#2025 - midyear review

[dangermousie]

First Half of 2025 Year In Review - cdrama edition...

I normally do these at the end of the year, but I have watched so many cdramas this year, I am going to have to split this in some way. This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2025 so far; if I watched it but it was made in a different year, it’s not on the list. As always, very subjective.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

(46) Serendipity - if boils were a drama, this would be it.

(45) A Prime Minister’s Disguise - it's stupid, it's cheap, it's a waste of anyone's time.

(44) Everlasting Longing - more like evelasting boring with some truly terrible acting and nonsense writing (at least they did us a mercy and put two equally wooden actors opposite each other.)

(43) The Seized Destiny - at one point a man wears cat ears. That's it, that's the highlight.

(42) Love Beyond the Curse - dumb even for a vampire mini and that's a low standard indeed.

(41) Destiny and Saving - sounds like a bank branch, would probably be more fun if it was.

(40) I am nobody 2 - I loved the first season but this just didn't click for me.

(39) Filter - I love you, Tan Jianci but not even for you. At one point, FL is a llama.

(38) Destiny of Love: and snoring.

(37) Phoenix's Gambit: Love or Crown - just like its name, couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be.

(36) Love and Sword - Gao Weiguang is hot. Unfortunately not hot enough to melt one's brain which is what you'd need to enjoy this dumb mess.

(35) Les Belles - More like La Bete. Because it's la bete of a drama.

(34) Eat Run Love - tried to go for Lighter and Princess, Walmart edition, failed at even that.

(33) Love Never Fails - until it does.

(32) Youthful Glory - cute and harmless. So is a bunny and that's at least nice to pet.

(31) Dominion and Devotion - a mini tried to be a proper palace drama which is I suppose praiseworthy but not what I watch minis for.

(30) Si Jin - A girlbossing story that made me decide I'd rather watch a drama with not a single woman than this type of female centric story and also that Jing Tian is a beautiful woman who doesn't click for me and Zhang Wanyi really needs to stop playing the same role over and over.

(29) The Best Thing - fluffy and plotless but oddly soothing.

(28) Blazing Elegance - this is like the trashiest 1980s romance novel imaginable but set in 1930s China. I had so much fun but did I respect myself in the morning? Hmmm.

(27) Guardians of the Dafeng - too goofy for my liking for most of its run but that ending!!!!!!

(26) Flourished Peony - solidly acted but alas the narrative did not grab me and ML really made no sense as a period character.

(25) Moonlight Mystique - main story pointless, the palette vomit inducing but oh the secondary OTP stole the show and my heart.

(24) Bound by Sin - softcore with submissive ML and domme FL. Wild for most of its run until it tries to acquire respectability late in its run.

(23) Such a Good Love - tried to be artsy ended up just boring.

(22) To Love or To Defy - FL is an assassin getting distracted by an honorable prince. The logic is utterly absent but the fun is fun.

(21) Once Upon a Dream - fakecest is the flavor of the day - why date out of the family when your adopted brother is right there, has great hair and dubious notions of consent? This one is very pretty.

(20) The Prisoner of Love - he tortures her, then she tortures him and on and on and on - the usual. Featuring a couple where FL rides off into wedded bliss with the man who murdered her parents.

(19) Stolen Love - someone watched Kunning and decided to write a Yan Lin AU, honest. I liked it but it did get repetitive and FL is kinda brain dead.

(18) Sadistic Love - despite the name, a surprisingly not psychotic love story with fakecest and a lot of gay vibes.

(17) The First Frost - a modern about broken up lovers reconnecting, this was a masterpiece for 3/4 of its run and then made a narrative decision so stupid it ruined the drama for me.

(16) Hidden Love - not the ZLS flufffest, this is full on fakecest delight. FL's two choices are ML who she thinks is her half brother (he turns out not to be) and her actual half brother. As it goes.

(15) A Love Never Lost - I think, if I were objective, this is the best drama this year. It is not my favorite for very subjective reasons but God, what a masterpiece about an epoch. Bleak ending, characters who ranged from complex and controversial to complex and unlikable (still in awe of Li Xian taking on THAT role - Liang Xiang was complex, larger than life, driven, smart and a monster who was a rapist and a betrayer) and the death of Yang Kaizhi (Wei Daxun) a rare moment that made me cry when I rarely get this moved by dramas.

(14) Kill My Sins - a thoroughly adult story of loss and vengeance, with Liu Shi Shi and Shawn Dou sparking with each other as equally ruthless and equally damaged souls who find kinship (this is a drama where they never even kiss or confess but when they call each other "soulmate" you FELT it.) So good!

(13) Always My General - like some of my favorite web novels made into a drama. FL is a woman pretending to be a man and becoming a legendary general, ML is a prince who loves her either way - so delicious. My fave mini of the year.

(12) The Glory - a Gothic and female-centric tale of vengeance and dysfunctional families, this is a story with characters shockingly manipulative and dark. It made Chen Duling a bigger star and well-deservedly so - her abused, violent and brittle protagonist is the person who the show rests on. It did drag a little in the middle but then came back swinging in the end.

(11) A Moment But Forever - in a year that gave me a lot of awesome xianxias, this one does not disappoint. A depressed and abused philosophy major meets a literal and cheerful engineering major - xianxia style. Liu Xueyi is gorgeous and Tang Yan a delight but what really hits is a surprisingly solid story about divinity, life and forgiveness.

(10) Perfect Match - Jane Austen but frothier, this tale of a widow moving with her four marriageable daughters to the capital where the fifth married daughter lives, this is a souffle with a love story for every taste and delightful bit of sisterly love on top. Pick your favorite romance! (Mine is fourth sister and her judge husband.)

(9) Love of the Divine Tree - it's like someone watched TTEOTM and went "this is how it should go instead." Our heroine is a master who finds feral, hot, abuser demon child and cat hero and decides to give him therapy via a petting zoo and chores.

(8) The Demon Hunter's Romance - just a solid lovely tale that includes some genuinely adult, common sense interactions and characters and a wildly creative take on demons and their stories.

(7) The Prisoner of Beauty - finally released out of the dungeon, this story of arranged marriage between members of feuding clans turned to love is a delight, held mainly by sane interactions and insane chemistry between Liu Yuning and Song Zuer.

