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Raj Nair leaves Ford over 'inappropriate behavior' Michael Martinez, Automotive News / February 21, 2018 DETROIT -- Raj Nair, president of Ford Motor Co. in North America, has left the automaker after he was accused of "inappropriate behavior," Ford said Wednesday. Ford, in a statement, said an internal investigation found that "certain behavior by Nair was inconsistent with the company's code of conduct." It did not divulge the nature of the complaint, which a spokesman said was submitted anonymously through a 24-hour company hotline. Ford said it had not previously received any such allegations against Nair. Nair had been placed on leave during the investigation, which was conducted within the past few weeks and involved a small number of incidents, Ford said. His departure is effective immediately, and a spokesman said his successor will be named within days. CEO Jim Hackett said Ford "made this decision after a thorough review and careful consideration. Ford is deeply committed to providing and nurturing a safe and respectful culture and we expect our leaders to fully uphold these values." In the statement, Nair, 53, said, "I sincerely regret that there have been instances where I have not exhibited leadership behaviors consistent with the principles that the company and I have always espoused. I continue to have the utmost faith in the people of Ford Motor Company and wish them continued success in the future." Reached by phone at his home earlier Wednesday afternoon, Nair declined to comment to Automotive News when asked about his employment status with Ford. CFRA Research analyst Efraim Levy cited Nair’s ouster in lowering his rating of Ford shares Wednesday to “hold” from “buy.” “While we believe the company has a deep enough management bench to replace Mr. Nair with little disruption,” Levy wrote, “the new leader will face the challenges of an industry that will see rapid change in the medium- and long-term, while sales volume contracts in the U.S. in 2018.” Before being named to his latest position in May 2017, Nair was Ford's head of product development and chief technical officer. He oversaw the launch of the 2016 GT supercar, aluminum-bodied F-150 and 50th-anniversary Mustang, among a plethora of other vehicles. Less than two weeks ago, Nair took delivery of the first GT produced for the 2018 model year. Nair's tenure as product boss wasn't without controversy. The automaker twice had to lower mileage claims for its C-Max crossover and reimburse owners when the vehicle didn't achieve the rating originally advertised. Nair started at Ford in 1987 as a body and assembly operations launch engineer and held various positions on more than 11 vehicle programs in 13 assembly plants, according to Ford's media website. He also worked on assignments in Europe, South America and Asia Pacific. Days before Jim Hackett was named CEO, Ford last year awarded Nair a $5 million retention bonus that would vest in May of 2020. .

Bloomberg / February 21, 2018 MUNICH -- Daimler AG cast doubt on Tesla Inc.'s plan to deliver electric heavy trucks next year, saying its more modest goal to start selling battery-powered big rigs by 2021 is more realistic. Daimler, best known for its luxury cars, is also the world's biggest truckmaker, giving Daimler the most to lose should Tesla boss Elon Musk succeed in producing a semi-truck with a 500-mile range for delivery starting in 2019. If that happened, Daimler would have miscalculated to an unimaginable degree, head of trucks Martin Daum suggested to reporters at an event Wednesday in Stuttgart. He announced plans to start rolling out Mercedes-Benz electric trucks for trials this year, followed by mass production as of 2021. The driving range is smaller than Musk is targeting. Current battery technology doesn't allow for faster timelines, Daum said. "If Tesla really delivers on this promise, we'll obviously buy two trucks -- one to take apart and one to test because if that happens, something has passed us by," Daum said. "But for now, the same laws of physics apply" in Germany and in California, where Tesla is based, he added. The Mercedes-Benz electric Actros, starting with 10 vehicles, will deliver loads on city distribution routes with a maximum range of 124 miles, Daimler said. German supermarket chain Edeka and parcel delivery service Hermes are among early testers who'll receive vehicles in the next few weeks for a trial lasting around two years. Daimler will spend $616 million this year and next on its effort for electric and connected trucks, it said. Aside from Tesla, other manufacturers like Volvo AB are working on new technology to propel commercial vehicles. High costs and limited longevity of batteries have so far put trucks behind development timelines for cars. The e-Actros as part of the pilot will feature two versions with total weights of 18 tons and 26 tons, Daimler said. They'll take three to 11 hours to charge. Broad demand will need time to take hold, Daimler said. "Trucks have to run for 1.5 million miles and then there's a used-truck buyer too after that," said Daum. "We don't know for sure how batteries for trucks will react after being in use for four to five years -- it's very complex."

