BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) &#8211; China&#8217;s auto industry has inflated car sales for years through a burgeoning government-backed grey market that registers new cars right off the assembly line and then ships them overseas as &#8220;used&#8221; vehicles.
These so-called &#8220;zero-mileage&#8221; cars have never been driven but they are being exported as used to markets like Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East, allowing Chinese automakers to show growth and to dispose of cars that it would be difficult to sell domestically, according to a Reuters review of government documents and interviews with five auto dealers and car traders.
&#8220;This is the outcome of an almost-four-year price war that has made companies desperate to book any sales possible,&#8221; said Tu Le, Michigan-based founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.
The practice only gained national attention after the boss of Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor criticized the sale of zero-mileage used cars within China in May. On June 10 the People&#8217;s Daily newspaper condemned the sale of zero-mileage used cars domestically.
The paper, which often signals the positions of China&#8217;s top Communist Party leaders, blamed these fake used cars for driving down prices amid a withering domestic price war and called for &#8220;tough regulatory action&#8221; to restore order.
But the export and sale of fake used cars is actively encouraged by regional governments in China, according to a Reuters review of state media reports and government documents.
Local governments have embraced the practice as vital to meeting ambitious targets for economic growth set by Beijing, according to a Reuters review of local policy documents and state media articles.
Reuters has identified 20 local governments in China &#8211; including major export hubs like Guangdong and Sichuan &#8211; that have described their support for the export of zero-mileage used cars in publicly available government documents.
The tactics include creating extra licenses for the export of zero-mileage used cars, fast-tracking tax rebate claims, investing in export infrastructure, and funding networking events to encourage zero-mileage used-car exports, the government documents showed.
The zero-mileage used car export market works like this: as a fresh car emerges from the assembly line, an exporter buys the car either directly from the automaker or from a dealer, registers it with a Chinese license plate, and then immediately marks it as a second-hand car for shipping abroad. Along the way, the automaker books the car as sold and logs the revenue.
The support for the practice from local governments would make little sense anywhere outside China&#8217;s centrally planned economy. But here, showing rapid growth in sales and employment can bring about promotion or unlock new funding while missing economic targets that trickle down from Beijing can lead to demotions of local officials.
Because these export firms both purchase and sell a single car, the transaction value is double that of new or used-car purchases, so local governments court them to set up shop on their turf to quickly and artificially boost their GDP statistics, two Chinese auto industry executives said.
The tactic is only one sign that China&#8217;s car industry – the world&#8217;s largest – is allowing production to outpace demand, driving a protracted domestic price war and spurring accusations of automotive &#8220;dumping&#8221; abroad.
Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, praised the practice earlier this month during an online panel discussion hosted by Tencent’s news portal, saying it was an alternative channel for automakers in China to access certain markets overseas that they may not be able to access due to rising trade barriers globally.
He added that it also helped to satisfy overseas demand for China-made cars in countries where Chinese brands had yet to enter.
Reuters contacted all the local governments mentioned in this article for comment but none responded. China&#8217;s State Council and commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comment. China&#8217;s foreign ministry referred queries on the practice to &#8220;the department in charge,&#8221; without elaborating.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Local government support has taken various forms, from simplifying paperwork, to allocating extra quotas for local vehicle registrations, to setting up free warehouses for zero-mileage used cars close to China&#8217;s land and maritime borders, the Chinese documents showed.
In February 2024, the planning commission of the southern city of Shenzhen, one of China&#8217;s richest cities and a tech hub that is home to Huawei and Tencent, pledged to expand the export of zero-mileage used cars as part of efforts to reach an annual target to export 400,000 vehicles of all kinds.
Nearby, the southern Chinese metropolis Guangzhou announced earlier this year it had created a mechanism to support and accelerate the export of zero-mileage gasoline vehicles by allocating extra quotas for local registrations that are otherwise capped to mitigate traffic congestion and air pollution in the city.
Xinmi, a district of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of China&#8217;s third-most populous province of Henan, said in February that it helped local firm Xinjiasheng Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd to &#8220;promote zero-mileage used car exports, in order to use exports to drive domestic sales.&#8221;
Reuters found a dozen local governments were boosting the export of zero-mileage used cars as part of their strategy or core to their plans for growth.
Sichuan province, one of China&#8217;s most important economic engines, said in October in a policy document it had supported the creation of an &#8220;online export ecosystem for zero-mileage used NEVs&#8221; by promoting e-commerce platforms like Alibaba International, where 100 Sichuan-based used-car sellers are now active.
Xinjiasheng Supply Chain Management and Alibaba did not respond to requests for comment.
MARKET SHIFTS
The practice began sometime after 2019 when China allowed used cars to be exported to other countries. Now thousands of traders are involved in passing off new cars as used to qualify for the channel, according to Wang Meng, a consultant for the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Of the 436,000 used passenger and commercial vehicles exported by China in 2024, 90% are estimated to be &#8220;zero-mileage,&#8221; Wang said.
China overtook Japan to become the world&#8217;s largest exporter of new cars in 2023 and exported 6.41 million vehicles last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Of these, about 6% would have actually been zero-mileage used cars, according to Wang&#8217;s estimates.
Two dealers and two industry experts said the majority of zero-mileage used cars are gasoline powered and thus less desirable in the Chinese market. But electric vehicles, which are subject to generous government-funded purchase subsidies, also make up a significant portion.
Huanyu Auto, a used-car seller in China&#8217;s west metropolis of Chongqing, expanded to the zero-mileage used-car business in 2022.
The returns were so good in 2022 and 2023 that they were able to earn 10,000 yuan ($1,400) in profit off an electric sedan that they had purchased in China for 40,000 yuan by selling it in Central Asia, said William Ng, director of the firm&#8217;s international market division.
Criticism has started to mount. On June 7, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Chinese automaker Changan called for a crackdown on exports of zero-mileage used cars at a Chinese auto conference, saying the practice could &#8220;enormously damage Chinese brands&#8217; image&#8221; abroad. Changan did not respond to a request for further comment.
Xing Lei, the Massachusetts-based founder of consultancy AutoXing which provides insights on Chinese EV companies to foreign investors, said the practice could cause foreign investors to assess Chinese automakers&#8217; sales skeptically.
&#8220;How many are real or inflated? No one knows,&#8221; he said.
&#8216;DUMPING&#8217; CONCERNS
The proliferation of new cars being shipped for sale with &#8220;used&#8221; tags is reinforcing fears that China is dumping subsidized vehicles overseas, at a time when Beijing is scrambling to find export markets outside the United States, now heavily protected by tariffs.
Some countries, concerned that the influx of cars will crowd out local dealers and confuse consumers, are starting to push back.
&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely seeing friction and tension in markets where there are already manufacturers on the ground there,&#8221; said Michael Dunne, a consultant who closely follows the China auto industry.
Russia in 2023 issued a government decree effectively banning zero-mileage used cars from brands that already had official distributors in the country. The commerce bureau of Heihe, a Chinese city that sits on the China-Russia border, said last November on its website that this applied to Chinese brands such as Chery, Changan, and Geely.
Geely declined to comment while Chery and Changan did not respond to requests for comment.
Other countries&#8217; market regulators, including Jordan, are finetuning their definition of used cars by mandating a longer period after a vehicle&#8217;s licensing or production before it is classified as used.
Ng, of Huanyu Auto, said growing competition from new entrants such as mom-and-pop stores and even TikTokers selling zero-mileage used cars was causing the trade to become less lucrative.
&#8220;They used to sell vases, wine and are now selling cars in the same way,&#8221; he said of the new entrants. &#8220;This is chaos.&#8221;
(Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Tbilisi; Editing by Mike Colias and Michael Learmonth)

