EV Credit is Still Alive in Tax Reform Bill
U.S. House and Senate negotiators are reportedly keeping the electric-vehicle tax credit of $7500 as part of a compromise package on tax reform.
Auto industry leaders pushed back on its elimination as the credit has been the primary motivator to electric vehicle sales.
“I’m a proponent of that staying in because it’s the right thing to do,” GM CEO Mary Barra said earlier this week. If the incentives are dropped, “that would change the equation” and make battery-based products less financially attractive she added, though she said GM would not back down on its commitment to the technology.
Read the original article at The Detroit Bureau.
Setting New Goals for The New Year
By Mike Cieri
Goals are vital for motivating employees and monitoring their performance
Goals provide the MOTIVATION and DIRECTION necessary for growth and success in important areas of almost every business.
An important aspect of developing goals is the relationship between the difficulty of the task (goal) and performance. If the goal is too easy to achieve, the effort that the employee/team dedicates to the task will be low, and actually un-motivating. Yet if the goal seems impossible, you will have the same effect.
When a goal is difficult and both parties believe it’s achievable, you will maximize intensity and persistence, creating engagement.
Once you have identified a worthy goal, use the SMART goal format.
Want to Help Your Clients? Stay Calm!
No one can hear you or feel your positive impact in disruptive waters.
By Laura Jozwiak, Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, Wheels, Inc.
You probably know this scenario. You are enjoying a walk along your favorite lake or stream, and pick up a stone to skip it across the water. Where the stone impacts the water, you can see the ripples fan out from the impact spot. The ripples start close to the stone with a big wave, and as they get farther out, the waves get dulled and smaller until the waters are calm once more. Just a few moments later, all is calm again and you can’t detect the stone was thrown in the first place.
Throw the same stone on a stormy day, with rougher waters or a rushing stream, and you don’t see any of your ripples in the already turbulent waters. Your efforts go unnoticed…just another bump in an already bumpy environment.
IRS Announces 2018 Business Mileage Rate of 54.5 Cents-Per-Mile with Cost Data and Analysis by Runzheimer
Working with Runzheimer the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today announced the new national, optional business mileage deduction rate of 54.5¢, which goes into effect January 1, 2018.
“Across the US the average costs of owning and operating a vehicle rose just one cent over the last reporting period for this cost analysis. All of the ownership and operating costs have been relatively stable, with fuel costs showing the greatest increase, offset by small decreases in vehicle ownership costs,” said Donna Koppensteiner-Reidy, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Runzheimer.
‘ACES’ will Drive Disruption in the Auto Industry
Autonomous and electric cars, connectivity, and ridesharing are changing the way auto industry players think about value chains, data analytics, and manufacturing.
Asutosh Padhi, a senior McKinsey partner says, "Our view is that the automotive industry will see more disruption in the next ten years than it has seen in the last 50 years. This disruption will be driven by four factors that we call the ACES. It stands for autonomous, connectivity, electrification, and ridesharing."
Fleet owners are going to make decisions on car buying based on the total cost of ownership, and this is where electrification and ridesharing start to go hand in hand together.
Read the original article at McKinsey & Co.
