Category Archives: news analysis

Driver Phone Distraction During 41% of Daytime Trips

Critics note that this is ”Big Brother” taken to a higher level. AutoInformed is in the early stages of testing the software on cars in use. Continue reading

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Covid Casualties – Consumers Forcing Digital Auto Financing as Trump Sulks and Virus Continues to Spread

It’s just another example of how the ongoing Covid crisis will change well-established business practices in the auto industry. Auto dealers, who tend to be Republican in AutoInformed’s experience, can thank the ousted -ex-president Trump for this very real threat to their profitability. Wearing a mask won’t help the spread of this change as Covid continues to expand unabated due to the lack of a national policy – one that won’t be forthcoming until January 20th 2021. Continue reading

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SMMT – Final Plea for Zero-Tariff Trade Deal As Brexit Negotiations Near End

However, significant gaps in the industry’s ability to plan still exist, with a lack of clarity on the nature of the UK-EU’s future relationship hampering the efforts of almost nine in 10 (86%) firms to prepare. A disastrous ‘no deal’ outcome, or failure to achieve workable deal for auto, would mean £47 billion hit to UK sector over next five years – on top of ongoing coronavirus crisis costs, the auto industry claims. Ah, such is the price of blind ideologies who ignore real consequences, economists and political scientists. Continue reading

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Kansas City to Assemble All-Electric Ford E-Transit

It’s ironic that the transition to a carbon-free economy and the jobs it is now creating in the US auto industry comes in part because of the ousted Trump Administration’s anti-environmental policies that are at odds with a global trend toward healing the earth that is being reinforced by regulators. Ford spends more than $5 billion annually on engineering in America, which includes the development of the all-new, fully electric Transit, the F-150, and the all-new Mustang Mach-E. Continue reading

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2022 Bolt EV Has More Info on EV Power Flow Screen. What It Needs is Less Price

The Bolt EUV will be the first electric vehicle from Chevrolet to offer Super Cruise2, the industry’s first true hands-free driver assistance system for divided and compatible highways. The refreshed Bolt EV and the Bolt EUV will go into production in summer 2021. Continue reading

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Debt to Watch as Covid Spreads – New FCA Bank Notes

AutoInformed thinks it too reflects the uncertainty in global economies as Central Banks – led by what some say is a printing-press happy US Treasury – have pushed interest rates on government debt to virtually zero. Continue reading

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FAW J7+ Autonomous Truck Passes Chinese Certification

China with its own vast market and a Communist central government that can quickly decree and implement policy – think Covid response or Trump’s defeat in the trade war he started – would seem to have an advantage here. It is lucky for western automakers that Chinese industrial policy allowed them to operate there but only with local partners. How the pie is sliced outside of China when and if the exports become voluminous will be subject to much behind the scenes maneuvering and uncomfortable board meetings Continue reading

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Commerce – Countervailing Duties on Vietnamese Cars,Tires

Among the subsidies preliminarily countervailed is Vietnam’s undervalued currency. This is the first time that Commerce has ever made an affirmative CVD determination regarding a foreign currency with a unitary exchange rate. Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of passenger tires from Vietnam based on these preliminary rates above. Continue reading

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Covid – Drastic Changes to Commuting Have Slight Effect on Feelings about EVs and Self-Driving Technologies?

While the ongoing Covid plague has drastically changed American lives, what’s not new is that Inexperience and Lack of Knowledge Remain Barriers for Acceptance of EVs and Self-Driving Technologies. Nonetheless, automakers are investing heavily in electrification and self-driving technology despite an absence of substantive consumer interest in either. Continue reading

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Ford Q3 Net Income at $2.4B Treads Water. Q4 $500M Loss?

As a result, the Ford outlook is wobbly including a fourth quarter adjusted EBIT between break-even and a, gulp, $500 million loss. Continue reading

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US Vehicle Sales to Rise in October?

However, complete U.S. new-vehicle sales including all transactions for October are projected to reach 1,321,400 units, a -4.5% decrease from October 2019 when adjusted for selling days. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate, aka SAAR, for total new vehicle sales is expected to be 15.9 million units, down 0.8 million units from 2019, the least year-over-year decline since the pandemic began. This is the annual output of two to four final assembly plants, without considering the component parts plants from internal or external sources. Continue reading

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Multinationals Liable For Supply Chains? Swiss Vote Due

“For too long, multinational corporations have been able to hide their abuses behind a veneer of respectability, using plausible deniability whenever bad behavior is highlighted. The Responsible Business Initiative is part of a global movement by unions and civil society organizations to hold companies responsible for their behavior,” said IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches. Continue reading

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Barrett-Jackson Renews Live Auctions as Covid Rages

Barrett-Jackson returned to in-person events during the Fall Auction at WestWorld of Scottsdale, October 22-24, 2020 as the Arizona Republic reported that Arizona continues a trend of higher COVID-19 case reports. There were 801 new cases, 1 new death The past several weeks have seen relatively higher daily case reports as the virus spreads at its fastest rate in Arizona since June. Continue reading

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Daimler Q3 Covid Results – Sales, Revenue Down. Earnings Up

Daimler expects that the significant unit-sales reductions recorded in the first nine months due to the COVID-19 pandemic will only be partially offset by the end of the year. Group unit sales and Group revenue in 2020 are forecast to be significantly lower than in the previous year. Continue reading

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California Remains Below 2020 Emissions Target

Executive Summary: California’s latest greenhouse gas data shows that while the state continues to stay below its 2020 target for emissions, there is much more work to do to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Executive Order N-79-20 issued 23 September by California Governor Newsom recognized that achieving our air quality and climate goals hinge on transforming the state’s transportation sector. In that order, the Governor calls for 100% sales of zero emission light-duty vehicles by 2035. Continue reading

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