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David Shepardson, Reuters / July 14, 2020 WASHINGTON -- A group of 15 U.S. states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday unveiled a joint memorandum of understanding aimed at boosting the market for electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and phasing out diesel-powered trucks by 2050. The announcement comes weeks after the California Air Resources Board approved a groundbreaking policy to require manufacturers to sell a rising number of zero-emission vehicles, starting in 2024 and to electrify nearly all larger trucks by 2045. The 14 states said the voluntary initiative is aimed at boosting the number of electric large pickup trucks and vans, delivery trucks, box trucks, school and transit buses, and long-haul delivery trucks, with the goal of ensuring all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales be zero emission vehicles by 2050 with a target of 30 percent ZEV sales by 2030. The states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Vermont. The states committed to developing a plan within six months to identify barriers and propose solutions to support widespread electrification, including potential financial incentives and ways to boost EV infrastructure. Trucks and buses represent 4 percent of U.S. vehicles, but account for nearly 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. California's mandate will put an estimated 300,000 zero-emission trucks on the road by 2035. California's planned rules will initially require 5-9 percent ZEVs based on class, rising to 30-50 percent by 2030 and nearly all by 2045. The push comes as a rising number of companies -- including Rivian, Tesla Inc., Nikola Corp. and General Motors -- work to introduce zero emission trucks. Major businesses like Amazon.com, UPS and Walmart have also said they are ramping up purchases of electric delivery trucks. California later plans to adopt new limits on nitrogen oxide emissions, one of the major precursors of smog, as well as require large fleet owners to buy some ZEVs.

https://www.ford.com/suvs/bronco/2021/?gnav=header-all-vehicles

2021 Ford Bronco Gets a Manual Transmission Dave Vanderwerp, Car & Driver / July 14, 2020 The Bronco's Getrag seven-speed stick-shift is the only manual in Ford's U.S. lineup that's not found in a Mustang. Any new manual transmission is a rarity these days, and that the new Bronco includes this celebration-worthy bit makes us even more enthused about this SUV's revival. The Bronco's seven-speed manual is a [German] Getrag unit, part of the company's new family of six- and seven-speed longitudinal manuals that it calls MTI550. The 550 stands for its torque capacity in newton-meters, which equates to 406 lb-ft. The turbocharged 2.3-liter inline four-cylinder, the only engine available with the manual, is comfortably under that, with a peak of 310 lb-ft and 270 horsepower. Ford calls this new seven-speed transmission MT88, and it's an entirely new architecture, not based on the Getrag MT82 six-speed that's in today's Mustang. That's a good thing, as shift-quality issues with the Mustang's manual have led to a class-action lawsuit. The Bronco's manual becomes only the third available across Ford's lineup in the U.S., the other two both being in Mustangs: the previously mentioned six-speed, and the Shelby GT350's [Mexican] Tremec six-speed. Ford insists on referring to this new manual's first gear as a creeper gear, going so far as to label it with a C on the shift knob and putting it in a dogleg position down and to the left, below reverse. However, the overall gearing in low range once the Bronco's larger tires and the Wrangler's shorter low-range ratio are factored are similar. The Bronco's 6.588:1 first gear, paired with the shorter 3.06:1 low gear of the optional two-speed transfer case and the shortest 4.70:1 rear axle, means first gear is good for up to 7 mph in low range, same as the Wrangler. In high range, it will take you to 21 mph, versus 29 mph for the Wrangler, so it doesn't seem out of the question to use it in regular driving. We'll see if it's more advantageous to use it to extract the best acceleration runs once we get one to test. In its 0.646:1 top gear, the Bronco will cruise along at 80 mph at roughly 2400 rpm, about 150 rpm lower than the Wrangler. While we await the chance to flick the Bronco's new transmission through its seven gears, let's just laud the fact that there's a new manual on the market. .

At 8:01pm tonight, you could hear a pin drop at FCA headquarters. The Jeep brand has nothing to directly compete with this. Bill Ford is a very pleased and proud man tonight. Ford has a major all-new sales channel. I believe the Bronco will do wonders for reviving Ford's share price.

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The fire continues out of control. .

Pfizer and BioNTech receive permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to "fast-track" two vaccine candidates. Two of Pfizer and BioNTech’s four investigational mRNA-based vaccine candidates received fast track designation from the FDA. he designation was granted based on preliminary data from phase 1/2 studies that are currently ongoing in the U.S. and Germany as well as animal studies. The companies said a large, global Phase 2b/3 study may begin as early as this month.

International Trucks Press Release / July 13, 2020 If you’re not comfortable in your truck, you’re not comfortable on the road. That's why we've improved our door seals and redesigned the windows to reduce wind noise for a quieter cab. #DriverFirst .

Associated Press / July 12, 2020 Seventeen sailors and four civilians suffered minor injuries in an explosion and fire Sunday on board the USS Bonhomme Richard at its home port of Naval Base San Diego. The 3-alarm blaze was reported shortly before 9 a.m. The ship could burn for days “down to the water line” says San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell. . . .

