Raphael Stevens

General Motors and Honda Motor will develop a series of affordable electric vehicles based on a new global architecture, the companies announced Tuesday morning.
The new partnership deepens the ties between the two companies regarding all-electric and autonomous vehicles.

DETROIT – General Motors and Honda Motor will develop a series of affordable electric vehicles based on a new global architecture, the companies announced Tuesday morning.
The project will utilize GM’s next-generation Ultium battery technology. The tie-up is expected to produce millions of lower-priced EVs, including popular compact crossover vehicles, beginning in 2027, according to officials.

“GM and Honda will share our best technology, design and manufacturing strategies to deliver affordable and desirable EVs on a global scale, including our key markets in North America, South America and China,” GM CEO and Chair Mary Barra said in a statement.
More affordable EVs are crucial to the mass adoption of the emerging technologies. While EVs are growing in popularity, they’re largely priced for luxury buyers. The GM-Honda developed vehicles are expected to be priced below $30,000, Ken Morris, GM’s executive vice president of electric, autonomous and fuel cell programs, told reporters during a call Tuesday morning.
Company officials declined to disclose financial terms of the new partnership, which will result in vehicles for both Honda and GM brands.
The automakers also said they will discuss future “EV battery technology collaboration opportunities, to further drive down the cost of electrification, improve performance and drive sustainability for future vehicles.”

General Motors revealed its all-new modular platform and battery system, Ultium, on March 4, 2020 at its Tech Center campus in Warren, Michigan.
Photo by Steve Fecht for General Motors

Both automakers are working on next-generation battery development, including solid-state batteries. Solid-state batteries can be lighter, with greater energy density, and provide more range at a lower cost than today’s EVs with lithium-ion batteries.

“Honda and GM will build on our successful technology collaboration to help achieve a dramatic expansion in the sales of electric vehicles,” Toshihiro Mibe, Honda president & CEO, said in a statement.
GM plans to be capable of producing and selling about 2 million EVs globally by 2025. Honda, a leader in fuel efficient vehicles, has largely focused on hybrid vehicles but is pivoting to offer more all-electric models.
The new partnership deepens the ties between the two companies regarding all-electric and autonomous vehicles. Honda previously invested $750 million in Cruise, GM’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle unit, and GM produced two EVs for Honda for the 2024 model-year. The companies have also collaborated on battery modules and fuel cell vehicles.
Honda still plans to develop its own EV technology and to start building its own electric vehicles after the two GM-made EVs go on sale in 2024, Rick Schostek, American Honda executive vice president of corporate operations, told reporters.

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Empowered Investor

American women will control the lion’s share of $30 trillion in financial assets owned by baby boomers by 2030.
As more women embrace their economic power, they’re increasingly tackling the fundamentals of personal finance.
Here are five things savvy female investors need to know.

Thomas Barwick | Getty Images

Despite setbacks during the pandemic, the financial influence of women in the U.S. only stands to grow in the coming years.
To that point, as more and more women embrace their economic power, they’re increasingly tackling the fundamentals of personal finance.

McKinsey projects that by 2030, American women will control the lion’s share of $30 trillion in financial assets owned by baby boomers. Fueling this shift —  which rivals the U.S. annual gross domestic product in magnitude — is a 30% increase in married women making household financial decisions compared to just five years ago.
Younger women seem even more engaged. According to the Boston Consulting Group, a remarkable 70% of female millennials reported taking the reins for all financial decisions, findings echoed by other recent studies.
More from Personal Finance:Kamila Elliott, first Black head of the CFP Board, advocates for diversityRanks of female, young investors set to grow in next decadeLack of diversity among financial advisors persists
Women’s longevity edge also plays a role. McKinsey estimates that on average, women tend to outlive their male counterparts by five years. But that can be a double-edged sword. Nearly 30% of women’s portfolios are positioned in slower-growing assets like cash and bonds (versus just 17% for men), according to BCG. That preference for stability could set women up for a shortfall as they live longer — an even bigger threat now that inflation has reared its head.
So, whether you’re already part of this growing movement, or taking the first steps towards educating yourself financially, here’s a handy list of five things you need to know.

