• Air

Ford Urges Unity, While GM Gets Stung By The Bee

• Clean Car Rule
• EVs
• Ford
• GM
• rollback

Ford Motors is urging the other major car companies that had backed President Trump’s looser tailpipe standards to instead embrace the clean air standards set by California, according to The Detroit News.  President Trump’s policy split the automakers into two camps — but the Biden administration is expected to tighten emissions standards again.

Why This Matters:  Some may forgive GM for its wrong turn following the Trump administration, but others won’t forget. 

• Air

Ford Adding EV Jobs in Michigan and Missouri – Wants to Be “The Change”

• EV
• Ford
• Ford Motor Company
• Michigan
• Transit van
• union jobs

Ford Motor Company announced last week that it is adding hundreds of union jobs in the midwestern states of Michigan and Missouri coupled with investments of hundreds of millions in several existing plants.

Why This Matters: The company appears ready for a new Biden administration — it even ran an ad during Sunday NFL games called “The Change” to publicize its commitment to lowering its carbon footprint. 

• Climate Change

Ford, GM Knew About Climate Change for 60 Years

• EVs
• Ford
• GM

A 5-month investigation from E&E News revealed that scientists at General Motors and Ford Motor Co. knew as early as the 1960s that car emissions caused climate change. As E&E reported, Researchers at both automakers found strong evidence in the 1960s and ’70s that human activity was warming the Earth. A primary culprit was the […]

• Energy

EVs Continue to Take Off, Possible Biden Victory Would Boost Industry

• #30x30
• Detroit
• electric vehicles
• Ford
• GM
• Hummer
• Rare Earth Minerals
• SUV

General Motors (GM) is pushing ahead aggressively with the development of electric vehicles, with its Detroit factory – recently renamed “Factory Zero” — being retooled to begin to build its Hummer EV electric truck late next year.

Why This Matters:  The investments in electric vehicles are clearly market-driven, but it cannot hurt to have Presidential frontrunner Joe Biden on the campaign trail talking about using the federal purchasing power to transition the federal fleet to electric vehicles.

• Sustainability

Ford Takes Comprehensive Approach To Sustainability, Will Be Carbon Neutral by 2050

• #cleancars
• carbon neutral
• climate change
• conservation
• electric vehicles
• environment
• EVs
• Ford
• recycling
• sustainability

In its annual Sustainability Report, Ford Motors made several key pledges in addition to the promise to be carbon neutral as a company by 2050.  In addition, they will use 100 percent locally sourced renewable energy for all manufacturing plants globally by 2035, aspire to achieve zero air emissions from our facilities, only use recycled and renewable plastics in our vehicles globally and eliminate single-use plastics from our operations by 2030, and achieve true zero waste to landfill across our operations, among other social responsibility commitments.

Why This Matters:  Other car companies have focused on products — Daimler Chrysler, VW, and Tesla come to mind.

• Air

Tesla and other US Car Companies Suspend EV Plants — GM Will Make Ventilators and Masks

• Defense Production Act
• Ford
• General Motors
• masks
• Tesla
• ventilators

The President late on Friday finally used his Defense Production Act authority to order General Motors to begin to make ventilators, and the CEO Elon Musk of Tesla said the company’s New York electric vehicle factory will reopen in order to make ventilators and will also purchase and donate devices to the New York hospitals.

Why This Matters:  EV manufacturing shutdowns particularly impact the next wave of EVs that were about to start to roll off the assembly line – such as Volkswagen’s ID.3 and Tesla’s Model Y.