Is Chevron Holding back Hybrid Vehicle production?

Toyota has recently announced that a hybrid version of the popular Highlander SUV will soon be sold. Industry scuttlebutt is that Toyota has about 100,000 pre-orders, a figure that dwarf's the capacity to produce the vehicle. Toyota has also announced that a hybrid Lexus luxury car, the GS 450h will be available next year. Production of hybrids by all manufacturers is said to be constrained by a lack of batteries.

The website www.soultek.com is dedicated to hybrid vehicles. According to Soultek, Chevron & Ovonics control patents on the NiMH technology necessary to create batteries for hybrid cars. Soultek raises the possibility that Chevron is deliberately creating a supply shortage to keep demand for oil (and profits) high.

I don't know that I buy into this argument. Chevron acting independently can reap near monopolistic profits on the battery technology used in the hybrids. By withholding battery production, Chevron is only getting a increased oil profits in proportion to its market share.

Hybrid vehicle article: Could Chevron end hybrid vehicle hold up?

Indianapolis Rolls Royce UAW Local 933 to drop UAW-LSP coverage for new hires.

Although the information hasn't been publicly released, a little birdy told me that in the recently concluded contract negotiations between UAW Local 933 and Rolls Royce, UAW-LSP coverage will be dropped for new hires.


Rolls-Royce, UAW agree to contract

Hyundai to equip all vehicles with XM radio by 2007

Don't rush out & buy XM stock though, both it and Sirius are way over valued.

Hyundai Motor America is the First Automaker to Add Standard XM Satellite Radio to Its Full Vehicle Lineup

The Googleteer takes on Ben Affleck

In a news item today, Ben Affleck announced that he was going to make his directorial debut. The Seer of Association himself, The Googleteer(tm), used his incredulity ray to defend against the forces of low expectations, and defeated the handsome one with this search

Ben Affleck "movie Sucks"

about 2500 hits (and that's just the hits in English)

Just for the hell of it, He then modified the search

Ben Affleck "movie Sucks" -gigli [so pages referring to Gigli would be excluded]
595 hits




Google Search: Ben affleck "movie sucks"

GM Kills Zetas - Lays off more WC staff

Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.

When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:

It was Lutz who first championed the new rear-wheel drive platform. The renowned car expert announced the Zeta program in 2003 as the industry was turning its attention toward rear-wheel drive vehicles.

But he pulled the plug on the North America models after determining the vehicles could not be engineered and assembled to sell at prices competitive with the popular Chrysler 300C, Ford Mustang and other models, without sacrificing quality and content.

If you can't compete with Chrysler & Ford, how in the heck are you going to compete with Toyota & Hyundai?

USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff

GM Kills Zetas - Lays off more WC staff

Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.

When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:



USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff

An Auto Bubble?

Pop! Goes the Auto Bubble

Lyndon LaRouche - Who is he really?

Right after I published that last post, I thought, what do I really know about this "Executive Intelligence Review" publication. The answer, of course, was "nothing". So I looked it up. It is edited by perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. I didn't know anything about LaRouche other than he's been running for President for as long as I've been able to vote. I also heard vague allegations that he was a communist. Below is a link to the wikipedia article on him. Apparently he used to be a communist. Since 1980, he's been a Democrat.

Lyndon LaRouche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GM reports losses. Stock tanks. Sales Slumping. Junk bond rating - imminent: Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

If you don't like to see General Motors get hammered, for God's sake, don't read or watch the news. At the beginning of this year, despite facing lots of adversity, General Motors stock was trading fairly steadily around $40.00 per share. With the announcement of a quarterly loss a couple days ago, GM stock went in the toilet. As I write this it is trading in the $28-29 range, more than a 25% drop from the beginning of the year. Big company stocks in mature industries just don't drop like that do they? I guess they do.