1. Know your number

To really gain control over your finances, have several figures at your fingertips. The most important by far is spending. How much do you spend now and how much do you foresee spending in the future? While this may sound daunting, a good place to start is understanding your take-home pay and how much of it you spend either monthly or annually. From there, you can derive what you’re saving.
Keep in mind, when projecting your future burn rate in retirement, don’t assume you’ll spend less. Experience shows that between travel, health care and simply living longer, spending doesn’t drop off as much as you’d think.
Lastly, know your asset values across all your accounts — not just retirement, checking, and savings — and how you’re currently invested. Ideally, keep all this information in one place where you can check in regularly (semiannually or annually). There are a host of online tools and financial aggregators that can help you keep track.

2. Expect the unexpected

No one likes to think about worst-case scenarios like job loss or illness but protecting against them is key. Build a cash reserve to cover six months of expenses (assuming you’re still accumulating wealth, as opposed to spending from your portfolio).
Many women already own life insurance, but don’t forget about other types of protection like short-term and long-term disability — especially if you’re the breadwinner. Believe it or not, the odds of tapping into a disability policy are higher. According to the Social Security Administration, a 20-year-old has a 25% chance of becoming disabled before reaching age 67 compared to a 13% chance of dying.
Even those two policies aren’t enough. You might also consider long-term care insurance, and an umbrella policy for property and casualty. And if you purchased insurance more than five years ago, revisit your policies — pricing and product features change.

3. Get your financial house in order

Tidying took off during the pandemic as many women “Marie Kondo’ed” their living space. But what about organizing your financial surroundings? That means knowing the advisors handling your household finances and how to access all your accounts. Since there are likely several, consider using a password management app to keep track of them. Storing this information securely will be critical in your quest to know your numbers.
Next, gather estate-planning documents (trusts, wills, etc.) and understand which come into play when. Check them every three to five years, or when changes occur such as births, deaths, marriage, or divorce — or as external factors such as rising rates, inflation or tax laws evolve. Also develop an eldercare plan and communicate it to your children. HBO’s hit show “Succession” is a fabulous reminder of how difficult situations arise and many are not well positioned when parents become incapacitated or sick.

4. Build your dream team

Compassionate Eye Foundation | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Assemble a team of financial confidantes to be on call as your needs evolve. Engage trusted professionals with whom you feel comfortable and develop a personal relationship with each of them. That’s especially important in households that divide and conquer.
Even if only one of you participates in meetings with external advisors, make sure the advisor team resonates with both. In BCG’s study, many women expressed dissatisfaction with their current wealth advice, with nearly one-third reporting that their relationship manager addressed them differently because of their gender.
What about one-stop shopping? It may sound convenient, but rarely works in practice. You’ll likely need a separate tax professional, attorney (which type depends on your life stage), financial advisor and insurance professional — though they should connect and coordinate seamlessly on your behalf.
And even if you “inherit” a team, you may need changes to make it your own. You have the right to stand up and advocate for yourself, no matter who is sitting across the table.

5. Fund your favorites

No matter how you created your wealth, you’re in a place to make decisions that can really be empowering and impactful. For many women, wealth is a means to an end — but what “end” matters most to you? What are your priorities? What makes you happiest?
Making intentional, fulfilling investment decisions starts with exploring your values.
That’s why engaging a financial partner who understands your hopes and dreams is one of the best things you can do. Work with someone you can confide in.
Helping children pursue higher education, gifting to a favorite charity, taking a sabbatical or investing for impact may all be within reach. You just need strategic advice from someone who will help you mindfully align your financial decisions with your ideals. 
— Beata Kirris, co-head of investment strategies at Bernstein Private Wealth Management More

Amazon on Tuesday announced what it claims is the biggest rocket deal in the commercial space industry’s history, signing on with three companies for up to 83 launches of its Project Kuiper internet satellites.
The tech giant signed contracts for launches with United Launch Alliance (ULA), Arianespace and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world.

