Raphael Stevens

Jeep expects to sell 160,000 to 170,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, in the U.S. this year, an increase of 40% to 50% from last year, Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa told CNBC.
The target comes as Jeep launches its first all-electric SUVs in the U.S., beginning with the Wagoneer S EV.
Jeep has leaned into PHEVs more than others to offset sales of the brand’s gas-guzzling SUVs amid tightening emissions and fuel economy standards.

A Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) during the 2023 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

NEW YORK – Jeep plans to grow U.S. sales of its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by as much as 50% this year as it leans into the technology as a bridge between its traditional gas-guzzling SUVs and all-electric vehicles amid a slower-than-expected sales pace of EVs.
The Stellantis brand expects to sell 160,000 to 170,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, in the U.S. this year, an increase of 40% to 50% from last year, Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa told CNBC.

The target comes as Jeep launches its first all-electric SUVs in the U.S., beginning with the Wagoneer S.
“It’s the best time to be flexible, as we are,” Filosa said during an interview Thursday after unveiling the brand’s new EV in New York. “One of the pillars of growth for the market is going to be freedom of choice.”
PHEVs, which combine an internal combustion engine with EV technologies, could help accelerate consumer adoption of electrified vehicles, as a sort of stutter step to all-electric models.
PHEV sales at the level Jeep is expecting this year would top Stellantis’ total 2023 U.S. sales of the vehicles, at roughly 143,000 units. They also would outperform an industry forecast for 27.5% segment growth this year, according to AutoPacific. That compares with the consulting and data firm’s 17% growth for EVs.

Jeep’s PHEV sales last year totaled 113,113 units, including 67,429 Jeep Wranglers and 45,684 Jeep Grand Cherokees. Through the first quarter of this year, sales totaled 31,750, up 47% from the same period a year earlier. The brand is first in the U.S. in PHEV sales.

Jeep has leaned into PHEVs more than others to offset sales of the brand’s gas-guzzling SUVs amid tightening emissions and fuel economy standards.
The next Jeep vehicles are expected to be the Wagoneer S EV this fall, followed by a Wrangler-like EV called the Recon and a replacement for the discontinued Cherokee midsize SUV during the first half of next year. The automaker also will add new plug-in “range-extender” models to its gas-powered Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer large SUVs in 2025.
“We have a game plan. We have a business plan, and we believe that price position and product wise, we are perfect to meet the volume we want to make,” Filosa said.
Both hybrids and plug-in hybrids have a traditional engine combined with EV technologies. A traditional hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, has electrified parts, including a small battery, to provide better fuel economy to supplement the engine.

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes The Jeep Brand (NYSE: STLA) to the podium, on May 31, 2024. To honor the occasion, Antonio Filosa, Chief Executive Officer, joined by Lynn Martin, President, NYSE Group rings The Opening Bell®.

Plug-in hybrids typically have a larger battery to provide for all-electric driving for a certain number of miles until an engine is needed to power the vehicle or electric motors.
Both Filosa and Stellantis Chief Technology Officer Ned Curic said the company is evaluating whether to launch traditional hybrid vehicles in the U.S. in addition to its plug-in models.
“We’re deciding at the moment how will the market respond to our hybrids,” Curic said during a separate interview. “We have a good mix on our roadmap between EV, PHEV, [and internal combustion engine].”
The “range-extender electric vehicle” models, or REEVs, operate slightly differently than typical hybrids. The vehicles can operate as a zero-emissions EV until the vehicle’s battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle after its initial charge.
Stellantis’ first REEV vehicle is expected to be the Ram Ramcharger full-size pickup truck later this year.
“This is quite a good option,” Curic said. “I’m confident that vehicle is going to do exceptionally well.”
The REEVs are expected to be priced higher than PHEVs (which already carry a premium compared to traditional gas-powered vehicles) but below all-electric models, according to Curic.

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Moderna and Merck said their experimental vaccine in combination with the therapy Keytruda improved survival and showed durable efficacy in a midstage study in patients with a deadly form of skin cancer.
Nearly 75% of patients who took the combination were alive without any signs or symptoms of their cancer returning at the 2½-year mark.
The overall survival rate of patients who took the vaccine in combination with Keytruda was 96% after 2½ years.

Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Moderna and Merck released more positive three-year data Monday on their experimental vaccine, given to patients with the most deadly form of skin cancer in combination with the therapy Keytruda.
The vaccine together with Merck’s Keytruda improved survival and showed long-lasting efficacy in a midstage study in patients with a deadly form of skin cancer. Moderna and Merck are presenting the data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.

