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Recent Posts
- Pessimism on the Economy – A Pox on Both Parties
- Nissan Sells South African Plants to Chery SA
- January 2026 U.S. Auto Sales Forecast Down
- FDIC Conditionally Approves Ford Credit Industrial Bank
- First Look – 2026 Mercedes-AMG F1 W17 Racer
- Volvo EX60 Mid-Size SUV Debuts
- First Look – the 2027 E-Z-GO Liberty
- S&P Global Mobility – GM Tops Maker Loyalty Ratings Again
- Corvette ZR1X Runs 8.675-Second Quarter Mile
- Daytona 24 Hours – Old and New Stars Getting Ready to Run
- Cadillac Formula 1® – Checo Perez Completes First Track Laps
- Porsche Sales Drop 10% in 2025
- Global Warming – Michigan Studying Geologic Hydrogen
- Whitmer Stands in Stark Contrast to Trump at Detroit Auto Show
- IMSA 2026 – Cadillac Racing Entering Fourth Year in GTP
Recent Comments
- UAW Ford Department Director VP Laura Dickerson on Trump's Ford Plant Visit on Whitmer Stands in Stark Contrast to Trump at Detroit Auto Show
- Ken Zino on Ford Fuel Injector Leak Recall Now at ~694,000
- Laverne Oliver on Ford Fuel Injector Leak Recall Now at ~694,000
- Magna on its Share Repurchase Plan in reference to on Magna Posts Solid Q3 2025 Earnings Gain
- Daniel Ricciardo Global Ford Racing Ambassador on Ford Performance Rebranded as Ford Racing
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Category Archives: AutoInformed Editorial
House Republicans Flunk Math on Energy Incentives
On 22 May the U.S. House of Representatives passed its budget reconciliation bill. The bill. among other economic disasters for U.S. inhabitants and businesses includes proposals to alter existing federal energy tax credits – from fast elimination of several credits to new phase-down schedules, and adding new requirements, including provisions related to foreign entities of concern. Are any of our representatives paying attention to Chinese state-owned and directed capitalism? Take a look at the Chinese lead in new energy vehicles, the adoption of solar energy, the making of 21st century industrial goods and above all the funding of a University research in advanced transportation products, manufacturing technologies and medical drugs. AutoInformed notes the Trump’s big, beautiful bill, obsession with job destroying and inflation creating tariffs, among other things adds up to negative numbers for our economy. Republicans flunk math. Continue reading
Michigan Governor Whitmer Offers Sensible Tariff Fixes
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer today delivered her “Build, America, Build” speech in Washington D.C. Simply put, it was a plan to show both parties and federal officials how to build America’s manufacturing might, increase jobs, invest in people and protect our national defense. It was based on Whitmer’s proven approach – work with friends and compete against adversaries.
