TOP 100 TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SITES
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| White House Report: GM Volt Is Not Ready for Prime Time John Petersen submits:In its March 30, 2009 summary determination that General Motors (GM) had failed to propose a viable bankruptcy alternative, the President's auto industry task force said: GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, “green” powertrain development. In an attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable. This extraordinary conclusion has been public for weeks but I've not seen it reported by any mainstream media. I would have missed it entirely if Plug In America, an EV industry trade group, hadn't made a point of issuing a press release that was drawn to my attention by one of my readers. While the White House did not specifically lay the Volt's problems at the feet of the battery industry, Plug in America did. In their refutation of the auto industry task force report, Plug in America said:California law requires that the Volt and other plug-in hybrids come with a 10-year warranty. To ensure this longer life, automakers are as much as doubling the size of the battery pack, increasing cost to manufacturer and consumer. But not a single production plug-in electric vehicle sold to date, from GM’s early EV1 to today’s Tesla, has had a warranty of more than five years, noted Plug In America advisory board member Chelsea Sexton.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Tracking TARP Funds Donald Marron submits:The TARP continues to grab headlines, so I thought it would be useful to summarize how the TARP money has been used to date. As you may recall, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) created a pool of $700 billion that the Treasury Secretary could use to stabilize the financial sector. The following chart (click to enlarge) summarizes the TARP transactions that have already occurred (dark blue) and any additional funds that Treasury has announced for each program (grayish):Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Arctic Cat, Inc. F1Q10 (QTR End 06/30/09) Earnings Call Transcript Arctic Cat, Inc. (ACAT)F1Q10 Earnings CallJuly 29, 2009 11:30 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Harley Davidson Executives, Investors Wear Generational Blinders Jamie Moye submits:Harley Davidson Inc. (HOG) yesterday reported an 84 percent plunge in third-quarter profits and announced the dissolution of its Buell line of specialty sport motorcycles and the sale of its MV Agusta division in order to focus its resources on its namesake brand. Harley Davidson CEO Keith Wandell said the return from the sale of an MV Agusta or Buell is far less than the return the company gets from a Harley Davidson, and that “we’re going to be able to grow the company more quickly ... by investing in the power of the Harley Davidson brand.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Wandell admitted that both Buell and MV Agusta have a strong following, but that those divisions were “diverting investment dollars away from the Harley brand to support those brands.” The shares rose almost 5 percent on the news, and were up another 3 percent in this morning’s trading, but we wonder if investors have considered how the company plans to generate these greater returns when the Baby Boomer generation that makes up the vast bulk of its customer base is rapidly aging out of the market, and the generations following do not seem to share the same affinity for the iconic brand.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Weak Economy Drags Down Air Traffic The weak economy and deflationary trends are perhaps no more obvious in any part of the economy than they are in the airline and air cargo industries. The Air Transport Association reported the 14th consecutive declining month of cargo volumes for the month of October. Passenger revenue declined 15% year over year despite the 11th consecutive month of price reductions. Strong economy? Inflationary trends? Not in this part of the economy. The ATA reports: The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, today reported that passenger revenue, based on a sample group of carriers,[1] fell 15 percent in October 2009 versus the same month in 2008. This marks the 12th consecutive month in which passenger revenue has declined from the prior year, fueled primarily by the 11th consecutive month of ticket price declines.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |