Ford's Most Valuable Employee in Mexico Might Be a Hawk
The Hermosillo plant builds more than 300,000 pickups and SUVs a year with 4,300 workers. For years, it also hosted a growing pigeon population that got into light beams and equipment and left droppings that had to be buffed out of freshly painted vehicles. Some birds even learned to wait by the doors and fly in when they opened.
Washington Set the New Fuel Economy Bar Just Below Where the Industry Already Is
The Transportation Department finalized lower fuel economy standards Monday, dropping the 2031 fleetwide target from 50.4 mpg under the Biden-era rules to 34.9 mpg. The rule also ends credit trading among automakers in 2028.
🚗 The Fuel Economy Rules Are Final, and the Target Moved Slightly
🚙 Weaker standards give automakers more room to build pickups and SUVs, which carry bigger margins than smaller cars, though GM says it still plans to keep making EVs. All of this lands with gas at $4.49 a gallon, 43% higher than a year ago.
Three Stories That Show Why Retail Auto Has No Ceiling
Often, somewhere nobody would expect. When Amariye met the person who got him hired, he was living in his car and driving for DoorDash. As we remember it, a late-night delivery to a dealership ended with someone asking whether he'd ever thought about selling cars. By his second month, he was selling around 32.
🚗 The Fuel Economy Rules Are Getting Rewritten Today
🚙 The department's own estimates show average new-vehicle costs dropping by $930, while fuel consumption rises by about 100 billion gallons and fuel spending by $185 billion through 2050.
🚙 Toyota’s robot math, Nissan’s hybrid launch, VW’s EV orders, a stalled China ban, rising loan rates, appraisal blind spots, and one very green Range Rover.
Trump and Xi Talked for Two Days. Automotive Trade Never Came Up.
China gave the US two giant pandas this week. What it didn't give, or even discuss on the record, was anything about automotive trade. If you're wondering whether the pandas come with any data-collection tech of their own, you're not the only one asking that question this week, just about the wrong animals.🚙
Akio Toyoda Wants the Industry to Row Together. He Knows Exactly What That Means.
Rowing is a sport now. It wasn't always. For centuries it was naval warfare's most literal test: a crew living or dying based on whether they could pull together, obey the same command, and endure exhaustion without breaking formation. When Akio Toyoda stood at his Automotive Hall of Fame induction and asked, "Wouldn't it be great if we could all just row together?" we don't think he was reaching for a nice metaphor. We think he knows exactly what that image used to mean.
Diesel Isn't Just a Trucker's Problem, It's a Grocery Store Problem Too
Diesel price issues never stay in the truck. It ends up on the grocery shelf, in the price of freight, in the cost of nearly everything that moves before it reaches a customer. If this "Iran situation" drags on long enough, do we end up with a farmer's market revival, more people buying local simply because local means fewer diesel miles between the field and the table?
🚗 OEMs Losing Ground and Rising Loan Rates Make it Hard to Win Back
🚙 Meanwhile, financing is getting more expensive too. Treasury yields hit 20-year highs this week, and auto loan rates follow them closely. A jump from 6.35% to 8.35% on a $43,000 loan adds roughly $41 a month and over $2,900 in total interest.
China Already Restricts What America Is Still Debating
Sens. Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin's bill, with 51 co-sponsors split almost evenly across party lines, is the American attempt to catch up to a standard China set for itself years ago. As Bozzella put it, that kind of bipartisan agreement is rare enough on its own: "I can't think of a single other thing" that unifies Washington the way this has.
