Tesla Gets Green Light in China

When a driver gets a speeding ticket or is involved in an accident, their car insurance rates are expected to increase. However, most drivers would not expect to see their rates increase for every instance of speeding, rapid acceleration or forceful braking. But that is what the New York Times reported is happening to people who drive cars made by General Motors. 

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The Chinese EV market is a wild west of innovation. Well, maybe it's more like throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks in their own version of a lagging EV market. According to an article from Fortune, new EVs have some ambitious offerings, and this is in addition to the karaoke systems and built-in refrigerators already available.

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At the end of February, chemical company and the maker of Teflon, Chemours, made headlines when the company’s board of directors placed its CEO, CFO and controller and principal accounting officer on administrative leave. As part of the announcement, Chemours added that its audit committee would oversee an internal review of the company’s financial reporting following an anonymous report to the company’s ethics hotline.

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Airbus today unveiled the prototype of its fully electric CityAirbus NextGen, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) designed to operate in major cities. With its first flight scheduled for later this year, the two metric-ton class CityAirbus has a wing span of approximately 12 meters and will have about a 50-mile (80 km) range with a cruising speed of about 75 mph (120 km/h).

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Tosh Pork is the largest pork producer in Tennessee, and with 38,000 sows in 2022, it was the 25th largest pork producer in the U.S., according to a report from Genesus and Swineweb. Based in Henry, Tennessee, the company uses the H-2A agricultural guest worker program to employ people from foreign countries to work the farm. The company's products are typically sold to JBS USA, Kroger and Costco.

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EV startup Polestar was recently flirting with bankruptcy. The company, which started as an engineering team modifying Volvos for racing in the late 2000s, was spun out of Volvo in October 2017 as a standalone brand focusing on electric cars.

Last November, Polestar was looking at a $1.3 billion shortfall when Geely Holding and Volvo Cars stepped up to fill the gap and keep the company above water until 2025. During that time, it hoped to get the Polestar 3 and 4, crossover models with higher margins, out the door.

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Toyota Practically Giving Away its Hydrogen Vehicles

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On Tuesday, Apple cut bait on the long rumored, but never delivered electric vehicle project after about ten years of development. And Elon “production is hard’ Musk, didn't exactly dance on the grave, at least not just on the project's grave. Instead, he offered the following on X, "The natural state of a car company is dead."

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Small mistakes can sometimes have big consequences. That’s the lesson one maintenance team is likely taking away from a recent mishap that caused millions in damages to an F-35, a U.S. military fighter jet that costs about $110 million to manufacture.

According to an aircraft accident investigation report released by the U.S. Air Force, a handheld flashlight left in the engine of an F-35 caused nearly $4 million in damage and created a situation that could not be repaired locally.

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Stellantis – the automaker formerly known as Fiat Chrysler – posted record revenues and profits in 2023. At the time of the reporting, CEO Carlos Tavares said he wanted to “warmly thank” the Stellantis team for “contributing greatly to [the company’s] growth story, even in the strongest of headwinds.”

It appears the Board at Stellantis has found a way to also warmly thank Tavares himself and it takes the form of a massive pay hike.

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