Bob, if I was Ballard, I’d steer clear. But he’s still desperate to get airborne, and desperation can cause temporary blindness.

Transport Topics / February 20, 2018 Ballard Power Systems Inc. announced the planned deployment of 500 licensed fuel-cell electric commercial trucks in Shanghai, purportedly the largest of its kind in the world. Each of the 500 trucks from Dongfeng Special Vehicle Co. is licensed, plated and powered by a 30-kilowatt fuel-cell engine that was designed and integrated by Shanghai Reinventing Fire Technology Co., featuring Ballard FCvelocity-9SSL proton exchange membrane fuel-cell stacks, according to the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company. Each box van truck measures 21 feet, can carry a load of 3.2 tons and has an expected range of more than 205 miles. The trucks will be operated by Shanghai Sinotran New Energy Automobile Operation Co., a newly established fuel-cell electric vehicle operator, and are expected to be used primarily for intra-city deliveries. “We are pleased to be collaborating with Re-Fire as we drive market adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (or FCEVs) incorporating Ballard fuel cell technology. We believe this is the largest planned deployment of fuel cell-powered trucks anywhere in the world,” Ballard CEO Randy MacEwen said in a statement. Ballard noted China is forecast to account for 42% of global production of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2020, or about 1.1 million units, according to LMC Automotive. Ballard also supplied the fuel cell for Kenworth Truck Co.’s hydrogen-electric Class 8 bound for a field test at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in March. The battery capacity for that truck is 100 kW-h. .

