GLBMotors.com – Transportation Specialists

In 2018, fledgling EV maker Arrival partnered with UPS to build a new generation of electric delivery vans, beginning with a pilot fleet of 35 vehicles, for use in both the U.S. and Europe. The company quickly expanded its scope from there, working on plans for an electrified bus, an EV rideshare vehicle for Uber and an $11.5 million battery plant. However, on Thursday the company abruptly announced that it has decided to shutter its bus and automotive projects to instead “refocus its resources on the US market while further advancing its enabling technologies.”

In a press release Thursday, the company stated that “scaling production in the Bicester [UK] microfactory requires significant further investment in hard tooling and working capital and the Company has determined that the benefits of such an investment would be best directed to the U.S. market.” As such, the company will restructure and focus its efforts on the Van and the underlying tech that makes it run.

Arrival cites the U.S. EV tax credit as a major influence on its decision, noting that the Inflation Reduction Act is, “expected to offer between $7,500 to $40,000 for commercial vehicles, [a] large addressable market size, and substantially better margins.” Unfortunately, the company will have to (ugh, their words) “right size” the UK workforce, as in layoffs. 

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Used-vehicle inventory and asking prices are stabilizing while used supply held steady in September from August, and is higher than a year ago, according to the Cox Automotive analysis of vAuto Available Inventory datav released Oct. 14. Meanwhile, growth in listing prices is slowing.

The total supply of unsold used vehicles on dealer lots, both franchised and independent dealers, across the U.S. stood at 2.46 million units at the close of September, about the same as the revised number at the end of August and 10% higher than September 2021.

The total days’ supply at the end of September stood at 50, compared with the revised 52 days’ supply at the end of August. Days’ supply in September was 8 days above year-ago levels. Used-vehicle inventory has been holding at about this level since mid-January.

The Cox Automotive days’ supply is based on the daily sales rate for the most recent 30-day period, in this case, ended Sept. 26. Sales were 1.48 million vehicles, compared to the revised 1.43 million at the end of August. For the month of September, Cox Automotive estimates used retail sales declined 8% from August and are down 10% from a year ago.

The average listing price for a used vehicle was $28,237 at the end of September, up from the revised $28,064 at the end of August. That price is only $1,686, or 6%, ahead of a year ago.

“It may well be that higher interest rates are beginning to hurt used-vehicle demand because consumers can’t afford the higher monthly payments,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, in a news release. “Slowing sales and building inventory could force dealers to lower prices over the next few months.”

As with new cars, the lower the price, the tighter the inventory. The days’ supply increases with every $10,000 increase in price category. Days’ supply for under $10,000 vehicles is 33. At the opposite end of the spectrum, days’ supply for vehicles over $35,000 is 65.

Also, as with new vehicles, Toyota, Subaru and Honda have the lowest days’ supply of used vehicles at about 44.

Originally posted on Vehicle Remarketing

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SUZUKA, Japan — Max Verstappen is now a two-time Formula One world champion, both titles awarded under bizarre and unprecedented circumstances long after he crossed the finish line.

The Red Bull driver won the rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday and didn’t learn he was champion until F1‘s governing body penalized Charles Leclerc after the race.

“The championship obviously did not come the way this time around,” Verstappen initially said after climbing from his car following his 12th victory of the season. The Dutchman even apologized to the crowd on the track’s public address system.

Seconds later, Verstappen was told he was a two-time world champion and crew members and friends suffocated him with hugs.

“Once I crossed the line I thought: ‘It was an amazing race, good points again. But I’m not world champion yet.’”

The 25-year-old said he was tipped off when his mechanics started to cheer, but said he was still confused.

“I don’t mind it was a little confusing,” he said. “I find it actually quite … funny.”

Verstappen’s first title was won in last year’s season finale at Abu Dhabi, where seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton dominated the race until a late caution. It was then that race control set in motion an unprecedented sequence of events when since-fired race director Michael Masi allowed for a late restart.

Verstappen passed Hamilton to win the race and his first championship, but Mercedes disputed the way the race ended and the teams argued with the FIA for hours before Verstappen was finally, officially, named champion and able to celebrate.

Two titles for Verstappen signals a changing of the guard in F1, even if Verstappen’s championship-clinching races will forever be remembered for their controversial endings.

In Suzuka, Verstappen started from the pole in pouring rain only for the race to be stopped after two laps as several cars crashed. The race resumed two hours later, but only 28 of the 53 laps were completed and Verstappen led the entire way.

The Belgian Grand Prix a year ago was not completed in the rain and F1 for the sixth time in history awarded only half points for that shortened event. So nearly all the teams figured Sunday’s race was only going to be worth half points again.

