Free Republic

Ron DeSantis has signed a law banning automakers from selling cars direct to consumers in Florida – but it contains a carve-out that will benefit his political backer Elon Musk and his Tesla company.House Bill 637 requires most automakers to sell to Floridians through third-party car dealers, who sometimes add exorbitant markups to vehicles’ sales tags.Drafted by lobbyists for dealers, who have made substantial donations to DeSantis, the law could have been a big blow to Tesla owner Elon Musk, who hosted his glitchy presidential campaign launch on Twitter.Tesla cuts out the middleman by operating its own dealerships. Forcing it...

General Motors and Ford both have their feet firmly on the gas pedal. Even as they commit tens of billions of dollars toward future electric vehicle development, they’ve been making major investments in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that they plan to build into the next decade. So far this year, GM has announced more than $2 billion in spending to build new full-size trucks and SUVs and a new generation of V8 engines that will power them. "The ICE age is not over," GM President Mark Reuss told FOX Business at GM’s most recent investor day event. "We’re not...

DETROIT (AP) — Owners of new Ford vehicles will be able to tune in to AM radio in their cars, trucks and SUVs after all. CEO Jim Farley wrote in social media postings Tuesday that the company is reversing a decision to scrub the band after speaking with government policy leaders who are concerned about keeping emergency alerts that often are sounded on AM stations. “We’ve decided to include it on all 2024 Ford and Lincoln vehicles,” Farley wrote on Twitter. “For any owners of Ford’s EVs without AM broadcast capability, we’ll offer a software update” to restore it, Farley...

We guess Ford didn’t have the budget to hire Dylan Mulvaney to step out of the driver’s seat of its rainbow-flag Raptor. See, you have two trucks so covered in mud you can’t tell the difference … until the mud washes off and one is revealed to be a Pride-themed truck. In case you didn’t get it, Ford lights up the word “tough” in rainbow lights. Ford doesn’t have any Clydesdales handy to whip out a new ad as Anheuser-Busch did.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Among the list of things former NASCAR driver and television broadcaster Benny Parsons asked his wife to do prior to his death in January 2007 was to try to get North Wilkesboro Speedway to reopen for NASCAR racing. It took more than 16 years to get it done, but Terri Parsons — along with many others — can celebrate that achievement this week. The NASCAR All-Star Race this weekend will be the first NASCAR race at the historic 0.625-mile oval since 1996. The track was the place that nurtured the love of racing for the Parsons...

Powered by small business owners and union workers alike, the trucking industry is on a collision course with the Democrat Party over federal and local efforts to phase out diesel rigs and push the shipping industry to electric vehicles. The latest strike came a few weeks ago when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new tailpipe emissions goals that could require up to two-thirds of new vehciles sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be battery-powered electric vehicles. A top executive of one of the country’s largest trucking companies declared Tuesday that EPA's proposed new regulations on carbon emission are...

California regulators on Friday voted to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and require all trucks to be zero-emissions by 2042, a decision that puts the state at the forefront of mitigating national tailpipe pollution. The California Air Resources Board unanimously approved the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, the state's second zero-emissions trucks rule and first in the world to require new commercial trucks, including garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles, to be electric. Supporters of the rule say it will improve public health in marginalized communities that have endured polluted air while...

The Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday to overturn a heavy-duty engines emissions rule implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) broke ranks with his fellow Democrats and instead joined Republicans in opposition to the emissions rule. In December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the new “Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards,” which placed more stringent emissions standards over a “wider range of heavy-duty engine operating conditions.” The new rule was set to go into effect in March, but Republicans have been preparing to oppose the regulations through...

Michael Critchley has so many requests for the Ford F-150 Lightning truck he's forced to turn away wannabe owners. "People are offering me a lot of money over MSRP. I've been offered $20K above sticker price," Critchley, the sales manager of Romeo Ford in Kingston, New York, told ABC News. "A lot of pickup guys are coming to the Lightning." "I have about 25 customers waiting for one ... the higher prices haven't deterred customers," Critchley said. "My dad has one and loves it. He's never getting rid of it." The rapidly expanding lists of electric trucks could help President...

A truck driver has been recognized for acting to protect students who were boarding a school bus from a passenger vehicle driver in Alabama on Tuesday. The incident took place on the morning of April 4 in Odenville, Alabama, as the driver of a black sedan reportedly attempted to pass a school bus while children were loading. A semi truck driver spotted the car driver attempting to pass the bus and edged his vehicle into the path of the car to block it from passing the bus and possibly injuring students. The incident was partially caught on video by Katie...

