies if other countries decided to retaliate.

Read the full Axios report here.

WATCH:Twelve US execs explain how Trump's trade war affects their bottom lines

Twelve US execs explain how Trump's trade war affects their bottom lines
4:53 PM ET Mon, 29 Oct 2018 | 07:33

VW wants to be the most profitable electric car company in the world

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
The Volkswagen logo is displayed at Serramonte Volkswagen on November 18, 2016 in Colma, California.

Volkswagen announced it's to spend 44 billion euros ($50 billion) on new plants, electric cars, autonomous driving and mobility services.

The war chest is to be spent in the four years between 2019 and 2023 and represents about a third of the company's total outlay allocated to the four-year period.

“One aim of the Volkswagen Group's strategy is to speed up the pace of innovation. We are focusing our investments on the future fields of mobility and systematically implementing our strategy,” Herbert Diess, the CEO of Volkswagen, said in a press release, issued after a Supervisory Board meeting Friday.

VW CEO: We will be most profitable electric car firm
12 Mins Ago | 02:22

Diess told CNBC's Annette Weisbach that he expects the German carmaker to be the most profitable maker of electric cars thanks to its economies of scale. The auto group said it wanted to improve productivity by focusing its electrification strategy within Germany, while pushing some traditional engines to multi-brand factories in eastern Europe.

German plants in Emden and Hanover will be converted to build electric vehicles, while the Volkswagen Passat family will now be built in the Czech Republic. A new location in Eastern Europe will be built for some Skoda and SEAT cars.

VW Group added that it wanted its automotive division to lower its capital expenditure ratio to 6 percent of revenues from 2020 onward.

VW CEO: Politicians are beating auto firms up
11 Mins Ago | 02:06

Diess said VW's previous “bad behavior” meant that his firm had been “beaten up” by politicians in Germany and abroad but he hoped that relations were improving.

‘Insane’ for UK and EU to harm border trade, McLaren CEO says

Confident of Brexit deal, McLaren CEO says
1 Hour Ago | 02:21

The chief executive of British sports car maker McLaren Automotive has told CNBC that it would be “insane” for the United Kingdom and European Union (EU) to fail to agree a deal on Brexit.

Mike Flewitt said he spoke to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on a conference call two weeks ago and he is confident that a withdrawal deal will be done. How to maintain the frictionless movement of goods between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit remains a sticking point in negotiations. However, the supercar executive warned that any outcome that slowed the cross-border movement of goods would be hugely damaging.

“It would be insane, both for the EU and for the U.K. to run into a situation where we're affecting imports and exports through that period,” he said, before adding “We shouldn't let ourselves run into a problem like that in this day and age, it would be crazy.”

Flewit stressed that he was not only talking about disruption to the automotive industry.

“Think of food stocks and livestock and anything that's coming across borders being delayed (that) would be a real problem so I'm in the camp of optimists who think we'll find a way through,” he told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum at the firm's headquarters just outside London.

McLaren officially opened a new composite factory in northern England on Wednesday, allowing it to directly design and build the carbon chassis of its cars in the United Kingdom. The McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) has been completed thanks to a £50 million ($64.6 million) joint investment with Sheffield City Council.

Flewitt said that decision, while not Brexit related, would help the car maker's control over manufacturing as it moved more production “onshore.”

“It actually moves our U.K. content up from around about 50 percent to the core by value, closer to 60 percent,” he added.

Trade war

Trade war is hurting China, McLaren CEO warns
1 Hour Ago | 00:55

The McLaren leader described the North American and Chinese markets as both “incredibly” positive despite evidence the trade war effect was starting to erode confidence among Chinese customers.

He said there was no such problem in the United States, even though a level of unpredictability surrounded Washington policy. “Demand has been very positive and is growing in North America. There is a degree of confidence around the economy,” he said.

Flewitt said sales in the Middle East had lagged in 2018, while in Europe most good news was coming out of Germany, Switzerland, and the U.K.

The volume of autos sold by McLaren in 2018 is tipped by the chief executive to be a little over four-and-a-half thousand cars. The latest model to hit showrooms is the McLaren 600LT which is considered an entry-level model at £185,000 ($239,000).

