Category Archives: results

Death of the Diesel: Daimler Guilty of Selling Dirty Diesels in Germany – Pays $957,000,000 Fine Rather than Litigate

The negligent violation of supervisory duties occurred on the department head level. It appears that the Daimler has refrained from taking a legal action challenging the fine notice because senior executives are not implicated. The public prosecutor’s administrative offense proceeding against Daimler AG is thereby fully concluded. This is not so at Volkswagen Group where senior executives were indicted today. Continue reading

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Penske’s Newgarden, Pagenaud One-Two in 2019 IndyCar

Newgarden gave team owner Roger Penske his 16th series championship, including the fourth in the last six years. Josef Newgarden didn’t have a race-winning car on Sunday afternoon, but his eighth-place finish was enough for him to earn his second Series Championship, and Team Penske’s 16th. Continue reading

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Amazon Wants to Meet the Paris Agreement 10 Years Early

It’s part of the so-called Climate Pledge, a commitment to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. Amazon is the first signatory of this pledge, and it will hardly be the last. The Climate Pledge calls on signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040—a decade ahead of the Paris Accord’s goal of 2050. Continue reading

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CARB Sets Tropical Forest Standard Rules

CARB said it developed the standard after evaluating other international deforestation reduction programs and working with the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force and indigenous leaders and forest communities. Continue reading

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UAW Strike Cost at GM Builds Substantially with Duration

Previously, the 1998 UAW strike on GM lasted 54 days and cost the automaker $2 billion, which would equate to $3.1 billion in today’s dollars – or over a third of their 2018 net profit. A strike lasting this long has the potential to cost GM 500,000 units in lost production, which would quickly deplete their available inventory. In this situation, GM intenders would ultimately either delay purchases or move to competitor brands, which could result in 100,000 lost US sales in the remainder of this year. Continue reading

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Sonic Financial Takes Over Speedway Motorsports

Sonic Financial intends “to promptly complete the acquisition of all shares of Speedway Motorsports through a merger of Speedway Motorsports and a subsidiary of Sonic Financial, without a vote of Speedway Motorsports stockholders, in accordance with Delaware law.” Continue reading

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Ford Recalls 311,907 Explorer SUVs for Dangerous Seat Frames

It took 31 reports of hand injuries before Ford acted on replacing the dangerous part. This is the seventh safety defect recall – thus far – on the 2017 model Explorer. Continue reading

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Electric Vehicle Charging Emissions – Good and Better?

As more renewable energy gets added to traditionally fossil-fueled power grids, real-time emissions rates are increasingly exhibiting large swings from clean to dirty and vice versa from one moment to the next. This is a well-known and classic EV problem. They are in fact Elsewhere Emissions Vehicles. Continue reading

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Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa Forced Out Over Ghosn Matter

The move comes following a report from the beleaguered company’s Audit Committee that recognizes several instances of misconduct from the findings of the internal investigation that is only partially available publicly in filtered form. On May 14, 2019, Nissan belatedly issued numerous amendments to its past annual securities reports, correcting director compensation figures to reflect the amounts that should originally have been disclosed. Continue reading

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Western European Car Registrations Fall by -8.5%

“We suspect that last month’s strong sales may have been the result of an increased use of self-registrations by dealers and OEMs, ahead of further changes to WLTP regulations which came into effect on 1 September, and we may therefore see some payback in selling rates in the coming months,” says LMC.    Continue reading

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Volkswagen Deal on Bogus Gasoline Fuel Economy Ratings

The settlement in Volkswagen’s view removes the uncertainty of protracted litigation and does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing by Volkswagen. AutoInformed thinks that VW is buying off lawyers in a case that is similar to  – if not identical – the calculated fraud of Dieselgate where it was flagrantly guilty. The Environmental Protection Agency has not agreed to the deal. Continue reading

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Ferdinand Piëch – German Autocrat, Industrialist – Dead at 82

Porsche’s attempt to take over Volkswagen Group, ironically, ultimately resulted in exactly the opposite with Volkswagen Group swallowing the performance vehicle maker whole when the leveraged funds of the pursuer ran into the brick wall of the Great Recession and margin calls in 2009. Continue reading

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California Climate Investments  – $900 Million in Projects

After two of California’s worst fire seasons on record, California Climate Investments is helping to pay for nearly 70 forest-health and wildfire-prevention projects, including many forest-adjacent communities in the wildland-urban interface.  Continue reading

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My Friend Jim Dunne

It had it all – Detroit Royalty surprised, hot cars, and a globally saleable glamour shot. Yes, Jim Dunne had it – he was the sine qua non of an entire category of journalism – automotive spy photography. Continue reading

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July Global Vehicles Sales Drop More Than 3M

Consumers appear to be choosing to save instead of spending amid global uncertainty. Continue reading

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