TM

In 2019, General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) was the fifth-largest automaker in the world, behind Volkswagen AG (OTC: VWAGY), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. GM famously held the top spot in global auto sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 to 2007.

In this article, we are going to list the 13 largest gay pride parades in the world. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 largest gay pride parades in the world. Gay pride parades are also called pride marches, pride events, and pride celebrations. It normally includes a series of occasions and frequently […]

Ford CTO Ken Washington says 2021 will be the year that electric cards truly begin to take off in the U.S., and that self-driving cars will start appearing on roads in 2022.

Tesla shares look fully valued to investing legend Byron Wien of Blackstone. Here's what Wien told Yahoo Finance Live.

The tech industry continues to power ahead with autonomous vehicle technology.

Acute shortage of semiconductor chips in the auto market is prompting production cuts. The demand for semiconductor chips bodes well for industry players including NVDA, TSM, NXPI and MXIM.

(Bloomberg) -- Artificial intelligence, quantum computers and autonomous vehicles are among the fastest-growing areas of technology, with American companies often in the lead, according to a new study of U.S. patents issued over the past five years.International Business Machines Corp. received the most patents in machine learning and quantum computers, while Ford Motor Co. is the most active in areas of vehicle navigation and control systems, according to the analysis by Fairview Research’s IFI Claims Patent Services.The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued 352,013 patents last year, a 1% decrease that’s likely attributable to work-flow changes because of the coronavirus pandemic, said IFIClaims Chief Executive Mike Baycroft. IBM topped the list of patent recipients for the 28th year with 9,130 patents, while Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea was second with 6,415 new patents issued last year.Of the top-10 fastest growing fields, IBM also was No. 1 in areas of quantum computers, machine learning and computer systems using neural networks that imitate how the human brain works. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp. also ranked in the top five of those three areas.“We are focused on areas where we think it will keep IBM competitive in the future,” said Kathryn Guarini, chief operating officer of IBM Research. “We see cloud, AI and quantum as the trifecta of technologies for the IT industry.”The company, based in Armonk, New York, has integrated artificial intelligence into all areas of its business, she said. One of its new patents is for ways AI can understand conversational tones, such as when a person contacts customer service. It’s just one example that backs up a Brookings Institution report that AI is likely to transform white collar and higher paid jobs.“It’s never our intent to replace the human,” Guarini said. “Our hope and our intent is that it makes all of us more efficient and improves productivity.”Quantum computers, which use the movement of subatomic particles to process data in amounts that modern computers can’t handle, could create new ways for drug and agriculture companies to discover new compounds and financial service companies to improve encryption.With the classical computers, “we’ve made tremendous progress, making it more efficient and secure,” Guarini said. “But there has not been a revolution in how the technology works, for decades and decades. Quantum is on a whole new level.”Other fast-growing areas include display technology, with Samsung Display Co. in the lead; data transfer technology in computer design led by Intel Corp. and China’s Huawei Technologies Co., and plant and seed development led by Bayer AG’s Monsanto.In the two areas involving autonomous vehicles, Toyota Motor Corp. and LG Electronics Inc., were the next highest recipients behind Ford.The second-fastest growth area, albeit with a small number of overall patents, was in the area of electrical smoking devices with Philip Morris International Inc. as the top recipient over the past five years.“Patents are a significant mechanism for companies to develop intellectual property assets,” Baycroft said. “This is how you compete in the global market.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- More than a year after its outbreak, the coronavirus keeps finding new ways to hit carmakers.After first wiping out auto demand, the virus is now hindering parts supply: chips used in vehicles are harder to come by because semiconductor manufacturers allocated more capacity to meet soaring demand from consumer-electronics makers such as Apple Inc.The shortage risks dragging on, with lockdowns and travel restrictions prompting housebound consumers to snap up more phones, game consoles, smart TVs and laptops to get online. Lower down in importance to chipmakers, auto manufacturers from Toyota Motor Corp. to Volkswagen AG risk not getting enough goods to fuel a fledgling recovery in their own industry.“Customers can’t build because they can’t get parts,” Glen De Vos, chief technology officer of car-component supplier Aptiv Plc, said in an interview. “We’ve avoided a situation where we’re shutting down customers, but we’ve been impacted.”Semiconductor shortages may persist throughout the first half as chipmakers adjust their operations, researcher IHS Market predicted on Dec. 23. Automakers will start to see component supply gradually ease in the next two to three months, China Passenger Car Association, which groups the country’s largest carmakers, said Monday.Chipmakers favor consumer-electronics customers because their orders are larger than those of automakers -- the annual smartphone market alone is more than 1 billion devices, compared with fewer than 100 million cars. Automaking is also a lower-margin business, leaving manufacturers unwilling to bid up chip prices as they avoid risking their profitability.And while the newest cars require more chips, so do the latest consumer gadgets. Smartphones using so-called 5G connectivity require 40% more semiconductors than older 4G versions. Chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported record fourth-quarter revenue last week, with new 5G iPhones