Google Financial Information: GM

One of my readers who shall remain named K___ W. Sent me a link to an analysis by Executive Intelligence Review at

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3211gmac.html


Boy, what a downer article - probably accurate to a fault, but a downer. Here's the part that was most striking to me:



"GM Decline to Junk Shows Waning Confidence in Automaker," headlined a long, March 8 Bloomberg News analysis of the fallout from February's sharp drop in U.S. auto sales. During 2004, General Motors tried to pump up its sales with circus-level rebates for auto buyers of more than $5,000 per vehicle (the entire U.S. auto sector gave an average $2,700 rebate on every vehicle in 2004, but GM's doubled those of the other makers). When, at the beginning of 2005, it tried to reduce the rebates somewhat, while oil, gasoline, steel, and industrial commodity prices were zooming up and total auto sales were falling, GM hit a wall; its January sales were 9% below a year earlier, and February's were 13% down despite its having suddenly lowered prices in mid-February. Its bonds' credit rating is now just one notch above junk, with a "negative outlook" from Fitch rating agency pointing the way to junk-bond status within weeks or months.

It's hard enough when GM pays twice as much in employee health costs as even the captive domestics, Pays a lot more in retiree and "legacy costs", has older factories,etc., but when the Finance arm has to pay junk bond rates, it's going to be the straw that broke the camel's back. GMAC is what has kept General Motors going over the last few years. After 9-11, the General's decision to ramp up rebates to spark sales, not only probably saved the company, it may have saved us from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. GM would have a hard time doing the same thing today.

My solution?

If I were the chairman of General Motors, I would call a stakeholder's conference. I would invite local, national and international government officials, representatives from unions from all affected contries, investors, suppliers & their unions, dealers, retirees, and randomly selected customers. Over a week, run through all the what-if scenarios, with computer simulations available to play out the results, and see if we could get a consensus on policies that give everybody a better future than is now in the cards. Right now, as things are going, I can't imagine a scenario that doesn't put General Motors in bankruptcy in 5-10 years, maybe sooner. That would be bad for me personally, but it would be worse for a lot of other folks.

Whiners of the Week: Roy Disney & Stanley Gold

I generally support Roy Disney's and Stanley Gold's efforts to boot Michael Eisner out of the Disney company, and to generally shake up the management and governance in general. HOWEVER, with the recent announcement that Bob Iger, Eisner's hand-picked successor, will succeed Eisner next year, Disney and Gold have resorted to whining rather than acting constructively. Below is the Disney & Gold press release from www.savedisney.com.

SaveDisney - Roy Disney and Stanley Gold on Disney Earnings - Do the Math: Growth is Over for 2004

Not long ago at all, Disney and Gold had the opportunity to field a slate of directors to challenge the entrenched Disney lot. They declined to do so, basically stating that they trusted board Chairman George Mitchell to undergo a search for a new CEO in good faith. BUT WHY TRUST MITCHELL WITH ANYTHING? Gold and Disney knew that Mitchell & Eisner were the Bobsey Twins from the beginning. That's why they resigned from the Disney Board, supposedly. They didn't see any change happening internally. So, three years later, when they have the mechanism to lead an outside revolt they sit on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. To me that's not an exercise in discretion, that's just being chickenshit.

New Mercedes M-Class SUV previewed

Thecarconnection.com article linked below previews the New Mercedes M-Class midsized SUV. This vehicle is the first major redesign of the Mercedes SUV that debuted with Jurassic Park in 1997.

Since I hate porky vehicles, I give credit to Mercedes for dropping 350 lbs. in the redesigned model. Yet, at the same time, the new model is longer and wider, so it should be safer as well.

The V-6 model starts at a little over 4500 lbs, so it is in the same neighborhood as the Acura MDX and a host of other competitors. The 272 hp base engine, working through a 7-speed (!) automatic should provide enough grunt to make the V-8 unnecessary.

I'm not a big SUV fan, but if you have 40-60 large, go ahead and check this one out. One of these days, the UAW may organize the Alabama plant where this model will be built, but don't get your hopes up of an employee discount any time soon.