Employee repairs a second hand car at a used car market in Beijing

Smoke & Mirrors In China’s Auto Industry: New Cars Exported As ‘Zero-Mileage Used’ To Inflate Sales

Automobiles

Business

China

Communist China

Economy

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is revising fuel economy standards to make cars more affordable for Americans.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and medium and heavy-duty fuel efficiency programs (MDHD). NHTSA&#8217;s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards regulate how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975 directs the Secretary of Transportation and the NHTSA to prescribe average fuel economy standards for vehicles.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making vehicles more affordable and easier to manufacture in the United States. The previous administration illegally used CAFE standards as an electric vehicle mandate – raising new car prices and reducing safety. Resetting CAFE standards as Congress intended will lower vehicle costs and ensure the American people can purchase the cars they want,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-announces-key-step-toward-making-cars">stated</a>.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
“EPCA was passed in the context of the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s when American consumers and the U.S. economy were threatened by gasoline shortages and high fuel prices,” DOT <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2025-06/cafe-interpretive-rule-2127-ZA26-web.pdf">notes</a>, adding, “the purpose of the CAFE program was to induce automakers into offering America’s consumers more efficient vehicle options to advance the national goal of conserving energy &#8230; The statutory prohibition was clear at the time of enactment and has remained clear: it is impermissible for NHTSA to consider the fuel economy of dedicated automobiles in setting maximum feasible fuel economy standards.”
“NHTSA will reset the CAFE and MDHD standards programs consistent with the law,” DOT stated. “This interpretation lays the appropriate groundwork for standard-setting rulemakings that will rest the agency’s regulatory programs as determined necessary to bring them into compliance with Administration policy and applicable substantive statutory requirements as enacted by Congress &#8230;”
On the day he was inaugurated, President Donald Trump issued <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-01956.pdf">Executive Order</a> 14154, in which he stated, “It is the policy of the United States to ensure that all regulatory requirements related to energy are grounded in clearly applicable law; to eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles; by terminating, where appropriate, state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles &#8230;”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Marks Newark Airport Runway Reopening

Trump Admin Is Slashing Fuel Efficiency Standards, Claims It Will ‘Make Cars Affordable Again’

