Archives for March 2018

• UAW strike fund and assets grow as VP Norwood Jewell exits – Freep: Jewell is said to be among a handful of targets in a high-profile corruption probe that has resulted in plea deals and indictments during the past year of executives from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the UAW contract negotiators. He is not among the…
• Singapore watchdog says Uber-Grab deal may have infringed competition – Reuters: Singapore’s competition watchdog said it had reasonable grounds to suspect competition had been infringed by Uber Technologies Inc’s [UBER.UL] deal to sell its operations in Southeast Asia to rival ride-hailing firm Grab.
• GM Korea, union make no headway for breakthrough in March – Yonhap: GM has a 77 percent stake in GM Korea and SAIC Motor Corp. has a six percent stake in it. If the KDB offers financial support, GM said it will convert into equity all of the outstanding $2.7 billion debt held by the U.S. carmaker, fund its portion of a…
• Hero to zero in Silicon Valley: Chips with Everything podcast – Guardian: The story was so huge that it triggered a movement represented by the hashtag #DeleteFacebook, which garnered support from big names like WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton, SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, and even Playboy. Often we direct our anger…

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• German supreme court overturns ruling against Daimler’s Mytaxi app – Reuters: Germany’s highest court said on Thursday that taxi-hailing app Mytaxi was allowed to offer discounts because it was not subject to the same pricing rules as taxi companies, overturning a lower court ruling.
• Elon Musk Might Control Tesla – Bloomberg: But there is also a narrower question, which is: Is Elon Musk the controlling shareholder of Tesla? That is less obvious. He owns about 22 percent of the stock, which is rather less than a majority, and it’s all just normal stock, with no super-voting…
• Automakers keep wary eye on tariff impact, possible trade war – Reuters: Executives from major automakers raised concerns at the New York auto show this week about the possibility of a trade war after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month, especially at a time when U.S….
• Mercedes-AMG Project One likely to be built in Britain – Autocar: The Project One will generate around 675kg of downforce AMG boss Moers says it’s “reasonable to speculate” new hypercar could target long-standing outright Nordschleife record of 6min 11.1sec

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• Exclusive: Mideast Uber rival Careem in talks to raise new funds-sources – Reuters: Middle East ride-hailing app Careem is in early talks to raise as much as $500 million in new funds from investors, sources told Reuters.
• US March auto sales seen up 0.4 percent: JD Power and LMC – Reuters: U.S. new vehicle sales fell 2 percent in 2017 to 17.23 million units after hitting a record high in 2016. Sales are expected to drop further in 2018 as interest rates rise and more late-model used cars return to dealer lots to compete with new ones….
• U.S. March auto sales seen up 0.4 percent – J.D. Power and LMC – Reuters: U.S. auto sales in March likely rose 0.4 percent from the same month in 2017, breaking a three-month streak of falling sales due to an extra selling weekend versus the previous year, industry consultants J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said on Wednesday.
• A Terrible Tuesday for Tesla’s Stock, But Watch the Bonds – Bloomberg: Late on Tuesday, Moody’s downgraded those Tesla bonds to Caa1 (the company rating went down a notch to B3). Moody’s could hardly do otherwise, given the single-B rating had been predicated on Tesla producing 300,000 Model 3s this year at a 25 percent…

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• Aluminum wrestles with steel over electric vehicle market – Reuters: When electric carmaker Tesla Inc. launched its first mass market model last summer, it sent a shockwave through the aluminum … Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles are due to surge to 30 percent of the global auto market by 2030, according to metal…
• PSA expands engine exports from China to Europe – Automotive News: At the beginning of the year, the plant received two unexpected orders for more than 4,000 engines from PSA in Europe, said Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile, a 50-50 joint venture between PSA and Dongfeng. To fill the orders, the JV started shipping…
• Vehicle pollution still rising in Germany – agency – Reuters: Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2017, largely thanks to the closure of coal-fired power plants, but car-makers and factories still need to do more to cut pollution, government officials said on Tuesday.
• Hyundai union calls revised trade deal with US ‘humiliating’ – Automotive News: Hyundai Motor Co.’s South Korean labor union on Tuesday called the nation’s revised free trade deal with the United States “humiliating,” and said the extended tariffs on pickups mean a missed opportunity to tap into the U.S. market. The United States…

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• Fly Charts: Tesla’s Cash Crunch and China’s Trade War Strategy – Bloomberg: Fly Charts: Tesla’s Cash Crunch and China’s Trade War Strategy. From Glaxo reticence to … Tesla has a big round of refinancing coming up as interest rates look set to rise. And that’s just one … by year of maturity. Tesla has a further $2.1 billion…
• Regulators Are Asleep at the Wheel on Self-Driving Cars – Bloomberg: The companies and officials influencing the development of self-driving technology offered a wide variety of reactions to the death last week of a pedestrian struck by an Uber autonomous vehicle. Uber Technologies Inc. suspended the testing of its…
• Hyundai union head fears GM-like crisis; says electric cars destroy jobs – Reuters: Hyundai Motor’s union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors’ South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide, adding that electric cars were ‘evil’ and will destroy jobs.
• SoftBank mulls $1 billion investment in Chinese truck-hailing firm: WSJ – Reuters: Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is looking to invest $1 billion in Chinese truck-hailing company Manbang Group, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

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• Cars.com to add Starboard’s nominee to board – Reuters: Online automotive marketplace Cars.com Inc on Friday decided to add activist investor Starboard Value LP nominee Michael Kelly to its board.
• Brabham Automotive BT62: first video of track-focused V8 hypercar – Autocar: New British model could signal motorsport interests for the future; footage suggests it uses a race-spec V8
• BMW, VW and Renault warn on new EU emissions testing regime – Automotive News: BMW has said it will temporarily stop production of some models starting in May because of modifications that have to be done so their vehicles comply with RDE (real-driving emissions) exhaust gas measurement processes. Last week, Volkswagen Group…
• Nissan sees electric car sales surging to 1 million annually by 2022 – Reuters: Such vehicles use gasoline to power the car’s motor, requiring a much smaller battery than EVs and therefore are less expensive to produce. The heart of our strategy in terms of electrification is battery EVs and e-Power technology, Nissan Chief…

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