Trump Legacy – FAA Adopts Stricter Unruly Passenger Policy

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Sedition and Trump's legacy.com

The FAA will pursue legal enforcement action.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson today signed an order for a stricter legal enforcement policy against unruly airline passengers in the wake of recent, troubling incidents. “The FAA has seen a disturbing increase in incidents where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior. These incidents have stemmed both from passengers’ refusals to wear masks and from recent violence at the U.S. Capitol,” the FAA said.

The FAA omitted the fact that Trump incited the violence and sedition against the US government in the waning days of his reign as the despot who would be king. Passengers who interfere with, physically assault, or threaten to physically assault aircraft crew or anyone else on an aircraft face legal penalties, including fines of up to $35,000 and imprisonment. “This dangerous behavior can distract, disrupt, and threaten crewmembers’ safety functions,” the FAA said. And the functions of democracy. Continue reading

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Latest Ford Restructuring – Brazil Manufacturing to Cease

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Ford Leaving Brazil and Ford South America

Another Ford retreat.

Ford Brazil will end production at its Camaçari, Taubaté and Troller plants during 2021 as weak sales have resulted in years of significant losses. Ford has been in Brazil for more than a century. However, Ford maintains at the moment it will keep South America headquarters, a product development center and proving grounds in Brazil. Last March Ford  “temporarily” stopped South American Production at its manufacturing sites in Brazil and at the Pacheco plant in Argentina, in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus in South America and Ford’s profitability. (See AutoInformed – Ford Motor Maxes Out Lines of Credit , Ford Q3 Net Income at $2.4B Treads Water. Q4 $500M Loss?)

Production will cease immediately at Camaçari and Taubaté in Brazil, with some parts production continuing for a few months to support inventories for aftermarket sales. The Troller plant in Horizonte, Brazil, will continue to operate until the fourth quarter of 2021. As a result, the company will end sales of EcoSport, Ka and T4 once inventories are sold. Manufacturing operations in Argentina and Uruguay and the sales companies in other South America markets are not affected. Continue reading

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A Decade of Chinese Ownership – Volvo Cars Posts Strongest Second-Half Sales in Its 93-Year History

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Volvo Car 2020 Global Sales Results

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The Volvo* Brand of Zhejiang Geely Holding has posted the strongest second-half sales in the company’s history. Demand for its electrified cars led the way. The share of so-called Recharge models, with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain, more than doubled in 2020 compared with 2019. In Europe, the share of Recharge cars of overall sales was 29%, making Volvo the leading brand in the region for chargeable cars. It was also a leading plug-in hybrid brand in the US. In China and the United States, Volvo’s two largest markets, it reported growing sales for the full year as it managed to recover from  a Covid pandemic-related sales drop in the first half during the second half of the year.

“We had a great second half of the year after a tough start, gaining market share in all our main sales regions,” said Lex Kerssemakers, Head of Global Commercial Operations. “We aim to build on this positive trend in 2021 as we continue to roll out new electrified Volvos and expand our online business.” Continue reading

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BrightDrop? New GM Business Will Electrify, Improve Goods and Services Delivery

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on GM BrightDrop

 BrightDrop uses GM’s Ultium EV platform in commercial vehicles.

General Motors announced today a new business, BrightDrop, which it claims will offer electric first-to-last-mile products, software and services to allow delivery and logistics companies to move goods more efficiently. BrightDrop’s electric pallet, EP1, will be available in early 2021, and its electric light commercial vehicle, the EV600, will be on roads in late 2021 – it’s promised. GM estimates that by 2025, the combined market opportunity for parcel, food delivery and reverse logistics in the U.S. will be over $850 billion. BrightDrop will initially serve customers in the U.S. and Canada.

This is roughly consistent with analysis released at the beginning of the week by the World Economic Forum that estimates so-called urban last-mile delivery emissions are on track to increase by more than 30% by 2030 in the top 100 cities globally. Continue reading

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We the People Say Again Farewell to Despots and Treason

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Trump DespotismGeneral Washington himself in December of 1777 reveled on a day of “Thanksgiving” after the defeat of the British at Saratoga during what is known as our War of Independence. That war was conducted when we were still a loose confederation of colonies who rebelled, in part, because we were resisting the taxation needed to pay for the ongoing folly of foreign wars and entanglements of our government run by the rich, privileged British Monarchy. We the People wanted to govern ourselves.