(6) Love in Pavilion - do you like gorgeous pain? Come right in. Do you like doomed love in many varieties and incredible visuals and a totally gonzo set up? This is everything Red Moon Pact should have been but was not.

(5) The Blossoming Love - the best xianxia of them all in a very solid xianxia year, this story of a demoness and the perfect saint of the cultivating world goes hard on an incredible OTP and some glorious destroy the pantheon energy. Our Male Lead is not an atheist who does not believe in gods. No, he knows they are real and he WILL end them.

(4) Under the Moonlight - came out of nowhere to own my heart. This tale of a former courtesan assisting in cases in the yamen, a sheltered noble son who gets involved and the upright commissioner is everything - smart and moving and with so many points about class and gender (that is not preachy in the least.) It's realistic in a way most dramas are not and deals with portions of society dramas often don't, but it makes you both think and feel.

(3) Eternal Brotherhood 2: second year in a row a season of this drama misses top spot by the skin of its teeth. This grim, smart feudal-world-at-war and the three sworn brothers who deal with it drama comes back with more hard choices, brotherhood, love kept and lost and some insane cinematography and acting

(1 tie) Legend of Zang Hai - sometimes a huge hit starring a big star IS actually all that and a bag of chips, and this is that rare example. Ostensibly a story about vengeance, this is actually a smart, emotionally riveting character study about selfishness and selflessness, damage, kindness and evil. The script is tight, the direction impeccable and the performances out of this world. Xiao Zhan as the containedly insane focus and maelstrom of all the madness gives a performance I will long remember.

(1) The White Olive Tree - a modern is my n1 drama of the year? The world is coming to an end. The story of a journalist and bomb disposal expert who meet, fall in love in, and are destroyed by trauma in a war zone is a masterpiece. It's delicate, it's hopeful, it's heartbreaking. It also is a vanishingly rare portrayal of trauma that does not have pat solutions or easy outs. It's a romance and a tragedy in the classic Greek sense of the word, especially for the ML whose very idealism and goodness are what make him both perfect and unsuitable for helping and that ultimately take him down.

FAVORITE DRAMA

It's a tie:

The White Olive Tree - for the first time in ever, since I first started watching cdramas in 2007 - my favorite cdrama is a modern. Yeah, I know. Flawless from beginning to end, with literally nothing I'd change, this love story and character story is unflinching in its portrayal of love and trauma. Everyone gives a great performance but it's anchored by a genuinely jaw dropping performance from CZY as shattered idealist Li Zan.

Legend of Zang Hai - that rare beast - both smart and emotional, with gorgeous cinematography and impeccable acting, this really shows the cost and burden of revenge and makes you hope against hope for happiness and healing.

WORST DRAMA

Serendipity - this is what eating a plastic bag must feel like. Dumb plot, terrible look, horrible acting, hideous ML etc etc. Where do I start.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Li Zan (Chen Zheyuan), The White Olive Tree - one of the three male performances and characters of the year for me. Li Zan starts the story as a shining light and ends a broken wreck and it's an epic performance throughout - it shows how uncomfortable it is to love a saint but it also shows this saint as human in all his complexity and drive; it makes idealism human - it's intense and haunting and you can't look away whether you are swooning or crying.

Zang Hai (Xiao Zhan), Legend of Zang Hai - I so rarely find actors with such huge and intense fanbases worth the hype, but XZ really is worth it. This performance of traumatized, vengeance-driven but unable to get rid of his soft heart Zang Hai was incredible - so many scenes that just had me jaw-droppingly in awe.

Liang Xiang (Li Xian), A Love Never Lost - Li Xian owns the role of a magnetic larger than life monstrous mover and shaker of the end of Qing. The man is a rapist and a murderer; he's also a filial son, a supremely competent leader and a terrifying kind of an idealist. This is not a role any idol-adjacent actor normally takes but Li Xian is incredible in the role.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Luo Shu (Hu Bingqing), Under the Moonlight - she is so complex, so strong, so haunted. Very much a gender swapped "haunted, tough man with a cause falls for a sheltered kind woman" set up for her and her OTP but what I love even more is she's not defined by romance.

Xiao Qiao (Song Zuer), The Prisoner of Beauty - she made a soft spoken, largely internalized character irresistible. I loved her from beginning to end.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

99% of the people in A Moment But Forever - I am Team Apocalypse for that one. Truly awful horrors, whether the torturing selfish immortal sect, the useless deities, the evil war demons who created the worst society possible or the gross humans. Kill them all!

Beast Kingdom people in Love in Pavilion - we would not have the tragedy without them.

And, as last year, City Lord from Eternal Brotherhood 2.

BEST BAD GUY

When Deng Wei's character in Tree, Zhang Bin Bin's in TBL or Liu Xueyi's in Moment go evil, they automatically become 10x hotter and seeing they were already hot to start with...but my favorite is Lord Jiuhuo (Charles Lin) in Love in Pavilion - that man was willing to wreck the world for love and he was epic doing it. My favorite part of LiP.

“HAROLD, THEY ARE LESBIANS” AWARD

And Chen Duling is in this one for the second year in a row - Zhuang Hanyan (CDL) x Chai Jing (Jinna Fu) in The Glory are 100% a couple, with frankly as many couple scenes and set ups as the ostensibly canon het OTP.

“HOW DID CENSORS NAP THROUGH THIS” AWARD

Honestly, any mini would be on this list (have you SEEN the sex scenes in Blazing Elegance?) but if we are talking "proper" dramas, let's go with The Glory, which let all sorts of awful, murdery characters get a happy ending.

MALE LEAD MOST LIKELY TO BE BROUGHT HOME TO MOTHER

No, thank you! The few modern ones she’d not approve of (Li Zan is likely to leave you a young widow and Sang Yan from TFF would never decouple from his girl anyway) and the period ones are no go since few moms would be keen on wild-eyed, bloodied sons in law however hot and long haired they may be.

FAVORITE SHIP

The White Olive Tree - idealists who love each other more than life but that love is not enough to fix them.

Kill My Sins - they don't kiss, they don't confess, they barely touch. And yet the soulmate compatibility and the chemistry just pour off the screen. I was feral whenever they were within two feet of each other.

Legend of Zang Hai - not a ship centric show and sometimes these make the best ships. I would lose it when they even touched palms. They are both damaged and wary (and he's borderline nuts from trauma) and watching them dance around and get their hearts broken and healed was...

