Tag: electric (Page 13 of 15)

Tesla Stock Drops For Sixth Straight Session

May 22, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla shares extended their recent sell-off on Wednesday after Citi cut its price target on the struggling electric car maker, leaving buyers of its recent share offer, including Chief Executive Elon Musk, $175 million in the hole.

Tesla’s stock dropped 5.5% to $193.88, on track to close below $200 for the first time since late 2016. It has lost a fifth of its value since the company sold a $1.84 billion convertible bond and almost $900 million of stock on May 2 to raise fresh capital and give it more time to stop losing money.

Citi analyst Itay Michaeli, who has a “sell” rating on Tesla, cut his price target to $191 from $238. He pointed to a an email Musk sent to employees last week, telling them he would increase cost-cutting, and that the $2.7 billion in recently raised capital would give Tesla just 10 months to break even at the rate it burned cash in the first quarter.

“The recent reported internal memo, which seemingly called into question prior guidance, didn’t help the risk/reward calculus. The implications can be serious, since an automaker’s balance sheet is always subject to the confidence ‘spiral’ risk,” Michaeli wrote in a client note.

Consumer Reports warned on Wednesday that a recent update to Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance software does not work well and could be unsafe.

“It doesn’t appear to react to brake lights or turn signals, it can’t anticipate what other drivers will do, and as a result, you constantly have to be one step ahead of it,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ senior director of auto testing, said in a news release.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On April 22, Musk told investors that driverless Tesla “robotaxis” would be available in some U.S. markets next year, a claim met by skepticism by some self-driving experts.

UPPING HIS STAKE

Musk is battling to convince investors that demand remains high for the Model 3, the sedan targeted to propel Tesla to sustainable profit, and that it can be delivered efficiently and swiftly to customers around the world. Tesla lost $702 million in the first quarter and warned that profit would be delayed until the latter half of the year.

On Monday, Musk exercised options to buy 175,000 Tesla shares at $31.17 per share, increasing his indirect stake in the company to 34,102,560 shares, according to a filing. With Tesla’s stock down 41% year to date, Musk’s shares, including 102,880 he bought in this month’s capital raise, were worth $6.6 billion on Wednesday.

Tesla’s debt has stalled at lows hit earlier this week. Its recently issued convertible bond due in 2024 priced at 89.09 cents on the dollar, a record low. Its $1.8 billion junk bond traded at 82.5 cents on the dollar, slightly up from the all-time lows it hit on Monday and Tuesday.

The cost to insure Tesla’s debt, as measured by its credit default swap, edged up to roughly 28% of the face value of Tesla’s 2025 bond, from 27.6 % the day before.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; additional reporting by Kate Duguid in New York and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengalaru; editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)

Boeing Supplier Spirit AeroSystems Suspends Outlook

May 1, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

(Reuters) – Boeing Co’s largest supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc reported strong first-quarter results on Wednesday, while following the planemaker in suspending its full-year outlook in the face of the global grounding of 737 MAX jets.

The crisis with Boeing’s most popular aircraft has thrown into doubt orders for a raft of parts makers who have been investing heavily to meet record-breaking demand from the world’s biggest planemaker over the past two years.

Spirit, which makes fuselage, structural engine components and wing parts for the MAX, did a deal with Boeing last month to stick to its current parts delivery schedules for now, and its profits in the first quarter were up 30 percent, according to Wednesday’s quarterly results.

Boeing however has announced cutbacks in its monthly production of MAX jets to 42 from 52 and while it says it is nearing certification for a software fix for the jet, airlines are assuming the planes will not be back in the air before August.

Spirit said with the uncertainty around MAX production it could not stand by its previous full-year outlook which had factored production for MAX jets rising to 57 units per month in June.

“As we now expect to remain at 52 aircraft per month for some period of time, (prior) guidance does not reflect our current outlook,” Spirit Chief Executive Officer Tom Gentile said, adding he was waiting for more clarity from Boeing on MAX’s return to service.

MAX’s other major supplier General Electric Co, which makes engines with Safran SA of France, on Tuesday stuck to its full-year forecasts, while highlighting risk due to MAX’s reduced production.

