Michael SimariCar and Driver
Aston Martin let us all in on a bit of corporate intrigue this week when it announced it was suing Nebula, the Swiss group that helped finance Aston’s mid-engined Valkyrie supercar. Aston says the group has been withholding customers’ payments for the cars to the tune of $21 million dollars and that, as a result, Aston will end its contract with Nebula which, conveniently, removes Aston’s obligation to pay royalties to Nebula from sales of the Valkyrie. Nebula, predictably, thinks it’s still entitled to the royalty payments. We smell a countersuit.
This Week in Sheetmetal
We have seen the new Honda Civic hatchback and it is good. Unlike the sedan, this version of the Civic will be available with a manual transmission, plus it’s got 10 cubic feet of storage space on the sedan. And even better, it doesn’t look as weird as the previous generation Civic hatchback. We eagerly await our chance to drive one.
If there was ever any fear that a hybridized Ferrari would be a dud, the new 296GTB should put doubters at ease. The $321,000 coupe will be powered by a new V-6 plug-in hybrid powertrain making 818 horsepower but maxing out at 16 miles of electric range.
Porsche
Porsche has released details on the of the 992-generation 911 GTS. The car will have 472 horsepower, rear- or all-wheel drive, and will be available as a coupe, convertible, or with a targa top. And there was even more good news for Porschephiles this week when the company announced it had reached an agreement with the state of California that would reverse the state’s decision to ban manual-transmission 911 GT3s from being registered there.
And the news you’ve been waiting for: Ford will supply both gasoline and electric powertrains for the next generation of USPS delivery trucks. Defense contractor Oshkosh will build the trucks in South Carolina and says it will hire 1000 workers to staff its plant there.
Infrastructure Week, Cont’d
President Biden and a bipartisan group of Senators say they’ve come to an agreement on a plan to fund $1.2 trillion in infrastructure projects. We never count our bills until they’re passed, but if this agreement holds it will provide $7.5 billion to fund a national EV charging network and another $7.5 billion to electrify the nation’s bus fleet and boost the manufacturing of components used in EVs.
That doesn’t quite add up to the $174 billion Biden originally wanted to spend on promoting EVs, but Biden has said he won’t sign a slimmed-down bipartisan bill unless other, smaller bills covering the parts of his agenda left on the negotiating room floor make their way to his desk, too. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has drawn a similar line in the sand, promising not to schedule a vote on a bipartisan package until the Senate has handed down a bill supporting the expanded infrastructure spending that Republican lawmakers wouldn’t sign on to. All of which means there are probably more infrastructure weeks in our future.
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Don’t Say It’s Over
Analysts at Cox Automotive think used-car prices may be nearing their peak after huge surges during the spring as car manufacturers have struggled with the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Cox says prices of wholesale used cars are already now increasing more slowly than they were in April and May, and that the prices of individual used cars will likely track the same way in the coming weeks.
But that doesn’t mean the chip crisis is over, at least not yet. Mazda, Nissan, Stellantis, and Subaru all announced this week new plans to idle plants in July as a result of the shortage. And a new study from IHS Markit found that the average age of vehicles on the road in the United States is now 12.1 years. Our aging fleet has non-pandemic-related causes, like the fact that cars are higher-quality and last longer than they used to. But the shortage of new cars—and their correspondingly high prices—has played a role.
Further Reading
In a tragic loss, the Philipines Bureau of Customs crushed $1.2 million worth of illegally imported vehicles, including a McLaren 620R, and posted pictures of the incident to Facebook to deter other would-be criminals from trying the same tricks.
Read about some less-than-excellent EV sales results for Volkswagen in China.
Or read about the dog-and-pony-show Lordstown put on in Ohio this week to help build investor (and media) confidence in its product.
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