California is simply engrossed in car emission standards that defy the Trump administration. The whole plan seems to “just not do what Trump says” and it seems to work. That all and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, August 18, 2020.
1st gear: Scream to CARB
The Trump administration has really tried with this, but it seems that its efforts have been reduced, as Reuters reports, with a brief timeline of how this all went
The agreements with car manufacturers including Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen Group, Honda Motor Co. and BMW, were first announced in July 2019 as voluntary measures to provoke anger from President Donald Trump.
A month later, the Justice Department opened an anti-trust probe into the agreements. The government ended the investigation without action.
The Trump administration concluded in March a rollback of U.S. emissions standards to require a 1.5 percent annual increase in efficiency through 2026. That is much weaker than the annual 5 percent increase in rejected rules adopted under President Barack Obama .
The 50 pages in California agreements, which extend to 2026, are less cumbersome than the standards finalized by the Obama administration, but more stringent than the Trump administration standards. The motorists have also agreed to obligations for electric cars.
2nd Gear: GM, FCA, Toyota Side With Trump
Some weak shit: GM, Fiat-Chrysler, and Toyota are not with it. Reuters continues with the layers of the country:
Other major motorists such as General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Toyota Motor Corp. did not participate in the California Agreement.
Those companies also sat down with the Trump administration in a separate lawsuit over the question of whether the federal government can set California apart from the law to set requirements for emission vehicles.
G / O Media can get a commission
Surely it’s strange that Toyota is a leader in the sale of ‘clean’ hybrids here in America and GM is pushing hard on EVs and yet they are not giving back CARB. Liked my dumb!
3rd gear: GM is happy about zero emission cars as they tank speculation for supplies
To be honest, I have no great way of understanding what’s going on with this new story about GM stocks growing amidst speculation about their EV company. Bloomberg explains it all in a not yet online thread report:
Shares of General Motors Co. up to its highest level in almost three months after a Deutsche Bank analyst speculated that the motorist could spin his electric car unit to create more value.
The stock posted a gain of as much as 10.5% in Monday’s trading before closing 7.7% at $ 30.01 a share – the biggest one-day jump since May 18 and its highest close since June 8. That came after Deutsche Bank’s Emmanuel Rosner wrote in a report published Monday the automaker could be worth as much as $ 93 per share if GM’s electric car company spins. GM has recently been thinking about such a move, Bloomberg reported earlier this month, reiterating an idea that was first mooted two years ago. A spokeswoman declined to comment further, citing comments made by her chief executive, Mary Barra, last month.
What confuses me is this part, the real soup:
Despite Monday’s share gains, Detroit – based automaker’s share is down 18% so far this year, while the value of all-electric rivals Tesla Inc. eight times is from GM. By spinning off its EV business, GM was able to gain the kind of momentum that Tesla enjoyed and a handful of startups that have attracted capital, despite having no cars on the market.
All this to say that I have zero ideas where all this speculation comes from, but supplies and speculation are not my forte.
4th gear: Japanese government tries to make a merger of Nissan-Honda
This report of the Financial Times blow my mind:
Japanese government figures this year sought to bring Nissan and Honda together for merger talks, as a sign of growing concerns in Tokyo about the future of the country’s once powerful auto sector.
[…]
The idea to combine Nissan with Honda appears to have originated from the protectionist instincts of advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Those advisers, people familiar with the situation said, were worried that the state of Nissan’s alliance with Renault had been so bad since the arrest in 2018 of its former boss Carlos Ghosn that it could somehow collapse. , and exposed the Japanese company.
But Honda officials have backed down against the idea, pointing to Nissan’s complex main structure with Renault, said one person who was close to the talks. Nissan was opposed to the idea because the group is focusing on getting its existing alliance on track, said another person close to the company’s board. The merger idea evaporated soon before it reached the boards of both companies. Deen
That … the Japanese government opposed the idea of Renault and Nissan in one more cohesive whole in the meantime trying to combine Nissan and Honda. I mean, I know the justification for the one “bad” and the other “good”, but I still wonder.
5th gear: Geely profits “Plunge” in mid-push to join Top Tier
Geely has been getting some good press lately speak of big talk about introducing the top tier of motorists. Even though Donut Media took some time out of his schedule to hype it! Behind these news stories, however, ‘gains’ as the Financial Times puts it:
Geely Auto profits fell by 43 percent in the first half as the pandemic drove the ambitious Chinese automaker to lower its sales target for the year.
[…]
John Zeng, a Shanghai-based analyst at consulting firm LMC Automotive, notes that the 19 percent drop was still marginally above the market average, adding that the group’s outlook for the second half of 2020 was good, given new product launches .
[…]
A planned merger between Geely Auto and Volvo Cars was halted in June, while the Chinese market sought a second mention in the mainland Chinese market.
The delay could also be fueled by Volvo’s weak sales during the pandemic and the strained trade relationship between China and the US, which made it harder to export Chinese-made cars abroad, according to Mr Zeng of LMC Automotive. “It’s not the best time for Geely to merge with Volvo,” he said. Deen
I do not know why, but I still feel like rooting for Geely, only for the hope that it will sell a bunch of affordable EVs in America. I, the new Polestars look good.
Back: This happened yesterday (124 years ago), but is still true
This is an ‘on this day’ of yesterday, but since we did not mention it yesterday, I do not care to call it quits. And I do not particularly care, even though this story is more than 100 years old, it feels like it could be written today:
Neutral: What’s the next move by the Trump admin?
What do you think Trump will do next in relation to CARB? Just complained about it and doing nothing? Are CARBs actually trying to dog legally again? I’m not sure what his play will be.
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