Another MAX supplier United Technologies Corp last month included an up to 10 cents per share impact in its full-year profit outlook from the groundings of the jet, assuming Boeing produced at 42 aircraft per month for the rest of the year.

Spirit, whose shares are down about 10 percent since the fatal crash of the Ethiopian Airlines’ jet on March 10, rose as much as 3.5 percent to $89.96 in morning trade.

“Given that (Spirit’s) shares have already notably sold off, we think much of this … has been discounted into the price,” Vertical Research Partners Krishna Sinha said.

The company said it has taken actions including deferring capital investments and pausing hiring and share repurchases to mitigate the financial impact of the MAX production change.

On an adjusted basis, Spirit earned $1.68 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.64 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Total revenue rose 13.4 percent to $1.97 billion (£1.51 billion), beating estimates of $1.93 billion.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Tesla Shares Skid After First-Quarter Deliveries Disappoint

April 5, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

FILE PHOTO: A Tesla logo is seen at a groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc shares fell more than 8 percent on Thursday after a bigger-than-expected drop in first-quarter deliveries, led by waning demand for its luxury Model S and X vehicles, added to worries about the electric carmaker’s finances.

At least four Wall Street brokerages cut their price targets on the company’s stock, citing concerns about profitability and revenue after deliveries of the higher-priced luxury cars more than halved compared to the fourth quarter.

RBC analysts called Model S/X deliveries “very disappointing” and estimated the numbers would translate to a more than $1 billion shortfall in revenue compared to previous estimates.

The company had already flagged in February that it expected to post a first-quarter loss as it launched its cheaper $35,000 version of the Model 3 sedan.

In the quarter, Tesla delivered 50,900 Model 3s, the linchpin of its growth strategy, falling short of analysts’ estimates of 58,900, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Tesla also pinned the blame for the first-quarter delivery drop to longer transit times, which analysts said could impact cash flow, even though the company claimed it had sufficient cash on hand.

The company said it had delivered only half of the quarter’s numbers by March 21, with 10,600 vehicles still in transit at the end of the quarter. By comparison, only 1,900 vehicles were in transit at the end of the fourth quarter.

Cowen and Co analysts said that the delivery and transit details suggested “cash was likely dangerously low” after Tesla paid off a $920 million convertible bond obligation in cash in the beginning of March.

Still, there were no new downgrades by brokerages on Tesla shares. The company is currently rated “buy” or higher by 12 of the 30 brokerages covering the company, 7 “hold” and 11 “sell” or lower.

The carmaker reaffirmed its forecast to deliver between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles this year, and said U.S. orders for the new Model 3 outpaced what the company was able to fulfill in the quarter.

Nord LB analyst Frank Schwope called the numbers “more shocking than disappointing” and said there remain doubts whether Tesla could deliver 400,000 cars this year.

Lawyers for Tesla chief Elon Musk will argue on Thursday that he did not violate a fraud settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and should not be held in contempt, the latest twist in a high-profile battle between the billionaire and the government.

Musk’s fight with the SEC, to play out in a Manhattan federal court hearing, has raised investor worries that it could lead to restrictions on his activities or even his removal from Tesla, while distracting him at a pivotal point in the company’s expansion.

(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Tesla Boom Lifts Norway’s Electric Car Sales to 58%!

April 1, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

FILE PHOTO: Electric cars are seen at Tesla charging station in Gulsvik, Norway March 17, 2019. REUTERS/Terje Solsvik/File Photo

OSLO (Reuters) – Almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in Norway in March were fully electric, the Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday, a global record set by a country seeking to end fossil-fueled vehicles sales by 2025.

Exempting battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has upended Norway’s auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan, with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others.

In 2018, Norway’s fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation, and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.

The surge of electrics to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from 442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its 652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle.

(Editing by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)

Embraer Announces CEO Succession

March 20, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva concludes his tenure at the end of April and will support the transition process of the company as Senior Advisor of the Board of Directors.

São Paulo, Brazil, March 18, 2019 – Embraer, following shareholder approval of the transaction with Boeing, announces that the current President and CEO of the company, Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, concludes a successful professional cycle with the company on April 22, 2019 which is the end of his current two year elected term.

