Governors Join California Push for Auto Mileage Pact with Trump
Governors from more than 20 states – including some won by Donald Trump in the 2016 election – joined California officials to urge his administration to implement automobile emissions rules that are consistent nationwide and require efficiency improvements each year, reports Automotive News. In a joint statement Tuesday, 23 governors including California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, called for a “common-sense approach” to nationwide requirements that will cut tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change and avoid regulatory uncertainty sparked by a legal battle over the administration’s 2018 proposal to ease the rules. Among the state leaders who signed the pact are the governors of Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, key states that helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Read more here.
Say Goodbye to the Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen is halting production of the last version of its Beetle model this week at its plant in Puebla, Mexico. It’s the end of the road for a vehicle that has symbolized many things over a history spanning eight decades since 1938, reports USA Today. The car’s original design – a rounded silhouette with seating for four or five, nearly vertical windshield and the air-cooled engine in the rear – can be traced back to Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche, who was hired to fulfill Adolf Hitler’s project for a “people’s car” that would spread auto ownership the way the Ford Model T had in the U.S. The United States became Volkswagen’s most important foreign market, peaking at 563,522 cars in 1968, or 40% of production. Unconventional, sometimes humorous advertising from agency Doyle Dane Bernbach urged car buyers to “Think small.” Read more here.
Mexican-Made Autos Stream Across the Border at Record Rate in First Half of 2019
President Trump’s threat in early June to place tariffs on all Mexican imports had auto executives worried. The latest numbers from Mexico shows why so many in the auto industry were so concerned, reports CNBC. Mexican factories sent 1.37 million vehicles north of the border during the first half of this year — making up 16.3% of the U.S. auto market, according to Mexican auto industry trade group, the Asociacion Mexicana de la Industria Automotriz. A record 2.6 million vehicles were imported from Mexico to the U.S. in 2018, making up 15% of the U.S. auto market, according to the Mexican auto industry’s latest report released Monday. In June alone, automakers exported just under 250,000 new cars, trucks and SUVs to the U.S., an increase of 9.2% compared with the same month last year. Read more here.
Ross Perot Dies at 89
The Detroit Bureau reports that Roger B. Smith was intent on transforming General Motors but when he began hinting that he had a “lulu” of a deal in the works, few could have anticipated what was coming, least of all the GM chairman and CEO. Instead of acquiring another car company or launching a new brand – as Smith later did by creating Saturn – he wound up spending $2.55 billion to purchase the Texas-based financial services company EDS from its founder, H. Ross Perot. Perot, who later went on to make two bids for the White House, while creating another tech firm he eventually sold to computer company Dell, died Tuesday morning at the age of 89. Read more here.
BMW Reveals MINI Electric Vehicle
German automotive brand BMW revealed the first electric vehicle for its MINI brand, reports USA Today. The MINI Electric, officially known as the MINI Cooper SE, debuted Tuesday in the Netherlands. The car will be built in the United Kingdom and exported to the U.S. It's expected to arrive in 2020, with production beginning in November 2019. While the brand has the MINI Countryman Plug-In Hybrid, the MINI Cooper SE is its first model that does not use gasoline. Instead, it uses only a battery and electric motor. The car gets the equivalent of 181 horsepower with front-wheel drive, boasting what BMW described as a "go-kart feeling." It goes 0 to 62 miles per hour in 7.3 seconds with a top speed of 93.2 mph. Read more here.
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