CAFE standards

Cars

Department of Transportation

Electric cars

Politics

Sean Duffy

Transportation

It’s great to be back after a long Christmas break. Much has happened in the world since my last post. Today, however, I’d like to begin with a story that’s unfolding in New York. 
There’s one thing we know: Government officials, whether they&#8217;re elected politicians in this country or despots in the third world, do not like being reminded of their failures. This is why the greatest crime in any dictatorship is noticing. You aren’t supposed to notice things that are embarrassing to the ruling regime. It’s also why comedy and satire are banned in places like North Korea, just like they&#8217;re banned on late-night talk shows in this country. Petty, corrupt and ineffective people can&#8217;t stand it when their incompetence is exposed. They&#8217;re willing to take extreme measures to prevent that from happening. Right now, in the city of New York, we&#8217;re getting a very clear sense of what those &#8220;extreme measures&#8221; look like, in practice.
If you&#8217;ve seen the news lately, you know that the subway system is one of the most obvious and unavoidable signs of New York&#8217;s decline. It&#8217;s a monument to the many failures of the city government. As of late last year, ridership on New York&#8217;s subway system is <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-subway-ridership-hits-new-milestone-but-still-far-short-of-pre-pandemic-levels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">down</a> more than 25% from pre-pandemic levels. That means that, every day, there are at least a million fewer people riding the subway in New York, as compared to five years ago.
It&#8217;s not exactly a great mystery as to why people are avoiding it. There&#8217;s a constant stream of violent attacks on the trains and the platforms — from people being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/assailant-charged-after-allegedly-shoving-man-directly-iin-path-of-oncoming-ny-subway-train" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed in front of the trains</a> to a woman getting <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-identifies-woman-burned-to-death-on-subway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burned alive</a>. Yes, if you didn’t hear about that, a woman was burned alive, on a train, in New York, in front of a crowd of people. This is what’s happening now in the third world country known as New York City. And that&#8217;s just within the last few weeks. These attacks are effectively endorsed and enabled by New York&#8217;s government, which has made the political decision not to incarcerate most criminals.
That explains why a man named Jamar Banks was able to use the subway the other day. The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/05/us-news/madman-accused-of-two-nyc-train-stabbings-is-busted-carrying-large-knife-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that, &#8220;A subway maniac with 87 prior arrests was just busted for two transit stabbings — carrying the large knife he allegedly used in the violence &#8230; Banks&#8217; rap sheet includes arrests for alleged attempted murder, weapons possession, assault, criminal trespassing, turnstile jumping and petty larceny.&#8221;
If politicians in New York didn&#8217;t want to destroy the city, they&#8217;d immediately throw every criminal like Jamar Banks in prison. They&#8217;d start enforcing the law. It’s actually not hard to prevent people from getting randomly stabbed, torched, or thrown in front of trains. This is a very easy issue to address. The city could effectively end all of this madness overnight, in one fell swoop, if they wanted to. All you have to do is take all the people who are already known violent criminals and put them in prison. Then you have to ban homeless people from setting up camp in the tunnels or on the trains, and arrest anyone who causes a disturbance. This could all be done in one day.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1508-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
But none of that is happening. Instead, rather than admit they&#8217;ve failed their constituents, politicians in New York have just decided to compel citizens to use the subway. They&#8217;ve opted to make it financially untenable for most New Yorkers to avoid public transit. That&#8217;s their solution to the fact that no one in the city wants to ride the subway anymore. They&#8217;re going to force them to do it.
I&#8217;m talking about so-called &#8220;congestion pricing.&#8221; After several years of debate, this &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; has just taken effect in Manhattan. In essence, this is a tax on anyone who wants to drive a vehicle into the heart of New York during work hours — as if it wasn&#8217;t already expensive enough to live in that diseased, rat-infested, crime-riddled, reeking, filthy, godforsaken hellhole of a city. This new tax is a very clear effort to force New Yorkers to use the subway system, which has become an international embarrassment. People don’t want to use it because they don’t want to be assaulted by schizophrenic vagrants. So the solution isn’t to get rid of the schizophrenic vagrants. Instead it’s to simply force everyone to use it, basically offering law abiding citizens up as sacrifices to the dregs of the community.
Specifically, this new tax covers the vast majority of vehicles entering Manhattan between 60th Street and the Battery, which includes Times Square, Hell&#8217;s Kitchen, the theater district, and other high-traffic areas. From 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m on weekends — which is obviously a huge block of time — the so-called &#8220;peak period toll rate&#8221; is in effect. For all &#8220;passenger and small commercial vehicles,&#8221; that toll rate is $9.00 during the peak period.
To be clear about the political dynamics here, the majority of New Yorkers oppose congestion pricing, as far as I can tell. A Sienna College <a href="https://abc7ny.com/nyc-congestion-pricing-nearly-two-thirds-of-new-yorkers-oppose-plan-siena-college-poll-finds/14721916/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from last summer found that nearly two-thirds of people living in the city didn&#8217;t want a $15.00 &#8220;congestion toll.&#8221;
In response to the outcry, the governor of New York briefly suspended the plan. Then she said she&#8217;d lower the toll a few dollars, claiming it would save New Yorkers some money. To reiterate, she claimed she was saving New Yorkers money by taking less of their money than she was originally going to take. This was a prime example of political &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUMgX7-yZZs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">girl math</a>,&#8221; as I outlined at the time. And now it&#8217;s taken effect.
Naturally, some Left-wing New Yorkers rallied in response to their government gouging them even more. But instead of rallying against it, they actually rallied to thank their overlords for the privilege of being bilked by them. Some of these scenes are so absurd that they don&#8217;t even seem like they can be real. 
Here for example is a crowd cheering as the signage for the congestion pricing is unveiled:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;3, 2, 1… Happy congestion pricing!&quot; &#8211; New Yorkers *applaud* as the MTA unveils new regulatory tolls on them <a href="https://t.co/o55GtYlw92">pic.twitter.com/o55GtYlw92</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1875782069361766504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Yes, you just heard someone shouting, &#8220;Happy congestion pricing.&#8221; They are celebrating the implementation of an unprecedented tax, as if it&#8217;s a national holiday.