The Car Connection [ The Web's Automotive Authority ]

Trouble at Delphi

GM spin-off Delphi has had lots of trouble lately. There have been huge accounting adjustments, you know, the kind of stuff that you can't imagine a first year accountant would let through. One wonders whether Delphi is the next Enron. Now Delphi has suspended employee company stock purchases. Hmmm.


Delphi suspends employee company stock purchases - 03/14/05

Ponder this, if Delphi's credit rating plunges to the point that it can no longer operate as a going concern, Delphi plants might not be able to get the parts they need to keep running. Without the Delphi parts as part of the just-in-time inventory management system that has been implemented in many plants, assembly plants all over teh country may start going down one after another. GM would be hurt worse than others, but other automakers also use Delphi parts now.

Trouble at Delphi

GM spin-off Delphi has had lots of trouble lately. There have been huge accounting adjustments, you know, the kind of stuff that you can't imagine a first year accountant would let through. One wonders whether Delphi is the next Enron. Now Delphi has suspended employee company stock purchases. Hmmm.


Delphi suspends employee company stock purchases - 03/14/05

Ponder this, if Delphi's credit rating plunges to the point that it can no longer operate as a going concern, Delphi plants might not be able to get the parts they need to keep running. Without the Delphi parts as part of the just-in-time inventory management system that has been implemented in many plants, assembly plants all over teh country may start going down one after another. GM would be hurt worse than others, but other automakers also use Delphi parts now.

Richard Hatch pegs the FOS meter

Survivor winner Richard Hatch has been in trouble for failing to pay taxes on teh $1 Million he won on the show, plus other income. The USA Today article below quotes Hatch as saying the reason why he didn't pay taxes on the winnings was because he thought CBS would. He said that CBS should have withheld taxes because he was a CBS employee.

Here's why Hatch is full of it:

He's a freaking lawyer, he should know that even if CBS was required to withhold taxes, it doesn't exempt him from paying the tax if CBS doesn't. Secondly, it wasn't just the CBS income that he didn't pay taxes on.

Richard, if you can make fire, you can come up with a better lie, for Pete's sake. You sound too much like the old Steve Martin bit:

You can be a millionaire and never pay taxes . . .

How can I be a millionaire and never pay taxes

Simple

First
Get a million dollars.

Then when the tax man comes to your door and says "why didn't you pay taxes?" Just say two simple words

I forgot.


Sorry Richard, it's a freaking Joke, it doesn't work that way in real life, that's why it's a joke.

USATODAY.com - 'Survivor' winner explains tax flap

Ford to take the T-Bird Away

Ford Thunderbird production is set to end in July 2005. If you are a T-bird owner, this is good news, because it will help with resale value. If you are an employee at the Wixom MI plant, it's not so good news. The plant is already underutilized and the loss of even a modest 12,000-20,000 veh/year won't help things. The current vehicles that share the plant, the Lincoln LS and Towncar, don't have and won't have what it takes to save the plant in the long term.


IMHO Ford needs to chop the price of the Lincoln LS by about 20%. It is a good car that is vastly overpriced. When it was new in 1999, it competed well against the BMW 5 series. Two subsequent rennovations of the Bimmer have made such comparisons a joke.

Ford to kill T-Bird, lay off 200 - 03/11/05

Toilet Paper Tax: A good idea that sounds stupid?

A florida legislator has introduced a bill that would impose a $.02 tax per roll of toilet paper. The tax would be earmarked to improving sewer systems.

Lots of sewer systems need improvement, including that of my home town, Indianapolis. The money has to come from somewhere. Toilet paper does impose an environmental costs, and in theory a tax would discourage over-use.

Here's a link to the AP article: Warning - puns ahead.



Latest Reports - The Detroit News Online

Chexsystems - We don't need no stinking FACTA

Judging from a quick browse at the Chexsystems website, they aren't being too upfront about telling folks about their free credit reports under FACTA.

Consumer Website

Another Sob Story: Swedish Saab production may be near an end.