taking up a large chunk of capacity.The auto-chip shortage stems from overly conservative demand estimates made early last year as car plants closed to cope with the onset of the pandemic, De Vos said. Once the plants re-opened, vehicle sales rebounded more strongly than anticipated after governments unleashed stimulus packages and commuters avoided public transport.At the same time, foundries such as TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp. and Globalfoundries Inc. as well as chip assemblers like ASE Technology Holding Co. weren’t expanding fast enough to meet the pandemic-induced spike in demand for consumer gadgets. Those bottlenecks snarled the flow of chips not just to cars, but also in Xboxes and Playstations and even certain iPhones. The foundries are responsible for making a significant portion of the world’s semiconductors and serve automotive-chip companies such as NXP Semiconductors NV, Infineon Technologies AG and Renesas Electronics Corp.The Trump administration’s move to blacklist China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. in December drove customers to seek alternatives and further constrained the global chip supply. Some semiconductor buyers have also been building up inventories to hedge against future shortages or disruptions.“It’ll take some time,” De Vos said, “but we’re climbing out of it.”Auto-chip companies cut orders with Taiwanese foundries significantly in the first half of 2020 and when they wanted the capacity back in the second half, the contract chipmakers had allocated it to others, a person familiar with the matter said.General Motors Co. has asked for the Taiwanese government’s help to secure chip supply, and Taiwanese officials have helped to relay the request to foundries including TSMC, according to the person. The European Union has also approached Taiwanese officials about the same issue, the person said.There’s no guarantee such requests will yield results -- smartphone and gadget customers contribute more to foundries’ revenue and profit and are willing to shell out more.“Consumer-electronics companies are ready to pay more for chips to ensure their gadgets will get to market on time,” said Jeff Pu, an analyst at GF Securities. “Carmakers are less inclined to do so.”Meanwhile, it’s not simple to boost semiconductor supply. Chipmakers need to spend years and billions of dollars to build fabrication plants capable of cranking out silicon for a wide range of products. They tend to err on the side of conservative planning because of the risks involved -- and the enormous potential losses.At least one major automotive chip supplier is having a significant volume of its orders turned away by TSMC because of lack of capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. There are no signs of the situation getting easier for carmakers, the person said. A TSMC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the company will discuss automotive chips at its investor conference on Thursday.Such setbacks have left some carmakers with no option but to cut production.Toyota said Tuesday it’s partially halting production in China while Honda Motor Co. is reducing output at five factories across North America as it becomes harder to procure chips.Toyota, the world’s No. 2 automaker, said the impacted lines were at its factory in Guangzhou, in China’s south. The suspension could result in a cut in January’s output of as much as 30% depending on how long it drags on, the Nikkei reported earlier Tuesday, without attribution. Toyota jointly operates the site with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Toyota is additionally lowering output of a pickup made in Texas.Honda, which had to scale back output at its U.K. plant last week, said it will reduce manufacturing of the Accord, Civic and Insight sedans, as well as the Odyssey minivan and Acura RDX, a crossover sports-utility vehicle. The Japanese automaker is also reducing output by about 4,000 cars at a domestic factory, while Nissan Motor Co. is adjusting production of its Note hatchback.VW said last month it would have to change manufacturing plans. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is temporarily closing a Canadian plant and delaying the restart of output at a Mexican Jeep factory until the end of January.“The global semiconductor shortage is presenting challenges and production disruptions,” Ford Motor Co. said in an emailed statement. The carmaker is working to prioritize key vehicle lines, “making the most of our semiconductor allocation.” In North America, Ford is idling a SUV factory in KentuckyCarmakers’ predicament is exacerbated by the fact that chips are crucial for the latest features they are touting, be it assisted driving, large displays or connectivity. Semiconductor-based components are set to account for more than 50% of a car’s manufacturing cost by 2030, up from about 35% now, according to a report by China EV 100 and Roland Berger.“Chips are getting more important for the upcoming software-defined cars,” said Shi Ji, an analyst at Haitong International Securities Co. in Hong Kong. “They are essential to all cars, not just electric ones.”(Updates with detail on Toyota, Honda cuts in 19th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Nidec Corp., the world’s top supplier of motors for everything from hard drives to power plants, is betting it can make a key component for Tesla Inc.’s electric vehicles cheaper and better than anyone else, possibly including its chief executive officer, Elon Musk.“I very much want to have a top-level discussion with Elon Musk,” Jun Seki, Nidec’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview. Without an outside partner, Tesla won’t be able to achieve Musk’s goal of producing 20 million EVs a year by 2030, he said.It’s an audacious overture to a company that flirted with being the world’s most valuable last week, making Musk the richest man, but Nidec isn’t just any ordinary parts supplier.The manufacturer is a quiet behemoth in the global electric-motor industry. Although the vast majority of people who use the company’s products don’t know its name, Nidec’s motors are used in about 85% of the world’s hard drives and it controls almost half of the global market for brushless motors found in everything from air conditioners to factory robots. Nidec is Japan’s ninth-largest enterprise, with a market value of about $82 billion on Tuesday, after climbing 2%. The stock rose 73% last year.That’s made CEO Shigenobu Nagamori Japan’s fourth-wealthiest individual with a net worth of $10.