Toronto, Ontario — In this week’s Tuesday Ticker, Tesla waves ta-ta to Bitcoin transactions, Stellantis sets a ten-year timeline for its 14 OEM brands to prove their power (or else) and DesRosiers Automotive Consultants President sells his remaining shares of the company.
Tesla says bye-bye, Bitcoin
Tesla has suspended its acceptance of Bitcoin payments for its vehicles, citing the cryptocurrency’s alleged environmental impact and climate change.
The decision comes after Tesla purchased US$1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in February and announced it would start accepting payments of the cryptocurrency in March.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted last week.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
Musk used a graph from Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, to illustrate his point. The graph shows an increase in estimated Bitcoin energy consumption from 114 to 148 terawatt-hours per year since January—that’s more energy than the entire country of Sweden consumes in a year.
Tavares starts the ten-year timeline
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says he is giving each of the 14 brands amalgamated from the recent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Groupe PSA merger a 10-year window to execute a business plan—
Brand heads will be given an opportunity to “plan for the different product launches and different technologies to make the brand grow, or the brand rebound and create value for the company so they have a chance,” Tavares told Automotive News. All brands will have funding along with the chance to build and carry out a long-term vision, he said.
The CEO believes giving executives a decade to execute a vision is “unique” in the industry.
“How many brand CEOs in the world have visibility of a 10-year funding for technology and product to organize the growth?” he asked. “That is what we are giving them so they have a chance. If they win, we will applaud. If they lose, then we will see what we do.”
The full list of brands under Stellantis includes Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall/Opel, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and Abarth.
“We love them all,” Tavares said of the company’s brands. “You do not kill what you love.”
Divvying up DesRosiers
Dennis DesRosiers, president of market research company DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, has sold his remaining shares in the company. He now considers himself more than 90 percent retired, he announced on his Facebook page last Thursday.
DesRosiers sold his remaining shares to his business partner, Andrew King, whom he has worked with since 1985.
“I’m only about 90-per-cent-plus retiring as I will stay on as a consultant, working exclusively for the company, doing special project work,” DesRosiers said in the Facebook post.
DesRosiers said he began to wind down his career when COVID-19 hit in 2020.
“Since COVID started, I’ve done less than about a month’s work and found that the transition away from the day-to-day focus on the industry has been relatively painless,” he said. “You might say, ‘COVID made me do it.’ “
Since spending most of his time at his country house, away from the bright lights and big city, DesRosiers said he embraced woodworking and gardening.
