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The Chief Minister of Kerala writes about the Kochi Water Metro project to be inaugurated by pm Modi. The project was built at a cost of about $150 million with state funding and a loan from KfW, a German development bank that funds climate green infrastructure. 78 electric boats powered by batteries will transport people in Kochi between 38 terminals spanning 10 islands on the Arabian Sea.

The boats are built at Cochin shipyard with cutting edge design, light weight boats of aluminium hull and FRP superstructure. High court to Vypin on the first phase takes 20 minutes with tickets costing Rs. 20. Kochi One cards can enable seamless travel on Kochi Water Metro to Kochi Metro with weekly and monthly passes,

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Europe responds with platitudes and vague references to "benefits for everyone" and "detrimental" without facing up to the facts. How many American cars do you see on the streets of Germany? in Berlin or Frankfurt?- or Japan? in Tokyo or Osaka?-or South Korea? in Seoul? And how long has this been going on - since the 1980's. Europe's answer to the Marshall Plan and Japan's and China's to post war American help for recovery, was to exclude American cars and other products. GM and Ford have pulled out of China and so has VW. China's plan is to flood the world with electric cars, and Japan's to flood the world with hybrids. For far too long America has relied on capitalism that has no state involvement. In this kind of competition with hidden subsidies and national planning at the core of industrial growth in Asia. The US government has to have state involvement in it's auto, steel, aluminium, and chip industries, not to create trade disturbances but to create an even playing field for all, and rebuild a middle class destroyed by unfair trading practices of Asian nations and the EU, including Canada and Mexico which are simply used as bases to ship to the US. Ford makes 80% of its cars in the USA and GM can make the investments in new plants to raise its production from 60% in the USA to 80%. South Korea's Hyundai and Kia are investing $21 billion to make in the USA. Toyota and Nissan, VW, BMW and Mercedes can do the same.   ...

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Robert Stavins of the environmental economics program at Harvard is cited in this NYT article by Coral Davenport. Stavin says that even with the change in policy favoring fossil under Trump administration the trend is towards using less fossil fuel and this trend is unlikely to change. This makes the claims of Trump that half a million jobs can be created with less regulation of the coal industry and shale oil industry, less likely. Industry is shifting away from coal for economic reasons and investors preferences, say experts. At the same time the progress away from fossil fuels is likely to be inadequate to avoid the worst effects of global warming, says Stavins. The change by industry is reflected in the decisions made by executives such as Nicholas Akins at American Electric Power, Ohio based electric power company. Akins tells NYT that he is making decisions for power generation 20, 30 and 40 years from now, and this assumes some form of carbon control. He says no question but that industry will move forward with cleaner energy and that means closing large coal facilities. The incoming Trump administration does not affect his policy. Another factor away from coal is dictated by economics- the availability of cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracturing. Incentives for renewable sources such as wind, solar, are not likely to change either say experts, because the solar panels and wind turbines are made in Republican and Democratic favoring districts and have support of Republicans in places like Arizona, Texas and Kansas. ...

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For US automakers each component of the savings above may cover all or more of the $2.5 billion in tariffs some of which may be returned in rebate form to the automakers over 4 years. For example GM CFO is cited as as saying the shift in EV's alone could reduce losses by $2 billion in 2025. That more than makes up for GM's  $1.1 billion losses from tariffs shown in this WSJ report. It is more accurate to say foreign automakers in the US pay $9 billion in tariffs if they don't raise prices, Toyota alone will take on $3 billion in tariffs. And American makers Ford, GM, Chrysler Stellantis pay $2.5 billion of which some of it will be returned to the automakers inthe form of favorable policies to increase market share of US automakers with the 15% on imported cars and savings from not having to make electric vehicles in volumes that don't sell without the charging infrastructure, and savings from not having to invest on rapid conversion away from gas powered vehicles.    ...