 This would seem to be boot-licking taken to an unparalleled extreme, and it is. But we should also understand that really they&#8217;re celebrating the fact that, because of this tax, wealthy New Yorkers will have to contend with fewer working class people on the roads in Manhattan. The same people who celebrated the assassination of the health care CEO as some kind of twisted &#8220;victory for the little guy&#8221; are very, very happy about using a tax to keep poor people away from them.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN 2025: GET 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a></h3>
That&#8217;s a pretty big clue that none of these people actually care about &#8220;the little guy.&#8221; If you ask them, of course, they&#8217;ll pretend otherwise. In particular, they&#8217;ll say that congestion pricing is necessary because it will help pay for improvements to the subway system. 
For example, when the governor briefly halted the plan for congestion pricing last summer, this was the response:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Pro-congestion pricing rally held in Manhattan" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y-nnHGHfXi4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
If you want to explain to someone how cities like New York are collapsing, just show them that clip. According to the residents of New York, it&#8217;s a &#8220;great betrayal&#8221; that the government isn&#8217;t taxing them enough. That is how these people think.
To be fair, the first guy was arguably a little less pathetic. He was talking about all of the alleged benefits that will result from congestion pricing. He&#8217;s saying they&#8217;ll be able to improve the subway system to make it more &#8220;accessible,&#8221; which is a talking point a lot of these protesters used. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Parents with strollers rally in favor of congestion pricing in NYC" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qTGJf7Y3NeI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
One of the many false assumptions these people are making is that more money will improve the subway system. But that&#8217;s not true. And we know that because the New York subway system is a comically obvious example of waste and mismanagement in government.
For example, the Second Avenue subway that was recently constructed in Manhattan somehow cost more money than any other similar subway system on the planet — by a lot. As <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/in-nyc-subway-a-case-study-in-runaway-transit-construction-costs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg reports</a>: &#8220;At $2.5 billion per mile, construction costs for the 1.8-mile Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway were 8 to 12 times more expensive than similar subway projects in Italy, Istanbul, Sweden, Paris, Berlin and Spain.&#8221;
So that&#8217;s one potential way to raise revenue, right off the bat. They could stop lighting money on fire. Secondly, if you&#8217;re worried about congestion in Manhattan, you could try a lot of things besides charging people to drive their cars. You could, for example, try opening more lanes, instead of closing them for cyclists and construction. Anyone who&#8217;s ever driven through Manhattan could tell you that. Here&#8217;s one example:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The city caused this “congestion”. And now anti-car activists are celebrating by taunting drivers at toll gantries.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FuckCongestionPricing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FuckCongestionPricing</a> <a href="https://t.co/nMIYOiWQLY">pic.twitter.com/nMIYOiWQLY</a>
&mdash; The Fight against Anti-Car (@NoBikeLanes) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoBikeLanes/status/1875717693355298824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
This is something no one ever mentions as a possible solution. Get rid of the stupid bike lanes. You’ll find this same thing in cities all over the country. You have to sit in traffic because the city has blocked off entire lanes so that people can ride their bicycles in the street. As I’ve said many times, they might as well block off lanes so that you can use your ab roller or bench press in the middle of the street. If you want to exercise — that’s great, I support it. But you shouldn’t be doing it in the road when everyone is trying to commute to work.
One of the arguments you&#8217;ll hear from these activists is that, somehow, this new tax will reduce carbon emissions and change the weather and save the planet. This is science, you see. Step 1: you pay a toll. Step 3: hurricanes stop happening. The problem is that Step 2 is a bit foggy. And anyway, even if you assume that reducing carbon emissions by a tiny amount will change the weather for the better, it’s a moot point, because this won’t actually reduce carbon emissions. Instead, traffic is going to move elsewhere. People living in New Jersey understand that pretty well, which is why they&#8217;re suing to stop this tax.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
But regardless, even if you don&#8217;t buy any of the counter-arguments — even if you think that New York&#8217;s government urgently needs more money to improve the subway — it&#8217;s still not clear why &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; is the best way to raise that revenue. Why not raise taxes on those evil corporations that the Left claims to hate so much? Why are they raising taxes on regular citizens instead?
It only makes sense when you realize, again, that the objective is to force more people into public transit, and get them off the roads.
Admittedly, this whole fiasco may seem irrelevant to anyone who has the good sense to not live in New York. But this sort of madness can be found, in varying degrees, wherever Democrats have power. The idea that Trump’s re-election would be some kind of wake up call for Democrats is a fantasy. They can’t be woken up because they aren’t asleep or in some sort of trance. They’re doing exactly what they want, and their policies are having precisely the effect they intend. 
Here for example is an image from the New York subway system:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 NYC subway riders are all terrified of being shoved in front of a train. <a href="https://t.co/HCXmcRJ69S">pic.twitter.com/HCXmcRJ69S</a>
&mdash; Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1876039855458979983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
You&#8217;ll notice that everyone is standing against the wall, because they don&#8217;t want to get pushed on the tracks by some psycho. It&#8217;s straight-up dystopian and you have to wonder how long people will put up with it.
If there’s any waking up that can happen and must happen, it’s among the average citizens in places like New York. If they ever come to their senses and realize that the people they put in power are actively and intentionally making their lives worse in just about every measurable way, then maybe things will start to change for the better.
Unfortunately, for everyone living in New York, based on the celebrations we&#8217;re seeing in support of &#8220;congestion pricing&#8221; — which is really a tax on using your own property and going about your daily life — it doesn&#8217;t look like that will happen any time soon.