The M-B Arocs is a great artic Ted. I prefer cab-overs, the driving position, for the visibility. You’d be happy in a new K200.

I was at first leery of the cheaper-for-IH-to-build S Series range, however they proved to be solid trucks worthy of respect.

On behalf of everyone at Autocar, we would like to say, “Thank you” to Ed and Lillie Minshall for their donation of Autocar memorabilia to the Autocar Museum. Ed is not only a member of the Autocar family, but is a lasting legacy of the Autocar brand’s rich history. Ed's parents met as Autocar employees, and along with his uncle and brother, all contributed to Autocar’s success over many years. Ed’s donation of his family’s Autocar memorabilia collection will ensure that these artifacts are displayed publicly for others to enjoy. Thank you again to the Minshall family for this incredible gift. Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

This thread isn't about politics David. Joe Schmo could be president for all intents and purposes. This global pandemic, this virus, doesn't care about political differences.

Agreed that most American operators don't know of Traton. However, many know Navistar reintroduced Cummins power, making the EGR engines past history. Now, on road fleets are operating A26s with no more issues than the competition's engines have (e.g. Volvo, Paccar).

I don't know about that. Today's market doesn't look back very far.

The MAN D26 (Navistar A26) is proven superb powerplant.

Barron's / July 10, 2020 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Bank President Robert Kaplan urged Americans to wear a mask, saying that it doing so would help the economy grow faster by slowing the spread of coronavirus. “If we all wore a mask, it would substantially mute the transmission of this disease and we would grow faster,” Kaplan said. “We would have a lower unemployment rate. We’d grow [the economy] faster and we’d be far less likely to slow some of our reopenings.”

Fellow BMT members, I began this thread meant as a serious discussion on Covid-19 developments. If you believe the virus is a hoax, lie or other, or have other thoughts unrelated to serious discussion of the virus, I humbly ask you to please by all means post your feelings on the CoronaFarce-rus thread which is, by name, intended for such thoughts. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/60880-coronafarce-rus/

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Ford faces parts shortages as virus impacts Mexico factories Financial Times / July 10, 2020 Ford is facing potential parts shortages from suppliers in northern Mexico as the pandemic throttles production, threatening the ability of US factories to keep manufacturing vehicles. The governor of the state of Chihuahua, an important region supplying the US automotive industry, has barred employers from operating with more than half their workforce in an attempt to control the spread of Covid-19. “Due to COVID-19, the State of Chihuahua in Mexico has limited employee attendance to 50 per cent, a region in which we have several suppliers,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford’s Americas and International Markets Group, said in a statement. “With our US plants running at 100 per cent, that is not sustainable. While we do not expect any impact to production next week, we are continuing to work with government officials on ways to safely and constructively resume remaining production.” Besides suppliers, Ford operates an engine plant in Chihuahua where 2,400 workers make engines for its larger F-series trucks and the Escape crossover utility vehicle. Christopher Landau, the US ambassador to Mexico who has a reputation for speaking candidly, told an Atlantic Council webinar on Thursday that Ford was struggling to deal with capacity constraints at the engine plant. “Last night at the dinner I was talking to one of the senior executives from the Ford Motor Company,” he said. “They were saying they are going to have to start shutting down their factories in the United States as of next week if they don’t get that rolling.” The dinner he referred to was at the White House during Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s visit to Washington. Óscar Albín, president of the National Autoparts Industry, said that while he had not heard about Ford’s problem specifically, in Chihuahua, “many car parts are not being produced to the needs of the car factories in the US and Mexico. In June, production was sufficient because the car factories were not working at 100 per cent either, but in July the [car] factories are at 100 per cent”. Asked if there could be shortages, Mr Albín added: “It’s not that there could be, there are. And not just Ford, all the factories in the US.” Luis Carlos Ramirez, Chihuahua president of Index, which groups manufacture-for-export industries, said Ford had started at 30 per cent capacity at the start of June, when the automotive industry was designated essential. At that time, under Mexico’s traffic light system which governs the gradual reopening of the economy according to the spread of the virus, Chihuahua was on red, but two weeks ago, it moved to amber and increased to 50 per cent. “We hope we will soon change to yellow and be on 80 per cent,” Mr Ramirez said. The only surprise in a carmaker experiencing supply chain problems in Mexico because of the pandemic was that it had not happened sooner, said Kristin Dziczek, vice-president of industry, labour and economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan. She said trouble at the Chihuahua engine plant would be particularly painful because while all vehicle sales are down — Ford’s US sales plunged 33 per cent in the second quarter — demand for trucks had been more resilient. Furthermore, trucks were more profitable.

International Trucks / July 9, 2020 What are you waiting for? It's never been easier to buy an International Truck! Take advantage of no payments for six months. Learn more at https://bit.ly/30RK36f. .

If NAV falls under $6 again, I will buy again. (It fell to $5.99 on Jan 16, 2020, and $5.78 on Jan 20, 2020.)