2020 = Year of the Electric Car (*maybe)
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Is 2020 the Year of the Electric Car? Tesla, VW, and Ford say yes (Honda disagrees)
Turn me on with your electric wheel... Mother Earth isn't a fan of burning gas — So is 2020 the year we switch to something else? The verdict is: a (strong) maybe. Carmakers spent the final week of 2019 humblebragging their future-focused electrification accomplishments.
- Ford announced it's sold out of pre-orders for the first electric car it's actually serious about: Mustang Mach-E (this ain't no "compliance car").
- Tesla just delivered its first 15 models produced in China, capping an insane under 1 year start-to-finish construction of its car-pumping Shanghai Gigafactory.
- VW can't contain its e-citement, so it's accelerated its goal to produce 1M fully electric cars by 2023 instead of 2025.
Honda isn't convinced... The Boston Red Sox to Toyota's Yankees, Honda's experience with electric goes back to '99 (remember that salamander-looking Insight?). So its CEO is qualified to say he's "not sure" the world wants full-electric cars yet. Instead, Honda's focused on improving fuel efficiency with ybrid tech and won't go full electric "anytime soon."
Electric's 2 biggest issues = Price + Battery... If you haven't bought an electric car, it's probably because they're too expensive or you're nervous about running out of juice mid-ride (aka "range anxiety"). Carmakers know that — here are some ways they're trying to fix it:
- Price problem: Analysts think e-cars won't be price-competitive until 2024-ish when battery prices fall more. Meantime, Tesla's China plant can produce cheaper, and tariff-free, for Chinese buyers.
- Battery problem: Ford's Mach-E boasts a 300-mile option that 80% of pre-orders include. And VW is building a nationwide charging network so you can plug in mid-bathroom pitstop.
Google is ending the ol' "Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich" tax elimination strategy
New New Year's Resolution... Stop using a sketchy international scheme with a charming name to sneak out of US taxes. Instead of going to the gym more, Google's parent company Alphabet will end its "Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich" tax minimization strategy in 2020 — they saved billions and only paid a single-digit tax rate on money earned outside the US through this ~~structure~~ loophole.
It sounds like a bar order, and reads like a Spring Break itinerary... but it's actually a perfectly legal travel route for money that won't trigger US income taxes or Europe's witholding taxes — and those happen to be most of Google's profits abroad. Here's how the cash moves:
- The $$$ earned abroad is funneled to an Irish subsidiary ➡️ then moved to a Dutch holding company ➡️ then sent to an Irish shell company in Bermuda
- That Bermuda part is key because the island has no corporate income tax — So that's where Google reports the income earned internationally.
- $25B of Google's money made this voyage last year, up from $23B in 2017.
Tax policy can move economies... It isn't just that the corporate tax rate for US companies has been cut from 35% to 21%. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 now lets American companies bring back cash they made/hoarded abroad without paying additional US taxes. Now Google can bring back its billions in overseas cash to potentially invest in the US — or return to shareholders as dividends.
What else we’re Snackin’
- NRD: It's "National Returns Day" — and UPS expects to ship back 1.9M gifts for it
- Served: Uber and Postmates sue California over the gig-rights worker law, calling it unconstitutional (the law thinks your Uber driver earned full-tme worker status)
- Designed: Amazon's HQ2 in Virginia will break ground soon — the outside looks brutally boring, but the parks around it are bask-worthy
- Heard: China's Tencent Holdings leads a crew to acquire 10% of Universal Music, the music label behind The Beatles and Lady Gaga
- Investigate: A US auto safety agency will probe a fatal Tesla crash that may have been tied to the autopilot function
- Upcoming: Walmart's CEO thinks "virtual changing rooms" are coming before the end of this new decade
Thursday
- 1st official stock trading day of 2020
- Earnings from Pier 1 Imports
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Google, Uber, Amazon, and Tesla
ID: 1046827