Surcar Shanghai : Asia - Congresses - Awards - Workshops

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Oct. 7-10, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.

Nissan says it will give retailers escalating bonuses on the Rogue, Pathfinder and Frontier if they reach or exceed October sales targets. It's the return of a scorned sales practice to help lift margins and market share.

TO THE EDITOR:

There has been a call this election cycle to roll back government mandates on electric vehicle production and alternative fuels research for the sake of protecting current automotive job levels.

The internal combustion engine age has brought unbridled prosperity to Detroit and Michigan. What problems did the ICE age solve at the turn of the 20th century?

ICE age pioneers were looking for profitable alternatives to horse-and-buggy era issues with increasing disposal costs for horse, mule and donkey waste, especially in rapidly growing urban centers.

Engineered refinements evolved to eliminate hand-crank starters, spoked wagon wheels and dirt roads. Automatic transmissions boosted mass appeal after World War II, and urban centers expanded outward. The modern internal combustion engine purrs like a kitten and can be altered to roar like a lion. So why ruin a good thing?

Just as the “aroma” of the horse and buggy era arose last century, the internal combustion engine is contributing to problems we in Detroit and the greater Midwest don’t get as great a sense of.

These problems include summer heat troughs inducing prolonged triple-digit temperatures in the South and West, flash flooding and increasingly voracious hurricanes with storm surges eroding our coastlines.

We in Detroit and the greater Midwest don’t have to cope with these aftermaths yet. But we are not an island unto ourselves either. We may not realize how much the world at large is looking to Detroit for automobile fuel alternatives.

EV demand may lag without wider access to recharging stations, and battery life needs extending if we are to generate a market for used EVs. We have to keep testing just as the ICE age pioneers did.

So is hydrogen an alternative? We won’t know if we don’t try, so test we must if we want our children’s children’s children to sustain. We are approaching an inflection point. Detroit’s engineering class must decide to either be an integral and viable part of the alternative fuels’ future or be the apologists for lost opportunities and lower living standards. 

GERALD KIELISZEWSKI, Clinton Township, Mich.

The country’s top dealers and store leaders gathered in Nashville Oct. 10 for a gala celebration. 

Dealers are looking to Antonio Filosa, who replaces Carlos Zarlenga as North America COO, for more help moving inventory that on many lots goes back to the 2023 model year.