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He poached Seki from Nissan Motor Co., where Seki had come up through engineering to becoming vice-COO, a year ago to embark on a bet-the-company pivot. The goal? Turning the manufacturer Nagamori founded in a shed in Kyoto 47 years ago into the world’s top supplier of motors for electric vehicles. Nagamori, 76, is backing the effort with a pledge to invest close to $10 billion over the next five years to grab a market share of 40% to 45%.With Japan, California and other major automobile markets mandating that all new car sales be electric over the next two decades, the global EV traction motor market is on track to reach about $29 billion by 2026, according to consultancy firm Shibuya Data Count. Up until now, much of the industry’s focus has been on building out the capacity to produce enough batteries, while improving technology to make them more efficient and expand the range of EVs.After batteries, traction motors are the most expensive component of an EV, meaning the segment is ripe for claiming if a company is able to mass-produce a disruptively cheap product. Combining the motor, gears and electronic components, traction motors are also used in electric trains; they must be able to withstand mechanical stress and cool efficiently because of the high power levels involved.“As we move forward with mass-production, costs will come down and it’ll be easier to win out against rivals,” said Seki, 59, who traveled abroad several times during the 2020 pandemic to secure deals with automakers, seeking to edge out Bosch Corp., ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Dana Inc. and other competitors.Tesla, based in Palo Alto, California, is just one of the many carmakers in Nidec’s sights. The Japanese manufacturer has already reached agreements to provide EV motors to 22 automakers, including China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. and France’s Peugeot SA, according to Seki.Whether it’s a traditional auto manufacturer, or an electric-truck startup or Apple Inc., which is said to be planning a self-driving electric car, “any new company entering into the realm of electric vehicles is a chance for us,” Seki said. Through its joint venture with Peugeot, Nidec also has a “big opportunity” with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, as the automaker is set to merge with Peugeot, he added.Nidec’s pitch to automakers is its “E-Axle” system, which combines motors, gears and inverters into a single package. As EV makers seek smaller and more efficient powertrains, that will give an edge to manufacturers that are able to design high-precision durable gears and cool them effectively, all while keeping costs down.To secure the technologies and resources needed, Nidec is ready to spend as much as 1 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) on mergers and acquisitions, Seki said. He singled out gear and inverter manufacturing as two industries ripe for growth.If Nidec’s vision plays out, it will be able to offer Tesla and other EV makers a traction motor that’s less than $1,000 in under five years, down from the standard today which can run up to $2,000 or more. While batteries make up about a third of a typical EV’s cost, a basic motor makes up about 10%.Why Building an Electric Car Is So Expensive, For Now: QuickTakeNidec sees Europe and China as relatively quick adopters of EVs. As such, it has invested heavily in the latter over the past three years and is planning to inject some 200 billion yen into its European operations. The company is looking at Serbia as the top candidate for a new EV motor factory it’s looking to build in the region.For now, Seki is laying the groundwork to be able to meet a spike in demand that’s anticipated in the decade after 2025. Thanks to greater investment, battery costs are coming down, making EVs more affordable. At the same time, a number of governments including Japan and the U.K. have said they will ban the sale of new gasoline vehicles.By 2035, annual EV sales are projected to exceed 48 million units, up from roughly 2 million this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. To clinch a share of that, Seki is counting on adding Tesla as a customer. Although Nidec’s U.S. representatives have approached the EV maker, whose market capitalization now exceeds that of Toyota Motor Corp. and Japan’s six other major car manufacturers combined, no deals between the two have been announced.Despite its outsized valuation, Tesla made about 500,000 vehicles last year, or less than a 10th of what Toyota will produce. Tesla is believed to mainly design and manufacture its own traction motors for the Model S, X, Y and 3. With new factories being built in Texas and Germany to add to plants in California and China, Musk struck an optimistic tone in September that Tesla will hit his lofty goal.Seki said there are also a number of storied automakers that won’t consider diverging from in-house production of the important electrification technology. Nissan, for one, will equip future EV models with its own dual electric motor “E-4orce” system. General Motors Co. is also designing proprietary e-axle systems.While Nidec is a relative newcomer to the EV motor sector with much left to prove, the manufacturer is betting that its plunge into the technology can be modeled after its success in hard-drive motors, where it invested early and built production capacity to drive down costs.The company is regarded as a bellwether of manufacturing trends, picking up early on shifts such as the growth of factory automation. Today, Nidec produces more than 3 billion motors a year, and is betting that the automotive business will make up a growing portion of the 10 trillion yen in annual net sales that Nagamori aims to reach by fiscal 2030.The next move Nidec is considering after traction motors is to offer nearly complete EV platforms. There will be demand for such packages from new entrants in the sector that would prefer to focus on a vehicle’s interior and styling, Seki said.With the wave of electrification hitting the automotive industry “this kind of creative destruction is already happening,” he said.(Updates with shares in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

