kscarbel2

It's seems like just yesterday that I was standing between a new "Cool Power" 300-equipped R-model, and F-model. Where did all the years go? I feel no older than that day in 1973. .

Nikola Falls After Loss Edward Ludlow, Bloomberg / August 4, 2020 Nikoa Corp.’s shares fell Tuesday after hours on the company’s debut earnings release. The would-be maker of battery-electric and fuel cell heavy trucks reported a net loss for the second quarter of $86.64 million (up from $16.7 million a year earlier) as it moves toward production of its vehicles. Nikola claims it will begin fleet testing of the BEV version of its semi truck -- the Nikola Tre -- with select customers in 2021. The hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be built in Arizona from 2023, at a site which is under construction. The company ended the quarter with around $707 million cash on hand. It also hopes to raise an additional $264.5 million in cash through the exercise of the 23 million outstanding public warrants at an exercise price of $11.50. Nikola generated revenue of just $36,000 (you read that correctly: thirty-six thousand) from solar installations, but the release states these aren’t tied to the company’s core operations and are expected to be discontinued.

Ford CEO Ending Stormy Tenure Makes Way for Heir Who Bleeds Blue Keith Naughton, Bloomberg / August 4, 2020 Ford CEO Jim Hackett knew it was time to retire -- again -- when he watched his heir apparent rise to the occasion of a global pandemic that the carmaker thought would lead to a $5 billion quarterly loss. The former office-furniture executive stepped back into a CEO role at the begging of Executive Chairman Bill Ford but had struggled through a stormy tenure at the second-largest U.S. automaker. As Hackett watched Chief Operating Officer Jim Farley shave more than $3 billion off the deficit Ford had been expecting, he realized it was time to leave. “It kind of hit me like a lightning bolt that this is really the right time,” Hackett, 65, told Bloomberg News in an interview. “I said to myself, ‘If I retire now, Jim can take the advantage of all these things he and I have done together.’” Farley, 58, is described by peers as having the will and the skill to get Ford out of the rut it’s been in since the departure of Alan Mulally, who hocked the company’s blue-oval logo to hoard cash and was the only Detroit CEO to keep his carmaker out of bankruptcy in 2009. Farley has spoken about the challenges Ford faces now in stark tones and has warned he may continue to break china and bruise egos, as he has on his way to the top. “For me on a personal level, it’s quite -- sorry, I’m just getting a little emotional,” Farley said, choking back tears during a phone interview. Bill Ford, the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, convinced Farley to leave Toyota Motor Corp. in the lead-up to the global financial crisis. His own grandfather, an orphan, was employee No. 389 at the company and worked at a factory near Detroit that built Model Ts. “It’s quite humbling to think about my grandfather going into Highland Park and how humble his life was before that,” Farley said. “How much opportunity happened because of Ford. I just feel very in debt to the company.” Unstable Footing Ford was already on wobbly footing before Farley and Hackett were drawing up plans to recover from months-long factory shutdowns forced by efforts to contain the coronavirus. The company was two years into an $11 billion restructuring Hackett laid out to update a global vehicle lineup that had gotten stale under his predecessor, Mark Fields. He prioritized loading new models with greater connectivity features and spent heavily on electrifying powertrains and freed up resources by killing off passenger cars in North America. But the first of Ford’s major redesigns under Hackett’s watch, the Explorer, went awry due to factory personnel and technological problems. The company also has been behind the curve from an electric-vehicle standpoint, with the Mustang Mach-E coming out well after Tesla Inc. has made plug-in models more mainstream. It took decades for middle managers to convince top brass to bring back the Bronco sport-utility vehicle, and the all-important F-150 has aged relative to General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV full-size pickups. “We would have thought Hackett would have stayed on through the current product launch cycle (F-150, Bronco) with a transition in 2021,” Joe Spak, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets who rates Ford the equivalent of a hold, wrote to clients. “The timing occurring now to us suggests Ford is ready to take on a more aggressive, faster-moving path forward.” Ford shares rose 2.5% on Tuesday, paring their decline during Hackett’s tenure to 37%. Hackett’s Challenge Hackett said he made it clear to Bill Ford from the beginning that he was “not the long-term solution” for the carmaker when, in 2017, the great-grandson of Henry Ford asked him to come out of retirement. The former CEO of furniture maker Steelcase Inc. said he was more focused on changing Ford’s culture than currying favor with Wall Street. “I was going to be a challenge for a world where everything revolved around Wall Street,” Hackett said. “What I wanted to do was work from the inside on our employees, on our executives, on motivation to want to change the arc of the company.” During a call with reporters, Farley named the likes of Amazon Inc., Apple Inc. and Baidu Inc., the Chinese search-engine giant, when listing companies he views as Ford’s competitors. He said the carmaker will push further into digital services as it connects all its vehicles to the internet. “Will we need new talent to help us get there, to compete against these new competitors? Absolutely,” Farley said. “Do we need to challenge our business model? In some cases we will have to. So it will require new ways and new capabilities.” ‘Car Nut’ While Farley spent almost a year focusing on Ford’s future as president of new businesses, technology and strategy before becoming COO, his ties to Ford’s past go beyond family. Two years ago, he drove his 1965 Ford GT40 in an event loosely based on the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. A 1973 Bronco and new Mustang are his vehicles of choice for getting to the office. “Farley is a life-long car nut and has just very, very deep automotive automotive experience, both at Ford and Toyota,” said David Whiston, an analyst with Morningstar Inc., who rates the company a hold. “Farley is not about an esoteric process or fancy chit-chat. He wants results and he works like a lunatic.” Building revenue from digital service, while putting out electric and autonomous vehicles, could finally reverse Ford’s six-year stock slide, Farley said during the interview. Its market capitalization has slipped to just $27.2 billion, less than a tenth of Tesla’s stock value. “We have this incredible opportunity to create value that’s not reflected in our valuation,” he said. “And that’s the intersection between technology and our traditional products. These growth initiatives will really change Ford for many years to come.”