The Blossoming Love - taking on Gods in any life and form and so ride or die and sexy and AAAAAAAA

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Many excellent choices this year (the cursed cultivators in The Blossoming Loves, all the secondary OTPs in Love in Pavilion, First and Fourth couples in Perfect Match) but the winner is the haunted, dysfunctional, intense, doomed secondary OTP of Moonlight Mystique. I finished that drama solely for them.

NOTP

Serendipity - I really don't want to waste more time on this toxic dump of a drama so all I am gonna say is they made fakecest, my fave trope, boring!

HOTTEST SCENE

Blazing Elegance - all their sex scenes are insane but also the aphrodisiac scenes in Love in Pavilion take the cake for sheer intensity and the baby making in ep 32 of The Prisoner of Beauty because phew boy!

FAVORITE SCENE

Li Zan's breakdown in the hospital and the aftermath when he tells FL the truth in The White Olive Tree. That scene? Shivers.

Zang Hai emerging out of the tomb in Legend of Zang Hai - the breakdown, the manipulation are epic. The epic Greek tragedy of the Marquis' death.

In Eternal Brotherhood 2, Di Lin arriving to rescue his brothers at Payu; or his kneeling to Xiujia's pregnant stomach, his hands gentle on it, promising to come back.

Liu Xueyi's madness in the hole in A Moment but Forever - LXY is an actor who's often too good for his dramas and this scene shows how good he can be as he's going mad and confronting his inner demons.

The First Frost ultimately fell apart for me, but the scene of teen Sang Yan watching Wen Yifan dance on the rooftop he equipped for her is what swooning over poetry feels like.

BIGGEST CRUSH

We are gonna go in the most opposite way possible: the law abiding, incredibly decent, rather rigid Fourth Husband, Perfect Match and Di Lin in Eternal Brotherhood 2 - the man is ideal husband, a terrifying beast in battle and just all around sex on legs.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Zhuang Zhixing (Zhou Qi), Legend of Zang Hai - the sole decent person in that family of monsters, he stole my heart and his arc OMG!

BEST COSTUMES AND WIGS

Costumes: Legend of Zang Hai - real embroidery, and costumes that look real.

Wigs: I am gonna be weird here and say Kill My Sins.

MOST EXTRA OUTFIT

Honestly, most have been fairly sane but Feud should fix it.

FAVORITE SECONDARY ML

General Yun in Eternal Brotherhood 2 - Si Yilin x Ka Dan were my n1 OTP in s1 and yet the man's honor and willingless to risk his life to protect Ka Dan without expecting anything has got me almost switching ships.

MOST BLATANT INNUENDO MOMENT

It hasn't aired yet but we all saw that poster for Feud, with Bai Lu fondling Zeng Shunxi's enormous...sword:

FAVORITE 2025 CDRAMA SONG

Chen Xueran's Moonlight Dance from The White Olive Tree. You have no idea how much I listened to it.

MVP OF THE YEAR

Song Zuer, who beat her tax allegations (already a miracle) and came back with two awesome dramas.

ACTING SURPRISE

So many great performances, but I am gonna go with Chen Zheyuan in The White Olive Tree. He's been solid in so many awful dramas but I never knew he could be such a revelation

NEEDS A SEQUEL

The Demon Hunter's Romance - not really but would be fun. And EB2 likely since I cannot see how they will wrap the novel's story in the remaining number of eps.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Serendipity - in addition to all its other sins, this simply cannot support 40 eps.

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Surprisingly none, I think dramas have adjusted to the 40 ep limit.

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Same as last year - the emperor cannot be irredeemable. WTF, China, you are a communist country! Though they are nibbling at the edges this year. Also fake feminism - I am all for girl power but not when it’s ridiculously anachronistic for the period with no explanation at all. And finally NO MORE TRADE DRAMAS PLS PLS PLS

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Men (and women) knowingly fighting for a doomed cause because otherwise they’d cease to be who they are. Or if we are being shallow all the beautiful men in chains.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

The First Frost: it was so exquisite for about 2/3 and then the Hong Kong arc happened (and was not in the book; the adaptation was faithful so far so nothing heralded it) and ruined the whole drama. It negated the development, the themes, the characters - it made me dislike both leads and the way the narrative never addressed it made the whole story utterly fall apart.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

The White Olive Tree, Under the Moonlight, A Moment but Forever, The Demon Hunter's Romance - this has been a year of surprises, so many of my top dramas weren't on my radar at all.

2025 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

I have honestly watched everything I wanted so far.

BEST NON-2025 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2025

Do you think I have the time? Ahahahaha

MOST ANTICIPATED

Love in the Clouds, Legend of the Female General, Moonlit Reunion, A Dream within a Dream, Hidden Shadow, Shadow Love, You Sheng You Ya, The Princess' Gambit, Feud, Fated Hearts, Love and Crown

[ecargmura]

Wind Breaker Episode 13 Review + Final Thoughts - Second Season Announced For 2025!

With the way this episode ended, there’s definitely no way they wouldn’t announce a season 2 and they did—it’ll come out in 2025! It’s to be expected because this was one of Spring 2024’s biggest hits. I certainly enjoyed this and it’s high up on my midyear anime list that I’ll be posting  next week!

Meeting with the Four Kings of Bofurin is going to help Sakura open up a lot more, even though he’s still taking baby steps. The Four Kings have such cool designs. We all know Hiiragi, but there’s also Tsubakino (he’s male), Mizuki and Momose who are very cool on their own! None of them speak, unfortunately. The purpose of the meeting with the Kings and the Grade Captains to let them know that they will always have people supporting them so it’s fine to let them rely on their senpais. Umemiya always knows how to ease someone’s spirits!

Sakura’s taking baby steps as leader of his class! He actually decides to take on Anzai’s matters into his own hands and the rest of the class tags along too because they’re a team. It’s so nice to see Sakura, who was super distrustful, slowly grow into someone who can be relied on! I really liked the scene with him talking with Anzai’s childhood friend Tsuchiya. He normally doesn’t try to start a conversation towards others, so for him to initiate talk is such a novel but welcome feeling! I even liked how Sakura was thinking about Kotoha’s advice on leaving the matter to him. If you look at Sakura at the beginning to the finale of the first season, there’s some solid growth there.