The entire paddock seemed surprised when the FIA then ruled full points would be awarded. But even that wasn’t enough: Leclerc received a post-race penalty that dropped the Ferrari driver from second to third and officially gave Verstappen the points margin needed to clinch the title with four races remaining.

“So then we had enough points, so we were world champions again,” summarized Verstappen. “It’s a great feeling, but when I crossed the line I didn’t believe that we would have won the title right there.”

The race was messy from the start in the rain when Carlos Sainz Jr. spun and was knocked out of the race, and Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu also had a dramatic spin but continued.

Organizers stopped the race after two laps.

Pierre Gasly complained on his radio that he passed a recovery vehicle that was improperly on the track as the safety car emerged just as the race was red-flagged. It triggered rage throughout the paddock because in 2014, French driver Jules Bianchi collided with a recovery vehicle on the Suzuka track. Bianchi was placed in an induced coma and died nine months later, and he was one of Gasly’s closest friends.

“What is this tractor on track? I passed next to it,” Gasly radioed his AlphaTauri team. “This is unacceptable. Remember what has happened. Can’t believe this.”

The FIA said after the race that it is investigating the deployment of safety vehicles.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Perez were also incensed.

“We lost Jules Bianchi here and that should never, ever happen, so there needs to be a full investigation as to why there was a recovery vehicle on the circuit,” Horner said.

And on social media Perez complained: “How can we make it clear that we never want to see a crane on track? We lost Jules because of that mistake. What happened today is totally unacceptable! I hope this is the last time ever I see a crane on track!”

Even Bianchi’s father, Philippe, chimed in with an Instagram post.

“No respect for the life of the driver, no respect for Jules’ memory. Incredible,” he wrote.

Long after the race, Gasly was penalized for speeding under red flag conditions.

Meanwhile, Verstappen never looked back even when he wasn’t sure he’d clinch the title Sunday.

But just like last year, when Mercedes threatened for four days to take the Abu Dhabi finish to the highest sporting appeals panel, Verstappen is again waiting to see if his two titles are intact.

The FIA is investigating if Red Bull exceeded last year’s spending cap and a decision is expected to be announced Monday. It could involve financial penalties, or even strip Verstappen of his 2021 title. After the mess in Suzuka, stripping Verstappen of last year’s title would be a public relations nightmare for F1 and the FIA.

Regardless, Verstappen has proved his worth on the track over the last two seasons and this year has been unstoppable.

Best driver.

Best car.

Best team.

Verstappen has won in all fashions this season — from the back of the field, driving through traffic and even recovering from an in-race spin. Sunday’s race was another example of his dexterity as mistakes, errors and poor racing conditions never slowed him.

Verstappen essentially had the title wrapped up before the summer break, and it was never a question of if he would win — but when and in how many races.

Winning two titles in a row moves Verstappen into elite company. It also marks a changing of the guard that could mark the end of the Hamilton era.

Some of the modern-era drivers who have won at least two in a row include Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, and Alain Prost.

Jackie Stewart and Nelson Piquet won multiple titles, but never back-to-back.

Verstappen has edged past Hamilton as Formula One’s main man. The 37-year-old Hamilton, whose Mercedes has been disappointing this year, has not won a race since Saudi Arabia, the penultimate race of 2021.

Verstappen has racing is his blood. His father, Jos Verstappen, ran more than 100 races in F1, but failed to ever win. The elder Verstappen was once a teammate of Schumacher with Benetton for part of the 1994 season.

His mother, Sophie, was a top-ranked kart racer and a skilled driver in her own right.

Verstappen, who was born in Belgium and learned racing there, drives under the flag of the Netherlands, where after school each day he’d cross the border to his father’s race shop and work on becoming a future F1 champion.

He is the youngest driver to ever make a Formula One debut, at 17 driving for Toro Rosso in 2015.

With 12 victories this season he is nearing the season record of Schumacher and Vettel, both with 13. Schumacher won 13 races in 2004, Vettel did it in 2013.

Schumacher had one of the most dominating seasons in 2002 when he won the title at the French Grand Prix with six races still to go. That was when F1 was a 17-race season.

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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Well, it was nice while it lasted. Toyota had seemed to just be getting its mojo back with the Gazoo Racing sub-brand. GR has been on a roll in recent years, with rapid-fire releases of driver-oriented performance cars like the GR Supra, GR Yaris, GR86 and GR Corolla. Unfortunately, if the GR86’s chief engineer Yasunori Suezawa is correct, fans shouldn’t hold their breaths for another.

Speaking through a translator to Australia’s Drive about future GR models, Suezawa said, “There is [sic] none left actually, so this [the GR86] is the last.” It’s not clear if he meant the absolute last ever, full stop, or if there are no longer any more in the works at the moment. It’s also possible that future sports cars may not fall under the Gazoo Racing brand. It was less than a year ago that Toyota showed what appeared to be a concept for an electric sports car with a mid-“engine” profile. 