NIO Annual Day was quite an event with major breakthrough announcements. But can the firm pose challenge to EV king Tesla as it steps up its electrification game? Read on to know more.

Electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is worth about $700 billion following an incredible rally in 2020. Tesla is worth more than Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, and Mastercard. Tesla now sells around half a million cars annually, while 64 million passenger cars were sold globally in 2019, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.

This fund manager can't get to a stock price beyond $300, even with the best possible case of $1.2 trillion of sales in 2035.

While the U.K. car industry paralyzed in 2020 thanks to the coronavirus mayhem, clarity over its relationship with the EU is the only ray of hope for 2021.

In this article we are going to list the 15 biggest wholesale companies in the world. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 biggest wholesale companies in the world. Before we go on discussing the wholesale industry as well as its importance in the global supply chain. Sometimes people get confused between manufacturers, distributors, […]

(Bloomberg) -- On a day that Saudi Arabia jolted the oil market with an output cut it called a “gesture of goodwill,” the kingdom’s de-facto ruler took center stage in a mirrored concert hall, ready to resolve a different crisis.Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had presided over the rift with Qatar for more than three years. But now there were just two weeks before a new U.S. leader took office, and President-elect Joe Biden had promised to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.” Combined with threats from Iran and a weakening economy, the prince’s calculation had been shifting: reconciliation looked better than conflict.Gulf Arab States Agree to Restore Qatar Ties in U.S.-Backed DealSo on Tuesday, as television cameras rolled in the northwestern Saudi town of Al Ula, Prince Mohammed hugged Qatar’s ruler and ended the split, casting himself as a peacemaker. Hours later, Saudi Arabia announced it would cut oil production by a million barrels a day to support prices for fellow producers -- a directive that the energy minister said came straight from the crown prince and which sent the shares of U.S. energy companies soaring.With those moves, Prince Mohammed underscored his public presence with a conciliatory tone - at least for now. Since the 35-year-old prince rose to power in 2015, the world’s largest crude exporter had entered into a series of uncharacteristically high-risk ventures: a war in Yemen, partially cutting ties with Canada, waging a bitter oil price war with Russia, and flirting with a trade war with Turkey.New ApproachOne Gulf-based diplomat, who asked not to be named discussing Saudi internal politics, described Prince Mohammed as attempting to pull two levers of influence at the same time. With one, he’s eking out whatever gains he can squeeze from the Saudi-friendly administration of Donald Trump. This has been done by drawing on the desire of special adviser Jared Kushner, who attended the summit, to also project himself as a peacemaker. With another lever, he’s positioning himself as a leader that Biden can’t afford to alienate or ignore, especially by appearing to be constructive.“This is an effort to take a leadership role, to try and gain some diplomatic advantage with the incoming Biden administration, and a realization perhaps that the last four years allowed too much foreign policy adventurism,” said Karen Young, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.Trump was close to Saudi Arabia, taking his first foreign trip as president there, driving a hard line against its arch-enemy Iran, and shielding Prince Mohammed from repercussions for the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul.Costly ConflictsIt’s not just Biden driving the new tone, though - the terrain Prince Mohammed treads has also shifted. His plan to diversify the economy and wean it off oil faces major setbacks, and the kingdom’s reputation has taken a dive after a series of scandals. The coronavirus pandemic increased the urgency of challenges at home.