NY Congestion Pricing Plan’s Fate Unclear After Court Ruling

2025 Just Started And Things Are Already Getting Crazy

Kathy Hochul

Manhattan

Matt Walsh

New York

New York City

Opinion

Subway

Traffic

The fact that phone apps connected to new cars may permit marketers, insurers, and hackers to glean information about drivers has catalyzed concern.
“Modern cars are a privacy nightmare,” the Mozilla Foundation <a href="https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/">stated</a>, adding, “Every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.”
“Many can track where you go and when, how fast you drive and how hard you brake, where you park and spend time, even what music or podcasts you listen to,” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/stop-car-spying-on-you-415998b7?mod=hp_jr_pos2">The Wall Street Journal</a> noted. “Such information can be a gold mine for marketers and insurers—and a target for hackers.”
Car companies also have the capacity to collect a driver’s medical information and genetic information, the Mozilla Foundation concluded. Additionally, the foundation found that 84% of the car brands it researched admitted they could conceivably share the driver’s personal information with service providers, data brokers, and other businesses. 76% of the brands said they could sell the driver’s personal data.
“Car companies are becoming tech companies,” Thorin Klosowski of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. “Self-policing hasn’t been shown in other tech industries to be a reliable way for companies to operate.”
The Federal Trade Commission<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2024/05/cars-consumer-data-unlawful-collection-use"> warned</a> in May, “Car manufacturers—and all businesses—should take note that the FTC will take action to protect consumers against the illegal collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data. Recent enforcement actions illustrate this point: Geolocation data is sensitive and subject to enhanced protections under the FTC Act.”
“Cars are much like mobile phones when it comes to revealing consumers’ persistent, precise location,” the FTC noted. “In a series of seminal cases in recent years, the Commission has established that the collection, use, and disclosure of location can be an unfair practice. In <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/ftc-order-prohibits-data-broker-x-mode-social-outlogic-selling-sensitive-location-data">X-Mode</a>, the FTC alleged that the data could be used to track people’s visits to sensitive locations like medical or reproductive health clinics, places of worship, or domestic abuse shelters. Similarly, in <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/ftc-order-will-ban-inmarket-selling-precise-consumer-location-data">InMarket, the Commission </a>alleged that the company’s internal use of sensitive data to group consumers into highly sensitive categories for advertising purposes was unlawful.”

SPAIN-TELECOM-MWC-MOBILE-WORLD-CONGRESS

Privacy At Risk: Vehicles’ Phone Apps May Expose Your Personal Info

Apps

Auto Companies

Privacy

Technology

Ford Motor Company revealed this week that it lost more than a hundred thousand dollars for every electric vehicle that it sold during the first quarter.
Ford&#8217;s electric vehicle unit reported a $1.3 billion loss, amounting to a $132,000 loss per electric vehicle sold during the first three months of the year, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/24/business/ford-earnings-ev-losses/index.html">reported</a>.
The company saw a 20% decrease in sales volume and, because of low demand for electric vehicles across the industry, was forced to slash the prices of its electric vehicle offerings.
Ford said that it expects its electric vehicle division to lose $5 billion this year, an increase of $300 million from the $4.7 billion loss that it suffered last year.
&#8220;Americans don’t want EVs at levels Biden’s climate hysteria require,&#8221; businessman Andrew Puzder posted on X. &#8220;Ford’s EV Q1 losses soared to $1.3 billion — a ridiculous $132,000 per EV sold. All Ford’s profits came from combustion engine vehicle sales. Collectivist policies destroy prosperity.&#8221;
The company announced earlier this month that it was delaying the production of two new electric vehicles and that it will instead focus on making more hybrid vehicles as consumer demand for electric vehicles continues to plummet.
“Many companies rushed in too fast with E.V.s that were too expensive and there was not as much of a market for them as they thought,” Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst for transportation and mobility at the research firm Guidehouse Insights, told the The New York Times. “That’s made it a lot tougher to sell those vehicles.”
Numerous companies have been forced to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/apple-ends-multi-billion-dollar-effort-to-build-electric-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scrap their plans</a> to build electric cars, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mercedes-scraps-plan-to-only-sell-electric-vehicles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cancel their plans</a> to go all electric, or in some cases are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ev-startup-fisker-halts-production-to-raise-emergency-funds-amid-cash-crunch-from-low-demand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struggling</a> just to stay in business.
Consumers regularly have complained about the high prices of electric vehicles, their quality and reliability, the lack of charging stations, the time it takes to charge them, how inconvenient they can be, and their significantly decreased performance during cold weather conditions.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-buttigieg-mocks-people-who-dont-want-electric-vehicles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Buttigieg Mocks People Who Don’t Want Electric Vehicles</a>

2023 North American International Auto Show Held In Detroit, Michigan

Ford Reports Staggering Loss On Every Electric Vehicle It Sold

electric vehicles

Ford Motor Co.

Oakland, California

Biden Plans To Destroy What’s Left Of The Economy With Ban On Gas Powered Vehicles

Biden Plans To Destroy What's Left Of The Economy With Ban On Gas Powered Vehicles

California

Climate Change

Gavin Newsom

Joe Biden

Readers Pass

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) lashed out on X on Monday, claiming that no one used the term &#8220;bloodbath&#8221; to describe economic issues – but Merriam Webster&#8217;s online dictionary begged to differ on that point.
Goldman, who made his name as the attorney presenting the Democrats&#8217; case against former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment, was responding to the furor over Trump&#8217;s recent prediction of a &#8220;bloodbath&#8221; in the automobile industry if he loses his 2024 reelection bid.
&#8220;Since when does anybody use the term &#8216;bloodbath&#8217; related to economic problems? Especially someone who already incited a &#8216;bloodbath&#8217; after he lost the last election. We all know what he meant. Keep the gaslighting to yourself,&#8221; Goldman said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Since when does anybody use the term “bloodbath” related to economic problems?
Especially someone who already incited a “bloodbath” after he lost the last election. 
We all know what he meant. Keep the gaslighting to yourself. <a href="https://t.co/GKiE3zPpvY">https://t.co/GKiE3zPpvY</a>
&mdash; Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/1769821776836510006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But according to Merriam-Webster&#8217;s <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bloodbath" target="_blank" rel="noopener">online dictionary</a>, the term &#8220;bloodbath&#8221; has several standard definitions:
<ul>
<li>a great slaughter</li>
<li>a notably fierce, violent, or destructive contest or struggle</li>
<li>a major economic disaster</li>
</ul>
And the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medias-wall-to-wall-coverage-of-trump-bloodbath-comment-delivers-zero-context" target="_blank" rel="noopener">full context of Trump&#8217;s remarks</a> — context that was omitted by multiple media outlets as they suggested that he intended to promote political violence — lent credence to his defenders, who said that he was clearly talking about the economy and the automobile industry at the time.
Trump, during an Ohio rally over the weekend, said that he was speaking directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding a Communist-China-owned car company&#8217;s plan to build cars in Mexico and then sell them across the southern border in an effort to avoid higher tariffs.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1710960769172000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0DFL3mPMAlJb3RfEUlTNFI">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;Those big monster car manufacturing plants you are building in Mexico right now and you think you are going to get that — not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the car to us, no,&#8221; Trump said.
&#8220;We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it,&#8221; he continued.