Suezawa went on to pitch the GR Sport lineup, which dresses up more pedestrian models with sportier wheels, aero bits and sometimes suspension tuning á la BMW’s M Sport or Mercedes’s AMG-Line. “For the GR [performance brand], basically this [the GR86] is the last,” he said. “But we have a GR Sport [brand] that we will be [widening] with models like the Corolla, Yaris Cross and C-HR.”

That’s small consolation for those expecting a revival of, say, the MR2. It also calls into question whether there will be successive generations of the current crop of GR-branded cars. If the GR86 follows in the footsteps of the previous generation, it might have a nine-year lifespan. The GR Supra’s fate will probably be tied to the BMW Z4‘s. The GR Yaris and GR Corolla will likely depend what the next generation brings for the non-GR variants of those cars, and whether Toyota sticks with WRC. 

It would come as a shock if Toyota let Gazoo Racing just peter out. Not because enthusiasts love the GR brand necessarily, but because Toyota has made such a big deal about unifying its sport models and racing activities under this one banner. As long as interesting products keep coming, though, Toyota can call them whatever they want.

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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded a total of $59 million in grants to improve safety at highway-railway crossings in four states: California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania.  The grants are made possible by the FHWA’s Commuter Authority Rail Safety Improvement (CARSI) program.

In 2021 alone, there were 2,145 collisions, 235 fatalities, and 669 injuries at highway-rail crossings nationwide, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).  The objective of the CARSI grants is to improve safety at highway-rail crossings for all travelers — drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. 

Individual grants for five specific projects across four states range from $4.4 million to $15 million. The five recipients of the latest CARSI grants include:

The Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), operator of Metrolink, will receive a $12.5 million grant to bring three high-volume at-grade highway-railway crossings in Ventura County up to current SCRAA Grade Crossing Safety Standards and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project will add wider medians and signal features that help drivers move away from the track before a train arrives. For pedestrians, it will add emergency swing gates and right-of-way fencing. Also noteworthy, the crossings are located in or near impoverished or disadvantaged communities.

The Southern Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) will receive $12.9 million to modernize 25 rail crossings with improved lighting and other safety features on its Tri-Rail commuter rail line in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. The rail line is in an area where vehicular traffic has increased and where train traffic is expected to increase over the next several years as well.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the Metro North Railroad (MNR) is awarded a $4.4 million grant to make accessibility improvements for pedestrians and warning systems upgrades and to implement other safety improvements at five grade crossings located in Dutchess and Putnam Counties on the MNR’s Hudson and Harlem Lines, which have substantial train volumes.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) will receive $14.9 million in funding for work on nine grade crossings located in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on the LIRR’s Central, Main Line, and West Hempstead Branches, including interconnection to traffic signal systems, updates to railroad flashing light signals, installation of audible warning devices, enhanced pedestrian treatments and pathways, signs, and pavement markings for vehicles approaching the grade crossing, and roadway resurfacing and sidewalk expansion.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is awarded a $15 million grant to install gates, add pavement markings, and make other improvements at 22 highway-railway grade crossings in Philadelphia and in Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties on its regional commuter rail system, which shares significant trackage with freight carriers.

Highway-rail grade crossing collisions and pedestrian trespass on tracks together account for over 95% of all railroad fatalities, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration.

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• At Tesla’s AI Day event, Elon Musk touted the benefits of Tesla being a publicly traded company.
• Musk seems to have changed his stance since tweeting that he was considering taking Tesla private in 2018.
• Part of Musk’s initial $44 billion bid to buy Twitter was financed by a huge loan against his Tesla shares. 

Over the last four years, Elon Musk seems to have changed his tune about being a private company. 

In more than one instance during Tesla’s AI Day event on Friday, Musk touted the benefits of Tesla being a publicly traded company, a very different stance than he has held in the past. 

“Tesla… being a single class of stock owned by the public is very important and should not be overlooked. I think this is essential because if the public does not like what Tesla is doing … the public could buy shares in Tesla and vote differently,” Musk said. 

“This is a big deal. It’s very important that I can’t just do what I want. Sometimes people think that, but it’s not true,” he added when discussing Tesla’s plans to develop its humanoid AI robot. 

Just over four years ago, the Tesla CEO made waves when he tweeted that he was considering taking the company private. 

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018

One month after sending that tweet, Musk settled fraud charges with the SEC for allegedly “false and misleading statements.” Musk neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but he resigned as Tesla’s chairman and paid a $20 million fine. 

Musk is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Twitter over whether he will buy the social media company for $44 billion. Musk’s initial takeover bid was financed by a huge loan against his Tesla shares. Tesla’s shares are down more than 30% this year, which puts him in a potentially shakier financial position should his agreement to buy Twitter be ruled legally binding.