The shot is a key part of Moderna’s pipeline that has helped shore up investor sentiment for the biotech company following a rocky last year, when demand plummeted for its Covid vaccine, for now its only commercially available product.
The data includes the initial results the two companies announced in December.
Among new data, nearly 75% of patients who took the combination were alive without any signs or symptoms of their cancer returning at the 2½-year mark. That compares with 55.6% of patients who got Keytruda alone. 
That benefit was observed across different subgroups of patients, regardless of whether they had tumors with a large number of mutations or whether they had enough of a protein — called PD-L1 — that helps keep the body’s immune responses in check. 
The data reflects the potential for the shot to help treat a “broad range” of melanoma patients, Dr. Kyle Holen, Moderna’s head of development, therapeutics and oncology, said in a release.

The overall survival rate of patients who took the vaccine in combination with Keytruda was 96% after 2½ years. That compares with 90.2% among those who took Keytruda alone.
As the companies previously announced, patients with severe forms of the cancer, known as melanoma, who received the combination were 49% less likely to die or have their cancer return than those who took Keytruda alone after roughly three years. The combination also slashed the risk of melanoma spreading to other parts of the body, or death, by 62%.
The most common side effects associated with the vaccine were fatigue, injection site pain and chills, according to the data. The majority of those side effects were mild. Patients who received the combination had slightly higher immune-related side effects.
The vaccine, which uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna’s Covid vaccine, is custom-built based on an analysis of a patient’s tumors after surgical removal. The shot is designed to train the immune system to recognize and attack specific mutations in cancer cells. 
Moderna is excited about working to reduce the time between the initial analysis of a tumor and when a patient gets injected with the shot, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with CNBC.
Meanwhile, Merck’s Keytruda, which is approved to treat melanoma and other cancers, belongs to a class of widely used immunotherapies designed to disable a certain protein that helps cancer evade the immune system.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February gave breakthrough therapy designation to the cancer vaccine for the treatment of melanoma. That designation aims to speed up the development and review of treatments for serious and life-threatening diseases.
But Moderna also plans to file for accelerated approval with the FDA, Bancel noted. The process allows for expedited approvals of drugs for serious conditions that fill an unmet medical need.
Melanoma is responsible for the large majority of skin cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. The rate of melanoma has increased rapidly over the past few decades, according to the organization.
About 100,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma in the U.S. this year and nearly 8,000 people are expected to die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
The two drugmakers are studying the combination as a treatment for late-stage melanoma in a phase-three trial, which began in July. Bancel said the progress of that trial is “ahead of our plans” so far. 
Moderna is also conducting another phase three trial of the vaccine in patients with a type of lung cancer. 
This year, Merck and Moderna started a two-part mid- to late-stage trial on the vaccine and Keytruda in patients at an advanced stage of a common skin cancer. The companies are also conducting a phase two trial in certain patients with a type of kidney cancer, and another study on people with a type of bladder cancer. More

Ford’s latest project out of Motor City is the restoration and reopening of an abandoned train station, now the automaker’s new technology campus.
The $950 million project encompasses the 18-story former train station called Michigan Central Station, an adjacent 270,000-square-foot building and other supporting facilities.
Ford Chair Bill Ford Jr., who spearheaded the project, said the 30-acre campus will be key for the automaker’s talent acquisition and retention.

Ford Motor is turning an abandoned train station used for decades as an infamous symbol of Detroit’s downfall and blight into a new technology campus for the automaker and mixed-use property for the city.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT – Ford’s latest project out of the Motor City is the restoration and reopening of an abandoned train station, for decades a symbol of Detroit’s downfall and now the automaker’s new technology campus.
The $950 million project encompasses the 18-story former train station called Michigan Central Station – once the state’s marquee transit building – an adjacent 270,000-square-foot building and other, supporting facilities.

The 30-acre “Michigan Central” campus and station was initially announced in 2018 and slated to open by 2022. However, the coronavirus pandemic and the extensive work needed to renovate the station delayed its reopening. Ford is celebrating the restoration of the century-old train station on Thursday.
Following the event Thursday, the ground floor of the train station building will be open to the public through June 16, before the first commercial occupants begin moving in this fall.
The new campus comes at a precarious time for Ford investors as the company continues to restructure its business. It also comes as many companies attempt to downsize office space and fill their current buildings with employees who grew accustomed to working from home during the pandemic.

A photo of Michigan Central’s main concourse prior to its renovation sits in the newly restored room toward the back of the building.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Specifically in Detroit, a stark juxtaposition has emerged: In April, Ford’s crosstown rival General Motors announced it would be downsizing from its towering Renaissance Center headquarters along the city’s riverfront to two floors in a nearby building that’s under construction.
Yet Ford Chair Bill Ford Jr. said he believes the investment made in the historic train station is a crucial part of the automaker’s future, including in aspects of talent acquisition and retention.