Rep. Dan Goldman

Democrat Impeachment Lawyer Says No One Uses ‘Bloodbath’ To Describe Economics — Webster’s Says Otherwise

Democrat Impeachment Lawyer Says No One Uses 'Bloodbath' To Describe Economics — Webster's Says Otherwise

2024 Election

Donald Trump

Impeachment

President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing to ease its push to force electric vehicles onto American consumers as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hertz-dumping-tens-of-thousands-of-electric-vehicles-replacing-them-with-gas-vehicles">consumer demand for the vehicles remains low</a>, dealerships have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3700-u-s-auto-dealers-push-biden-to-scrap-unrealistic-ev-mandate-low-demand-even-with-incentives">expressed serious concerns</a>, and automakers have had to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ford-cuts-production-of-electric-truck-they-touted-as-the-future-hiring-hundreds-to-build-more-gas-vehicles">cut production and revamp production of gas vehicles</a>.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/climate/biden-epa-auto-emissions.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes">reported</a> that the move was a &#8220;concession to automakers and labor unions&#8221; from the administration as it was forcing &#8220;limits on tailpipe emissions&#8221; to force Americans to switch from gas-powered cars to more expensive electric vehicles — which often have performance issues in adverse weather conditions. The serious lack of charging stations, and the time it takes to recharge electric vehicles, are among other top complaints from consumers.
&#8220;Instead of essentially requiring automakers to rapidly ramp up sales of electric vehicles over the next few years, the administration would give car manufacturers more time, with a sharp increase in sales not required until after 2030,&#8221; the report said, noting that the change will likely be officially rolled out in the next few months.
Former President Donald Trump has slammed Biden&#8217;s &#8220;ridiculous all Electric Car Hoax,&#8221; saying that communists in the Biden administration were the ones who were behind Biden&#8217;s green agenda. &#8220;Within 3 years, all of these cars will be made in China,&#8221; Trump added
In a separate post, Trump said that Michigan would lose the auto industry if Biden&#8217;s &#8220;crazed concept of ‘all Electric Cars’ goes into effect.&#8221;
Trump said that if Biden&#8217;s mandate continues to that the auto industry in the U.S. will &#8220;cease to exist&#8221; with China taking over all manufacturing of electric vehicles.
“Vote for TRUMP, and I will stop this Madness, IMMEDIATELY!” he said. “Mexico &amp; Canada LOVE Biden’s idiotic policy. SAVE MICHIGAN and the other Auto States. SAVE THE AMERICAN CONSUMER!!!”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ford-cuts-production-of-electric-truck-they-touted-as-the-future-hiring-hundreds-to-build-more-gas-vehicles">Ford Cuts Production Of Electric Truck They Touted As The Future; Hiring Hundreds To Build More Gas Vehicles</a>

New Cars Showcased At L.A. Auto Show

Biden Admin Backing Away From Aggressive Push For Electric Vehicles As Consumer Demand Remains Low

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/general-motors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">General Motors</a> and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement on Monday that increases wages for workers following six weeks of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/strike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strikes</a> at GM facilities around the country. 
The deal with GM followed other deals with Ford and Stellantis after the union representing workers for the automobile companies <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/autoworkers-strike-expands-ahead-of-expected-appearances-from-trump-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanded higher pay</a> as well as “economic and social justice.” Members of the union must still vote to accept the terms of the agreement before it can be officially implemented. 
“The UAW reached a historic tentative agreement with General Motors that paves the way for a just transition and wins record economic gains for autoworkers,” the union <a href="https://uaw-newsroom.prgloo.com/press-release/uaw-reaches-a-tentative-agreement-with-general-motors-bringing-ultium-cells-workers-into-master-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. “Like the agreements with Ford and Stellantis, the GM agreement has turned record profits into a record contract.”
The agreement, which would be in place through April 2028, will factor in cost of living increases, which have jumped as food and transportation inflation have hit record highs during the Biden administration. 
“The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% compounded with estimated COLA [cost of living allowances] to over $42 an hour. The starting wage will increase by 70% compounded with estimated COLA, to over $30 an hour,” the union said. 
GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/business/economy/gm-uaw-contract-deal.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the company &#8220;is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that reflects the contributions of the team while enabling us to continue to invest in our future and provide good jobs in the U.S.”
GM has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/30/gm-uaw-tentative-agreement-labor-strike.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> an estimated $800 million during the lengthy strike.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1695926598117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2JMKlkoIbMtWiT_W63aMnH">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
The strike gained the attention of leading 2024 presidential candidates, including President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden, who previously spoke to workers in Michigan, praised the deal with GM, saying that it rewards “autoworkers who gave up much to keep the industry working and going during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.”
During a September speech before autoworkers in Clinton Township, Michigan, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-blasts-bidens-economic-policies-in-appeal-to-michigan-voters-sending-auto-workers-to-the-unemployment-line" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump blasted</a> Biden’s economic and environmental policies, taking aim at Biden’s aggressive push to “transition” the U.S. from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. 
“You can be loyal to American labor or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics,” Trump <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/27/donald-trump-returns-auto-industry-strike-uaw-ev-taking-center-stage-presidential-election-joe-biden/70960155007/">said</a>. “But you can’t really be loyal to both. It’s one or the other.”
“The auto industry is being assassinated,” Trump added. “If you want to buy an electric car, that’s absolutely fine. I’m all for it. But we should not be forcing consumers to buy electric vehicles they don’t want to buy.”

