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Biden administration finalizes ban on Chinese, Russian tech in passenger cars

January 15, 2025
President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration finalized rules Tuesday, Jan. 14 to ban the sale and import of Chinese and Russian tech in connected passenger vehicles. The move is Biden’s last push to address national security concerns tied to the auto industry.

The Commerce Department said the systems from those foreign adversaries pose unacceptably high risks and open the door to spying or interference.

The features include components that connect vehicles to the outside world, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as self-driving systems. The software bans start with 2027 model year cars, while for hardware, it begins with 2030 model year cars.

General Motors and Ford build some vehicles in China, including the Buick Envision and the Lincoln Nautilus, which will be impacted by the new ruling.

Volvo also makes the S90 sedan in China, as well as sister brand Polestar with the Polestar 2 EV sedan.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation trade group, which represents several automakers, said the new rules are fair and acknowledged the risks of foreign tech.

The group’s CEO, John Bozzella, also said the timing of the rules going into effect a few years from now strikes a good balance because changing the “world’s most complex supply chain can’t happen overnight.”

The rule not only applies to the import and sale of Russian and Chinese-made cars but also to any cars that have Russian or Chinese technology in them, even if the cars are assembled or manufactured in the U.S.

The Commerce Department said it plans to create another rule for large vehicles like buses and trucks in the future, but it’s not clear exactly when that will happen.

The new rule comes as President Biden also signed an executive order to fast-track the development of artificial intelligence infrastructure, paving the way to lease federal land for companies that agree to build AI data centers. This goes along with new trade restrictions to curb the sale of AI chips from Nvidia and other data centers around the world.

While the incoming Trump administration could reverse some of Biden’s latest steps, Trump could keep some of the policies involving China, given there’s wide bipartisan agreement on national security risks.
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Volvo backtracks on EV pledge, as other automakers have done the same

September 9, 2024
Volvo has revised its plan to transition fully to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. The automaker now anticipates that between 90%-100% of its cars sold by the end of the decade will either be electric vehicles or hybrids, while up to 10% of sales will comprise of mild hybrids, where electric power supplements a combustion engine.

This shift reflects a broader trend among major automakers, including Tesla, General Motors, Ford, and Toyota, who have also recently scaled back their electric vehicle targets.

Volvo’s decision to reconsider its EV plans comes several months after CEO Jim Rowan had predicted “tremendous growth” in the EV market.

“We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric,” Rowan said in a statement about the company’s recent EV cutbacks. “However, it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds.”

Volvo has also adjusted its short-term goals. Initially, the company aimed for fully electric vehicles to comprise at least 50% of its sales by 2025. The updated target now includes both EVs and hybrids, which together are expected to account for 50%-60% of sales.

The market responded swiftly to the news, with Volvo’s shares dropping by 7.5% on Friday, Sept. 6, following the announcement. Despite this, Volvo maintains that its revised strategy better aligns with current market dynamics and consumer preferences.
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Volvo improving electric trucks to make them a more viable long-hauling option

September 4, 2024
Heavy-duty trucks are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions within the transportation sector, however, electrifying these vehicles to reduce their environmental impact comes with major challenges. Current electric vehicle (EV) battery technology cannot yet efficiently support trucks on the long distances they need to cover.

Today, the average EV battery range tops out at approximately 300 miles. This limitation is a major concern, as most truck drivers typically travel around 500 miles daily. The scarcity of charging stations compared to the widespread availability of gas stations on U.S. highways adds another layer of difficulty in transitioning to electric trucks.

Volvo is attempting to address these issues by introducing a new solution: adding more batteries. Traditionally, increasing the number of batteries in a vehicle has not been practical due to the additional weight, which can decrease the overall range. However, Volvo’s approach incorporates new driveline technology that enables the integration of multiple batteries without the typical drawbacks.

This technology combines the electric motor and transmission into the rear axle, freeing up space for a larger battery capacity. As a result, Volvo’s latest truck, equipped with eight batteries, achieves a range of just over 370 miles, a nearly 20% increase compared to the industry standard.

“The transport sector represents seven percent of global carbon emissions.” Roger Alm, president of Volvo Trucks, said in a statement. “Battery-electric trucks are important tools to reduce the climate footprint. Besides the important environmental gains that electric trucks bring, they offer truck drivers a much better working environment, with much lower levels of noise and vibrations.”