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Ford. will still make $8 billion to $11 billion this year even after losses of $3 billion in electric cars. By 2026 Ford says it will earn 8 to 9 percentage points in profit from EV's. Ford is basically investing in the EV industry now for the long run. It is also part of the effort to move away from fossil fuels. Government incentives and subsidies will help companies and buyers of vehicles make the transition to EV's to fight climate change.  Companies that have not invested in EV's such as Toyota risk falling behind in EV's at a time when climate change is a major priority for buyers and governments around the world. Toyota is moving to a new CEO who can better take up the challenge of EV's. Under the previous CEO Mr. Toyoda Toyota clung to a mistaken belief that hybrid cars were all that is needed to reduce use of fossil fuels. German, Chinese and US manufacturers are taking the lead in EV's and Japan has fallen behind.  WSJ has never favored government subsidies and is critical for this reason. Yet it is clear that in some situations such as fighting climate change, building infrastructure, and redesigning the supply chain, government has to take the lead. Eisenhower in the 1950's with a government led effort helped build the national highway system, the first in the world. Biden is making a similar effort on multiple fronts. The redesign of the supply chain comes after private industry without proper direction from the government over concentrated manufacturing in China with Japan as a supplier into China. Presidents Bush and Obama wasted time and resources better devoted to national priorities at home on wars in remote places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. President Biden wrapped up the war in Afghanistan and completely disengaged from an area that is of no constructive interest to America. Resources are now concentrated in the right way on real national priorities from manufacturing at home to fighting climate change, fighting the cost of living crisis and building better infrastructure for workers and families. ...

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Toyota is reducing senior management positions to 60 from 77. The board of directors will also be smaller, with 11 members instead of the current 27 members. It was felt that the large board did not enable discussion of important issues and slowed down decisionmaking. This is part of the new Business Plan and the new global vision for Toyota. The thrust is on sales in emerging markets which Toyota will target for increasing sales to 50% of the total sales by 2015, up from 40% currently. Sales in developed markets are set to decline to 50% of the total sales by 2015, down from 60% currently. The other push is in the hybrid sales area. Toyota will roll out 10 more hybrid vehicles by 2015, in addition to all electric cars, plug-in hybrids. Toyota will continue to have an all-Japanese board, and will use a committee of outside advisors to stay abreast of opinion in other countries. Akio Toyoda announced these plans recently and did this by himself, as he puts his own ideas to work for setting Toyota's direction....

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EV sales worldwide in March 2024 went up by 30%. New battery technologies are making EV cost competitive with combustion engine cars. This transition is nearer than we thought. Kurt Kelty of GM who worked on Tesla battery technology for 11 years says “When we reach cost parity with internal combustion engine vehicles, I think that’s one big milestone. When you get there, then you’re really going to see the transition happen very quickly—and we’re not that far away from it.” The EV industry continues to make progress even as the industry has slowed with the new government not behind it with incentives. GM is setting its sight on 2028 and is investing in bringing costs down with new battery technology. It is new battery technology that enabled BYD in China to increase production and sales. In 2024 GM hired a Tesla engineer Kurt Kelty with 11 years experience to lead the effort to reduce cost and increase the power and duration of batteries. Kelty really believes in the EV revolution.“I’m a firm believer. Switching to an electric powertrain means better performance, less maintenance, more space inside the vehicle, a lower center of gravity and a higher crash rating. Evolution away from fossil fuels is unstoppable.”   ...

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Apple gets 19% of its sales in China with a manufacturing base that includes 1 million people employed in one Chinese city. In an effort to promote Make in China China is giving Huawei more room to compete with Apple. Huawei is bringing out a new 5G phone as an alternative and has banned use of Aplle iphones in government agencies. This means about 56 million people will have to turn to locally made products. China presents this move as an effort to protect data and cybersecurity. Yet Apple has a share price increase of 46% this year even in an environment in which US and China are restricting the export of key technologies (by US) or critical materials for electric cars (by China). Apple's responses to this have been slow preferring to keep its supply chain the way it is in a strategy based on the short run, with some minor shift to India and Vietnam.

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Russian president Putin visit to China covered by NHK's Analysis. This is the first visit after being reelected for Putin. China's president visited European Union countries and Serbia, Hungary recently. China seeks to keep its relations with the EU and stabilize its economic relations with the US because of its weak economy. China benefits with supply of oil at better prices in its trade with Russia that has reached $240 billion, at a time it's economy faces a large debt burden and a collapsing real estate industry. It needs markets in the EU for surging exports of electric vehicles. Russia is also probably reassessing the situation in Ukraine to position itself for an eventual settlement, as China clearly has no interest in the war in Ukraine and seeks to limit any negative fallout from the conflict in its trade and economic relations with EU and US.