Artist renderings of the companies’ rockets, from left to right: New Glenn, Vulcan Centaur, and Ariane 6.
Blue Origin / United Launch Alliance / Arianespace

Amazon on Tuesday announced what it says is the biggest rocket deal in the commercial space industry’s history, signing on with three companies for up to 83 launches of its Project Kuiper internet satellites.
The technology giant signed contracts for 38 launches with United Launch Alliance (ULA) – a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin; 18 launches with European company Arianespace; and 12 launches with Blue Origin, with an option for as many as 15 additional launches with the private venture that’s owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The FCC in 2020 authorized Amazon’s system, which the company has said it will “invest more than $10 billion” to build.
Amazon is set to begin testing a pair of Kuiper prototype satellites with a launch scheduled for late this year, launching on ABL Space’s RS1 rocket, before moving on to launch operational satellites. Although Amazon has not said when the Kuiper launch campaign will begin, FCC rules require the company to deploy half of its planned satellites within six years – meaning about 1,600 in orbit by July 2026.
“We still have lots of work ahead, but the team has continued to hit milestone after milestone across every aspect of our satellite system. These launch agreements reflect our incredible commitment and belief in Project Kuiper,” Dave Limp, Amazon senior vice president of devices and services, said in a statement.
The terms of the contracts announced Tuesday were not disclosed.
ULA will use its Vulcan rockets for the 38 Kuiper launches, in addition to the nine Atlas V rocket launches for Kuiper that Amazon purchased last year. ULA’s Vulcan rocket has yet to launch, but its debut mission is set for late this year. While ULA has not disclosed the base price of a Vulcan launch, the U.S. government purchased launches on the rocket for about $112 million each.

Arianespace will fly its 18 Kuiper missions on its coming Ariane 6 rockets, which are also set to debut later this year. The European rocket builder has also not specified Ariane 6’s price structure, but has previously said it was targeting a base price tag of $77 million per launch.
Blue Origin will use its New Glenn rockets to fly the 12 Kuiper missions it will host. While Blue Origin does not currently have an official target date for New Glenn’s first launch, CNBC has previously reported the rocket is expected to debut in 2024 or later. The company has not publicly revealed a price for New Glenn launches, but an Arianespace estimate two years ago put the Blue Origin rocket at $68 million per launch. While both companies were founded by Bezos, Blue Origin is separate from Amazon.
In total, Amazon’s Kuiper launch contracts are easily worth billions of dollars, though it’s not clear what impact competitive bidding and possible bulk order discounts would have on the overall pricing. All four companies declined to comment on the cost.

Taking on SpaceX

Notably absent from Amazon’s launch payroll is the most active U.S. rocket company: Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But, even with Musk’s pledge to launch competitors, Amazon and SpaceX have long sparred in front of federal regulators over their respective satellite internet networks, Kuiper and Starlink.
SpaceX has established a sizable lead over Amazon in the race to provide internet from space, having launched about 2,000 Starlink satellites so far, serving about 250,000 total subscribers.
But Amazon is betting on its global footprint to close that gap. The company says the Kuiper network “will leverage Amazon’s global logistics and operations footprint, as well as Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) networking and infrastructure.”
Amazon has a leg-up in addressing one key obstacle to affordable satellite internet, too: the antennas that customers need to connect. Amazon has touted its “experience producing low-cost devices and services like Echo and Kindle” to make the price of the service “accessible.”
Amazon has yet to give much information about the Kuiper satellites, such as mass or power, and it didn’t specify the number of satellites launching on each rocket. But the company’s design is likely close to being finished, if not finalized already, as Amazon announced it’s working with Swiss company Beyond Gravity to build satellite dispensers to deploy the Kuiper spacecraft.