Despite this progress, EV battery technology still has a long way to go before it can match the performance of traditional diesel truck engines, which can travel an average of around 2,000 miles on a single tank of fuel.
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Biden admin slates $1.7B for automakers transitioning to EV production

July 11, 2024
The Biden administration announced a $1.7 billion federal assistance package aimed at helping automakers retool their factories to produce electric vehicles (EVs). The funding, unveiled by the Department of Energy, targets 11 auto factories that have either shut down or were at risk of closure without government intervention.

“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “Even as our competitors invest heavily in electric vehicles, these grants ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive — and does it in the communities and with the workforce that have supported the auto industry for generations.”

The recipients of this funding include major automakers such as General Motors (GM), Hyundai, Fiat Chrysler and Volvo, among others. However, the funds will not be awarded until negotiations with these companies are successfully completed. Once finalized, the administration expects the plan to create nearly 3,000 new jobs and help retain approximately 15,000 workers across the 11 facilities.

GM is set to receive the largest portion of the funds, with an expected $500 million allocated to convert a Michigan plant from producing internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. This significant investment underscores the administration’s commitment to accelerating the transition to EVs.

Since President Joe Biden took office, there has been $177 billion invested in private sector EV manufacturing. This new wave of grants aims to complement those investments and is part of the administration’s broader push to promote electric vehicle adoption.
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US funds study on deep sea mining for EVs, automakers split on their support

June 4, 2024
The U.S. government is exploring the potential of deep sea mining to provide rare earth elements crucial for future transportation technologies like electric vehicle batteries. Congress has approved funding to investigate the feasibility of extracting these minerals from the ocean floor. That could reduce America’s reliance on foreign suppliers like China, which currently dominates the global rare earth market.

Lawmakers are in discussions with representatives from the deep sea mining industry to understand how these elements could be processed domestically. However, this initiative faces opposition from environmentalists and some automakers due to potential ecological risks.

Greenpeace has raised concerns that deep sea mining could lead to ocean pollution and harm marine life. Prominent car manufacturers — including BMW, Volvo and Volkswagen — have expressed their opposition to using these ocean-derived resources. Instead, they are advocating for a moratorium on such exploration efforts.

💥Today, @GM board members vote against a proposal, requesting a report on the company’s use of deep-sea mined minerals. Does GM have a hidden division w/ ties to UAP & connections to Lockheed Martin's DSM operations? Is LM's move to divest from DSM related to UAP legal concerns? https://t.co/rT15Wiqjoc
— _undersc0red_ (@undersc0red) June 4, 2024

General Motors (GM) opted to take a different approach. The company’s shareholders recently voted against a proposal that would have required GM to disclose its use of deep sea minerals. Tesla is also expected to address this topic during its upcoming shareholders’ meeting on June 13.

Proponents within the deep sea mining industry say that the potential environmental consequences of obtaining these materials from the ocean floor has been exaggerated. Some argue that whether the resources are extracted from land or sea, some level of impact is inevitable. They suggest that the relatively secluded depths of the ocean, which have minimal marine life and are far from human populations, could be a less disruptive option.
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Fires on vessels carrying EVs prompt calls for increased safety regulations

November 7, 2023
The process of transporting an electric vehicle (EV) to market via cargo shipments is facing renewed scrutiny after a series of incidents with costly and deadly results. A recent string of fires on vessels carrying EVs has prompted regulators to draw up new rules due to the safety risks posed.

Electric vehicle battery fires burn with twice the energy of a normal fire and can require as much as 10 times the amount of water to put out compared to when a car with a gas engine is set ablaze. Sometimes, nearly half the total volume of an average American swimming pool is needed to handle these fires, which can reignite even after they have been extinguished.

“The shipping industry needs to understand the cargo that they are transporting and they need to put in the relevant requirements to make sure that they do that safely and responsibly,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo Cars.

As a result, the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization said member states will be exploring the creation of additional precautions for shipping companies that transport vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. Shipowners have also indicated they are looking to redesign car carriers, upgrade fire prevention measures and mitigate the threat to lives and global trade posed by the batteries.

“Lithium batteries have been recognized as potentially hazardous when it comes to fire risk,” said Heike Deggim, head of safety at the International Maritime Organization. “So we need to ensure that the regulations take into account those risks. Urgent action is needed to arrive at measures to keep vessels and crews safe.”

This comes after a report released in May by insurance provider Allianz found that shipping fires on all cargo vessels with volumes exceeding 100 gross tons increased 17% to a decade high last year. A number of these incidents involved electric vehicles, with fires that took days to finally put out.

That includes a fire onboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean that resulted in the loss of $155 million worth of Volkswagen vehicles. The vessel’s captain claimed that the lithium-ion batteries within the EVs being transported were “keeping the fire alive” as the crew worked to put it out. Ultimately, the ship capsized and sank 13 days after the fire broke out as a salvage team was attempting to tow it to shore.

