• 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.

• Air

Electric Cars Racing Ahead

• electric vehicles
• Ford
• Formula One Racing
• Mustang

This week, in the good news category, electric cars just got a lot sexier — Ford unveiled its Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric SUV at a starting price of less than $50,000, and Ford’s CEO expects it will be profitable from the starting line, as well as zero-emission.   And for auto racing fans, CNN reported that […]

• Air

The Trump Administration Investigates California Clean Car Agreement

• BMW
• California
• Clean Car Rule
• Ford
• Honda
• volkswagen

The Trump administration opened an anti-trust investigation over an agreement the state of California reached with automakers about producing cars that adhere to tougher emissions standards than the federal government now requires.  According to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, “Justice Department lawyers are seeking to determine whether Ford Motor, Honda, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG broke federal competition law by agreeing with California […]

• Air

Ford and VW Team Up To Develop Electric and Self-Driving Cars

• autonomous vehicles
• cars
• electric vehicles
• Ford
• General Motors
• volkswagen

Ford Motors and Volkswagen announced Friday that they will partner to jointly develop electric and self-driving cars — in a union that plays to the strength of each company, Ford having an advantage on self-driving cars and Volkswagon on electric cars.  Volkswagen, since its settlement for fraud violations concerning pollution control systems on their diesel-fueled cars, has been working to bring to market next year a fully electric model called the ID.3, that it will sell for $34,000, making it affordable for middle-income buyers.  As a result, Ford will introduce a vehicle in Europe made from VW components in 2023, and plans to sell 600,000 electric cars over six years.

• Politics

Ford and GM to Add Jobs In MI to Build EVs

• cars
• Clean Car Rule
• electric vehicles
• EVs
• Ford
• General Motors
• jobs
• tax credit

Last week, both Ford and General Motors (GM), the largest American car manufacturers, announced plans to add jobs in Michigan to build electric vehicles, as both companies plan to substantially expand their lineup of electric vehicles to meet expected growing demand in the U.S. and in an effort to chip away at Tesla’s market share of EVs. 

• Sustainability

EVs for Show at the Auto Show in Detroit

• Audi
• auto show
• Cadillac
• cars
• Detroit
• electric
• EVs
• Exxon
• Ford
• gas
• GM
• hybrid
• Nissan
• Toyota

The major U.S. and foreign auto companies are racing to catch up to Tesla in the EV market, and are using this year’s auto show in Detroit to make the PR point, but there are few vehicles ready for market yet.   According to the AP, one of the reasons is that SUVs and trucks make up 72% of the new vehicles sold in the U.S. last month, compared to 49% in December 2012.  Thus, these new EVs will need to be SUVs, according to Axios.  But only two of the vehicles scheduled to be “rolled out” at the Detroit auto show are electrified, AP notes, and neither is available for sale yet.