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Sustainable Energy

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The Global Wind Energy Council’s Global Wind Report 2022 says 93.6 gigawatts of capacity was installed last year, a little lower than the 95.3 GW installed in 2020.
According to the GWEC, the main drivers of the decline in onshore installations were China and the U.S.
The report also called for a significant ramp up in global wind energy capacity.

Onshore and offshore wind turbines photographed in Flevoland, the Netherlands.
Mischa Keijser | Image Source | Getty Images

The wind energy sector had its second best year in 2021 but installations will need to dramatically increase going forward to keep track with net-zero goals, according to a new report from the Global Wind Energy Council.
Published Monday, the GWEC’s Global Wind Report 2022 said 93.6 gigawatts of capacity was installed last year, a little lower than the 95.3 GW installed in 2020. Cumulative capacity grew to 837 GW. Capacity refers to the maximum amount of electricity installations can produce, not what they’re necessarily generating.

Breaking things down, the offshore wind segment installed 21.1 GW in 2021, its best ever year. Installations in onshore wind came in at 72.5 GW last year, against 88.4 GW in 2020.
According to the GWEC — whose members include firms like Vestas, Orsted and Shell — the main drivers of the decline in onshore installations were China and the U.S.
For China, where 30.7 GW was installed in 2021 compared to over 50 GW in 2020, the GWEC cited the ending of the country’s feed-in-tariff as the reason behind the drop.

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The U.S. installed 12.7 GW of onshore capacity in 2021, a 4.16 GW decline compared to 2020. The GWEC pointed to factors including “disruptions due to COVID-19 and supply chain issues” which “slowed down project construction execution from the 3rd quarter of 2021 onwards.”
Net-zero concerns
Alongside its data, the GWEC’s report also issued a warning and called for a significant ramp up in capacity.

“At current rates of installation,” it said, “GWEC Market Intelligence forecasts that by 2030 we will have less than two-thirds of the wind energy capacity required for a 1.5°C and net zero pathway, effectively condemning us to miss our climate goals.”
The report later added that global wind energy installations “must quadruple from the 94 GW installed in 2021 within this decade to meet our 2050 goals.”
The 1.5 figure refers to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming “to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels” and was adopted in Dec. 2015.
According to the United Nations, for global warming to be kept “to no more than 1.5°C … emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.”

More from CNBC Climate:

Among other things, Monday’s report from the GWEC called for procedures related to permitting to be streamlined and “a stronger international regulatory framework to address the increased competition for commodities and critical minerals.”
Huge hurdles  
In a statement Monday the GWEC’s CEO, Ben Backwell, said “scaling up growth to the level required to reach Net Zero and achieve energy security will require a new, more proactive approach to policy making around the world.”
“The events of the last year, which has seen economies and consumers exposed to extreme fossil fuel volatility and high prices around the world, are a symptom of a hesitant and disorderly energy transition,” Backwell went on to state.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said, had “exposed the implications of dependency on fossil fuel imports for energy security.”
“The last 12 months should serve as a huge wake-up call that we need to move decisively forward and switch to 21st century energy systems based on renewables.”
It’s no surprise that organizations such as the GWEC are calling for a ramp up in renewables, but achieving any sort of meaningful change in the planet’s energy mix represents a huge task.
Fossil fuels are ingrained in the global energy mix and companies continue to discover and develop oil and gas fields at locations around the world.
Indeed, in March the International Energy Agency reported that 2021 saw energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise to their highest level in history. The IEA found energy-related global CO2 emissions increased by 6% in 2021 to reach a record high of 36.3 billion metric tons.
The same month also saw U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warn that the planet had emerged from last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow with “a certain naïve optimism” and was “sleepwalking to climate catastrophe.” More

Manhattan real-estate sales topped $7 billion in the first quarter, marking the strongest-ever start to a year as the market shows no signs of slowing, according to new data.
The average price of a Manhattan apartment jumped 19% over the previous year’s period, to $2,042,113.
Rising interest rates also have less impact on wealthy buyers, who dominate the Manhattan market. As rates go up, they simply pay more cash.

Luxury high-rise apartments are viewed across Central Park South near Columbus Circle in the Manhattan borough of New York.
Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

Manhattan residential real estate sales topped $7 billion in the first quarter, marking the strongest-ever start to a year as the market shows no signs of slowing, according to new sales data.
There were 3,585 sales in the first quarter, the highest number ever for a first quarter, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. That’s up 46% from the first quarter of 2021. Total sales volume surged by 60% to over $7.3 billion, as falling inventory also led to continued growth in prices.

The average price of a Manhattan apartment jumped 19% over the previous year’s period, to $2,042,113.
The strength came despite rising interest rates, concerns about a possible recession and falling stocks, which tend to have an outsize impact on the Manhattan real-estate market given the city’s dependence on the financial industry.
It doesn’t look like a push for a return to the workplace is driving the increase, either. Only about 36% of New York workers have returned to the office, according to data from Kastle Systems.
Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, the appraisal and research company, said the assumption that people live in Manhattan because of their jobs is now being challenged.
“You have a lot of people who are working remote, but want to be in Manhattan,” he said. “They’re attracted to the cultural offerings, the restaurants, Broadway. Remote work doesn’t just mean the suburbs. There could be as many people working remotely on the Upper East Side of Manhattan as there are in Westchester.”

Rising interest rates also have less impact on wealthy buyers, who dominate the Manhattan market. As rates go up, they simply pay more cash. More than 47% of all real-estate purchases in the quarter were all-cash, up from the pandemic low of 39%, and closer to the historical norm.
Another reason for Manhattan’s strength at the start of 2022 was supply. While the rest of the country grapples with a shortage of homes for sale, Manhattan still has ample inventory, even though it is declining. Almost 5,000 listings hit the market in the quarter, the most of any first quarter on record, according to Corcoran. Yet for the first time in five years, inventory dipped under 6,000 units.
“With robust sales and improving prices, barring any unexpected shocks, this stellar first quarter should have everyone feeling very optimistic about another momentous year ahead,” said Pamela Liebman, Corcoran’s president & CEO.
The question is how much higher Manhattan prices can go before buyers start backing down from deals. The median price of a Manhattan apartment hit an all-time record of $1,190,000 in the first quarter. The median price for new development topped $2.3 million.
The biggest price gains are at the top. Prices for apartments with four or more bedrooms jumped 31% over last year, to $6.5 million. As buyers droves prices higher, only 20% of apartments sold went for less than $1,200 a square-foot, the lowest percentage on record, according to Corcoran. 

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Qualcomm is currently focusing on using dividends to bring shareholders value rather than buying back its stock, chief executive Cristiano Amon told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday.
“We want to maintain strategic flexibility, also for M&A, because we see diversification working for the company … We want it to grow faster,” Amon said.

Qualcomm is currently focusing on using dividends to bring shareholders value rather than buying back its stock, chief executive Cristiano Amon told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday.
“We had increased our dividend. We talked about annualized dividend targets, high single digits, low double-digit growth rates, and we are going to continue to look for opportunistic buyback,” Amon said in an interview on “Mad Money.”

Qualcomm announced on March 9 that it approved a 10% quarterly cash dividend increase, raising the dividend from 68 cents to 75 cents per share of common stock and boosting the annualized dividend payment to $3 per share of common stock. 
“We want to maintain strategic flexibility, also for M&A, because we see diversification working for the company. … We want it to grow faster,” Amon said.
The CEO’s comments come after Cramer questioned why Qualcomm isn’t purchasing its stock back. The chip stock fell last Friday after JPMorgan removed Qualcomm from its April Analyst Focus list but rose 4.64% on Monday, which saw a larger rally in tech stocks.
The company announced Monday that it completed its acquisition of Arriver from SSW Partners in a move to improve its Advanced Driver Assistance System software.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Qualcomm.

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