Anzai may be a bit of an obscure classmate in Sakura’s class, but It’s obvious that, while he’s a nice guy, he’s trying too much to take things by himself. He’s also a bad liar to the point that the gullible Sakura can see right through him.You know you’re a terrible liar when Sakura knows you’re lying. His story with Nagato was really sad. It’d break my heart if I learned my childhood friend was hanging out with the wrong crowd. I hope that things can patch up between him and Nagato once Furin goes to beat Keel’s ass. This might be a bit of rambling, but I just learned that his voice actor is Shogo Sakata, who’s known for voicing Aki Hayakawa from Chainsaw Man. I didn’t know he can produce such a childish voice.

Speaking of Keel, the gang is so creepy. Even when I was reading the manga, they gave me cult-like vibes. The member that Sakura meets on patrol is voiced by Junya Enoki. I’m as shocked as you are! I always familiarize Enoki with heroic roles like Totomaru Isshiki from Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective that it’s sort of hard to imagine him as a villain, but he’s here in Wind Breaker as a villain. This will seriously be a treat to watch because this is probably one of the rare times he’ll voice a villain and I can’t wait to hear it! Rambling aside, Keel is very cult-like because they have such a terrible method of discipling their members. If someone failed to do something, they get hit. It’s seriously awful. I do wonder how Nagato got entangled in all of this.

Even in the finale, the animation still is amazing. The way Anzai was fighting off Keel members and even the part where he was catching the purse thief, who turned out to be Nagato, were so good. My favorite part was when Sakura was chasing after Anzai and the camera pans to him going down the stairs and then jumps down to cut him off. Cloverworks really likes showing off why they’re so good with animation.

I seriously cannot wait for next year. It’s crazy how Wind Breaker is getting a second season already! If you’re curious about what happens next and want to read about, please start from Chapter 42, which is the beginning of Volume 6! Season 1 covered the first 5 volumes! I wonder how many volumes the next season will cover. What are your thoughts on the finale?

Final Thoughts

To be very honest, Wind Breaker was one of those animes that I wanted to watch primarily because of the stellar voice cast and that I had a very sour experience watching Bucchigiri, which was also about gang fighting. However, it slowly became one of the most exciting anime watching experiences I had. It’s because of Wind Breaker that I got a lot more online friends! It’s always nice to meet new people who watch the same things as you! While the anime is fun, I think what I gained these past three months feels as precious. Seriously, it’s such an amazing feeling.

Wind Breaker may be a straightforward story about gang fights and action, but the writing is a lot more heartwarming than you expect. It’s more about seeing the characters, specifically the MC Sakura, learn and grow. We learn why Sakura is the way he is and how being around people is beneficial for him. The concept of him going to a delinquent high school, but it’s also a place where the delinquents also have double duty as police officers of sorts. I also love that the fighting is just pure action and not crazy magic stuff. I love that it’s a little different from the usual delinquent stories in that it focuses more on characters and not fighting all the time.

The characters are the highlight of the show. Each of them have their own unique design and personality. It’s just so nice to see how well they mesh together. Not only does Furin have intricate designs, but Shishitoren does too! My favorite part of the characters is learning that their names have a theme! Bofurin characters’ names all revolve around plants. Shishitoren’s names revolve around animals. I can tell the author took so much time and effort to name these characters. As a writer myself, naming characters is both the funnest and the most tiresome aspect of the writing process.

Cloverworks did an amazing job with the anime adaptation. From the memorable first episode where Sakura goes all out against a gang by himself to animating the Shishitoren fights were so great. Though, my favorite part of the animation was seeing the studio elevate some of the characters’ backstories. I really loved how they animated Togame and Choji’s backstory! Togame got a backstory extension and Choji had such quality detail in his! Let’s just hope they keep that quality next season and not turn it into a mess like The Promised Neverland Season 2. Don’t f*** this up, please. The music was also really nice! The OP and ED songs were catchy and the OST were good! I especially loved the song Stronger! I love how there’s a piano remix of it too whenever something emotional happens.

The voice actors are seriously amazing. They legit casted extremely star-studded voice actors for this anime. We’ve got Yuma Uchida as Sakura, Nobunaga Shimazaki as Suo, Koki Uchiyama as Sugishita, and even Yuichi Nakamura as Umemiya. Look at those names! Shishitoren got some big names too like Yuichiro Umehara as Togame and Chiaki Kobayashi as Sako. If they’re going all out for this season, I can’t wait to see who’d they cast for the Keel characters because having Junya Enoki as one of the members is INSANE!

Like I said before, if you want to start reading the manga, start from Chapter 42 because Episode 13 ends on Chapter 41. I hope that you all had a wonderful experience with this manga! I hope that energy returns next year!

[aliteratepenguin]

midyear book freakout tag '25

Best book you’ve read so far in 2025. This is such a tough question because ‘best’ can mean so many things and doesn’t necessarily correlate with ‘favorite,’ but I think I have to go with The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett because there was a lot of praise and hype around this book, and it completely lived up to all of it. Plus I’m absolutely a sucker for murder mysteries in fantasy settings. (My one nitpick is that I hated all the Sherlock Holmes comps because that felt like a marketing thing where they picked the most famous detective to entice potential readers. Ana was an eccentric detective, but comparing her to Holmes didn’t sit right with me. But otherwise on all levels that actually matter the book was truly excellent.)

Best sequel you've read so far in 2025. I read Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, and specifically The Long Game as a sequel to Heated Rivalry was fantastic. I wish more books would explore established relationships because there’s so much untapped potential there. I really enjoyed how Shane and Ilya’s relationship was strong but they still had problems and issues to work through. It’s just nice to see couples who love each other deeply and can face challenges together, rather than just ending a story when the couple gets together.

New release you haven't read yet, but want to. Oh, so many! But the next book I’m planning to read is A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. I’ve been desperately awaiting my library hold to become available since I read Tainted Cup earlier this year, and I finally got a copy.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. I’ll highlight two. The main one I’ve had my eye on since I was looking at 2025 releases is Hot Wax by ML Rio. The other is To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth (sequel to When Among Crows). This is a rare case where, while I thought the first book worked as a standalone, I’m actually quite excited for an unexpected sequel.

Biggest disappointment. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. I went in with pretty low expectations, but this ended up annoying me enough that I gave it one star. As part of the minority who didn’t like Evelyn Hugo, I knew going in this might not work for me (since it’s also about a journalist interviewing an older celebrity about their life), but there was so little development of that celebrity’s life, and the romance that it was marketed under wasn’t developed as well as I thought it could’ve been, so the result was a book that tried to do a few things and didn’t manage to do any of them well.

