SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola testified remotely yesterday before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in opposition to the agency’s newly proposed new federal emissions standards for motor vehicles model years ’27-’32, which are intended to significantly increase sales of electric vehicles (AutoInformed: EPA Wants Toughest Federal Emission Standards Ever).
“SEMA and its members have serious concerns with this proposal, which aggressively seeks to lower carbon emissions under timelines that effectively make electric vehicles the de facto choice option for automakers to meet the requirements. Government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. This far too-fast mandate will create a seismic shift for small businesses who don’t have the capacity to make the shift this quickly, especially when they’re not receiving billions in government funds like the large automakers are to fund their electric vehicle programs,” said Spagnola.
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Mazda Motor Posts Improving FY 2203 Financial Results
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Mazda Motor (7261:JP – Tokyo) posted Fiscal Year 2023 (ended 31 March 2023) financial results of net sales at ¥4.5 trillion, operating income at ¥180 billion, and net income at ¥130 billion. This was based on a global sales volume of 1.11 million units, down 11.3% year-on-year. Sales dropped in all countries except Japan, “mainly due” to reductions in production from semiconductor supply shortages in the first half of the fiscal year and a shortage of car transport ships. China was a notable problem area.
However, Mazda said: “Under these conditions, the Mazda Group steadily improved its profit base by implementing group-wide initiatives to improve per-unit profit, curb costs, reduce marketing expenses, improve fixed cost efficiency, and redesign components to expand the use of general-purpose semiconductors as a means of mitigating semiconductor shortages.” Continue reading →