GM Reaches Tentative Agreement With UAW Ending Six-Week Strike

Tentative Deal Reached Between General Motors And UAW After GM Loses Estimated $800 Million

General Motors

strike

U.S.

President Joe Biden and the rest of the Biden regime continue to claim “Bidenomics,” has saved the U.S. economy.  
It is painfully obvious that none of these people live in the reality of the American working man and working woman. For them, the economy is teetering on the brink and Bidenomics has been a disaster.
At a Labor Day celebration in <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-touts-america-strongest-economy-lowest-inflation-world-despite-soaring-prices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philadelphia</a>, the president claimed Bidenomics “is working,” and that Bidenomics is a “blue-collar blueprint for America … It’s for you.” I am not sure what economic data the president and his team were looking at, because last week’s inflation news was not good. According to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure of inflation to the American consumer, rose more than expected, to an annual rate of 3.7%. The rise in inflation was primarily <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">driven</a> by gasoline prices, the “shelter” index meaning rent and housing costs, and food — the basic necessities that impact working-class Americans the hardest. The shelter index alone has been on the rise for 40 consecutive months.
Considering that the CPI in August 2022 was at 8.3%, consumers are paying 12% more for goods and services in 2023 than they were in 2021. In fact, things are so bad that an April 2023 <a href="https://www.heritage.org/debt/commentary/how-americans-have-taken-pay-cut-every-month-biden-took-office">study</a> from The Heritage Foundation, determined that Americans had lost around $7,100 in spending power since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. It has only gotten worse.
Per <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/are-we-there-yet-gas-prices-may-slowly-dip-as-fall-arrives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AAA</a>, the national average for a gallon of gas rose by $0.05 last week, reaching $3.85. The primary culprit is the surge in oil costs, which have jumped several dollars to hover around $90 per barrel. This at a time when domestic demand for oil dropped by 1 million barrels a day.
Americans are seeing the same thing at the grocery store. Per the <a href="https://thekrazycouponlady.com/tips/money/average-cost-of-groceries-per-month" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USDA</a>, the average family of four was paying $89-132 more per month for the same groceries in January 2023 than in January 2022.
The loss of purchasing power is forcing more and more Americans to take-on debt in order to pay for necessities.
Credit card <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/economy/us-household-credit-card-debt/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt</a> in America has surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released in August 2023 by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. People are not using their credit cards for vacations and new televisions, they’re paying for essentials such as gas, rent, and food, incurring debt at a current interest rate of 28.02%, per <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/average-credit-card-interest-rate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes</a>.
Driven by credit card debt and auto loan balances, overall <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">household</a> debt levels are at $17.6 trillion. Overall household debt has spiked by $2.9 trillion since the end of 2019.
At a time when, sadly, working Americans need credit to simply exist, credit is getting more difficult to obtain. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/11/credit-crunch-worries-at-10-year-plus-high-new-york-fed-survey-says.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sixty percent</a> of respondents to the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for August 2023 indicated that “the ability to get loans, credit cards and mortgages is harder now than it was a year ago, the highest level in a data series that goes back to June 2013.”
Per <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/auto-loan-rejections-at-record-levels-fed-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bankrate</a>, the rejection rate for all credit applicants, including those applying for car loans, mortgages, credit limit increases, new credit cards and more, increased to 21.8 percent,” and are at their highest levels since 2018.
<a href="https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/foreclosures-continue-to-surge-with-more-homeowners-now-in-danger-of-losing-their-properties/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Foreclosures</a> continue to rise, with foreclosure starts up 15% in the first half of 2023 and nearly 186,000 properties have received foreclosure filings.
And if you’ve noticed more and more tow trucks on the road these days, your eyes are not deceiving you. As far back as February 2023, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/car-repossessions-rise-120000818.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cox Automotive</a> reported that the rate of vehicle repossessions had increased more than 20%.
Inflation is here to stay, and apparently, so are high interest rates. Remember the wonderful economy of the 1970s?
As he seeks reelection, Joe Biden may want to find something else to highlight rather than the economy.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Jim Nelles is a Navy veteran and supply chain consultant based in Chicago. His articles have appeared in the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Foxnews.com, and the Daily Wire. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Price Of Gas In Southern California Rises Over 6 Dollars A Gallon