Ford Elevates Farley to CEO After Hackett’s Turnaround Bid Fails Bloomberg / August 4, 2020 Ford Motor Co. said it will promote Jim Farley to CEO on October 1 to replace Jim Hackett, who has elected to retire after his three-year bid to turn around the automaker failed to gain traction. Farley, 58, became chief operating officer in March when his main internal rival was ousted following the botched launch of the Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle. Ford’s stock was slumping under Hackett, 65, before the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the second-largest U.S. automaker’s woes. Last week, Ford posted a second-quarter operating loss that was less than half the $5 billion deficit it had predicted, due in part to demand for its SUVs and trucks holding up better than feared. But some of the company’s overperformance also could be chalked up to an on-paper gain from its investment in self-driving startup Argo AI. Ford shares climbed as much as 1.7% shortly after the open of regular trading. The stock is still down 28% this year.

Jim Hackett to retire as CEO of Ford; Jim Farley named successor Michael Martinez, Automotive News / August 4, 2020 DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Hackett will retire later this year after more than three years leading the automaker and will be succeeded by COO Jim Farley, the company said Tuesday. Hackett, 65, did not give a reason for his retirement, effective Oct. 1. Ford said he would work with Farley, 58, over the next two months to ensure a smooth transition. "I am very grateful to Jim Hackett for all he has done to modernize Ford and prepare us to compete and win in the future," Bill Ford, Ford's executive chairman, said in a statement. "Our new product vision – led by the Mustang Mach-E, new F-150 and Bronco family – is taking shape. "We now have compelling plans for electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as full vehicle connectivity. And we are becoming much more nimble, which was apparent when we quickly mobilized to make life-saving equipment at the outset of the pandemic." Hackett was elevated to CEO in May 2017 to be a change agent at Ford and help speed up its decision making. Under his tenure, Ford instituted a global redesign that prioritized what he called design-thinking. "My goal when I took on the CEO role was to prepare Ford to win in the future," Hackett said in a statement. "The hardest thing for a proud, long-lived company to do is change to meet the challenges of the world it's entering rather than the world it has known. I'm very proud of how far we have come in creating a modern Ford and I am very optimistic about the future."