In December 2022, Tesla delivered its first semi-trucks to PepsiCo. Since then, keen-eyed Californians have noticed at least eight trucks seemingly nonoperational, either by the side of the road or being towed home. While Tesla has no media department, sources say the truck problem is as simple as the Semi’s infotainment screens going dead. If so, this would not be a first for Tesla. -snip So Pepsi bought the first round of $200,000 Tesla Semis to augment its truck fleet hauling products out of its Modesto, California plant. PepsiCo immediately put its new Tesla trucks to use, hauling both Frito-Lay...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Biden administration cleared the way Friday for California’s plan to phase out a wide range of diesel-powered trucks, part of the state’s efforts to drastically cut planet-warming emissions and improve air quality in heavy-traffic areas like ports along the coast. The decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows California — which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution — to require truck manufacturers to sell an increasing number of zero-emission trucks over the next couple of decades. The rule applies to a wide range of trucks including box trucks, semitrailers and even large...

The Biden administration will approve new California rules to cut tailpipe pollution and phase out sales of diesel-burning trucks, according to three people briefed on the plans, a move that could jump-start the nation’s transition to electric-powered trucks and help communities harmed by diesel pollution.

Once upon a time, the manual transmission was the default transmission choice for a pickup truck. The automatic was a luxury option that robbed trucks of both power and mpg. But the final full-size pickup truck with the manual transmission (the 2018 Cummins-powered Ram) has come and gone. So who is to blame for the death of the manual transmission pickup truck? The truth is that increased engine torque, government regulations, and the capabilities of the average driver are all partially responsible. But at the end of the day, we killed the manual truck; automakers don’t offer manual transmission full-size...

A new patent allows Ford to build cars that take action if the owner falls behind on payments by playing annoying sounds – or even driving themselves back to the seller.Ford has been granted a patent for a system that allows a car to repossess itself if its owner fails to keep up with payments. The firm envisions the car driving itself back to the showroom – or to a scrapyard if the value of the car is low. But a security expert warns that the proposed system could instead be used to steal cars remotely. The patent, which was...

Like spoiled children, liberals never give up when they want something, and they can never get enough. Whether it’s more redistribution of taxpayer money, more acceptance of unacceptable behavior, or another cookie, left-wingers always want more. Perfect example: Rather than “only” coming after our evil, planet-destroying passenger cars, the left is targeting our pickup trucks as well, my fellow Americans.Moreover, the idiocy is neither new nor driven only by the left’s hatred of internal combustion engines.As I first reported in January 2021 — and this is laugh-out-loud hysterical — pickup trucks not only brazenly project “petromasculinity”; they’re also the personification...

Do you remember way back in November when we were teetering on the edge of running out of diesel fuel? Thankfully, reduced demand and some temporary increases from our remaining refineries pushed off that crisis for a while. But it was an important reminder that the nation’s supply chain still runs almost entirely on diesel and if we run out, no products will be moving anywhere for a while. Out in California this month they’re looking at a different but related crisis. Instead of a shortage of fuel, the state will be looking at a shortage of trucks. All tractor-trailers...

This morning I'm picking up my brand spanking new Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road edition. It's my first new vehicle in almost 40 years.While I was married, all the new vehicles went to the now ex-wife because I wanted her to be the safest possible and I was ok driving the 'hand me downs' due to my very short commute.As we had kids, that continued with her getting the new vehicles with the most safety features for her and our two sons. I never considered it a "sacrifice" to always drive the highly used vehicles and her & the kids getting...

California's Air Resources Board has laid out a plan to ban all diesel-powered trucks that would cause inflationary ripples throughout the entire economy.The plan would mandate that all new trucks operating around busy railways and ports be zero emission vehicles by 2024 - while all diesel trucks would be phased out by 2035, and eventually, banishing every truck and bus fleet from California roads by 2045, where feasible, according to SFGATE.The proposed Advance Clean Fleets regulation first targets the busiest trucking areas in the state — around warehouses, sea ports and railways. The board says the pollution in these areas...

Slump in imports, cargo diversions to other ports help shrink queue of dozens of vessels The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared. The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week ... . U.S. import volumes are declining ... The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled 686,133 loaded import containers in September, down 18% from a year...