Another reinvention for AxleTech Lindsay Chappell, Automotive News / February 19, 2018 Turnaround chief steers company into electricfication niche Three years ago, Mary Petrovich got a call from an executive at defense contractor General Dynamics asking if she would take over the struggling Detroit-area commercial vehicle supplier AxleTech International. Petrovich knew all about AxleTech because she had run the company and reinvented it. Twice. Petrovich had led the fast- growing company's sale to General Dynamics seven years earlier, in 2008. But in 2015, AxleTech was in trouble. "There was some hesitation," admits Petrovich, a Harvard MBA who once ran Dura Automotive's billion-dollar global driver control business. "Only because I wanted to make sure I had it in me to do this a third time." Her idea of turning a company around? "Seven days a week, 80 hours a week until you succeed," she says. "But I felt like it was my baby and I was responsible for it," she says. "I knew that, no matter how ugly it looked to other people, there were still possibilities to make it great. It took us three years to dig them out, but we've done it and we're ready to go. Again." Petrovich was on Automotive News' list of 100 Leading Women in the North America Auto Industry in 2000 when she was at Dura. Today, Petrovich, 55, is leading a team to take AxleTech into a new transportation role. AxleTech, a supplier of low-volume axles, brakes and aftermarket parts for heavy-duty commercial and defense vehicles, is positioning itself to supply electric drivetrains for vehicles other than cars. It is a vision — shared by an increasing number in the auto industry — that just as electrification is taking hold of passenger vehicles, it is also a viable strategy for commercial vehicles. That means electrified delivery trucks, Class 8 trucks, garbage trucks, utility vehicles, military vehicles, buses, construction vehicles, airport shuttles — anything that moves on wheels, other than cars. But even cars cause a twinkle in the eye of the hard-charging Detroit executive. "Since this business started 100 years ago, the focus has been on heavy trucks and off-road," she told Automotive News. "But to be honest, the work we're doing now in electric vehicles, in areas like motors — they touch both the truck world and the car world. Some of the innovations we're providing on the heavy truck side have not been implemented on the car side. "So I wouldn't see it as a stretch that little AxleTech could have technology that could creep over into passenger cars." "Little AxleTech," as she calls it — with 2017 sales of about $250 million — has been something of a Detroit stray cat for the past two decades. And apparently only Petrovich knows how to make it purr. AxleTech is the original industrial operation once known as Rockwell International. AxleTech still operates the century-old factory in Oshkosh, Wis., built by the industrialist Col. Willard Rockwell in 1919. But since the early 2000s, the company has had trouble being "owned." In 2002, Rockwell's descendant company, Meritor Automotive, determined that AxleTech didn't fit with its core operations and put it on the market. The unit was acquired by a private equity firm, and Mary Petrovich was recruited as its first CEO. "When we took over this business in 2002, most people thought it was going to die pretty quickly," she says. "It had everything going against it. We were very aggressive in getting out of that." Enter Carlyle But that ownership arrangement was short-lived, and in 2005 AxleTech was sold again to the Carlyle Group, a Washington asset-management firm with $178 billion in assets. Under Carlyle, Petrovich repositioned AxleTech again — this time to enter the robust market for military vehicles, supplying drivetrains to Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Carlyle, business surged, rising from about $200 million in 2005 to $500 million in 2008. Petrovich also stoked AxleTech's aftermarket business for the first time. In five years, Aftermarket Vice President Bill Gryzenia grew sales from $10 million a year to $200 million annually by 2010. In 2008, with the military market humming loudly, Carlyle sold AxleTech again — this time to General Dynamics. Petrovich and Gryzenia left in 2010 for other pursuits. But sales peaked in 2011 at about $560 million. In 2015, with defense contracts dwindling and General Dynamics no longer keen on operating a small niche business such as AxleTech, the call went out to Petrovich to take the company back off of its hands. Carlyle and Petrovich agreed. She would serve Carlyle as AxleTech's executive chairman and take an ownership stake. She rehired Gryzenia — who had become Dana Corp.'s vice president of aftermarket — to return as AxleTech's CEO. "We got another opportunity to use a clean sheet of paper," Gryzenia says. "We asked, 'How can we redefine this company? How can we put it back on a rapid growth path again?' "And three years in, we're doing it — through electric commercial vehicles." The auto industry's focus has been on electric passenger vehicles, he points out, while electrifying commercial trucks is an obvious play. Electrification offers truck owners and fleet operators a faster payback on investments, since fuel costs are a central part of commercial vehicle purchase equations. But AxleTech's management is far from alone in its enthusiasm for the idea. Tesla plans to develop an electric semitruck and startup contender Nikola proposes the same idea. Diesel engine maker Cummins late last month acquired the British battery systems business of Johnson Matthey to develop new battery materials to enter the commercial heavy-duty EV segment. Last week, Dana CEO James Kamsickas told analysts on the company's earnings call that Dana sees potential for an electrified commercial vehicle market. The company is marketing an e-axle to the electric bus segment. But Kamsickas said the technology reaches beyond buses. "There's not one end market that we're not in some form of conversation, product development, launch, you name it," he told the analysts. "That could be mining, construction, forklifts, glass material handling — every single one of them." Engineers Petrovich believes AxleTech has a head start because her team has been preparing for the market since returning to the helm three years ago. AxleTech has expanded its global manufacturing footprint, opening a plant in India and in China, and has increased its engineering head count by about 70 percent. Space in the U.S. company once used to produce component forgings is now used for engineering offices. According to Gryzenia, the company has filed for more patents in the past 12 months than in the previous 10 years. AxleTech's engineers have co-developed a drivetrain for an electric bus with zero-emission bus maker Proterra that is scheduled to go into production in the third or fourth quarter. Petrovich expects to double company revenue within 24 months. "That's the story — to be there on the commercial vehicle side of electrification," she says. "We're working with major programs across utility space — garbage trucks, military vehicles. In the next 2 to 15 years, everything is going electric."

Dahlgren.....off 301 on the river? Always wondered what took place there.

Call Watts, have them look at the 84QS51R RH assy breakdown, and order the 2795 vendor code post felt.

Ingersoll-Rand air starters were a Mack factory option in the states for decades. I actually miss their popularity. https://www.ingersollrandproducts.com/en-ap/power-tools/products/air-starters/air-starters.html

We've come a long ways............. .

U.S. Army M1888 8-inch railway coast defense guns being test fired at Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Date: July 8, 1935 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-inch_M1888 .

Thank you very, very much for sharing this news. I was always amazed by the 16-inch battleship guns installed at nearby Fort Story, and other coastal Army installations along the east coast. Most Americans, then and now, have no idea. http://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2016/06/happy-birthday-america-fort-story.html With another two 16-inch guns installed on the southern tip of the Eastern Shore at Fort Custis, they had the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay completely covered. My understanding is they could fire 2,000 pound shells some 20 miles with impressive accuracy. http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/Virginia/Fort_Custis/history.htm .

