 |
|
|
|||||
The countrys automotive future doesnt look as electric as carmakers had once hoped. But it doesnt mean the EV industry is entirely dead. On Monday, Ford Motor Co. announced that its taking major steps to pull back on its EV-focused business road map. The automaker is scrapping plans to produce a new electric truck, repurposing an EV battery plant to produce storage for the grid, and converting its fully electric F-150 Lightning into a hybrid. Its also planning to expand its gas and hybrid options. The strategy shift away from fully electric vehicles will cost the automaker $19.5 billion. Ford’s stock has been mostly flat since the news was announced, with shares trading down roughly 0.11% as of late Tuesday afternoon. The move may seem like an indictment against electric vehicles at large. It may also seem counterintuitive given that EV sales in the U.S. hit record highs this year. But experts say it illustrates the specific headwinds that EV makers have faced in the U.S. this year, and the challenges of scaling an emerging technology. Tax credits and tariffs Manufacturing vehicles in the U.S. has become increasingly expensive, due in part to higher labor costs, stricter environmental regulations, and supply-chain issues. And a more expensive manufacturing environment means more investment risk. In 2025, it became even more challenging. “A lot of things designed to mitigate that risk have been unwound, says Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emissions Transportation Association (ZETA), a coalition advocating for EV advancement. President Trump scrapped federal tax credits for EVs and enacted sweeping (and at times unpredictable) tariffs. He also rolled back fuel economy standards and generally added immense uncertainty to every investment decision in U.S. manufacturing. The cost of doing business in the U.S. has gone up significantly, Gore says. Ford’s announcement even speaks to this, noting that “regulatory changes” have affected its EV plans. Profitability concerns Ford’s situation in this landscape is unique in part because of the specific type of EV it offers. Fords flagship EV was its F-150 Lightning, a full-size pickup that came with a steep price. Though the F-150 Lightning was announced in 2021 with a price of $40,000, once production began, that cost increased. The 2025 F-150 started at around $55,000, though other versions came in even higher; the F-150 Lightning Platinum, for example, starts at around $85,000. Ford had been struggling with its EV profitability for a while; it was losing money on every EV it sold, even at the start of 2024. And though EV demand has been strongGore says that for the past 15 years, EV demand has far exceeded industry estimatesprice is an important component of that demand. In general, the U.S. auto market focuses on SUVs and trucks, which have higher average transaction prices than sedans. That impacts U.S. consumers, who have been facing increasing costs in multiple sectors, including groceries and electricity. It also makes it more challenging for U.S. companies to compete internationally. In 1960, about 52% of global automotive sales were U.S.-made vehicles. Today, its around 11%, and falling. Some of that is just because the rest of the world is growing its manufacturing, Gore notes. But some of it is the way that cars made here for this market have changed in a way that places them somewhat out of step with the rest of the world. Ford isnt totally giving up on EVs, though. The automakers changing strategy is specifically about no longer producing select larger electric vehicles where the business case has eroded due to lower-than-expected demand, high costs, and regulatory changes, the company has said. So while it has scrapped the F-150 Lightning, it still has plans to make smaller, affordable models, as well as expand its hybrid and extended-range EVs. EVs need scaleand China is dominating In order for EVs to be profitable, production needs to reach a certain scale. But these factorsvehicle type, as well as shifting trade and tax policieshinder automakers abilities to do so. And EVs are still somewhat nascent, at least compared to internal combustion vehicles. Manufacturing new power train vehicles is hard, Gore says, and particularly takes economies of scale that have been achieved over a century with internal combustion vehicles, but are just now starting to be achieved in the U.S. with electric vehicles, within the last seven years or so. About 1 out of every 4 vehicles sold around the world in 2025 will be an EV. But right now the market is dominated by China, which accounts for about 70% of global EV production. China has come to own the global EV industry in part because of its technological advancements, specifically around battery innovationand its ability to make ultra-affordable EVs. Some Chinese EVs start as low as $10,000; Ford CEO Jim Farley himself test-drove (and loved) a Xiaomi SU7, which retails for around $30,000. Chinas EV success reveals just how far behind the U.S. is when it comes to EV advancements. And though Chinas dominance isnt quite affecting the U.S. car marketformer President Biden imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs as a way to protect American auto manufacturingit is having global impacts. The European Union is abandoning a ban on combustion vehicles after automaker pressure, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, giving more time for automakers to go electric. The move comes as European carmakers face increased competition from China, as well as steep tariffs from the U.S. EV consumer sentiment is hitbut theres hope Another factor playing into the complicated EV landscape, particularly in the U.S., is the changing consumer sentiment around the technology. EV sales did hit a record high in the U.S. this year, but that was likely influenced by consumers racing to qualify for th federal tax credits before they expired at the end of September. A recent study by CDK Global found that EV interest among gas car drivers dropped 20%. When asked if they will buy an EV in the future, 31% of gas drivers said yes in 2024, compared with 11% in 2025. Interest even dropped among hybrid drivers, 54% of whom said in 2024 they would switch to an EV in the future, compared with 35% in 2025. Gore wasnt involved in that survey, but he points out that the conversation around EVs has become increasingly politicized. The rhetoric is, by its nature, extremely negative, and it’s loud, he says. That can affect EV adoption, particularly for a technology that needs to vie for mainstream appeal. Early adopters drove EVs initial surging growth, but then the industry has had to figure out how to attract everyone else who isnt as invested in being a front-runner. But Gore isnt concerned about the long-term appeal of EVs. “That’s something that has been absolutely consistent, that regardless of what anyones heard, the experience of driving an EV is overwhelmingly positive, and the same with owning one, he says. Though EV sales dipped 1% in North America this year compared with 2024, theyre still up 24% globally. Despite the challenges the EV industry faces in the U.S. and abroad, experts like Gore are positive that theres still plenty of market to reachand that continued advancement, particularly in battery technology, means electric vehicles make sense for the future. The U.S. EV industry has seen ups and downs before. And though it might be the right current move, economically, for automakers to pull back on EV plans, they risk falling behind if and when the market swings back. “For people who don’t [scratch their EV plans], I think the reward will be a much bigger market than a lot of companies,” Gore says.
Category:
E-Commerce
Automakers Hyundai and Kia must offer free repairs to millions of models under a settlement announced Tuesday by Minnesota’s attorney general, who led an effort by dozens of states that argued the vehicles weren’t equipped with proper anti-theft technology, leaving them vulnerable to theft. Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves. The settlement was reached by 35 states, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The vehicles eligible for fixes date as far back as 2011 and as recently as 2022. About 9 million eligible vehicles were sold nationwide. Thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles soared in part because beginning in 2021, videos posted to TikTok and other social media demonstrated how someone could steal a car with just a screwdriver and a USB cable. Minneapolis reported an 836% increase in Hyundai and Kia thefts from 2021 to 2022. Ellison announced an investigation into the automakers in early 2023. Ellison said the two companies installed engine immobilizers on cars sold in Mexico and Canada, but not widely in the U.S., leading to car thefts, crimes and crashes that injured and even killed people, including teenagers. This crisis that we’re talking about today started in a boardroom, traveled through the Internet and ended up in tragic results when somebody stole those cars, Ellison said at a news conference. He was joined by Twin Cities officials, a woman whose mother was killed when a stolen Kia crashed into her parents vehicle and a man whose car was stolen nine times as recently as Monday night, and including seven times after a previous software fix. Under the settlement, Hyundai and Kia will install a zinc sleeve to stop would-be thieves from cracking open a vehicle’s ignition cylinder and starting the car. Eligible customers will have one year from the date of the companies’ notice to get the repair at an authorized dealership. The repairs are expected to be available from early 2026 through early 2027. In a statement, Kia said the agreement is the latest step it has taken to help its customers and prevent thefts. Kia is eager to continue working with law enforcement officers and officials at federal, state, and local levels to combat criminal car theft, and the role social media has played in encouraging it, and we remain fully committed to upholding vehicle security, the company said. The Associated Press emailed Hyundai for comment. Jack Dura, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. stock market is drifting lower on Tuesday following mixed data on the economys strength, which did little to clear uncertainty about where interest rates may be heading. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% in afternoon trading and remains a bit below its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 1:53 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged. Treasury yields eased a bit, following a larger initial drop, after one report said the U.S. unemployment rate was at its worst level last month since 2021, but employers also added more jobs than economists expected. A separate report, meanwhile, said an underlying measure of strength for revenue at U.S. retailers grew more in October than economists expected. The mixed data initially sent Treasury yields lower in the bond market. The knee-jerk reaction seemed to be that the reports could encourage the Federal Reserve to see the slowing job market as the biggest threat to the economy, rather than high inflation, and cut interest rates further in 2026. But yields quickly recovered and then drifted up and down. What the Fed does with interest rates is a top driver for Wall Street because lower rates can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, even if they also may worsen inflation. A report coming on Thursday will show how bad inflation was last month, and economists expect it to show prices for U.S. consumers continue to rise faster than anyone would like. A report released on Tuesday after U.S. stocks began trading suggested price pressures are rising sharply, with average selling prices for businesses climbing at one of the fastest rates since the middle of 2022. The preliminary data from S&P Global also said growth for overall business activity slowed to its weakest level since June. Higher prices are again being widely blamed on tariffs, with an initial impact on manufacturing now increasingly spilling over to services to broaden the affordability problem, according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.18% late Monday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 3.48% from 3.51%. Helping to keep the overall market in check were continued swings for stocks that have been caught up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Oracle rose 2.4%, and Broadcom rose 0.1%. They both had dropped to sharp losses last week, even though both reported stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But CoreWeave, which rents out access to top-of-the-line AI chips, fell 4.9%. Questions remain about whether all the spending underway on AI technology will produce the kind of profits and productivity that will make it worth the expense. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Pfizer fell 5.2% after giving a forecast for profit in 2026 that was below what some analysts expected. Its forecast for revenue next year, of between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion, was close to analysts expectations. Kraft Heinz fell 0.1% after saying Steve Cahillane, who was most recently CEO of Kellanova, will join as CEO on Jan. 1. After Kraft Heinz splits into two companies, which is expected to happen in the second half of 2026, Cahillane will lead the one that will hold onto the Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac & Cheese brands. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Japans Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% ahead of an expected hike to interest rates by the Bank of Japan later this week. Other markets in Asia also had some of the world’s sharper swings. South Koreas Kospi dropped 2.2%, while indexes fell 1.5% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youve ever been to a museum or on a school field trip, you may have had a tour guide walk you through a historical exhibit of 19th-century households or of ancient Mesopotamian agricultural tools. Now, a current TikTok trend suggests that one day in the future, those exhibits will be the modern workstationstanding desks, Zoom meeting headsets, and all. The viral series titled “Historical tour of a corporate workers desk,” by marketing professional and content creator Heike Young, imagines what that will look like. Now in those times, it would have been really common for a corporate worker to sit at a desk, much like this one, and be on calls all day, she says in the skit, now with over 116,000 views. Behind Young, a standing desk is set up with two screens, one for work and the other for online shopping, she says. The desk is scattered with an assortment of beverages, or brown liquids, plastic food containers, and packets. Believe it or not, this worker wouldve actually been considered very lucky to have a job like this, she continues. People would submit hundreds of applications and submit themselves to many humiliation rituals just to get a job like this one. In another video, Young highlights a few common tabs workers would have had open on their screens. Yes, Amazon. Thats the same name as the extinct rainforest, thats right, she replies to a question. We got some history buffs in here. She also educates on the linguistic practices of the period, more commonly known as business jargon or work voice. There was one sound that always got the laborers moving. It was a mild form of psychological torture, she explains