“We’re in a war for talent, our industry and our company,” Ford, who spearheaded the project, told CNBC. “And you need to give talent two things: You need to give them, first, really interesting problems to solve, and then you have to give them a great place to work. With Michigan Central, we checked both those boxes.”
Bill Ford decided to purchase the dilapidated building after years of trips to Silicon Valley for his Fontinalis venture capital firm and during his tenure as a member of the eBay board of directors. He’s long been outspoken about the need for the traditional automotive industry to compete with newer tech companies in both product and talent acquisition.

Ford Motor released this image of Chair Bill Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, when the automaker announced it would be purchasing Michigan Central Station in June 2018.

Ford said attracting top talent to Detroit is “getting better” but noted that “it’s a tall order” to convince workers from California or the East Coast to relocate to Detroit and work for Ford.
“If you can show them a place like Michigan Central, not just in its beauty, which alone is incredible, but then talk about the kind of things that will be going on there, then it becomes, I think, a really valuable resource for the company going forward,” he said.

Train station campus

The Michigan Central campus is located southwest of Detroit’s main business district in a trendy neighborhood known as Corktown. It’s about 10 miles down the road from Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
The Michigan Central campus in total spans 1.2 million square feet of commercial space, including retail, restaurants and hospitality. It was awarded $300 million in state, local and historic rehabilitation tax incentives, according to officials.

The restored grand waiting room inside Ford’s Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford officials went to great lengths to restore the station to its original glory after decades of vandalism and decay. The project involved 3D-scanning the rooms, matching materials and referencing historical photos to recreate parts of the building.
This was especially true for the first floor of the train station, where a grand room features massive windows, an arcade and a large concourse full of marble and terrazzo flooring, Mankato stone and other unique materials.
Architects and designers opted to leave some graffiti on walls to represent the station’s dormant years after closing in 1988.
As one measure of Ford’s determination, officials traced the facility’s original limestone to a quarry in Indiana only to find out it had since closed. Michigan Central worked with the owners to reopen the quarry.

Some graffiti from when Michigan Central sat dormant for more than 30 years was purposely preserved to represent that part of the station’s history.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

“It has been painstakingly and lovingly restored to, wherever possible, to its original condition,” said Josh Sirefman, Michigan Central CEO, during a tour of the project. “Before we start activating it with lots of things, it’s probably in its most pristine condition.”
Amid national commercial real estate challenges, about two-thirds of the tower has scheduled tenants or planned use cases, officials said. That includes an unnamed restaurant and hotel, pending rezoning approval.
The adjacent building, known as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository, already houses more than 600 employees from nearly 100 startup companies.
“It really is the beginning of the ecosystem that I want to create,” Bill Ford said. “There’s going to be a lot of experimentation taking place down there.”

Michael Wayland / CNBC

Ford plans to house at least 2,500 employees in the building, primarily members of the company’s electric vehicle and connected services teams. Roughly 1,000 of those employees are expected to move into the station’s tower by the end of this year, Ford said.
Other building occupants could include local universities, other businesses and a restaurant. However, officials declined to release a full list of expected tenants. Google, a founding partner of the project, runs its “Code Next” program, which teaches students how to code, from the Book Depository building.
Ford said he expects future automaker employees to be able to collaborate with other occupants of the station’s tower as well as the startups occupying the Book Depository building.  

A photo of Michigan Central’s arcade prior to its renovation sits in the newly restored room toward the east end of the building.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

‘Legacy project’

Resurrecting the train station and surrounding campus is the latest project Bill Ford, a great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, has undertaken in the Motor City.
He was instrumental in moving the Ford family-owned Detroit Lions from suburban Pontiac to a new stadium, appropriately named Ford Field, in downtown Detroit in 2002. He also was part of the team that brought the Super Bowl to the city in 2006.
And he redeveloped the company’s River Rouge Assembly plant into a “green” production facility amid calls to close it. It’s now a tourist destination for the production of the Ford F-150 full-size pickup.
Ford, who served as CEO of the automaker from 2001 to 2006, described Michigan Central as a continuation of such projects. He called the effort a “legacy project” for himself as well as for those who have been able to work on it.
“I’m very proud of both of those [prior projects], but I think this is going to kind of put an exclamation point on it because this will be a wonderful place to work but it will also be a wonderful place for the public to come,” Ford said.

The renovated “reading room” off of the grand waiting room at Ford’s Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
Michael Waylans / CNBC More