“Before we dig in to my proposals today, I need to acknowledge what’s going on with tariffs. I’m not going to sugarcoat it… these last few days have been tough for Michigan. 20% of our economy is tied to the auto industry, which depends on a steady flow of goods from our largest and closest trading partners. We’re home to THE busiest international border crossing in North America. More than 10,000 vehicles carrying parts and materials cross the bridge between Detroit and Windsor every weekday. Continue reading
Posted in AutoInformed Editorial, economy, engineering, environment, labor issues, manufacturing, news, news analysis, people, Trump Truth Tests
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, aviation techs, Chinese government, Commercial Aircraft Corporation, D-RAM chips, detroit grand prix, Ken Zino, Operation Warp Speed, President Trump, Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Rosie the Riveters, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, SHIPS for America Act, Vice President Vance, X @KenAutoinformed
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Tesla Cybertrucks Recalled For Bad Adhesives
Tesla is recalling more than 46,000 2024 and 2025 model-year Cybertrucks, according to documents made public by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The ironically named “cant rail,” a stainless-steel exterior trim panel, can de-laminate and detach from the vehicle creating a road hazard for other vehicles. (Cant railings are not Elon Musk’s and other DOGE defenses flying about although they create truth hazards that could harm the U.S. model year 1788 vehicle known as the Constitution – AutoCrat) Continue reading
Posted in auto news, AutoInformed Editorial, customer satisfaction, engineering, manufacturing, news analysis, quality, recalls, safety, Trump Truth Tests
Tagged 1788 vehicle known as the Constitution, auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Ken Zino, NHTSA Recall 25V-170 or 25V170, Tesla cant rail recall, Tesla Recalls, X @KenAutoinformed
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Trump Tariffs – His Next Economic Catastrophe
Shoot from the lip President Trump, aka Calamity Donald, today imposed tariffs of 25% across North America disrupting the North American auto market that has thrived on 30 years of free trade. Any new tariffs in place for any significant length of time will be disruptive. The tariffs at 25% are significantly higher than the profits made by the automakers and their suppliers. It is widely – if not universally – held by economists that this is an economic disaster. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, AutoInformed Editorial, economy, fools 'n frauds, manufacturing, news analysis, prices, sales, transportation, Trump Truth Tests
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Calamity Donald, Jim Farley, Jonathan Smoke, Ken Zino, Stephanie Brinley, X @KenAutoinformed
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Musk and Bezos Freeloading on Taxpayer Subsidies
Elon Musk, who is leading efforts to cut spending he alleges is wasteful, has himself benefited from more than $38 billion in government funding, according to a just-published exposé in the Washington Post. The Washington Post used Good Jobs First’s Subsidy Tracker to help tell the story of just how much companies controlled by Musk have received, according to a release today from the respected Good Jobs First (GJF) organization. Continue reading
Posted in AutoInformed Editorial, fools 'n frauds, news, news analysis, people, Trump Truth Tests
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Good Jobs First, Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, Ken Zino, Reuters, SpaceX, tax credits, tax grants and reimbursements, tesla, Wahington Post, Wall Street Journal, X @KenAutoinformed
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Significant 2024 Automotive Stories and Trends
Once again at the beginning of 2025 AutoInformed notes – matter-of-factly – that its vision is 20-20 on the consequences of long past occurrences. However, in the here and now our perception is cloudy. We do not have the advantages of historians re-assessing events years later with help from other news outlets, blogs, letters, memoirs, magazines and whatever new forms of expressed thought emerge. Thus far the most valued revisions and nuanced interpretations appear in books and essays after more documents and perspectives surface from the players or perpetrators engaged in them. These are not yet available, and under Trump 2.0 they would likely be banned anyway. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, AutoInformed Editorial, car sharing, connected vehicles, economy, environment, fools 'n frauds, global warming, labor issues, manufacturing, marketing, news, news analysis, sales, transportation
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Biden Administration, George Santayana, industrial policy, Ken Zino, Trump 2.0, X @KenAutoinformed
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Greetings from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room
“The holidays have always held a special place in our hearts, and we’ve loved opening the doors of the People’s House wider and wider each year, continuing the spirit of goodwill and gratitude. America’s story is your story, and we hope you feel at home here,” said the President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Continue reading
Posted in AutoInformed Editorial, milestones, news, news analysis, people, shows and events
Tagged auto industry commentary, Autocrat, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, First Lady Jill Biden, Ken Zino, White House Diplomatic Reception Room, X @KenAutoinformed
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The Fourth of July 2024 – March to the Spirit of 1776
These ideas that they were – in the course of human events – ultimately fighting for in our following War of Independence were bigger than the despots, Redcoats, Hessians and other mercenaries deployed against us. We overcame this oppression and the Divine Right of Kings against long odds. Continue reading
Chinese EV Trade War Commences
The Biden Administration has announced today that it will increase tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 passed overwhelmingly under the Republican President Gerald Ford administration on $18 billion of imports from China to protect American workers and businesses.