Amazing restoration of a 1982 Autocar DK-64 by our friends at Waste Pro USA! Incredible Job! Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

MarketWatch / August 3, 2020 Shares of Eastman Kodak tumbled 24% in afternoon trading Monday, putting them on track for a third-straight double-digit percentage decline, after the company, which is getting into the pharmaceuticals ingredients business, disclosed that holders of convertible notes were exercising their right to convert notes into common stock. Kodak stock has now dropped 50% since skyrocketing 16-fold in three days to $33.20 on July 29, after the Trump administration announced on July 28 that Kodak received a $765 million loan, as part of a Defense Production Act directive to loosen the reliance on foreign sources for pharmaceutical ingredients. In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Kodak said the holders of the 5.00% convertible notes due 2021, which were issued in May 2019, are converted a total of $95 million of the notes into 29.9 million shares of Kodak common stock, on July 29. That would imply a value of $3.175 per converted share, while the stock was currently trading at $16.58. On July 27, Kodak granted CEO James Continenza options to buy Kodak stock at various strike prices, which are now all in the money, to "protect" him from dilution of his share holdings, in case the convertible debt issued in May 2019 were converted into stock.

This is one of Jay's best video yet. Extremely rare car. For 1934, so far, far ahead of its time.

Jesper Eriksson, Scania General Manager / August 3, 2020 Still working hard ! .

I've gotten over the Model 3's expressionless front fascia. But I'm not crazy about most of the dash controls being on the tablet. As for build quality/pain finish, that's improving to acceptable levels. But this Sony car from a distance looks very impressive.

Too late to the party with nothing new to offer. Inferior to Paccar’s offerings. Can’r touch Freightliner, Navistar and Ford Medium on price. So what was the point of this exercise? Create a tax loss?

A protoype, it's arguably more attractive than industry leader Tesla's designs. .

Daily Mail / July 31, 2020 Kodak CEO Jim Continenza was awarded 1.75 million stock options one day before the Trump administration announced a $765 million loan to develop generic pharmaceuticals - sending stock prices soaring and netting the CEO a potential $30 million profit. CEO Jim Continenza and three other top Kodak executives were awarded stock options that included the right to buy Kodak stock at $3.03, $4.53, $6.03, and $12 per share until February 2026. According to filings obtained by the Popular Information newsletter, Continenza was the primary beneficiary, having been awarded 1.75 million options. Most of those options - 981,707 shares - were purchased at a stock price of $3.03 per share. Continenza was also awarded options at $4.53, purchasing nearly 300,000 shares.

On Tuesday, July 28, the White House tweeted: "We have reached a historic deal with @Kodak to begin producing critical pharmaceutical ingredients right here in America!" And the stock lifted off, peaking the next day, July 29. I myself don't think the executive branch of the US government, nor any other branch, should communicate via Twitter. (For the record, I don't participate in any so-called social media including Twitter and Facebook).

Kodak went from a low of $2.13 a share on Monday, July 27th, to a high of $60.00 on Wednesday, July 29th.

Ford will defer some quarterly payments on Energy Dept. loan Reuters / July 31, 2020 Ford Motor Co. said Friday it had won approval to defer some quarterly payments due on its U.S. Energy Department retooling loan, but added it will repay the loan on time by June 2022. In September 2009, Ford was awarded a $5.9 billion low-cost government loan, a key source of liquidity in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The automaker said its loan was modified in June to reduce quarterly principal payments from $148 million to $37 million. Ford said it has $1.26 billion of remaining principal left on the loan. An Energy Department spokeswoman said "the flexibility the Loan Programs Office was able to provide through this loan modification is a good example of what (Energy) Secretary Brouillette meant when he asked for all of the Department’s resources to be supportive of the energy industry during the COVID-19 pandemic." Ford said "with COVID-19 related economic uncertainty remaining, we believe that is worthwhile to further strengthen our balance sheet and increase liquidity to optimize our financial flexibility." The company noted that if it opts to pay a dividend, repurchase shares above a certain threshold, or provide security to other lenders it will have to revert to the original payment schedule. The company said Friday that "deferring a portion of the principal until the maturity date will also result in incremental interest cost to Ford, in addition to the cost to modify the loan. All costs associated with the modification were covered by Ford through a higher interest rate." But it added, "the financing remains very cost-effective." The Energy Department did not comment.