More recently, a shipping blaze aboard a boat carrying nearly 500 EVs off the Dutch coast claimed the life of one crew member over the summer. The incident left 22 others injured, some of whom had to abandon ship in order to escape, as the fire onboard continued to burn for about a week after it had first begun.

“There is already a whole lot of communication underway about this, but with this incident it becomes apparent we might need to speed up the process, especially when you consider that the number of this sort of cars is only going to rise,” said Nathan Habers, spokesperson for the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, following the fire.

In light of these risks, some insurance providers are charging one and half times more for cargo ships carrying electric vehicles than the price for those with combustion engines. The International Union of Marine Insurance is advocating for the development of new firefighting techniques to tackle future EV battery fires on vessels, among other additional safety measures.

“The regulatory process will be an opportunity to improve safety requirements making them fit for the new reality of large numbers of alternative fuel vehicles being carried on board vessels,” said Lars Lange, secretary general of the International Union of Marine Insurance.

Industry participants are also discussing the implementation of new crew member evacuation routes and fully contained storage for EVs being shipped that aim to limit the spread of potential fires. Michael Barrass, a marine risk management consultant with RSA Insurance has said that current safety regulations were “not really built to deal with EVs,” and while the shipping industry is moving forward to correct this, it is not happening “at the pace that [insurers] want.”
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More UAW members to strike as union rejects deal from Mack Trucks

October 9, 2023
More United Auto Workers members began striking on Monday, Oct. 9, as union members voted down a tentative agreement with Mack Trucks. In a statement, Mack, owned by Volvo, called the union’s move unnecessary.

“We’re surprised and disappointed that the UAW has chosen to strike, which we feel is unnecessary,” the statement read. “The company clearly demonstrated its commitment to good faith bargaining by arriving at a tentative agreement that was endorsed by both the International UAW and the UAW Mack Truck Council.”

The tentative agreement between Mack and the UAW was made on Oct. 2, and since then, UAW president Shawn Fain said UAW members voted down the deal, with 73% of members voting against it.

According to Mack, the tentative agreement included a 10% wage increase for all employees in the first year, followed by a 20% compounded increase over five years. Though Mack called it “a record contract for the Heavy Truck industry,” according to the UAW, 4,000 of its members voted it down.

https://twitter.com/UAW/status/1711186526153900080?s=20

“The members have spoken, and as the highest authority in our union, they have the final word,” Fain wrote in a letter to Mack executives. “Accordingly, the UAW will go on strike at Mack Trucks as of 7:00 a.m. on Monday morning, Oct. 9, 2023.”

Union members are walking out over better pay and benefits. Meanwhile thousands of UAW members have already been striking over similar issues as the UAW negotiates with Detroit’s Big Three automakers.

Mack said in its statement that it is important to differentiate between the passenger car industry and heavy truck industry.

“Given other negotiations in the news, it’s important to emphasize that Mack’s market, business, and competitors are very different from those of the passenger car makers,” the statement read.

Both parties are back at the negotiating table. In his letter to Mack executives, Fain said the UAW would be in touch with information on when and where negotiations will reconvene.
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Ford cuts jobs, Volvo joins Tesla charging market in latest EV push

June 28, 2023
In the latest examples of car companies making moves towards a growing electric vehicle (EV) market, Ford announced another round of job cuts, and Volvo signed an agreement to join Tesla’s charging network. The point of Ford’s job cuts is to reduce costs amid a transition to EVs.

Ford let go around 200 contract employees last week. The company confirmed on Tuesday, June 27, that it was starting to notify several hundred engineers and other salaried employees that their jobs are being eliminated.

“Teams that were affected were pulled together yesterday to let them know that there would be actions taken this week,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said Tuesday. “Then individual people will be notified today and tomorrow.”

Reid wouldn’t give a specific number of Ford jobs that are set to be cut this week. He did say the number is a lot less than last summer, when the company let go of 3,000 white-collar workers and another 1,000 contractors.

Ford’s confirmation of the job cuts came the same day Volvo said it will adopt Tesla’s charging connector in new EV models starting in 2025. Volvo becomes the fourth carmaker to gain access to more than 12,000 Tesla Supercharger plugs, joining General Motors, Ford and Rivian.

“As part of our journey to becoming fully electric by 2030, we want to make life with an electric car as easy as possible,” Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said in a Tuesday statement. “One major inhibitor to more people making the shift to electric driving – a key step in making transportation more sustainable – is access to easy and convenient charging infrastructure. Today, with this agreement, we’re taking a major step to remove this threshold for Volvo drivers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.”