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The new iX3 will run 497 miles on a single charge and shows BMW's effort to reinvent the car from the ground up says it's CEO. Mercedes electric GLC will run for 457 miles on a single charge, competing at $80,000 with the Model Y of Tesla which does 387 miles at over $60,000. Mercedes GLC price is still to be decided. Tesla has lost a third of it's market volume in the European market. The newer versions of Mercedes and BMW join VW's own models that compete at the lower end of the price range which today is close to $30,000-$40,000. Earlier reports in WSJ show the German models are competing for dominant share in Europe.

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Report on Climate Science put out by the US Energy Department in 2025 questioning the severity and impending nature of climate change effects. It is challenged by scientists who believe in the severity and impending nature of climate change, quite the opposite. Koonin, a Fellow at the Hoover Instituion at Stanford describes the work and its conclusions. He says the research is peer reviewed and looks at 200 years of climate research. Some of the conclusions- That climate change models claiming catastrophic situations are ultra sensitive and lead to extreme scenarios.  It talks about climate variability, and model deficiencies, data limitations. And says data for climate over continental US show no long term trends for extreme weather events. Global sea level rise of 8 inches since 1800 is not disputed but it says US tide gauge data shows no long term acceleration in warming globe.  On one point there has been agreement even in the Biden administration- what the US does to cut emissions will little effect the global changes in warming- because of coal use by China and India defended as needed for electricity for two billion people, an essential need. Thus the desire for a calculated tradeoff which lets the US take advantage of its abundance of oil and gas to reduce the cost of living for ordinary Americans, also an essential need. Because of the declining cost of natural gas vs coal, coal is in gradual phase out, and declining cost of solar means Germany, China, India are making the shift to solar, and nuclear energy provides another option. The difference is that the DJT administration is taking government out of the effort and letting the private sector work out building of renewable sources. Government is not always the answer as electric cars are likely to make more gains in 2026 than under the Biden administration because of VW, Mercedes, BYD, Ford and GM coming up with cars that can do close to 500 miles on one charge and the cost of an EV down to about $30,000 to $40,000. ...

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Stranded assets is likely to become a major issue for automobile companies switching to electric vehicles, power companies switching away from coal, and oil and gas companies that are moving to renewables. Close to $20 trillion such assets now face writedowns, as shown in this report in the WSJ. These are assets that are retired early or assets that can no longer be used because of high carbon emissions and the switch to new technologies. A recent US Congressional session with oil company executives showed the heads of BP, Shell, Exxon, and Chevron, answering questions on how quickly they were preparing for the switch to renewable energy. The COP26 Glasgow conference has created new urgency at companies such as BP and Shell in Europe.

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BMW is investing 530 million euros to build an all new zero emission electric Megacity car at an assembly plant in Leipzig, East Germany. This will create 800 new jobs. BMW CEO Reithofer, says this demonstrates BMW's committment to invest in Germany as a high-tech location.

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Wages have gone up less in Europe than in the US. In the last 3 months of 2021 wages were up 1.2 % and inflation was up 4.7% for a fall in real wages of 3.1%, which has accelerated since then with the war in Ukraine and shortages of energy and food supplies. A YouGov poll shows that 15% of Germans cannot afford basic necessities and 53% are concerned about rising prices. Because basic things like food and energy where prices have gone up the most also take up large portions of the budget for lower income households. In Germany some unions are giving one off payments for energy bills and other costs to workers till negotiations lead to a settlement on increasing wages. The situation is similar in Greece, Italy and France. In Greece the government has given $3 billion for subsidies on gas and electric bills. Elections are now focusing on cost of living as in France where the second and third place winners in the first round Le Pen and Melenchon together took about half of the vote. ...

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Lahart reminds readers that the Model 3 from Tesla at $35,000, half the price of $70,000 for a basic Model S in 2014, will not be out till 2017. Models for share price targets of over $200 for Tesla assume the car company will sell these models in large numbers, a Barclays model assuming 350,000 of these cars sold by 2020. It is hard to predict the future for gas prices. In the current environment sales of electric vehicles and popular hybrids such as the Toyota Prius are declining. Tesla faces real challenges considering that gas prices though unpredictable face continuing increases in the development of lower cost shale supplies with new technologies in the future.

