Author Archive
But some nameplates will yet return from the dead.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.17, 2018
Death is not permanent, at least in the auto industry. Some old nameplates will return in 2019, like Ford's Ranger.
We’ll be seeing a host of new models make their debut during the 2019 model-year, including Ford’s newly reborn Ranger pickup, the brand-new Subaru Ascent SUV and complete makeovers of the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500.
But there are also plenty of familiar products that will be waving bye-bye as the 2018 model-year wraps up or at some point during the 2019 season. The obituary list is rather extensive this year and, you likely won’t be surprised to learn, it’s primarily filled with sedans, coupes and sports cars, something that reflects the ongoing shift from passenger cars to light trucks.
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That said, some of the products that might be gone or going soon could stage a comeback in the future if market trends again shift. The Ranger is a good example. Ford killed it off in 2011, anticipating the demise of the midsize pickup segment. New arrivals, like the also-reborn Chevrolet Colorado, proved there was life left in the segment. Ford is also getting set to bring back the long-absent Bronco.
Here’s a look at the U.S. models about to drive off into the sunset:
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Tags: auto news, autos dropped in 2019, car news, cars dropped for 2019, models going away in 2019, old models going away, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Alfa Romeo, Automobiles, Buick, Business, Cadillac, Chevrolet, FCA, Ford, GM, Lincoln, Markets, Mercedes, NAFTA, Nissan, Sales, Sales, Toyota, Trends, U.S./North America, Volkswagen | No Comments »
But no plans to give up post as CEO.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.17, 2018
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that he feels like this has been the toughest year of his life.
Forget the amusement park. Anyone who wants to ride a roller-coaster might be better off purchasing Tesla stock. But no one has faced more ups-and-downs during the last year than the automaker’s co-founder and CEO Elon Musk.
Even as Tesla appears to be resolving its production problems and seems poised to deliver a long-promised profit, the automaker and its CEO are facing a probe by the SEC, lawsuits filed by several short-sellers, additional investigations by the NLRB, NHTSA and the NTSB, and allegations of safety and quality problems by several self-styled whistleblowers.
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No wonder, “This past year has been the most difficult and painful year of my career,” Musk said in an interview newly published by the New York Times. “It was excruciating.” (more…)
Tags: Musk news, Musk's toughest year, SEC investigates Tesla, Tesla 2018, Tesla production hell, Tesla short sellers, Tesla's Elon Musk, TheDetroitBureau.com., auto news, paul a. eisenstein, tesla news, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Advocacy Groups, Automakers, Automobiles, Autonomous Driving, Driverless Vehicles, Electrified Vehicles, Executives, Funding, Markets, Monthly Results, NHTSA Investigations, Personalities, Safety, Sales, Technology, Tesla, Traffic Fatalities, U.S./North America | 1 Comment »
Whistleblower reveals defects; SEC probing Musk tweets and a key analyst raises earnings forecast.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.16, 2018
Former Tesla employee Martin Tripp tweeted images of what he claimed were faulty Tesla batteries.
Regulators, whistleblowers, analysts and investors? Oh, and did we leave out factories finally emerging from “production hell?” It’s been a busy 24 hours for Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, with a heavy mix of both good news and bad news.
Here’s a summary of key developments including claims for a quality cover-up, an SEC probe and the possibility that Tesla could wind up being more profitable this year than even its most bullish proponents had expected:
Whistleblower claims Tesla covered up battery problems, delivered defective cars to customers.
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Tesla’s battle with Martin Tripp – a self-styled whistleblower whom the carmaker prefers to call a saboteur – is heating up. The former employee at the Gigafactory battery plant has tweeted out images of what he claims are defective lithium-ion battery packs that were nonetheless installed in sedans to help Tesla speed up production of the Model 3. Tripp also posted of vehicle identification numbers that he claims are equipped with the batteries which, among other things, may have punctures.
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Tags: Tesla problem, Tesla production hell, Tesla spying on competition, Tesla twitter, Tesla whistleblowers, TheDetroitBureau.com., auto news, elon musk, paul a. eisenstein, tesla news, tesla sec investigation, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Business, EVs, Executives, Investors, Luxury Vehicles, Personalities, Tesla | No Comments »
Japanese luxury maker offers a more revealing tease of Prototype 10.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.16, 2018
The Infiniti Prototype 10 is meant to give the classic roadster a battery-powered kick.
Infiniti is doing a slow fan dance as it begins to reveal the “daring electrified speedster” it will formally unveil at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance later this month.