Biggest surprise. When Among Crows by Veronica Roth! I’d honestly forgotten about Roth after DNFing Divergent over a decade ago and never really planned on reading anything else by her, but I saw some trusted reviewers praising this book and decided to give it a go, and I’m glad I did.

Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you) Definitely Robert Jackson Bennett. I’ve had a few of his books on my TBR for a while, and Tainted Cup lived up to all the considerable hype, so I’m excited to explore some of his completed backlist series. Honorable mentions to Alice Coldbreath, whose historical romances have been a nice change of pace from dukes and assorted gentry MCs; and Everina Maxwell, who single-handedly made me excited to read more sci-fi after Winter’s Orbit.

Newest fictional crush. I’m too aroace for this question.

Newest favorite character. I’ve been working my way through an older murder mystery series about a character named Nell Sweeney, who is an Irish governess in post-Civil War-era Boston. I love her competence and compassion and independence and her mysterious dark past that she’s fought to distance herself from. She’s one of the more complex female characters in a historical book that I've read, and I'm really enjoying the series so far.

Book that made you cry. I don’t think any of the books I’ve read this year have made me cry, actually. But a book that did touch my heart was The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by EM Anderson, which follows an immortal old man who hunts ghosts.

Book that made you happy. I really enjoyed Free From Falling by EL Massey. Matts and Sydney were such a delight!

Favorite book to film adaptation you saw this year. Looks like I’ve only read one book so far this year that’s been adapted, and it was a re-listen of the Daisy Jones and the Six audiobook. I thought the miniseries adaptation was just okay.

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received). I haven’t bought a lot of books this year, for once! I’m prioritizing books I already own and borrowing a lot from the library. I did find a copy of the next Temeraire book I need to read in the cover style I like (Empire of Ivory), so that was nice. Always appreciate a book with a dragon on the cover. I also somehow managed to accidentally buy two books that were signed by their authors, which was a fun surprise.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? So, so many! Beyond the ones already mentioned, I definitely have a lot of sci-fi I want to get to (Project Hail Mary, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ocean's Echo, a couple books by Stina Leicht). I'd also really like to start Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series. Oh, I'm also absolutely going to read the newest KJ Charles books (Copper Script, which came out earlier this year, and All of Us Murderers, which is coming out this fall).

[thenorthstaruniversal]

Navigating 2025: Risk Management Trends in NYC Real Estate with The North Star Universal, LLC

Understanding the Evolving Risk Landscape NYC’s commercial real estate market in 2025 is both dynamic and volatile. The North Star Universal, LLC continues to monitor emerging risks to help clients make smart decisions. From climate-related events to rising insurance premiums, the landscape demands strategic risk mitigation more than ever. Insurance Costs Surge Across Commercial Markets According to CBRE’s midyear 2025 report, insurance premiums in NYC have risen 13% year-over-year. This reflects both increased storm threats and higher valuations. The North Star Universal, LLC recommends evaluating portfolio exposure in flood-prone areas and reviewing underinsured assets to minimize financial shocks. Interest Rate Volatility Challenges Asset Valuations Commercial financing remains unstable. The Fed’s June 2025 rate hold keeps the prime rate at 5.25%, but uncertainty continues to rattle investors. The North Star Universal, LLC urges proactive interest rate hedging strategies to reduce long-term portfolio risk and preserve leverage flexibility. Vacancy Rates Shift in Post-Pandemic Patterns NYC office vacancies are holding steady at 17.3%, per Colliers’ Q2 data, with sublease spaces still abundant. The North Star Universal, LLC advises landlords to consider mixed-use conversions and adaptive leasing strategies to retain occupancy and improve NOI predictability. Global ESG Standards Now Impact Local Risk Profiles Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies are no longer just global concerns. NYC owners face increased pressure from investors and municipalities to meet sustainability benchmarks. The North Star Universal, LLC encourages clients to assess their ESG scores and invest in green retrofits to stay competitive and insurable. Security and Cyber Risk Now Top the Risk Register Increased reliance on smart building systems means new cyber threats. Cybercrime in real estate rose 19% globally from 2024 to 2025. The North Star Universal, LLC helps clients implement cybersecurity audits and response plans to safeguard tenant data and building infrastructure. Resilience Planning as a Core Competitive Edge Developers focused on resilience—seismic safety, flood defense, and climate modeling—are outperforming peers in tenant retention. The North Star Universal, LLC promotes resilience-based underwriting and risk scoring as standard components of modern asset management. Looking Ahead: Data-Driven Risk Strategy Is Key With AI and predictive analytics reshaping the industry, risk management must evolve. The North Star Universal, LLC integrates real-time data to anticipate risks before they happen. This future-focused approach allows landlords and investors to act with precision. The North Star Universal, LLC is a risk management and advisory firm. Follow this blog for more insights into the evolving world of NYC realty and beyond @ thenorthstaruniversal.com/WP Read the full article

[mr-saavik]

Midyear Freakout Tag 2025

Back and better than ever baby!!!!!!! I don't generally actually tag people on this but I will this time because my bestie @colors-changing-hue has been reading more and I want to see her answers :3. Or anyone who wants to do this can say I tagged them especially my friends in hm I want to see!!!!!!!!!

1) Best Book:

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion, which was my first 5-star of the year a whopping five months in

2) Best Sequel:

A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung. Hornung was really enlightened when he wrote a story about Bunny Manders wearing women's clothes for no actual reason

3) New releases you want to read:

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones! Years ago I read + loved The Only Good Indians so I'm expecting this to be really good whenever I get around to it

4) Most anticipated release:

You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White. Have never read any of his books because I am a YA #hater but this is his adult horror debut so I am intrigued

5) Biggest disappointment:

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, which I really expected myself to like considering rave reviews and subject matter, and Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, which was honestly written way worse than I could have expected

6) Biggest surprise:

Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung. I AM INSANE ABOUT RAFFLES NOW SORRY

7) Favorite new author:

N/A??? The only repeat authors I've read this year are: Arthur Conan Doyle (already know him), E. W. Hornung (who I don't expect to read more from now that I've finished all the Raffles books), and Julia Armfield (who had one book I liked and one I thought was mediocre)

8) Newest fictional crush:

N/A. I don't really do fictional crushes on book characters sorry </3

9) Newest favorite character:

A. J. Raffles & Bunny Manders <- do NOT separate

10) Book that made you cry:

N/A. Don't think I read anything really devestating

11) Book that made you happy:

Uhhhh to avoid repeating the first Raffles book I'm going to say The Return of A. J. Raffles by Graham Greene. He made them gay for real

12) Most beautiful book you've bought or received:

This copy of Film Form by Sergei Eisenstein I bought used for class!!!! I think its from 1969, and it had the original receipt tucked into it + handwritten notes! Shoutout to the original owner, who bought this on July 12th in Minneapolis.