‘Back to Square One:’ Saudi Arabia’s Double Crisis Hits HomeDuring much of last year, Prince Mohammed took a step back from the public sphere and hunkered down on the Red Sea coast in Neom, one of his signature futuristic mega-projects. It was the finance minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, and King Salman -- Prince Mohammed’s father — who addressed the country, warning citizens of tough times.At Tuesday’s summit, King Salman was absent and Prince Mohammed was the star. The setting reflected the prince’s ambitions, highlighting his plan to turn Al Ula into a world tourism destination. After the meetings, he took Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad on a tour. They rode in a white Lexus with Prince Mohammed at the wheel.The image would have been unthinkable a few years ago, when the prince’s closest advisers regularly disparaged Qatar. Saudi Arabia and its allies have accused the wealthy Gulf state of interfering in their internal affairs, supporting extremism and using its influential media channels as propaganda weapons against neighbors, charges that Doha denies.Global CloutRegional dynamics were key in prompting the mending of ties, including Saudi Arabia’s desire to focus on Iran, said Hesham Alghannam, a political scientist and senior research fellow at the Gulf Research Center. Biden has said he’ll look to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran that Trump abandoned, an outreach viewed with trepidation by Saudi Arabia that’s also provided added incentive for it to mend ties with Arab neighbors.“Saudi wants to be the referee of the disagreement between Gulf states, instead of being part of these conflicts,” Alghannam said.The output cut was another demonstration of the kingom’s regional and global clout. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, an older half-brother of the crown prince, said it showed Saudi Arabia leading the oil world and helping others suffering from lower oil prices, including Iraq.But even that move highlighted a change in Saudi Arabia’s oil policy under King Salman and Prince Mohammed. After decades of priding itself on putting oil above politics, the royal palace has become more interventionist, and its energy machinations more politicized.To that end, Prince Abdulaziz described the production cut as a “political, sovereign” step rather than a “technical” one. It will be costly, too. At current prices, it’ll cost the kingdom $3 billion a month in lost oil revenue, according to Bloomberg News calculations although the actual figure could end up smaller.But its global impact was immediate. Crude prices jumped to a 10-month high above $50 a barrel. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is allowing Russia to boost output, a first, and less than a year after their price war. It’s another sign that the kingdom isn’t looking for confrontation for now.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

While the auto market is expected to recover at a steady pace in 2021, sales are not likely to rebound to 2019 levels until next year.

GM U.S. auto sales grew 5% in Q4 as demand for Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks boomed. Toyota sales rose. but Ford and Fiat Chrysler saw declines.

Ford’s F-150, whose manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) starts at $28,940, remained the top-selling car for the 40th year in a row due to its utility and wide range of customizable options. “Used pickup truck sales remained strong and even grew in sales during the pandemic, while all other segments declined, as consumers needed them for work,” iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer said in a statement. After pickup trucks, the most popular car types among American buyers were compact SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Rogue, and sedans like the Honda Civic and Toyota Camry.

Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) today reported December 2020 sales of 249,601 vehicles, an increase of 20.4 percent on a volume basis and up 7.5 percent on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis compared to December 2019.

The adventurous life awaits! "The Sienna Life" campaign, kicking off today, welcomes a refined and versatile minivan featuring bold design, available all-wheel drive, and enhanced fuel efficiency: the all-hybrid and all-new 2021 Toyota Sienna.