Global Times (February 25)
Chinese shipbuilders have “won all 17 new orders for pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) worldwide in January, as domestic enterprises break Japanese and South Korean monopoly of PCTC construction thanks to the nation’s booming car exports.” January’s new orders “totaled a combined 510,000 deadweight tons with 152,000 parking spots.”
Tags: Booming, Car, Car exports, Carriers, China, January, Japan, Monopoly, New orders, Shipbuilders, South Korea, Truck, Won
Wall Street Journal (September 12)
“Joby Aviation, which plans to begin an electric air taxi service in 2024, is worth more than Lufthansa, EasyJet or JetBlue…. Earlier this year, Tesla was worth more than the next nine car manufacturers combined, though now only the next six. Beyond Meat, made with pea protein, is worth more than the entire market for peas eaten globally…. Do fundamentals even matter?”
Tags: Beyond Meat, Car, EasyJet, Electric air taxi, Fundamentals, JetBlue, Joby Aviation, Lufthansa, Manufacturers, Market, Pea protein, Tesla
Bloomberg (July 27)
With over 300 million vehicles, China’s fleet is the world’s largest and the impact will be increasingly felt worldwide. “Secondhand car exports are starting modestly and the country will take time to catch up to more established players.” Still, it’s clear that “China will have more used cars to sell than anybody and its export business will inevitably grow into the world’s biggest.” This will place pressure on new vehicle sales as well. “Global automakers might want to strap on their seatbelts.”
Tags: Automakers, Car, China, Exports, Fleet, New, Pressure, Secondhand, Used, Vehicles, World's biggest
The Economist (January 27)
“Not so long ago, GM and its peers seemed to be on a path to extinction. Technology firms such as Alphabet, Uber and other pushy newcomers had started a race to develop software that would control driverless cars and to offer ride-hailing and ride-sharing services that are expected to thrive at the expense of car ownership.” However, there’s been a sharp reversal in market sentiment and GM has taken pole position. “A scorecard issued annually by Navigant, a consultancy, puts GM ahead of the AV pack of carmakers and tech firms, with Alphabet’s Waymo in second place.”
Tags: Alphabet, Car, Driverless cars, Extinction, GM, Market sentiment, Navigant, Ownership, Ride-sharing, Technology, Uber, Waymo
The Economist (February 28)
As the “defining technology” of the beginning of the 21st century, smartphones “matter partly because of their ubiquity. They have become the fastest-selling gadgets in history, outstripping the growth of the simple mobile phones that preceded them. They outsell personal computers four to one. Today about half the adult population owns a smartphone; by 2020, 80% will.” Smartphones also matter because of the tremendous empowerment they bring users. Today, even the most basic smartphone “has access to more number-crunching capacity than NASA had when it put men on the Moon in 1969.” In their day, the clock and the car brought revolutionary change. “Today the smartphone is poised to enrich lives, reshape entire industries and transform societies.”
Tags: 21st century, Car, Change, Clock, Gadgets, Moon, NASA, PCs, Smartphones, Technology, Ubiquity
NBC News (November 13)
“For the first time, a zippy electric car—the Tesla Model S—has won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award.” Over 64-years, Motor Trend had previously made the award exclusively to cars powered by internal combustion engines.