13) What books do you need to read by the end of the year?:

As far as books I've already started:

Orson Welles vol 1 by Simon Callow, Woman, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, and Penance by Eliza Clark. As for books I HAVEN'T started, I won't get too ahead of myself listing anticipated reads but I will probably at least read the other two volumes of the Orson Welles biography, among many other things.

[jesusvasser]

Wheelspinning Our Way Through 2017

If 2017 was the year of President Trump everywhere else, in the automotive world, it seemed to be the year of Elon Musk. Again. Musk’s Tesla began 2017 with some 440,000 intenders each holding $1,000 deposit receipts for a new $35,000+ Model 3 with hopes they would start to get their cars by midyear.

Tesla ended 2017 with Musk now building anticipation for a new semi truck, apparently named “Semi,” which he says will have a 500-mile range and will begin deliveries in 2019, with a new Roadster model—actually a 2+2 targa grand touring car capable of 250 mph+ and 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds—arriving at dealers a year later.

Musk said Tesla delivered just 233 Model 3s by the end of the third quarter. When I asked Tesla public relations for an update on deliveries through, at least, mid-December, the response was to refer to Musk’s third-quarter analysts’ call held November 1. Tesla PR said the number of deliveries will be updated in the first quarter 2018 analysts’ call. So it goes.

In reality, 2017 was the year that traditional automakers ramped up their counter-assault on Tesla’s electric vehicles, with plans for everything from fuel cells and solid-state batteries to new ways to make the internal combustion engine cleaner and more efficient. Here’s how I saw the year in automobiles …

Fords with a future: CEO Mark Fields announces a $700-million investment in its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build a hybrid Mustang, a 300-plus mile EV SUV by 2020, and a hybrid-powered fully autonomous vehicle by 2021. Ford also will build hybrid versions of its F-150 pickup, and its Explorer-based Interceptor Police Utility vehicle and Taurus-based Police Interceptor sedan. At the same time, Fields attempts to assuage President-elect Trump’s anti-North American Free Trade Agreement position by cancelling plans for a new Mexican assembly plant.

Mary Barra adds “chairman” to her title: General Motors’ board elects its first female CEO to become its first female chairman, as well. Through much of its 109-year history, GM has assigned those titles to separate executives.

U.S. auto sales hits another record: Automakers report January 5 that they sold 17.54 million cars and light trucks in 2016, topping 2015, the previous record year, by 56,211 units. While car sales clearly have peaked, we’ll finish off calendar year ’17 at a still-healthy 17.1 million, according to AutoTrader’s mid-December estimate.

North American International Auto Show highlights: The 2017 Detroit Auto Show featured the new Kia Stinger, Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, Toyota Camry, Nissan Vmotion 2.0 concept (the next Altima), Honda Odyssey, Infiniti QX50 concept, Chevrolet Traverse, Lexus LS, and Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept (a modern EV Microbus). Sergio Marchionne reveals in his annual Detroit show press conference that the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee will share the new longitudinal engine platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Ford shows nothing of significance.

EPA says Fiat Chrysler’s diesel Jeeps and Rams violate the Clean Air Act with defeat devices: Just prior to President Trump taking office, the Environmental Protection Agency announces it’s investigating Fiat Chrysler for alleged fuel economy/emissions test cheating devices on its Jeep and Ram EcoDiesel engines. Fiat Chrysler in May announces it has a software fix to solve the problem.

GM and Honda announce a fuel cell deal: In late January, General Motors and Honda announce a joint venture to design and develop a next-generation, compact fuel cell stack. They plan to build these fuel cell stacks together at a GM plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan, that assembles battery packs for the Chevrolet Bolt and Volt by 2021.

Geneva International Motor Show Highlights: The new McLaren 720S was the show’s runaway hit, though Robert Cumberford also singles out the Fittipaldi EF7 by Pininfarina. Automobile staff also like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Mercedes-AMG Concept GT, Volkswagen Arteon, Range Rover Velar, Alpine A110, Volvo XC60, and Bentley EXP12 Speed 6e.

GM sells Opel/Vauxhall to PSA Peugeot Citroen for $2.3 billion: The world’s third-largest automaker runs from one of the world’s largest markets¬—the European Union, collectively, is about as large as the U.S. market in millions of annual sales. It’s also a very tough market, with strict regulations, loose enforcement (see, German-brand diesels), and relatively strong unions that make it hard to move assembly plants to former Soviet satellite countries with lower labor costs. In the end, though, it may have been Brexit that pushed the sale over the line. GM’s Vauxhall was stronger in the United Kingdom than was Opel on the Continent.

Trump rescinds the Obama administration 2025 CAFE standard: Automakers selling cars and trucks in the U.S. were required to reach a 54.5-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard under an agreement reached with the Obama administration in 2010, shortly after the GM and Chrysler loan guarantee bailouts. But the standard always was subject to a “mid-term review” that could pull back the standards. The new Trump administration jumps ahead of that review with an executive order. For automakers, it will offer relief from having to reach the 54.5-mpg CAFE number. However, automakers already were well on their way in engineering new powertrains and lighter, more aerodynamic (and CAFE standard “footprint” measurements) bodies. We’re not likely to see much pullback from those plans, so most automakers will probably be close to meeting the ’25 standard, if a few years late, anyway. What’s more, Trump’s executive order does nothing to the California Mandate requiring a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles sold there and in 16 other, mostly coastal states. The California Zero Emissions Mandate already is responsible for cars like the Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf, as well as Tesla’s relative success.