It’s the latest in a series of extreme concepts and more conventional production models that the Japanese luxury brand has brought to the annual Pebble Beach event and the new Prototype 10 is meant to highlight Infiniti’s planned shift to electrifying future products.
Electrifying!
“It is appropriate that we found inspiration in an optimistic bygone era in which cars were characterized by the simple love of driving,” says Karim Habib, Infiniti’s Executive Design Director. But while Prototype 10 may be meant to celebrate what Habib calls “some of the most evocative car designs of all time, where power was celebrated through high – powered single – seat competition cars,” it is anything but a retro-mobile. (more…)
Tags: Infiniti Concours d'Elegance, Infiniti EV prototype, Infiniti prototype 10, TheDetroitBureau.com., auto news, ev news, infiniti news, infiniti pebble beach, infiniti show car, paul a. eisenstein, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Concept Cars, EVs, Electrified Vehicles, Infiniti, Luxury Vehicles, Pebble Beach Concours, Sales, Technology, Trends | No Comments »
Debut echoes Waymo/Walmart partnership.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.16, 2018
The Kroger project won't completely solve the "last mile" challenge. Customers still will have to go out and grab their bags from the delivery vehicle.
While it may take some time before you can hail a driverless ride-sharing vehicle, you may soon be able to have your groceries delivered autonomously – at least if you live in certain parts of greater Phoenix.
Kroger has teamed up with Nuro, a self-driving tech firm to launch a trial grocery delivery program in one part of the Southwest community, and could roll it out to other parts of the country if it proves successful. The move comes shortly after rival Walmart announced a similar pilot program pairing it with Google’s autonomous vehicle spin-off Waymo.
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“Kroger wants to bring more customers the convenience of affordable grocery delivery,” Kroger Chief Digital Officer Yael Cosset said in a statement.
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Tags: auto news, car news, driverless truck, kroger delivery, kroger driverless delivery, kroger nuro, nuro delivery, nuro kroger, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, thedetroitbureau, uber driverless, walmart waymart
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Autonomous Driving, Business, Concept Cars, Driverless Vehicles, First Look, Ride-Sharing, Safety, Sales, Semi-autonomous Driving, Technology, Uber, waymo | No Comments »
Concerns rise as more states legalize marijuana, and as opioid epidemic worsens.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.15, 2018
NHTSA's new ad campaign will run through Labor Day, usually one of the most deadly weekends to drive.
“Drive High, Get a DUI.”
That’s the theme of a new ad campaign being launched today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that reflects growing concern about the potential risks raised by the expanding legalization of marijuana and the rise in opioid addition.
As TheDetroitBureau.com previously reportedly, tests indicate 44% of the drivers killed in U.S. car crashes in 2016 had the residue of drugs in their system – up from 28% a decade ago. Some data point to a rising death toll related to the growing, legal availability of marijuana, though not all research backs that up. Opioid use is also catching some of the blame.
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Whatever drug one uses, “If you feel different, you drive different,” Heidi King the deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said during an event in Nashville. “That’s the message we have for anyone using alcohol, marijuana or other drugs, whether obtained legally or illegally.”
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Tags: "Drive High, Get a DUI", TheDetroitBureau.com., auto news, driver safety, driving while impaired, impaird driving prevention, impaired driving laws, paul a. eisenstein, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Advocacy Groups, Advocates, Automobiles, Markets, Personalities, Politicians, Safety, U.S./North America | No Comments »
Reducing fuel economy standards will increase, not cut, highway deaths, according to EPA data.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.15, 2018
The Trump Administration claimed that cutting the mileage standards would save lives, but internal EPA e-mails show the opposite to be true.
When the White House announced plans to rollback Obama-era fuel economy standards earlier this month, administration officials claimed the move would lead to a reduction in U.S. roadway fatalities. But senior staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency actually warned that quite the opposite was likely, and that the regulatory changes would increase highway deaths.
Internal e-mails sent by EPA officials to the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, raise new questions about the plans to freeze the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards at 2020 levels, well short of the 54.5 mpg target that was to be phased in through 2025. And the messages appear to give new ammunition to those attempting to block the rollback in court.
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The “proposed standards are detrimental to safety, rather than beneficial,” William Charmley, the director of the EPA’s assessments and standards division wrote to the OMB on June 18, the interagency e-mail indicating highway fatalities could be expected to increase by 17 annually.
