Tagged: auto industry

There's a lot of excitement around electric vehicles. But so far sales have not been great.

Michigan Radio’s auto beat reporter Tracy Samilton decided to get some firsthand experience driving two electric vehicles - the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt.

JW: So while we are calling them electric cars there are some fundamental differences in how they work.

TS: The Leaf is a pure electric vehicle it only runs on the battery and when it runs dry you have to recharge the battery to get more out of the car. And the Volt has a battery, and you run on that as an electric car for about 35 miles, and then after that it has a generator that runs on gasoline that provides more electricity so the car can keep running. So Chevy calls it an electric car with extended range.

JW: And after spending that week with the Leaf and the Volt, what did you think?

TS: Well, they’re two totally different cars and I had two totally different experiences as you can imagine. When I got the Volt, that week that they gave it to me I actually have a vacation arranged in Pennsylvania. Well because it has the extended range I could actually take the volt to the camp sight, some 400 and some miles away. And I plugged it into my cabin, which had electricity. You know most of this was done on the gasoline but I was able to get it recharged in my cabin.

When it comes to the Leaf, it’s a different kind of vehicle, I could not have done that.

The Beijing auto show runs this week in what is now the world's largest car market, and a crucial one for Detroit companies.

General Motors just announced it will open 600 more dealerships in China, where it sells more cars than it does in the U.S. Last week, Ford announced construction of its fourth Chinese assembly plant.

For longtime American auto executives in China, witnessing the shift in the global auto industry is dramatic.

Every month, a group of auto executives gathers at a bar in the heart of Shanghai. They drink beer, swap industry info and talk about the wild ride that is China's car.

"Shanghai is the new Detroit," says Dan Collins of Port Huron, Mich. "They make a lot more cars here than in Detroit."

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. says its credit rating has been restored to investment grade by the Fitch Ratings agency.

The automaker's debt has been at junk status since 2005. The company had to mortgage its factories and other assets to borrow billions in order to stay out of bankruptcy.

Ford issued this statement:   

“We are very pleased with today’s decision by Fitch. It is an important proof point of the continued progress the Ford team is making with our One Ford plan. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on driving profitable growth for all of our stakeholders. In fact, our One Ford plan includes achieving strong investment grade ratings and maintaining investment grade throughout an economic cycle."

Company spokesman Jay Cooney says Ford's assets will be released as collateral once a second ratings agency boosts the company's credit rating.

 Lansing area business and civic leaders say they are going to work together to market hundreds of acres of vacant industrial land.

The capital city region has more than 400 acres of land left vacant by cuts in the auto industry.

Bob Trezise is the president of the Lansing Area Economic Partnership.  He says in the past the different local governments tried to develop the old industrial land separately..

"That doesn’t mean that anyone was doing anything wrong.   Or even being necessarily critical," Trezise says, "But the fact is we were not working and efficiently together.”  

Trezise believes the growing auto industry may be interested in expanding manufacturing in the region.

Michigan’s republican  primary was last week, but that doesn’t mean presidential candidates are done courting voters.

A U.S. Green Party presidential hopeful, Jill Stein met with supporters in Michigan to tout her party’s platform.

Stein talked with a small group yesterday at a Amer's deli in Ann Arbor about what she calls her “Green New Deal.”

She says the Deal focuses on living wages and green technology.

She says in the long-term her plan will strengthen both Michigan’s auto industry and its workers:  

"Part of the Green New Deal also ensures that the overall conditions of workers are good; that they have the right to unionize, to advocate for safe working conditions and benefits."

Usually, journalists are sent press releases before political events, because the organizers want reporters to cover them. Monday, I got one about an event that was already over.

That would normally strike me as a trifle unusual, until I saw that it was from the Green Party of Michigan. They had a meeting last weekend in Bay City which they said was “charged with enthusiasm.“

What did they talk about? Well, among other things, quote “the unrest palpable among the lower echelons of society.” and the “once-dismissed voters who opted to eschew either,” major party nominee.

I instantly imagined a Monty Python routine with a politician saying, “My word, the unrest is palpable in the lower echelons.”