In these times that once again trouble men’s and women’s souls, we the people would do well to remember that We Are What We Were. Our revolutionary war was won – against all odds by citizen soldiers or irregulars who forced a standing British Army to surrender in the field for the first time since the tyrant Napoleon. This happened with some help from the French because the Crown and its privileged generals were fighting an idea first put forth in our Declaration of Independence, then codified in our Constitution that “We the People” would govern ourselves and elect our leaders and smoothly transfer power to successive administrations. The idea was bigger and more powerful than the British Army and Navy. It remains a bigger and better idea when used against other forces of oppression.

Now, once again, the courtiers of privilege and wealth are presiding over our fate and using hatred, false patriotism and militias of fascists to enrich themselves, expand their unearned privileges and oppress our Citizen Patriots who voted some of the haters out of office. The rest need to go too, especially all the Republicans who wanted to and continue to try to overthrow our votes and cancel our elections. Our new battles of Lexington and Concord will now take place in voter registration procedures and polling places, and our courts. This is our birthright – we will govern ourselves according to our Constitution. Continue reading

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Boeing to Pay More Than $2.5 Billion for 737 Max Fraud

The Boeing Company has a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the Department of Justice to resolve a criminal charge related to a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with the FAA AEG’s evaluation of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane. The deal was announced yesterday as the U.S. Capital was under siege by Trump supporters or treasoners who were sent there by Trump and the Republican party to overturn the election that Trump lost.

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Boeing 737 Max Plea Deal

William Barr when he headed his injustice department under Trump.

The Justice Departments reputation and adherence to the law is subject to considerable debate under the pardoner in Chief – soon to be ex-president Trump and the former Attorney General (resume laundering by resigning 23 Dec 2020) and Republican lawyer William P. Barr. He is also known here as no-holds Barr for his relentless interference in Justice Department principles and law enforcement procedures to protect Trump, aka the Man Who would be King. Boeing, debatably, profited from such interference when the Trump Administration refused to ground the 737 Max despite growing incidents and fatalities. It’s a reasonable bet that Boeing  and Barr wanted to cut its ties with Trump after he lost the presidential election last November. Continue reading

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CARB Settles AltAir Paramount Abuses of Low Carbon Fuel

This legal tangle goes back to November 2020, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and AltAir Paramount LLC reached a settlement where AltAir agreed to pay $132,500 in penalties for violations of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation. CARB adopted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard  to incentivize innovative fuels that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The LCFS requires quarterly and annual reports to be submitted completely and accurately. CARB alleged that AltAir for the 2017 Reporting Period, and sold, supplied, offered for sale, and transported fuel into the State of California, but failed to report and submitted a report containing inaccuracies, misreported, or entered false quarterly and annual report information, which led to a failure to eliminate annual deficits. These are violations of the LCFS regulation. Continue reading

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IndustriALL Global Union – Labor Will Defend US Democracy

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Trumps Coup Attempt and Labor's Defense of US Democracy

“Attempting to overthrow a democratic election through violence is fascism. The labor movement has always been and remains an implacable opponent of fascism and defender of democracy.”

IndustriALL this morning said: “On 6 January, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building and entered the Senate chamber to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. Trump’s supporters attempted to overturn the result of a democratic election, unfavorable to them, with a spectacle of violence and intimidation. This is both a predictable escalation of the violent rhetoric that has flourished under Trump, and a shocking attack on democracy.

“IndustriALL Global Union stands in solidarity with all those fighting to defend democracy in the US, and in particular with the US labor movement. Continue reading

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Volkswagen of America Q4 Sales up 11%, 2020 Sales Down 10%

Volkswagen of America’s Q4 2020 sales increased 11% to 94,330 in its best Q4 since 2014. This was largely because it had the best quarter ever for SUV sales, which increased 22%. Continue reading

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Toyota Motor North America Reports December 2020 Sales Increase 22.9%. Yearly Sales Drop -11.3%

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on 2020 Toyota Motor US Sales

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Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) posted December 2020 sales of 249,601 vehicles, an increase of 20.4% on a volume basis and up 7.5% on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis compared to December 2019. For calendar year 2020, TMNA reported sales of 2,112,941 vehicles, a decrease of 11.3% on a volume and a decrease of 11.9% on a DSR basis.