in yet another skit. Our museum’s immersive effects team will play it now. And there were two common variations. One was more typical among workers who used Windows technology. And the next one is often for people who used Apple Mac. The comments are filled with corporate workers who feel horrifyingly seen by the series. With every video I watch, the more Im horrified by the reality of the life I currently live, one commenter posted. Others, though, had the opposite reaction. This made me feel really hopeful in a very strange way, another wrote, finding comfort in the fact that, for better or worse, the current economic reality cannot continue forever. Much of corporate landscape right now is pretty bleak, and its easy to get frustrated with it all, Young told Fast Company. But we are living in one moment. Theres so much history before and after us. With the series, she thought to zoom out and examine the corporate experience from an entirely different point of view, much the same as we might now look back on laborers in the past and their working conditions. When viewing it from the future as a detached museum docent, what is striking? Young continues. What little, mundane details seem quaint, absurd, or even grotesque? As for what anthropologists will be uncovering about the corporate worker experience centuries from now, Young says: A bunch of Amazon returns that may never go back. Chips, gotta have chips. A fork with an empty plastic container. Three different beveragessome for their caffeine and some for the illusion of hydration. And a picture of the people youre doing this for.
Category:
E-Commerce
When the government shutdown came to an end last month, the much-delayed jobs report for September was finally released, revealing that the unemployment rate had inched up to 4.4%the highest it had been in four years. Amid a tough job market and economic uncertainty, its little surprise that unemployment is on the rise again. In the latest jobs dispatch that was published today, unemployment had ticked up to 4.6% for the month of November. But its a specific segment of the workforce that is most acutely feeling the effects of this spike in unemployment: For Black workers, the rate has stretched to 8.3%, up from 6%, in just the last six months. The rate among white workers, by comparison, has remained relatively steady, hovering just over 3%. Why Black unemployment is rising There are many reasons for this particular increase in unemployment. But experts say the dizzying pace of the Trump administrations attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion has notably contributed to the rising unemployment rate among Black workersand, more specifically, Black women, though the new jobs report for November indicates that unemployment among Black men has also increased. The DEI pullback orchestrated by the Trump administration is not solely to blame for this dip in employment, though it plays a significant role. Since assuming office, Trump has taken aim at DEI programs across the public and private sectors. Starting in January, Trump issued a flurry of executive orders that shut down DEI offices across the federal government. He also reversed a key executive action that had promoted racial equity by curtailing discriminatory employment practices among contractors that work with the federal government. In addition, Trump has sought to dissolve DEI efforts across corporate America by directing federal agencies to investigate private companiesa move that has led many employers to reevaluate their DEI policies or eliminate certain programs altogether. The job losses catalyzed by Trumps directive to cut DEI roles across the federal government have affected Black workers, who also tend to hold diversity jobs in higher numbers. Even beyond that, the federal job losseswhich are on track to reach 300,000 by the end of the yearhave hit Black workers especially hard, because they are overrepresented in that part of the workforce. Data from September 2024 indicates that almost half of federal workers are women and about 41% are people of color. An analysis by the National Womens Law Center (NWLC) earlier this year found that women and people of color were overrepresented at many of the federal agencies that saw significant reductions in their workforce. The Trump administrations cuts have also targeted probationary workersthose in their first year of service or people who have recently been promotedwho are more likely to be women. It really boils down to sort of a perfect storm of factors, says Valerie Wilson, the director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute. We have the federal layoffs and job losses. We have the retraction of DEI policies . . . and organizations, including the federal government, that have essentially eliminated DEI departments or roles that were likely held by a large number of Black women. Wilson also notes that job losses across industries have disproportionately impacted womenfrom manufacturing to professional and business services. How the DEI backlash has impacted Black workers While its difficult to quantify the full scope of how anti-DEI measures have impacted Black employment, Wilson