Trump wants to tear up NAFTA and place a tariff on Mexican-built autos: After the U.S. auto sales peaks of 2015 and 2016, there’s no shortage of auto manufacturing capacity. As I reported in late March, Trump’s plan to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement would not push automakers to build new, $1-billion+ factories in the United States (although Volvo, for one, already plans its first assembly plant here). The president specifically attacks Ford for moving Focus production from Michigan to Mexico in 2018, though it’s adding more profitable Ranger pickup and Bronco sport/utility production in its place in Michigan. Ford has since rescinded its plans for a new Mexican plant, and instead will move Focus production to China. President Trump has yet to act on rescinding U.S. participation in NAFTA.

Tesla’s market cap exceeds GM’s and Ford’s: Tesla’s market capitalization first passes Ford Motor Company’s, then in April, General Motors’. Tesla stock has since settled into the low $300s-per-share range, while GM stock has rallied to top the disruptive EV automaker’s cap, again. As of December 21, Tesla was worth about $55.1 billion to GM’s $60.1 billion. Wall Street bulls have defended Tesla’s stock value as a sign of an all-electric future. Tesla will be well positioned to lead that future, the bulls say, though as it continues to lose money and have problems getting Model 3 production up to speed, more and more bears are popping up in the analysts’ community.

Tesla loses $397 million in the first quarter: The losses are worse than analysts’ expectations, but by early June, stock values start to rise again.

Ford fires Fields: Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields, a corporate veteran credited for turning around Mazda (which Ford formerly controlled) in the late 1990s, is fired allegedly for lagging on electric car development. The real reason is Ford’s lagging stock value, a bigger concern for William Clay Ford and his relatives, who control the company with 40 percent of its stock. Fields’ replacement is Jim Hackett, hired away from the office furniture company, Steelcase.

GM shareholders reject a dual-class stock proposal: Greenlight Capital wants to split GM stock into two classes [not unlike Ford’s Class B stock] in order to cash in some value out of the automaker. To those of us far from Wall Street it seems the sort of action that would put GM in the same position it was in 12 years ago, when an economic downturn or a change in automotive tastes due to something like a spike in oil prices could lead to serious cash shortage. At GM’s annual meeting in June, shareholders roundly reject Greenlight’s proposal.

BMW 2 Series to lose manual option?: In June, a BMW executive in Germany was quoted indicating that the company would stop importing manual transmission 2 Series models to the U.S. The uproar that caused in the purist-enthusiasts’ community resulted in a clarification. If BMW stops selling stick shift 2 Series models here, it won’t be until the car’s next generation, expected to be the 2020 model year (now less than two years away). Automobile magazine’s Four Seasons ‘17 M2 came with just one option; the dual-clutch seven-speed automatic, because, BMW said, customer demand for the manual created a shortage. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next 2 Series came only with a DCT, which is handy for Level III or IV autonomous features. And the upcoming X2 “sport/activity vehicle” almost certainly will not be offered with a three-pedal layout.

Volvo goes all-electrified by 2019: The misleading headline at Volvo’s own website reads, “Volvo goes all-electric,” but the copy underneath says that by ’19, all Volvos will have an electric motor. While the hyperbole led The Cult of Elon to believe they had won their revolution, at Volvo, this entails everything from pure battery-EV to plug-in hybrid to 48-volt. For sure, the 48-volt revolution is coming, with that technology aiding stop/start systems and in some cases limited EV driving while accommodating the expansion of elaborate infotainment systems. In any event, Volvo’s announcement spurred similar claims later in the year from rival premium automakers.

Nissan launches ProPilot Assist in its all-new, 2018 Leaf: The automated cruise control will start and stop in rush hour traffic, but you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel, which gently helps you around curves. The new Nissan Leaf’s range is now 150 miles on a full charge, still 78 miles short of the Chevy Bolt’s stated range.

Cadillac launches Super Cruise: Is Cadillac in the autonomy lead? Yes, I think it is, even if Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have slightly more capable systems in the works. As part of Super Cruise’s safety redundancy, GM mapped 180,000 miles of U.S. roads. You must take the wheel of the Cadillac CT6 to change lanes, but otherwise it’s even easier than two-fingertip steering on long, boring Interstates.

Toyota and Mazda announce joint-venture U.S. assembly plant: Likely to be built somewhere in the UAW-bereft Southeast, the joint venture also will help struggling Mazda get into electrified powertrains. Let’s hope it leads to a future for the Mazda MX-5 Miata and Toyota 86, as their Fiat and Subaru deals are not likely to have sequels.

Mazda announces Skyactive X engine technology: Mazda will equip its next 3, coming in 2019, with a compression ignition gasoline powered engine said to nearly equal a similar-sized four-cylinder turbodiesel, and match it for CO2 emissions.

Fiat Chrysler ‘confirms’ it has not been approached by Great Wall Motors: The late-summer denial that a Chinese automaker was looking to buy Fiat Chrysler comes in the middle of a year in which CEO Sergio Marchionne is pretty transparent about his desire to find a dance partner. In my Motor City Blogman column, I note that Jeep and Ram are the two brands that would attract such a partner, and that if Marchionne expected value to be paid for the rest of the brands, the company might have to go it alone for a while longer.

IAA Frankfurt motor show highlights: The Honda Urban EV concept, Mercedes-AMG Project One, a roadgoing F1 car driven onto the stage by Lewis Hamilton (who would soon win his fourth World Driver’s Championship), Renault Symbioz concept, a modern rolling living room, Ferrari Portofino, Hyundai Kona, Kia Proceed concept, and according to Robert Cumberford, the new Borgward Isabella and something called the Aspark Owl.

Delphi splits in two: We don’t often cover Tier One suppliers, but it’s worth noting that this former GM parts division this year split into two companies. Delphi Technology continues to work on updating and improving powertrains, mostly the internal combustion engine, while Aptiv covers autonomy and connectivity. While I often write about automakers’ latest autonomous technology breakthroughs, much of the advances are coming from companies like Aptiv, Continental, Bosch, etc.

GM will launch ‘at least’ 20 new battery-electric or fuel cell vehicles by 2023: While no one has figured out how to make money on BEVs or fuel cells yet, this announcement spurs on GM’s already soaring share prices. The first two new EVs will arrive by mid-2019 and will be based on the current Chevy Bolt, while the new models after that will be off a new electric/fuel cell platform, including what looks to be the C8 Corvette E-ray.