Ford CEO Jim Hackett: Trade War Could Wipe Out Most Tax Cut Benefits for Americans

Jim Hackett, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images Few U.S. companies have been hit harder by the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war with China (and the rest of the world) than Ford. The Dearborn, Mich.-based carmaker, the only one among the American “Big Three” automakers that survived the 2008 Financial… Continue reading Ford CEO Jim Hackett: Trade War Could Wipe Out Most Tax Cut Benefits for Americans

Absurd Tesla Obstructionism In Numerous US States

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Published on November 8th, 2018 |

by Matt Pressman

Absurd Tesla Obstructionism In Numerous US States

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November 8th, 2018 by Matt Pressman

Originally published on EVANNEX.

Tesla has many challenges to overcome. According to David Pogue (via Yahoo Finance), “It’s amazing that Tesla even exists. Before Tesla, the most recent successful American auto startup was Chrysler, over 90 years ago. Tesla has survived the first hard part: designing beautiful, fast, high-tech electric cars that a lot of people want and love. Now come all the other hard parts … [including] getting permission to sell them.”

A look at Tesla’s store in Walnut Creek, California (Image: Tesla)

“That’s right. In some states, Tesla is not allowed to open dealerships. I live in one of them: Connecticut. Two years ago, I added myself to the waiting list for the Tesla Model 3. This summer, I finally picked it up — in New York. As I drove it back home over the state border, I wondered why Connecticut would want to hand over all the sales tax I just paid to a rival state,” writes Pogue.

Furthermore, “in a capitalist system, it might seem counterintuitive for a state to prevent a popular company from opening a store. Aren’t new businesses good? Don’t they generate property taxes and sales tax? Don’t they mean more local jobs? Wouldn’t welcoming a big player in electric cars help these states with their environmental goals? (Connecticut’s government, for example, aims to lower emissions to 45% of 2001 levels by 2030.) Don’t we want to support American manufacturing?”

It turns out that these protectionist laws are rooted in a bit of ancient history. Pogue notes, “Back in the 1930s, the car companies established this system so that they could worry about making cars, and the franchises could worry about selling and repairing them. Early on, though, the franchisees lobbied their state governments for protection.” State governments, in turn, passed laws.

Along with Connecticut, Tesla still can’t sell cars direct-to-consumer in other states including Texas (Youtube: ReasonTV)

Fast forward to the present — are laws in certain states still banning Tesla from selling cars? Yes. Through extensive, expensive (and often successful) lobbying efforts, dealer groups are waging war on the electric carmaker. One reason could be that “the vast majority of [dealer] income comes from service … [and dealers] see the electric car as an existential threat to their service business. It’s revenue that these car dealers don’t want to give up,” says Bruce Becker, president of the Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut.

To that end, “an electric car has no engine and no transmission. It has no spark plugs, fan belts, air filters, timing belts, or cylinder heads. It never needs oil changes, tuneups, or emissions checks. Your brake pads go years without needing replacement, too, since just lifting your foot from the accelerator slows the car down (by recharging the batteries).” It’s no wonder dealers want to boot Tesla from their state. A National Automobile Dealers Association spokesman said dealers make triple the profit from service as they do from selling new cars.

Yet for state officials, banning Tesla “is not a good long-term strategy. It’s not stopping people from buying Teslas — it’s just sending them out of state to do it.” Tesla’s general counsel, Todd Maron notes, “In all the other states in the country, in all the other countries where we operate, we’ve always been able to operate alongside dealers selling other cars. It’s just competition, and it’s completely normal. … We’re not going to give up on this issue, ever. It’s so fundamental to who we are.”

If you live in one of the blue states, you don’t have to cross state lines to buy a Tesla (Graphic credit: David Foster / Yahoo Finance)

After all, “Existing franchise dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between selling gasoline cars, which constitute the vast majority of their business, and selling the new technology of electric cars,” CEO Elon Musk writes on Tesla’s site. “It is impossible for them to explain the advantages of going electric without simultaneously undermining their traditional [gasoline car] business.”

Where Tesla can sell cars. Map via TMC Staff

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About the Author

Matt Pressman is all about Tesla. He’s a TSLA investor, pre-ordered the Model 3, and loves driving the family's Model S and Model X company cars. As co-founder of EVANNEX, a family business specializing in aftermarket Tesla accessories, he’s served as a contributor/editor of Electric Vehicle University (EVU) and the Owning Model S and Getting Ready for Model 3 books. He writes daily about Tesla and you can follow his work on the EVANNEX blog.

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BMW: Ongoing trade war could push some South Carolina car production to China

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Grab pulls in $250M from Hyundai as ongoing round reaches $2.7B

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A Waymo self-driving car sent a motorcyclist to the hospital — but the human driver was at fault

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Vindis refurbishes Volkswagen dealership in Cambridge

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