Toyota division posted December sales of 211,378 vehicles, up 22.9% on a volume basis and up 9.7% on a DSR basis.  For the year, Toyota reported sales of 1,837,900 vehicles, down 11.9% on a volume basis and down 12.4% on a DSR basis. Continue reading

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Ford Motor 2020 US Sales Plunge -16%

ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Ford Motor 2020 US Sales

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Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) today reported its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 U.S. sales results. Ford says Q4 total industry sales totaled approximately 4.3 million vehicles – a decline of 2.8 percent over a year ago. In Q4 Ford Motor sales dropped 9.8%, a disastrous result for management.

For the year Ford sales dropped -15.6%. Ford sales were hurt by lower F-150 inventories from the ongoing consequences of the Q2 coronavirus production stoppage, which resulted in an awful F-150 transition to a revised pickup. Super Duty sales maintained pace and were up 14.1% while F-150 sales were off, gulp, -32.7%, which will make for a grim Q4 2020 financial loss. At the moment Ford executives appear to be in the automotive industry equivalent of  an FBI witness protection program – no more sales results press conferences.
Continue reading

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GM 2020 US Sales – Infected by Covid –  Are Down -12%

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on 2020 GM US Vehicle Sales

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General Motors (NYSE: GM) sold 771,323 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2020. Total sales for Q4 were up 5% year over year. GM claimed its best fourth quarter retail sales since 2007, with deliveries up 12%. Sales for the calendar year were 2,547,339 units, with total deliveries down 12% year over year and retail deliveries down 6%. Retail sales for the industry began to recover in May and reached pre-pandemic levels during the fourth quarter. Sales to fleets are recovering – but remain sharply lower, especially daily rental deliveries. Average GM transaction prices set fourth-quarter and full-year records at $41,886 and $39,229, respectively.

GM estimates it gained market share in total, retail and fleet deliveries for both the fourth quarter and calendar year. GM ended 2020 with inventory of 410,875 units, including in-transit units, down 205,148 units year over year. Fourth-quarter incentive spending as a percentage of ATP was 10.7%, close to the industry average, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates. Continue reading

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GM to Convert More than 650 US Temp Employees to Full-Time

General Motors says that more than 650 hourly employees at its sites in the U.S. will transition from temporary to regular full-time employment during January 2021. These employees work at nine GM manufacturing plants and other sites in Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Missouri.

General Motors offers some of the best-paying manufacturing jobs in the United States, including top-of-the-line health care benefits with low out-of-pocket costs compared to other employers in any industry. The temporary employees transitioning to regular full-time status will see medical plan cost-share improvements, the addition of dental and vision coverage, company contributions into their 401(k) plans, profit sharing and life insurance coverage.  Continue reading

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One-Millionth Subscriber Joins Subaru Connected Services

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Subaru Starlink

Connected Services can be accessed through the vehicle, smartphone or computer.

Subaru of America says it has enrolled the one-millionth subscriber into Starlink Connected Services. Subscription-based services are part of Subaru’s In-Vehicle Technology program that with variations is increasingly offered by other automakers in hopes of generating revenue.

The  Subaru system claims to provide multimedia content, smartphone connectivity, navigation, extra safety, and everyday convenience. Looming as these systems increase are privacy and security concerns as well as the re-selling of customer data, which critics argue the customer owns. Continue reading

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VW Beetle Ensnared in Takata Airbag Recall

AutoInformed.com

A bug in the airbag propellant, so to speak.

Volkswagen Group of America is recalling 105,652 model-year 2012-2014 Volkswagen Beetle and Beetle Convertible compacts. The Takata supplied driver’s side air bag inflator may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to high absolute humidity, high temperatures, and high temperature cycling.The exploding airbag sends shrapnel into the interior, which can cause serious or fatal injuries.

VW maintains that the Takata SDI-D driver frontal airbag inflators installed in the recalled vehicles currently do not pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety to drivers of affected vehicles. “Based on its prior conversations with NHTSA, Volkswagen understands that the Agency is concerned that after additional time, the airbag inflator may not perform properly in the event of a crash,” VW said. Continue reading

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