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Tags: Trump CAFE, auto news, cafe rollback, car news, epa cafe, epa mileage rollback, fuel economy rollback, fuel price, gas price, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, pruit, pruitt corruption, scott wheeler, trump fuel economy, trump pollution
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Business, Electrified Vehicles, Environment, Fuel Economy, Markets, Personalities, Politicians, Sales, Technology, Trends, U.S./North America | 4 Comments »
Carmaker hires Goldman, Silver Lake to advise.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.14, 2018
Whether Elon Musk could justify tweeing "funding secured" is a matter of hot debate.
Even as questions mount about CEO Elon Musk’s plan to take the automaker private, the car company’s board is beginning the necessary steps to evaluate a proposal, with investment firms Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs brought in to offer advice on what appears to be a Saudi-funded buy-out.
Those developments come just a week after CEO Musk tweeted his interest in taking Tesla private while also hinting that “funding (is) secured.” Precisely where the funding will come from has become a central question, though Musk on Monday put up a blog post indicating he has been meeting with managers of the Saudi Arabian sovereign investment fund who have expressed interest in backing the plan.
Tesla News!
Tesla, meanwhile, now faces a probe by the SEC, as well as at least two lawsuits filed last week questioning whether the South African-born executive’s proposal was, in reality, a “nuclear attack” on by short-sellers.
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Tags: auto news, car news, musk sec, musk tesla buyout, musk tesla private, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, tesla board, tesla goldman sachs, tesla news, tesla private, tesla sec, tesla stock, tesla stock price, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Business, EVs, Earnings, Electrified Vehicles, Executives, Financials, GM, Investors, Markets, Personalities, Sales, Sales, Technology, Tesla, Trends | No Comments »
Base model to start at $4,000 over Chevrolet Colorado.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.14, 2018
Ford will offer a wide range of Ranger body styles, beds and powertrain configurations.
After a lengthy absence, the Ford Ranger is about ready to return to the U.S. market and shoppers now can price and build their own version of the midsize pickup at a special micro-site the Detroit automaker has launched.
Set to reach showrooms early next year, Ford will be offering a wide array of body styles, bed and powertrain options, ranging from the base, 4×2 SuperCab XL with a six-foot box, up to the more lavishly equipped 4×4 SuperCrew Lariat with a five-foot cargo box.
Product News!
But the heavily updated version of the global Ranger launched earlier in the decade won’t come cheap. The 2019 pickup will carry a starting price of $24,300 plus $1,095 in delivery fees. That’s about $4,000 more than its cross-town competition, the base, extended cab version of the 2019 Chevrolet Colorado starting at $20,500. And for truck buyers on a tight budget, the aging Nissan Frontier starts at just $18,900.
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Tags: 2019 ford ranger, 2019 ford ranger pic, 2019 ford ranger price, 2019 ford ranger review, auto news, car news, ford f-150, ford news, ford pickup, midsize pickup, midsize pickup price, paul a. eisenstein, paul eisenstein, small pickup, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Auto Shows, Automakers, Automobiles, Business, Chevrolet, Detroit, FCA, Ford, GM, GMC, Honda, Markets, Monthly Results, Nissan, Pickups, Sales, Sales, Toyota, Trends, U.S./North America | No Comments »
Facing lawsuits, SEC probe, CEO Musk offers more details on privatization plan.
by Paul A. Eisenstein on Aug.13, 2018
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a few details about the plan to take the EV maker private he teased last week.
In a Monday morning blog post, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offered some critical new details about the plan, first announced last week, to take the battery-carmaker private, pointing to a Saudi sovereign investment fund as the potential source of funding — though he also cautioned it would be “premature” to offer full details at this point.
Last Tuesday, the 47-year-old chief executive set off alarm bells when he posted a tweet declaring his interest in taking Tesla private at a price of $420 per share. The news sent investors scurrying to snap up Tesla stock which quickly approached an all-time high before settling back two days later.
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With virtually no details offered, Musk and Tesla quickly came under scrutiny from analysts, investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission which has begun to probe his comments to see if they violate federal securities law. Tesla now faces two lawsuits, as well, alleging the Tuesday announcement was really a “nuclear attack” on short-sellers. (more…)
Tags: Elon Musk news, Musk and the Saudis, Musk blog says Saudis funding, Saudis and Tesla, Saudis funding source for Tesla, TheDetroitBureau.com., auto news, paul a. eisenstein, tesla news, thedetroitbureau
Posted in Automakers, Automobiles, Business, Executives, Investors, Personalities, Tesla | 1 Comment »