“Paulo Cesar idealized the partnership with Boeing and led the negotiation process of the transaction that will bring Embraer and Brazil to a much more competitive and prominent level in the global aviation industry,” said Alexandre Silva, Chairman of the Board.

For 22 years at Embraer, Paulo Cesar came from the financial market to structure the company’s sales financing area. For six years he was President and CEO of Commercial Aviation and in 2013 launched the E2 Program, the medium-sized commercial jets considered today to be the most efficient in the market.

In 2016, Paulo Cesar became President and CEO of the Embraer Group, with a mission to make the company more efficient, competitive and better prepared to face structural changes in the global aviation market.

His administration established three key initiatives focused on value creation and the sustainability of the company. The first was the transaction with Boeing. The second was the creation of the Passion for Excellence program, a structural transformation project focused on reducing costs and increasing operational efficiency, generating significant annual recurring savings. The third was the creation of EmbraerX, responsible for disruptive innovation and the development of opportunities for the future, such as eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle), a project that will revolutionize urban transport in partnership with Uber.

“Without the support of the Board and Embraer’s 18,000 employees and colleagues, none of our achievements would have been possible”, noted Paulo Cesar. “We are challenged to remain at the forefront of engineering and operations. In Executive Aviation and Defense, and with the KC 390 joint venture with Boeing, we will expand our international competitiveness and everything indicates that we will have another 50 years of success ahead.” And he added: “I am sure that the new leadership of the company will find fertile ground ahead to expand and consolidate Embraer.”

Paulo Cesar was invited to be a Senior Advisor to the Board, with the task of facilitating the integration of the future President and CEO and advising the Board on the monitoring of assets and resources segregation, an integral part of the process of concluding the partnership with Boeing. As it was reported, 96.8% of Embraer’s shareholders approved an agreement with the North American company last February, which should be concluded after obtaining all approvals of the Regulatory and Competitive Agencies in Brazil and abroad.

Embraer also informs that the future President and CEO, to be elected for the next term, will be recruited externally and announced on or before the Ordinary General Assembly on April 22nd.

About Embraer

Embraer is a global company headquartered in Brazil with businesses in commercial and executive aviation, defense & security. The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets aircraft and systems, providing customer support and services. Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. About every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off somewhere in the world, transporting over 145 million passengers a year.

Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service and parts distribution centers, among other activities, across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Boeing CFO Greg Smith (left), Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg (center), and Embraer CEO Paulo Cesar Silva

Story and images from http://www.embraer.com

Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 Crashes, Killing 157

March 10, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

* flight had 157 people from more than 30 countries aboard

* Boeing 737 MAX 8 was also involved in October Lion Air crash

* Many families learned of crash from social media (Updates with more details from CEO about pilot and plane)

By Duncan Miriri and Maggie Fick

NAIROBI, March 10 (Reuters) – An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October.

Sunday’s flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8:38 a.m. (0538 GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8:44 a.m.

“There are no survivors,” the airline tweeted alongside a picture of CEO Tewolde GebreMariam holding up a piece of debris inside a large crater at the crash site.

Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Tewolde in a news conference. The dead included Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British, Dutch, Indian, Slovakian, Austrian, Swedish, Russian, Moroccan, Spanish, Polish, and Israeli citizens.

Weeping relatives begged for information at airports in Nairobi and Addis Ababa.

“We’re just waiting for my mum. We’re just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She’s not picking up her phone,” said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping.

The aircraft, a 737 MAX 8, is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Oct 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight.

The cause of that crash is still under investigation.

Ethiopian’s new aircraft had no recorded technical problems and the pilot had an “excellent” flying record, Tewolde said in a news conference.

“We received the airplane on November 15, 2018. It has flown more than 1,200 hours. It had flown from Johannesburg earlier this morning,” he said. “The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return.”

“UNSTABLE SPEED”

Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 km (38 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, with 149 passengers and eight crew aboard, the airline said.

The flight had unstable vertical speed after take off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted.

The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down.

It was not clear what had caused the crash. Boeing sent condolences to the families and said it was ready to help investigate.