The Xcient is a superb heavy truck. In Oz, they don't know how to get started.

Yes, they could. Their Euro 6 engine can also meet US emissions. Hyundai is contemplating bringing the Xcient to the states as a conventional (bonneted) cab truck.

Ford’s Attempt to Turn Corner Boosted by Earnings Beat Keith Naughton, Bloomberg / July 30, 2020 Ford Motor Co. posted much better-than-expected results for the latest quarter but projected a full-year loss as it attempts to pull off a restructuring amid the carnage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The automaker said Thursday its operating loss in the second quarter was less than half the $5 billion deficit it had predicted, due mainly to undiminished demand for its sport utility vehicles and trucks despite springtime factory and showroom closures. Ford’s adjusted loss of 35 cents a share was considerably better than the $1.18 per share loss analysts forecast. The economic crisis caused by the viral outbreak hit Ford two years into an $11 billion global reorganization that leaves Jim Hackett, the company’s chief executive officer, little room for error amid an extended earnings slump. It also comes as the automaker prepares to roll out three critical new models aimed at reversing its fortunes: the electric Mustang Mach-E, the revived Bronco SUV and a redesigned version of its top-selling F-150 pickup, its most profitable model. The virus shutdown at Ford plants delayed those launches by about two months. Ford’s $1.9 billion loss before interest and taxes compares with crosstown rival General Motors’ second quarter loss of $536 million. In the third quarter, Ford is projecting an adjusted profit of $500 million to $1.5 billion. For the full-year, it expects to post an adjusted loss. Ford ended the second quarter with more than $39 billion in cash on hand, including $10 billion in new debt. Ford said it has repaid almost half of its $15.4 billion in revolving credit and expects to maintain or exceed a cash balance of $20 billion for the rest of 2020 “even if global demand declines or there is another major wave of pandemic-related plant closures.”