Also Tuesday, a key U.S. automotive industry organization said it will set performance standards for Tesla’s electric vehicle charging cords. The standards would govern how the plugs connect with charging stations, cybersecurity measures, charging speeds and reliability requirements.

The move by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, is seen as another step towards using the Tesla plug on all EVs. The move likely spells the end of CCS, a rival connector that is still in thousands of current EVs.

“Standardizing the NACS connector will provide certainty, expanded choice, reliability and convenience to manufacturers and suppliers and, most of all, increase access to charging for consumers,” Frank Menchaca, the president of an innovation arm of SAE affiliate Fullsight, said in a statement.

SAE said that it’s already working on the standards and hopes to finish them within six months.
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Severe weather leads to canceled flights, United blames FAA: June 28 rundown

June 28, 2023

The CEO of United Airlines called out the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after flights across the country were canceled, and Ford is set to make more job cuts. These stories and more highlight the rundown for Wednesday, June 28, 2023.

United Airlines CEO blames FAA for thousands of flight cancellations

Hundreds of flights have been canceled Wednesday following thousands of cancellations on Tuesday, June 27. In airports across the Northeast, thousands of passengers were waiting for hours to reach their destination. 2,000 flights were canceled and 7,000 flights were delayed on Tuesday as severe storms struck the Northeast.

United Airlines said 150,000 of its customers had been impacted. In a memo to employees, United CEO Scott Kirby slammed the FAA over canceled flights in the Newark region claiming the severe weather is something the FAA has historically been able to manage.

This comes as the FAA faces new scrutiny after a government audit released last week revealed a “critical shortage” of employees in air traffic control facilities. The audit claims the staffing issue poses a risk to flight operations with a busy summer travel season approaching.

Chicago, Detroit ranked worst air quality in world due to wildfire smoke

The National Weather Service warned more smoke from the Canadian wildfires will likely move into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic Wednesday, potentially impacting more flight schedules across the region. Chicago and Detroit ranked as having the worst air quality in the world Tuesday due to the wildfire smoke looming over the city.

More than 80 million Americans from the Midwest to the East Coast were under air quality alerts Wednesday. Canada is seeing its worst fire season on record with hundreds of wildfires burning out of control.

U.S. to house migrant children at former boarding school

The Biden administration plans on housing up to 800 unaccompanied migrant children at a repurposed boarding school in Greensboro, North Carolina. The former American Hebrew Academy will house boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 who entered U.S. border custody without their parents or legal guardians. The 800 available beds will make the former boarding school the government’s largest active housing facility for unaccompanied minors.

Another facility in Texas currently has the capacity to house up to 500 additional migrant children. However, the Department of Health and Human Services has tried to reduce the use of the facility following reports of substandard conditions and child depression.

Spacey sex assault trial gets underway

Actor Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial began Wednesday. The two-time Oscar winner is charged with sexually assaulting four men between 2001 and 2013 while he was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater.

The trial is expected to last four weeks. If convicted, Spacey could face prison time. If he is acquitted, it could lead to a revival of an acting career that’s largely been on ice since the allegations surfaced.

“There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment i am cleared of these charges,” Spacey said in an interview with a German magazine earlier in June. He added that the media has turned him into a monster.

Former NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett dead after apparent drowning

Former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett, who went on to have a seven-year career in the NFL, died Tuesday in an apparent drowning incident at a Florida beach. Mallet’s sudden passing has stunned the NFL community, who offered an outpouring of support for the former New England Patriots backup quarterback. .

Mallet also played for the Houston Texans, where he made his first career touchdown pass to defensive end J.J. Watt. Mallet was most recently the head football coach at White Hall High School in his home state of Arkansas. He was 35 years old.

Ford to cut another 1,000 jobs in EV push

Ford plans to lay off at least 1,000 salaried employees and contract workers in North America. The move is the latest effort to cut company costs in order to better afford their new focus on electric vehicles.

A chunk of the layoffs will be white-collar jobs, including hundreds of engineers in the U.S. and Canada. Ford has made several rounds of global layoffs over the past year, nixing 3,000 jobs in the U.S. in the summer of 2022 and conducting an even larger layoff in Europe earlier in 2023.

Volvo to adopt Tesla’s charge port

Another automaker has announced it will start using Tesla’s charging standard port in its electric cars starting in 2025. Volvo is joining Ford, General Motors, and Rivian in using Tesla’s technology so drivers can use Tesla’s broad charging network across North America.

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