This is the second recent crash of the latest version of Boeing’s workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017. The 737 is the world’s best selling modern passenger aircraft and one of the industry’s most reliable.

A preliminary report into the October Lion Air crash, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor, but did not give a reason for the crash. Since then, the cockpit voice recorder was recovered and a final report is due later this year.

ANGUISHED RELATIVES

At Nairobi airport, many relatives were left waiting at the gate for hours, with no information from airport authorities. Some learned of the crash from journalists.

Robert Mutanda, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law, a Canadian citizen.

“No, we haven’t seen anyone from the airline or the airport,” he told Reuters at 1pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost. “Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best.”

Kenyan officials did not arrive at the airport until 1:30 p.m., five hours after the plane went down.

James Macharia, the cabinet secretary for transport, said he heard about the crash via Twitter.

Families were taken to Nairobi’s Sheraton hotel, but said they were still waiting to hear from airline staff eight hours after the accident.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

Under international rules, responsibility for leading the crash investigation lies with Ethiopia but the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will also participate because the plane was designed and built in the United States.

Representatives of Boeing and Cincinnati-based engine-maker CFM, a joint venture between General Electric and General Electric Co and France’s Safran SA will advise the NTSB.

Ethiopian is one of the biggest carriers on the continent by fleet size. The plane was among six of 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets the rapidly expanding carrier has ordered.

The fleet will continue flying since the cause of the crash is not clear, the CEO said.

Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after take-off, killing all 90 people onboard. The Lebanese blamed pilot error, which was disputed by the airline.

(Additional reporting by Hereward Holland, Omar Mohammed and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi; Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Tiksa Negeri in Bishoftu; Tim Hepher in Brussels and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Air Lease Says Boeing Going ‘Full Speed Ahead’ on Midsized Jet

March 7, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

(Reuters) – Boeing Co is indicating “full speed ahead” for a new midsized airplane in what would be the first all-new jet program for the world’s biggest planemaker in more than a decade, Air Lease Corp’s chief executive, John Plueger, said on Wednesday.

Boeing reiterated on Wednesday that it will make a decision in 2020 on whether to launch the plane, which aims to address the middle of the jet market between traditional narrowbody jets with one aisle and long-distance widebody planes. It can start seeking offers in 2019, subject to launch.

“Boeing is signalling full speed ahead but there’s still a lot to be decided in these programs,” Plueger said at a conference, noting the company had met with Boeing in Seattle on Friday.

In an emailed statement, Boeing said it is still working through the business case for the new jet, adding: “If we decide to offer the airplane and the market responds positively, we will proceed with a launch decision sometime in 2020.”

Air Lease, one of the largest aircraft lessors, said it sees interest in Boeing’s proposed mid-market aircraft from airlines, some of which are looking for longer range while others, such as Asian carriers, seek the lowest possible cost per seat kilometre.

Still, Boeing is taking a “thoughtful approach” to the potential project following a series of cost overruns and delays with its last jet program, the 787, and has yet to discuss possible pricing, Air Lease Executive Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said.

Air Lease will meet on Saturday with Airbus SE, which is preparing to counter the potential new jet by Boeing with a new version of its A321 and the larger A330neo.

While Boeing and Airbus have traditionally launched new jets alongside purchase commitments from airlines, interest by aircraft lessors like Air Lease is forming an increasingly important role in the decision-making process, industry sources have said.

Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian said on Monday that it is interested in a mid-market aircraft from Boeing to replace 200 757 and 767 aircraft over the next decade.

Last month, Rolls-Royce dropped out of the race to power Boeing’s planned jet, strengthening a leading position in the high-profile contest for a transatlantic venture involving General Electric Co and France’s Safran.

“Somebody had to drop out and the competition at this point is progressing normally,” Plueger said.

Pratt & Whitney is also a potential supplier for the new Boeing jet.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Interest is rising for Boeing’s new 757 replacement jet!

Tesla to Unveil Model Y on March 14

March 4, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc will unveil its Model Y on March 14 at an event in LA Design Studio, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Sunday.

“Model Y, being an SUV, is about 10 percent bigger than Model 3, so will cost about 10 percent more & have slightly less range for same battery,” Musk said in a tweet. https://reut.rs/2EvYrUU

The Shanghai Gigafactory, based in eastern China, aims to manufacture Model 3 and Model Y cars, with annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles.