Americans will be living with the coronavirus for decades Dr. Michael Osterholm, epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota This interview is the first in a series of conversations MarketWatch will conduct with some of the leading voices in the U.S. on the COVID-19 pandemic On Jan. 20, just nine days after Chinese health authorities published the DNA sequence for a new coronavirus that had sickened dozens of people in China, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, wrote in an email: “I’m certain this will cause our next pandemic.” The next day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first U.S. case of someone infected with what became known as COVID-19. Since then, as outbreaks intensified and the virus spread to Europe, and then the Americas, Osterholm, a flu expert with experience working in the CDC who heads up the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, has become one of the nation’s leading voices on the pandemic, weighing in on everything from masks to contact tracing. Osterholm’s viewpoint is sobering. The 67-year-old expects the novel coronavirus to be present for the rest of his life. He doesn’t believe the wave theory (a first wave, a lull, following by other waves) will apply to this pandemic. “That’s not what’s happening here,” he told MarketWatch in an interview. MarketWatch: One of the things I’m pretty interested in is the talk and the hope around a vaccine. Do you think we have misconceptions about what it means when we have a vaccine? Michael Osterholm: Everyone is looking at the vaccine as being a light switch: on or off. And I look at it as a rheostat, that’s going to take a long time, from turning it on from its darkest position to a lightest position. If you’re anticipating a light switch, you’re going to be concerned, confused, and in some cases very disappointed in what it might look like in those first days to months with a vaccine. MarketWatch: I saw a piece in The Atlantic this week and I thought they positioned it well. They described it as the beginning of the end. Osterholm: It won’t be. We will be dealing with this virus forever. Effective and safe vaccines and hopefully ones with some durability will be very important, even critical tools, in fighting it. But the whole world is going to be experiencing COVID-19 ‘til the end of time. We’re not going to be vaccinating our way out of this to eight-plus billion people in the world right now. And if we don’t get durable immunity, we’re potentially looking at revaccination on a routine basis, if we can do that. We’ve really got to come to grips with actually living with this virus, for at least my lifetime, and at the same time, it doesn’t mean we can’t do a lot about it. MarketWatch: Do you think we’re going to see some of these vaccines fail in clinical studies? Osterholm: One of the challenges we have is: what do we mean by fail? What’s the definition? Some people right now have a view that any vaccine that isn’t like the measles vaccine is going to be a challenge, meaning they’ve got to work 93% to 98% of the time. I don’t think there’s any sense that that’s going to happen with this vaccine. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be an effective vaccine at 50%, 60% or 70%. We have to keep watching for safety signals. We have to make sure that over time we can assure the public with open and transparent data that: This is what you can expect in terms of reactions, this is what might have any long-term complications. MarketWatch: When it comes to how medical information is being disseminated, there have been a lot of changes. You’ve done some peer review and work with journals. Do you think some of these preliminary scientific writings are being shared with the public too soon? Osterholm: Oh, absolutely. We’re drinking from a fire hose right now in terms of new information. You can make the case that’s important because we’re in a position to learn things that could have a very real impact on patient outcome and therefore getting the data out are critical. But then there’s a downside to that, too, because with that comes an increasing amount of marginal if not potentially erroneous information. MarketWatch: Do you think we’re going to see distinct waves of outbreaks in the U.S.? Osterholm: No, no. They’re not waves. We’ve never had a pandemic due to coronavirus before. We’ve had influenza pandemics. With an influenza pandemic, you do get true waves, meaning you get a first big peak of cases, then the numbers come down substantially without any human intervention. It’s nothing we do. We’ve never understood why that happens, and then a few months later you get a second wave. At this point, that’s not what’s happening here. This is like a forest fire, full steam ahead. And wherever there’s human wood to burn, it’ll do it. What we see, though, are these spikes in cases where human mitigation strategies ended, or they’re not adhering to them ... This is just one constant pressure that’s occurring. MarketWatch: And human mitigation [like mask wearing or social distancing] declines? Osterholm: Right. And everyone’s expecting it. Look at Hong Kong, which is doing an outstanding public health follow up, and yet they are still having a problem. Think of this like a big forest fire. If you’re in the way of it, you’re going to get burned. The best we can do is try to put out as much as we can. But even knowing that, if you just suppress it, it’s going to come back. The embers are still there because we never really put it out. MarketWatch: What do you think the biggest failure in the U.S. response has been? Osterholm: We’ve failed because we declared victory over the virus when we had no business doing so. This virus has been poised to be transmitted in our communities, and we thought we had done enough to get it down. It’s like a fire crew. “I only put out half the forest fire but you know, I put out half so we’re done.” And then look what happened. It’s burned more acres since we gave up than it did before we gave up. MarketWatch: What was that moment when you realize the seriousness of this virus? Osterholm: I just could tell based on all the data we had, and it was one of those “oh my God” moments. No one knew for certain how a coronavirus is going to act, and, unfortunately, it’s fulfilling all my worst nightmares. One challenge that is yet to really be understood is just what kind of durable immunity we get from infection and vaccine. We’re making assumptions right now that’s going to last. If it doesn’t, that really complicates things. If you have double, triple, and quadruple jeopardy with this virus, that’s not a pretty picture. MarketWatch: Are we getting going to get close to [herd immunity] by a vaccine? Or is the goal to keep as many people safe as possible? Osterholm: Again, it goes back to the question we just discussed: is there durable immunity? Because herd immunity is based on the concept that once you have immunity, it stays. One of our goals has been to postpone as many cases we can until the vaccine is available and use that as your means for getting 50% to 70% of the population protected. But we don’t know what immunity means for either natural disease or vaccine. Herd immunity is still, in some ways, that theoretical state to get to but we’re not sure we ever will.

Ford Trucks International / July 29, 2020 Ford Trucks debuts, in collaboration with Groupe CAT, a multinational company specializing in automotive distribution, its spare parts warehouse in Madrid. More than 10,000 m2 and 18 people dedicated to providing agile and efficient response to the needs of our customers. We don't stop so you don't stop. #PoweredByFordTrucks #SharingTheLoad .

Volvo Preps for Full Mack MD Production Heavy Duty Trucking (HT) / July 27, 2020 Sweden-based Volvo Group recently began initial production of its all-new Mack MD Series of medium-duty trucks at its Roanoke Valley Operations (RVO) facility in the Roanoke Valley, Virginia. Full production of the Mack MD Series is scheduled to begin September 1. .

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