Gas, Food, And Lodging: How ‘Bidenomics’ Is Crushing The Little Guy

Gas, Food, And Lodging: How 'Bidenomics' Is Crushing The Little Guy

finance

Inflation

Interest Rates

Here’s a truly dumb take, courtesy of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/opinion/kia-hyundai-tiktok.html?searchResultPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>: “Kia and Hyundai Helped Enable a Crime Wave. They Should Pay for It.”
Wait, you ask: Are Kia and Hyundai hiring gangs of criminals to steal each other&#8217;s vehicles? Not exactly. Apparently, they just didn&#8217;t take enough precautions to prevent people from stealing their vehicles.
I&#8217;m not kidding.
According to the Council on Criminal Justice, the number of vehicle thefts during the first half of 2023 was 33.5% higher on average than during the same period in 2022. As data from Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New Orleans, Buffalo and Durham, North Carolina showed, motor vehicle thefts have more than doubled this year relative to last year, according to statistics.
Why are so many cars getting stolen? Apparently it’s the fault of the car. The car wanted it. It needed to be stolen. That&#8217;s the way this works. It&#8217;s not the criminal — the car was just sitting there — and the criminal was not a criminal. It was just someone like you walking down the street like a normal human, never having stolen a car in your life, and there you saw it in the pure summer sunshine, a Kia. And you say to yourself, “Let&#8217;s do this thing. The time has come. That is the easiest car to steal.”
So, drawn like a moth to the flame, you walked over to the Kia and you said, “That might not be a very nice car, I wasn&#8217;t desperate for any of Kia&#8217;s brands, but now that I see it gleaming in the summer sunshine and I know it&#8217;s super easy to steal, I — a lifelong law-abiding citizen — have decided to steal the Kia.”
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
This is the stupidest thing I&#8217;ve ever heard. Try this: There was a knife. It was sitting there in plain sight, and you were just drawn to it. You couldn&#8217;t stop yourself, so you stabbed your friend in the eyeball. You should probably sue the knife manufacturer.
Apparently, Hyundai and Kia did not equip some of their cars with electronic immobilizer devices that prevent cars from starting unless they detect a radio I.D. code associated with the car&#8217;s rightful key. A couple of years ago, videos showing how to hotwire the vulnerable cars began to pop-up online.
Hundreds of the stolen cars have been involved in numerous deadly crashes, armed robbery sprees, and other crimes around the country.
But the thieves are not to blame for this. It was the car’s fault. I simply can&#8217;t believe they programmed these cars to perform armed robbery. Did you know that if you create a product that when it&#8217;s stolen, it&#8217;s your fault? 
This is how dumb we&#8217;ve become. How about some basic level of personal responsibility? Ah, but that might require more police, more active policing, more throwing criminals in jail and leaving them in jail.
This is truly basic stuff, but not to those morons at The New York Times.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

2 Ben Shapiro Editorial Series 04 copy

Thieves Steal Cars, Then Commit Armed Robberies, Yet It’s The Car’s Fault?

Ben Shapiro

Car Theft

Chicago

Crime

Hyundai

Philadelphia

President Biden has a couple of problems. Electric vehicles aren&#8217;t flying off the lot. Autoworkers&#8217; unions are mad at him for pushing EVs which could kill their jobs.  So, what&#8217;s Biden&#8217;s administration&#8217;s solution to this two-tiered conundrum?
To put it bluntly, he is now speeding up the delivery of  $15.5 billion — courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers — to artificially hold up the market in hopes of appeasing his political allies.
On Thursday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-offers-12-billion-automakers-155346819.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that the U.S. government will now release $10 billion in the form of loans. $2 billion thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act to the industry, and $3.5 billion in the form of grants.
&#8220;While we transition to EVs, we want to ensure that workers can transition in place, that there is no worker, no community left behind,&#8221; Granholm said to reporters on a call.
Except, the U.S. isn&#8217;t transitioning to EVs. In fact, these vehicles are sitting in dealers&#8217; lots for days on end, according to reports.  Why? Well, for one, EVs are more expensive on average than their gas-guzzling counterparts. According to the <a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/the-most-affordable-electric-cars-for-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a>, the average price of a new combustible engine car was roughly $48,000, while a new electric car was $55,000.
They aren&#8217;t just costly to buy either—EVs are a pain to fix. According to <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-electric-the-nightmare-cost-of-repairing-your-wrecked-ev" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one report</a>, EV drivers have to wait nearly two months to get their cars repaired while shelling out an average cost of $6,587 to fix it.
The Biden administration is doing all this under the guise of fighting climate change. However,  experts say that the production of EVs requires fewer workers, and therefore would hurt thousands of blue-collar workers.
Earlier this month, Politico reported that the Biden administration was trying to figure out how it could force its EV goal while also currying favor with autoworkers&#8217; unions. As the paper noted, Biden is depending upon these unions to help get out the vote for the president in crucial swing states. But union members and Union of Autoworkers have leaders threatened they wouldn&#8217;t help unless the Biden administration could guarantee the EV drive wouldn&#8217;t screw over workers at various factories. The UAW also has yet to endorse Biden for 2024.
Now, it seems the Biden administration has figured out how it can temporarily please the UAW.  According to the press release, the newly announced funding will be &#8220;primarily focused on retooling existing factories for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs)—supporting good jobs and a just transition to EVs.&#8221;
Yet according to a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, retrofitting existing plants won&#8217;t prevent thousands of auto-manufacturing jobs from being eliminated.
&#8220;Michigan will still lose at least 25,000 auto-manufacturing jobs. Ohio and Indiana will lose 14,000 and 16,000 respectively,&#8221; even if the major auto companies kept their market share and updated their factories for EVs, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-pushes-electric-vehicles-which-kill-union-jobs-auto-workers-engine-epa-685b14a1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Linda McMahon and James Sherk of the America First Policy Institute.
Energy also announced that &#8220;projects that are likely to retain collective bargaining agreements and/or those that have an existing high-quality, high-wage hourly production workforce&#8221; will be more likely to receive higher scores, and therefore more funding,  under one of the programs supported by this measure.
So, it&#8217;s in the best interest of the UAW to avoid a strike — so that their respective plants can get more funding from this new windfall.
Yet somehow, Granholm says she doesn&#8217;t &#8220;know that this will have an impact on the collective bargaining.&#8221;
To everybody else though, it looks like Biden is trying to grease some palms in hopes of getting that endorsement and support — paid for by you, the taxpayers. And it&#8217;s not even guaranteed to protect the jobs of tens of thousands of Americans in the Midwest.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Jennifer Granholm, US energy secretary, listens as US President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Oct 31, 2022.

As Auto Strike Looms, Biden Admin Announces $15.5 Billion For Electric Vehicle Manufacturers

Biden Administration

Menu