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The VW emissions scandal lingers on five years after the rigging of of millions of diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests. Now former CEO Martin Winterkorn is ordered to face trial on charges of defrauding customers. It is interesting to note how it all started was a grandiose ambition set by Winterkorn according to this report in the WSJ, to make VW the largest auto company in the world ahead of Toyota and General Motors and push sales of diesel vehicles in the U.S. with "clean diesel vehicles." At this time of pandemic it is appropriate to note that the world has changed since 1946 when the wages of top managers were 2 times that of a Caterpillar company worker, and reached level of 400 times a worker for some executives of companies before the pandemic.  Even in supposedly egalitarian countries where worker representatives are on boards such as Germany, the wages had pushed way upwards to about 170 times the salary of the average worker at VW in 2015 when the emissions crisis erupted. This VW episode shows that the grandiose ambitions of executives were another part of the problem before the pandemic. Today the VW disaster has led to a completely opposite result. Diesel is not taking over the U.S. it is now the now the no go in Germany, as diesel vehicles are being phased out. Instead Germany's auto industry is now making large investments in the electric car industry. Significantly chancellor Merkel and the CDU no longer see the automobile industry in Germany as having some kind of special status and the shift to electric is being made with the planned loss of jobs and a restructuring to replace lost jobs with other jobs over 10 years. And the SPD has called for a legal ratio of the average ratio of a company's top managers  in relation to a workers wage at the same company. The pandemic has put things in perspective on a number of fronts, from wage relationships, health, healthcare and wellbeing, healthy lifestyles, mental health, making clear that health and a commonsense idea of fairness, good infrastructure, and sensible wage relations all go together in this world that the creator made. ...

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Dugan and Spector of the WSJ take readers through efforts to push self driving technology to its limits at electric car maker Tesla. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pushing the technology and plans to get a self driving car go from Los Angeles to New York by the end of 2017. Problems faced by Tesla include a car crash involving a driver who took his hands off the wheel of a Tesla automobile, leading to a crash with an eighteen wheeler truck. This led to an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Board and a decision by Tesla to make driver's hands on the steering wheel required for autopilot to operate. Earlier in 2015 Tesla engineers confirmed that the Tesla cars were not ready for autonomous driving because of near crashes when the reliance was placed entirely on the technology. Ten engineers and two managers resigned from Tesla according to this report by WSJ, with problems relating to deadlines and marketing decisions. Sterling Anderson, the head of the Autopilot program at Tesla resigned to start his own company with the head of the autonomous driving unit at Google, saying he was going to do it the right way, citing concerns that Musk was going ahead with the technology without making it failure proof. The tricky thing about auto pilot driving is the behavioural factors involved, where drivers may take their hands off the steering wheel and not be prepared to act as a backup should the technology fail or something go wrong. Another aspect of this is the tendency of drivers not to pay attention to the road and rely completely on the auto pilot to do everything, more than its capabilities today. Toyota and other auto companies are including some elements of collision free driving, and reliable aspects of the new technology into cars. For Tesla the driverless technology is part of its marketing appeal, and CEO Musk has moved faster in this respect than his own engineering team, according to this WSJ report. ...

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The Glasgow COP26 summit could be the beginning of a new era for mankind as the city that started the industrial revolution in Britain takes the world on a turn into a new era of ecologically conscious living. This BBC report looks at changes we should be experiencing in 2022 to 2030. Electric cars that take the place of current automobiles, increasing use of construction materials other than cement and concrete, use of solar and wind energy. From a mental health standpoint lifestyles built around walking and cycling, more forested areas and green spaces in and around cities, cleaner air, quieter cities, food choices and agricultural choices made around health and better ecology. Personal investments, corporate investments and pensions of $139 trillion invested in a way that cuts carbon emissions. Governments and private citizens enabling transparency and regulation, weekly monitoring on matters relating to emissions in one's own neighborhoods and local region.  ...

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As China shifts away from construction to support the economy no government support is given to real estate company Evergrande to reorganize it operations. Evergrande has $300 billion in debt and its sprawling operations all over China will now be dismantled. The decision is made in an Hong Kong courtroom on the 12th floor of the Hong Kong Court Building as reported by Alexandra Stevenson of the NYT. China is now moving away from the economic support of internet companies such as Tencent and Alibaba and construction firms such as Evergrande. More investment is going into renewable energy and companies that are leading in technologies such as BYD in electric cars worldwide. Investment is also being made in funding improvement in standards of living in the rural interior of the country that was neglected during the boom years and in tackling climate change. This is a very different China as president Jinping looks for other ways for economic development that fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN and the goals of building a better China for all its people in less developed rural areas and in urban areas.  ...

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Small electric cars or mini autos are gaining buyers and drivers in Texas.