Tesla earlier this week offered a $35,000 version of its Model 3 sedan and said its global sales would now be online-only, steps designed to increase demand and cut overhead costs for the electric vehicle maker.

(Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee and Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

Tesla-Model-Y

Rolls-Royce Quits Boeing’s Mid-Market Engine Race

February 28, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

LONDON (Reuters) – Rolls-Royce dropped out of the race to power Boeing’s planned mid-market aircraft on Thursday, saying it did not want to risk more disruption for its airline customers by rushing out a product without extensive testing.

The move strengthens a leading position in the high-profile contest already held by a transatlantic venture involving Rolls’ arch-rival General Electric, industry sources said,

Britain’s Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for large civil aircraft and military planes, wants to avoid a repeat of the problems with its Trent 1000 engine that powers Boeing’s Dreamliner 787.

Chief Executive Warren East said he had taken the “very difficult decision” to withdraw from the Boeing competition because it couldn’t make the development of its new UltraFan architecture fit the timetable for the aircraft.

Boeing has proposed launching a new mid-sized jetliner to fill a gap between the narrow and wide-body aircraft, with airline operations beginning in 2025.

“If you enter into service with an engine that is not sufficiently mature, then you are almost inevitably going to run into lots of in-service issues, lots of customer disruption and lots of incremental costs,” East told reporters.

He said, however, that Rolls was still committed to UltraFan, a major new fuel-efficient architecture that will power wide-body jets towards the back end of the next decade.

CFM International — a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran — as well as Pratt & Whitney are also potential suppliers for the new Boeing jet.

Pratt & Whitney recently re-entered the civil market for narrow-body jets and wants to expand to larger ones, but has been hit by industrial problems.

UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS

In the nearer term, Rolls is still dealing with the costs and disruption of fixing Trent 1000 engines caused by the poor durability of components.

“On this issue we have indeed turned the corner,” East said, although he added that the level of customer disruption was still unacceptable.

It raised the Trent 1000 charge to 790 million pounds from 554 million pounds at the half year, contributing to a full-year operating loss of 1.16 billion pounds ($1.54 billion), and allocated another 100 million pounds in cash to the problem.

The issue has damaged Rolls’ standing with its big customers.

British Airways owner IAG said on Thursday it would order 18 Boeing 777-9s, rather than a competing package from Airbus that industry sources said included the A350, which is powered by Rolls.

“I have been frustrated, largely with the performance of Rolls-Royce, not so much with Airbus,” IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh said.

East, however, said Rolls had an excellent relationship with BA and put the choice down to IAG’s fleet requirements.

“I am totally confident we will be continuing to be a major partner with BA for many, many years into the future,” he said.

East said that aside from Trent 1000, the rest of the business was performing well, although the large engine deliveries of 480 fell short of its 500 target, in part due to the challenge of stepping up Trent 7000 production.

Shares in Rolls were trading down 3.4 percent at 950 pence, underperforming a 1 percent drop in the FTSE 100.

The company reported a 8 percent rise in underlying revenue to 15.1 billion pounds and a doubling of operating profit to 616 million pounds.

However, changes in Rolls-Royce’s dollar-pound hedge book had a significant impact on its results, and were in part responsible for a reported full-year loss of 2.9 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Edmund Blair and Keith Weir)

Nissan Recycles Old Leaf Batteries for Opus Camping Trailer

February 20, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

The RV industry has seen an impressive resurgence in recent years. And while the electric vehicle scene is also booming, options that take both sectors into consideration are still rather thin. Nissan already has an all-electric mini-camper in its arsenal but today we’re getting a look at a new project coming down the line. Leaning on technology from its Leaf electric vehicle, Nissan is leveraging rechargeable energy on its ROAM battery pack, which will be paired with the forthcoming Opus concept camping trailer. Enough on-board energy to keep campers warm and fed for nearly a week makes this one of the more intriguing concepts we’ve seen in a while.

Click the link below for the full story!

https://9to5toys.com/2019/02/19/nissan-opus-camping-trailer/

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