“The President’s actions reflect the conclusions of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s mandatory four-year review that China continues to engage in unfair practices, such as forced technology transfer and restrictions and intellectual property theft from U.S. companies,” media were told on a background briefing by National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard and Senior Administration Officials. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, AutoInformed Editorial, blog, economy, electric vehicles, fuel economy or emissions, manufacturing, milestones, news analysis, transportation
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, department of energy, Ken Zino, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, Section 301 tariffs, solar cell imports from China, steel and aluminum imports from China, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai
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April 20 – aka 420 – Marijuana Impaired Driving is Illegal
Today being 420 for stoners,* AutoInformed says don’t believe that marijuana won’t affect your driving. Driving impaired by any substance—alcohol or other drugs, whether legal or illegal—is against the law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Continue reading
Posted in AutoInformed Editorial, distracted driving, people, public health, safety, shows and events
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk Study, Ken Zino, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nhtsa
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Petroleum Equivalency Factor Change Slows EV Adoption
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant rules for light-duty vehicles covering model years 2027-2032 is about to be to be announced. It’s part of a tangled maze of regulations from multiple federal and state agencies affecting automakers and ultimately consumers in the US, often referred in shorthand as CAFE – corporate average fuel economy.
In the latest development, The Department of Energy last year proposed decreasing the so-called “petroleum-equivalent fuel economy factor” (PEF) for EVs by 72% in 2027. The Petroleum Equivalency Factor expresses electric vehicle efficiency as equivalent-miles-per-gallon of gasoline for purposes of the EPA’s calculation of manufacturers’ compliance with NHTSA’s CAFE regulations. DOE is responsible for establishing the value of the PEF. With a final rule, issued yesterday, the PEF will be established for model years beginning in 2027. It slows forcing EV adaption, and in AutoInformed’s view this is a good thing. Continue reading
Posted in alternative fuels, AutoInformed Editorial, blog, economy, electric vehicles, energy, engineering, environment, fuel economy or emissions, global warming, labor issues, manufacturing, milestones, news analysis, public health
Tagged Alliance for Automotive Innovation, auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, battery electric vehicles, cafe, CAFE civil penalties, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, department of energy, epa, John Bozzella, Ken Zino, petroleum-equivalent fuel economy factor
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Bidenomics and the State of the Union
Once again President Biden took on the failed economic polices of the party of no hope, aka Republicans, and the former mis-administration disaster that he inherited in his State of the Union address last night. Nowhere is the contrast between good public policy and the republican politics of hate more evident than the ongoing recovery from the pandemic.
During an inspiring campaign speech that lasted more than an hour, Biden addressed – among other things – our economy. “I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. … America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot … I inherited an economy that was on the brink,” Biden said. Continue reading
Posted in AutoInformed Editorial, blog, customer satisfaction, economy, environment, financial results, labor issues, manufacturing, news analysis, public health, shows and events
Tagged auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Bidenomics, donald trump, Ken Zino, Republican insurrectionists, State of the Union, The Hustings
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Significant 2023 Automotive Stories and Trends
Our aspirations of becoming a more useful part of our society comprised of “We the People” is under daily news-cycle assault with an insurrection of can’t do characters and their apologists and power-hungry enablers who are our enemies within. They are the greatest threat to our upwardly mobile, inclusive democratic society. These illiterate book banners and burners are threatening our genuine American optimism and can-do past that still propels the best of us to keep moving forward with or without drums and fifes. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, AutoInformed Editorial, connected vehicles, economy, electric vehicles, energy, environment, fuel economy or emissions, global warming, people, public health, transportation
Tagged 1776, American optimism and can-do spirit, auto industry commentary, autoinformed.com, automotive blog, Automotive news and analysis, Declaration of Independence, Ken Zino, significant automotive stores and trends of 2023, the American dream, The US Constitution
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Memorial Day 2025
Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971, known as Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day. Today, Memorial Day honors the more than 1 million men and women who have died in military service since the Civil War began in 1861.
Congress, by a joint resolution approved on 11 May 1950, as amended (36 U.S.C. 116), requested the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people might unite in prayer. Continue reading →