Speaking of Class 8, in my US travels, I see more Freightliners, which is logical due to their high market share. I see new Cascadia tractors from one side of the road to the other. Navistar is clearly making a solid comeback. Peterbilt market share has grown considerably over the last 3 years. In refuse, Peterbilt has massively penetrated the refuse industry, entirely at the expense of the Mack brand MR and LR (rehashed LE). Years ago, you rarely saw Model 320s in the east. Now (new Model 520) they are everywhere, with both cities and major refuse fleets. Kenworth over the last 3-4 years made a major penetration into vocational, again at the expense of the Mack brand, and is holding on firmly to its new larger footprint.

There are many good reasons for 24-volt systems, which is why it's the global standard. Do you recall that all Mack E9 V8-powered trucks were equipped with 24-volt starting systems? It was chosen for a very good reason by Mack Trucks Chief Engineer Walter May and his team......24-volt has the "kick" to turn that large engine over, particularly during the winter months. Twenty-four volt systems allow for smaller size cable that a 12-volt system would require, reducing component weight and cost. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/34764-two-24-volt-european-volvos-are-taking-the-canadian-stress-test/ On another note, you will see 48-volt systems soon in light vehicles, to better meet the immense power requirements of today's vehicles, and also because you need 48 volts for electric turbochargers to function well.

Whenever I hear this, I feel compelled to add clarity to the big picture. The MaxxForce 13, N13 and A26 are based on the proven, utterly reliable MAN D26. Around the globe, nobody has even one negative thing to say about the D26. The MEGR* (Massive Exhaust Gas Recirculation) MaxxForce engines were the idea of your government's EPA. The EPA believed it should become involved in emissions control technology, and decided that MEGR was the best direction for the United States to reach EPA2010 standards. They asked Navistar head Dan Ustian to support the program in return for free money, and he agreed. * EGR levels from 35% to 50%.

The DAF-designed MX engine, in the global market, is a popular and trouble-free motor. Nobody has anything negative to say about DAF.

"The school system failed. The mental health system failed. DCF [the Department of Children and Families], our social service agencies failed. Law enforcement failed because every red flag was present. And the FBI apparently failed. And the security measures for somebody to buy guns failed. Every single system was ignorant or willfully blind," Finkelstein said. Point the finger everywhere..........except where it belongs. Cruz failed himself, his passed away parents, his community and his country. Cruz is responsible for his actions.

Claiming sales of the former American icon Mack Trucks as their own speaks volumes.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last year, the government instructed the media to stop using the terms "illegal alien" and "illegal immigrant", and instead use the low-key, misleading and altogether wrong term "undocumented immigrant". Now, President Trump is calling killers "mentally disturbed" individuals, rather than murderous criminals. Any murderer, from Florida to Detroit to Chicago, is mentally disturbed. Nobody with normal mental faculties would kill another human being. Every criminal is mentally disturbed........normal folks aren't criminals. Are we now going to put our hands around them and say: "He's sad, mournful and remorseful. He's just a broken human being. And have public defenders all make emotional public pleas for understanding?

Peterbilt Motors Press Release / February 15, 2018 Peterbilt announces the new Model 579 UltraLoft Cab-Sleeper featuring increased interior space and improved fuel economy with Peterbilt styling. Visit us at www.peterbilt.com. .

I wore Red Wings for years because I'd heard of the reputation. And then..........I learned you could have the terrific comfort combined with ruggedness. That day is when I discovered Lowa. Apparently, the folks in Slovakia really know how to make a great boot. Take a look at the Renegade III GTX Lo..........https://www.lowaboots.com/mens/hiking/renegade-iii-gtx®-lo?color=Espresso/Brown Their mil-spec boots (Zephyr) are unparalleled............https://www.lowaboots.com/mens/hiking I stopped buying Red Wing socks as well, and switched to Hanes "Premium" men's crew socks, sold exclusively at Target. There is no more comfortable, cushioned and long-lasting sock on the market. https://www.target.com/p/hanes-174-premium-men-s-10pk-2-free-pair-crew-socks-6-12/-/A-52605507#lnk=sametab Comfort is important.......you only live once.

I'm thrilled this historic piece of rolling stock will be restored for future generations. However, having said that, I don't understand why the European Union (EU) is paying for 85 percent of the work. This is a Czech domestic project.