Ford Motor Co is not experiencing a hit to its auto sales as a result of a recent spate of safety recalls, chief operating officer Mark Fields said.
“I think overall our sales are doing well,” Fields told reporters on Tuesday, adding that consumers have a good perception of the quality of Ford products.
“But we also understand that’s a very precious thing and we’re working very hard every day to deliver that quality commitment to our costumers,” Fields said.
Last week, Ford issued the fourth recall on next year’s Escape crossover since July. The most recent recall was for increased risk of an engine fire due to a software glitch in the cooling system of the Escape as well as the midsize Fusion sedan.
On Monday last week, the same day as the Escape and Fusion recall, the US Environmental Protection Agency said it would investigate claims by Consumer Reports magazine that Ford’s hybrid models of the Fusion and C-Max crossover fell well short of the official fuel economy rating of 47 miles per gallon (20km per liter).
Ford’s 2013 Escape launched in July. Fields said this month’s sales were going well, but he declined to offer an estimate of this month’s sales.
Ford sales rose 6.4 percent last month from the previous November.
This year’s sales through last month were up 5 percent at 2.03 million new vehicles, for a 15.5 percent share of the US auto market, down from 16.8 percent market share at the same time last year, when sales for Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co were limited due to the earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
Separately, Toyota will pay a record US$17.35 million dollar fine for failing to promptly notify US authorities about a safety defect on 2010 Lexus models, a federal agency said on Tuesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Toyota had agreed to pay the penalty, the maximum fine allowable under the law, “in response to the agency’s assertion that the automaker failed to report a safety defect to the federal government in a timely manner.”
“This action represents the single highest civil penalty amount ever paid to NHTSA for violations stemming from a recall,” the NHTSA said.
Toyota announced in late June the recall in the US of 154,000 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h to fix a problem with the floor mat that could trap the accelerator pedal, causing undesired acceleration.
The NHTSA noted the company’s recall came after it had contacted Toyota in May about a trend in floor mat pedal entrapment in 2010 Lexus RX 350s.
A month later, Toyota told the agency it was aware of 63 alleged incidents of the problem since 2009, it said.
Under US federal law, all auto manufacturers must notify the NHTSA within five business days of determining that a safety defect exists or that the vehicle is non-compliant with US auto safety standards and to promptly conduct a recall.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last