Last year, General Motors conducted a competition between a German Opel plant and the Saab plant in Trollhaettan Sweden. Today GM Announced that the German plant won, and in the long-term, midsized car production for Europe will be based in Germany. Unless a replacement line for Trollhaettan is found, this could be the beginning of the end for Swedish Saabs.

Midsize car work goes to Opel plant - 03/04/05

The US Strikes Back at China - Invasion of the Monster trucks
After years of nothing but bad news coming
g from China: jobs being lost here, counterfeiting there, finally there is good news. A US company is hitting back.

The live events version of Clear Channel entertainment signed a 50 year pact to bring (among other things) monster trucks to China. If you hear the sound of a giant wind being let out of a paper bag, it's the mental acuity of a billion Chinese citizens being sucked out of their brains and into the abyss.

Monster trucks today - can crappy homogeneous radio be far behind!


ABC News: Clear Channel in events venture with China company

GM to Close Lansing MI Plant - Announces Expansion in Canada


GM has announced the closing of the Plant in Lansing Michigan that builds the Chevy "Classic" (the old Malibu) and the Pontiac GrandAm. This move was expected, but will result in at least temporary layoffs of 3200 employees. Many will find new jobs at a new plant that is being built in Delta Township.

Simultaneously, GM announced that employment would go up in Ontario Canada, at multiple plants. One news source said that the with the reduction of jobs in Lansing and the increase of jobs in Canada, GM will have more workers in Canada than in Michigan for the first time.

One has to wonder how much the messed up healthcare system in the United States has to do with the decisions.


GM shuts Lansing plant, idles 3,200 - 03/02/05

The Koko the Gorilla website

For years, we have seen occasional news stories about Koko, the gorilla who learned sign language and had a pet kitten. Koko is alive and well. She now knows about 1000 signs and has gone through three cats as well as other pets. Here's a link to her website.

Koko's Kids Club - Learn about Koko and Gorillas

XM Radio Raises Rates

Effective April 2, XM Radio will raise its basic monthly rate to $12.95, the same as arch-rival Sirius. You can still get a lower rate if you opt into a long term contract.

From a business point of view, this seems to be a bonehead move by XM. XM has Sirius on the ropes. XM has a vastly larger subscriber base, and the lead seems to be growing. Sirius has made some high stakes bets on adding high priced content such as Howard Stern. As I have written about before, The promised pay out to Stern alone is significantly more than Sirius's net worth. If XM would have just continued with its price advantage for another year, I think Sirius would have been history, and XM would have the market to itself.

The increased price for XM makes Sirius a much more viable contender. For the same price as XM, Sirius gives you NFL football, NPR, Stern, and more commercial-free music. XM gives you Major League Baseball, Big 10 football (go Purdue), Opie and Anthony (never heard them myself), and more channels over all. Likely you will end up going with whichever service is available on your car. I got an XM Roady2 in December. If I would have known about the change in price, I probably would have gotten Sirius in order to get NFL and NPR.

XM Satellite Radio to Raise Monthly Fee by 30 Pct

Choicepoint - CLUE(R) reports

What information are insurance companies using to rate you as a cua risk? Now you can find out. Insurance companies use Choicepoint's "Clue" database. If you live in the Midwest, you can now get a free copy of your CLUE report pursuant to the FACTA law (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act).

I just got mine, and it was quick and easy.


Welcome to ChoiceTrust


(Note: Choicepoint has been in the news lately for a security breach which disclosed financial info on a huge number of consumers to a N to a scam artist. I haven't figured out what to write about this, but when I do, I'm sure that it will be insightful -- practically brilliant.)

incidentally, you can also request from Choicepoint an employment history report and a Tenant history report. Choicepoint has the duties of any credit reporting agency when it comes to handling disputes pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

For a fee Choicepoint offers reports on nannies, daycare providers etc.

Everybody do the Numa Numa Dance

The New York Times > New York Region > Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa