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The first car I owned in adulthood was a Mercedes-Benz. It was not a particularly desirable one by Mercedes standards (or any standards, really), although it did have one of those three-pointed-star hood ornaments that were so fashionable as (often stolen) accoutrements in the late 1980s. It was a 300D turbodiesel: The “turbo” part only kicked in on the interstate or autobahn, and the diesel part had a lot of trouble kicking in at all. It was so sluggish off the mark that turning right to go left was almost mandatory — at least I got very good at U-turns. [1] We eventually foisted the car on a niece who lived in Milwaukee, home of Harley-Davidson and, that year, the motorcycle-maker’s enormous 100th-anniversary rally. It was a pretty raucous event — The Milwaukee Journal reported “public nudity and wild street behavior” in her neighborhood — and while I cannot make a definite connection with what happened next, the circumstances are at least suspicious. At one point during that four-day celebration, her brother awoke in the middle of the night to the smell of acrid smoke, looked out the window, and thought to himself, “Wow, there’s a car on fire out there!” His next thought was, “Wow, that’s my sister’s car!” By the time the fire department showed up, it had pretty much burned down to the rims. (Her father, a true pack rat, still has those rims buried in his garage somewhere.) The hood ornament, alas, did not survive the makeshift firebombing. Now, it is Mercedes itself that may not survive — given the existential threat of cheaper, increasingly reliable and stylish Chinese cars and EVs. “A massive profit warning from BMW AG last week delivered yet more evidence that Germany’s automaking business model is broken,” writes Chris Bryant. “With Volkswagen AG’s top executives reportedly worried about existential threats to their company, BMW’s woes aren’t isolated.” While Chris thinks it makes sense for German carmakers to develop new models with Chinese partners, vehicle sales in China itself aren’t likely to rebound.
“The US market looks a better bet, in part because emissions regulations have become less onerous during Donald Trump’s presidency,” Chris writes. “Mercedes is now aiming to lift its US sales by more than 30% by end of this decade.” I don’t think my niece will be among that customer base.
Of course, the auto industry is also suffering from a pointless conflict in the Middle East. “The war with Iran has shown how harmful our overreliance on oil and gas is, both economically and militarily,” writes Michael R. Bloomberg. “People are paying more to fill up their gas tanks, keep their lights on and operate their businesses.” There is an alternative, he says: Clean energy now produces electricity less expensively than fossil fuels in virtually every part of the world. “Moving faster to develop cheaper and cleaner energy options will help improve our health, keep us out of wars, lower energy bills, create good-paying jobs, and protect the public from the painful economic shocks — including inflation, job losses and factory closures — that have come with periodic oil shortages, dating back to the OPEC oil embargo of 1973,” he writes. “The energy crisis caused by the Iran war should galvanize nations to diversify their energy portfolios with more clean alternatives, including nuclear power.” I’m all for nuclear power, despite having lived through the (mostly successful) efforts of Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas and the late, great Wilford Brimley to kill it off by scaring the bejesus out of us.
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Can nuclear power now rise from the dead thanks to an even less likely scenario: bipartisanship? “It is heartening that both Republicans and Democrats in Washington agree on supporting nuclear power, which can deliver carbon-free electricity at huge scale,” writes Liam Denning. “If the oft-predicted US nuclear renaissance is ever going to transpire, the time is now. The race to win in artificial intelligence is in large part a race to find enough electricity to feed it … the problems, as always with nuclear power, are cost and timing.” For so long, the same has been true of solar power. Yet now cost and timing may be coming together in a very unlikely, war-scarred, extremist-run, global-economy-hostage-taking place. “You might not be surprised to discover that Asian countries jeopardized by the war in Iran are rushing to install solar power as fast as they can. Iran itself seems a less likely candidate. That may be set to change, however,” writes David Fickling. “It may soon become one of the biggest growth markets for photovoltaic energy. That ambition isn’t in conflict with its determination to pump more crude in a post-war world. Indeed, the future of its oil industry may depend on a willingness to embark on a breakneck solar build-out.” Solar, nuclear, EVs — it’s almost like somebody could make some money off all this! Mark Gongloff has found a lot of those somebodies. “A recent report from the London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSEG) found that ‘green economy’ companies, or those that derive a significant portion of their revenue from stuff like clean energy, efficiency and water management, now have a total stock market value of $10 trillion,” Mark writes. “If this were a standalone sector, it would be bigger than healthcare and third in the world only to technology and industrials. … Evidence keeps mounting that the green economy has entered a new phase, one where its rapidly improving economics give it lasting immunity from fickle political sentiments.”
The future era may be green, but the present era remains dependent on the Mesozoic one. “Once upon a time, Europe was so smug about its energy security that it mulled banning imports of US natural gas,” writes Javier Blas. “Since then, the Kremlin has gone to war against Ukraine, and the American shale industry has engineered a revolution that saved the day twice in Europe, first in 2022 and now again in 2026. The flipside? The continent is today buying a great deal of US gas, prompting a vital question with energy, economic and diplomatic consequences for the European Union: When does a lot become too much?” American gas, American car-buyers. The Old World is looking pretty dependent on the New. Here’s a suggestion: How about a fireproof Mercedes? Bonus car Reading:
What’s the World Got in Store?
- Nike earnings, June 30: FIFA World Cup Thrives on Diaspora Players — Adam Minter
- USMCA renewal deadline, July 1: Trump’s Negotiation Style? The Art of the Non-Deal: David Westin
- US Jobs, July 2: Greenspan’s Legacy Is as Convoluted as His Words — John Authers
Man, the only thing more embarrassing than the design of London’s new drinking fountains is that Mayor Sadiq Khan is so proud of them:
Also embarrassing is that his X post got only 54 retweets. And that there are only 100 of these things. For a city of 9 million people! And that you need to bring your own receptacle. Have these people never heard of a bubbler? [2] I guess that even at 90,000 residents per water station, it’s better than nothing — because like most of Europe, London has entered the Heat Dome. Last week the UK set a record high for the month of June: 98.6F. Um, that may not seem very impressive to Americans: NYC airports recorded three days hotter than that in June 2025 alone, and our national record for for the month is 129F (Death Valley, California, 2013). But for Europe, these sorts of heat waves are a tragedy: In the blazing summer of 2003, the continent suffered an excess mortality rate of 70,000 people. “We must take the heat seriously and take urgent steps to adapt to it. Simple measures such as installing window shutters, painting rail tracks and rooftops white and educating people on how to keep themselves safe can be extremely effective at protecting both lives and the economy,” writes Lara Williams from sweltering London. “Above all, the heat dome is yet another blaring warning that we aren’t decarbonizing fast enough to stop global heating — and that needs to change.” [3] What also needs to change, according to Mihir Sharma, is the ridiculously overregulated way Britain handles air conditioning. “The bar has been set deliberately and unreasonably high. A simple air-conditioning unit is treated the way a Victorian magistrate might have viewed a gin house: Permissible in theory, punishable in practice,” Mihir writes. “It has been singled out for opprobrium far more than other forms of polluting consumption, even though it can save lives.” The Brits can put up all the water stations they want, but the moral posturing just turns up the heat. Note: Please send Hongqi L5s and feedback to Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net
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