says theres no doubt that theres a correlationand that the fallout goes beyond the elimination of DEI jobs held by Black workers. The Trump administrations approach to DEI has also reshaped the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has made unlawful DEI-related discrimination a focus of its enforcement under new chair Andrea Lucas. Wilson argues the administrations actions have a chilling effect, both on corporate DEI efforts and when it comes to how workers can seek recourse if they do face discrimination in the workplace. The fear that they might be targeted or face litigation has already driven employers to make significant changes to their DEI programs in recent years, dating back to the Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action in 2023. Tech companies like Meta and Google have dropped representation goals that were intended to diversify their ranksonce a common practice in the industrywhile major employers like Walmart and McDonalds have stopped prioritizing diverse suppliers and pulled out of the Human Rights Commissions Corporate Equality Index, an influential benchmarking survey that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ workers. Lauren Khouri, the senior director of workplace equality at the NWLC, points out that there are plenty of other programs that have been harmed by federal cuts and, in turn, impact workers of coloreven if they are not explicitly denoted as DEI initiatives. Its not just the cuts that we’ve seen in the federal workforce, she says. If you look at the repercussions of cuts in grant programs across the federal government, we’ve seen an attack on domestic violence and sexual assault service provider organizations across the country, both at the state and local level. We’ve seen an attack on Department of Labor grant programs that specifically went to lifting up women in the trades. Without that funding, those organizationswhose mission and job is to lift up women, people of color, and marginalized communitieshave had to make really hard choices to keep the lights on. The erosion of DEI programs will also play a major role in how Black workers bounce back from this surge in unemployment. I think we have yet to see the full impact, Wilson says. Its going to come into play on the other end of job losses, when we’re looking at how quickly people recoverand not just how quickly they recover, but what kinds of positions they recover into. The purpose of a lot of those programs wasn’t just to hire a more diverse set of workers for any kind of roleit was also [creating] opportunities for people to gain access to higher-level positions. What it will take to recover jobs When Black employment is lagging, it is often a sign of a broader economic downturn, according to Khouriso its not just Black workers who might be faced with job insecurity, if thats any indicator. Since Black workers are concentrated in lower-wage jos that are more vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy, they are often impacted first when a recession is on the horizon. (This was evident during the pandemic, when unemployment spiked to over 16% and Black workers experienced job losses at a record high.) The ongoing backlash to corporate DEI programs is, however, far more likely to impact Black workers seeking out jobs in industries that have historically shut out those workers. In the tech industry, DEI initiatives had slowly helped bring more underrepresented groupsnamely Black and Latino workersinto technical and leadership roles (even if that progress had been halting). The finance industry had made marginal progress on promoting Black employees into senior roles, and Black representation on boards had improved amid calls for greater diversity. A Bloomberg analysis found that in 2021, after many companies made significant investments in DEI efforts, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobsand a whopping 94% of those jobs were filled by people of color. Amid an ongoing federal hiring freeze and slowing employment, Black workers may also face an uphill battle even when it comes to finding steady employment in the federal workforcewhich, until now, had been a more reliable path to the middle class for Black Americans. The reason why we have a more diverse federal workforce is because at one point, the federal government was actually willing to sort of be a leader in establishing more equitable employment practices that were ultimately adopted in states and cities and, to some extent, the private sector, Wilson says. So when we start cutting federal jobs, we’re actually cutting jobs from a sector that hadat least since the 1960sbeen more of a leader in establishing equity. That may not be messaged or presented as explicitly anti-DEI, but it has that effect. The federal government was once a model for how equitable hiring practices could actually transform the workplace and cultivate true diversity. Now, not only has Trump culled the federal workforcebut he has also chipped away at the very DEI policies that could have offset those losses and empowered Black workers to find work in the private sector.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] next »