Tokyo Motor Show highlights: The Honda EV Coupe concept, Mazda Vision Coupe concept, Mazda Kai concept (next Mazda3), Subaru Viviz Performance concept (next WRX/STI), Daihatsu DN Compagno concept, and the Toyota TJ Cruiser. In time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Toyota also displays a new Century limousine and a Tokyo cab, replacing models first designed for the 1964 Olympics that raised the city out of its postwar doldrums.

Tesla loses record $619 million in the third quarter: The cost of developing the much-awaited Tesla Model 3 and its production facility no doubt contributed to all this red ink. CEO Elon Musk says Tesla delivered just 233 of its mass-market EVs as of the end of the quarter, and says ramp-up of production to 5,000 per month now is delayed to the end of the first quarter of 2018—originally, this was the goal for the end of the year.

Peugeot-Citroen launches car-sharing service ahead of return to the U.S.: Free2Move is launched as an aggregation app for Car2Go and Zipcar in Seattle. The app will help PSA relearn the U.S. market ahead of its planned return selling cars here, says North American chief Larry Dominique. PSA will sell one of it from Performance Junk WP Feed 4 http://ift.tt/2BXQdmE via IFTTT

[eddiejpoplar]

Wheelspinning Our Way Through 2017

If 2017 was the year of President Trump everywhere else, in the automotive world, it seemed to be the year of Elon Musk. Again. Musk’s Tesla began 2017 with some 440,000 intenders each holding $1,000 deposit receipts for a new $35,000+ Model 3 with hopes they would start to get their cars by midyear.

Tesla ended 2017 with Musk now building anticipation for a new semi truck, apparently named “Semi,” which he says will have a 500-mile range and will begin deliveries in 2019, with a new Roadster model—actually a 2+2 targa grand touring car capable of 250 mph+ and 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds—arriving at dealers a year later.

Musk said Tesla delivered just 233 Model 3s by the end of the third quarter. When I asked Tesla public relations for an update on deliveries through, at least, mid-December, the response was to refer to Musk’s third-quarter analysts’ call held November 1. Tesla PR said the number of deliveries will be updated in the first quarter 2018 analysts’ call. So it goes.

In reality, 2017 was the year that traditional automakers ramped up their counter-assault on Tesla’s electric vehicles, with plans for everything from fuel cells and solid-state batteries to new ways to make the internal combustion engine cleaner and more efficient. Here’s how I saw the year in automobiles …

Fords with a future: CEO Mark Fields announces a $700-million investment in its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build a hybrid Mustang, a 300-plus mile EV SUV by 2020, and a hybrid-powered fully autonomous vehicle by 2021. Ford also will build hybrid versions of its F-150 pickup, and its Explorer-based Interceptor Police Utility vehicle and Taurus-based Police Interceptor sedan. At the same time, Fields attempts to assuage President-elect Trump’s anti-North American Free Trade Agreement position by cancelling plans for a new Mexican assembly plant.

Mary Barra adds “chairman” to her title: General Motors’ board elects its first female CEO to become its first female chairman, as well. Through much of its 109-year history, GM has assigned those titles to separate executives.

U.S. auto sales hits another record: Automakers report January 5 that they sold 17.54 million cars and light trucks in 2016, topping 2015, the previous record year, by 56,211 units. While car sales clearly have peaked, we’ll finish off calendar year ’17 at a still-healthy 17.1 million, according to AutoTrader’s mid-December estimate.

North American International Auto Show highlights: The 2017 Detroit Auto Show featured the new Kia Stinger, Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, Toyota Camry, Nissan Vmotion 2.0 concept (the next Altima), Honda Odyssey, Infiniti QX50 concept, Chevrolet Traverse, Lexus LS, and Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept (a modern EV Microbus). Sergio Marchionne reveals in his annual Detroit show press conference that the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee will share the new longitudinal engine platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Ford shows nothing of significance.

EPA says Fiat Chrysler’s diesel Jeeps and Rams violate the Clean Air Act with defeat devices: Just prior to President Trump taking office, the Environmental Protection Agency announces it’s investigating Fiat Chrysler for alleged fuel economy/emissions test cheating devices on its Jeep and Ram EcoDiesel engines. Fiat Chrysler in May announces it has a software fix to solve the problem.

GM and Honda announce a fuel cell deal: In late January, General Motors and Honda announce a joint venture to design and develop a next-generation, compact fuel cell stack. They plan to build these fuel cell stacks together at a GM plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan, that assembles battery packs for the Chevrolet Bolt and Volt by 2021.

Geneva International Motor Show Highlights: The new McLaren 720S was the show’s runaway hit, though Robert Cumberford also singles out the Fittipaldi EF7 by Pininfarina. Automobile staff also like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Mercedes-AMG Concept GT, Volkswagen Arteon, Range Rover Velar, Alpine A110, Volvo XC60, and Bentley EXP12 Speed 6e.

GM sells Opel/Vauxhall to PSA Peugeot Citroen for $2.3 billion: The world’s third-largest automaker runs from one of the world’s largest markets¬—the European Union, collectively, is about as large as the U.S. market in millions of annual sales. It’s also a very tough market, with strict regulations, loose enforcement (see, German-brand diesels), and relatively strong unions that make it hard to move assembly plants to former Soviet satellite countries with lower labor costs. In the end, though, it may have been Brexit that pushed the sale over the line. GM’s Vauxhall was stronger in the United Kingdom than was Opel on the Continent.

Trump rescinds the Obama administration 2025 CAFE standard: Automakers selling cars and trucks in the U.S. were required to reach a 54.5-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard under an agreement reached with the Obama administration in 2010, shortly after the GM and Chrysler loan guarantee bailouts. But the standard always was subject to a “mid-term review” that could pull back the standards. The new Trump administration jumps ahead of that review with an executive order. For automakers, it will offer relief from having to reach the 54.5-mpg CAFE number. However, automakers already were well on their way in engineering new powertrains and lighter, more aerodynamic (and CAFE standard “footprint” measurements) bodies. We’re not likely to see much pullback from those plans, so most automakers will probably be close to meeting the ’25 standard, if a few years late, anyway. What’s more, Trump’s executive order does nothing to the California Mandate requiring a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles sold there and in 16 other, mostly coastal states. The California Zero Emissions Mandate already is responsible for cars like the Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf, as well as Tesla’s relative success.

Trump wants to tear up NAFTA and place a tariff on Mexican-built autos: After the U.S. auto sales peaks of 2015 and 2016, there’s no shortage of auto manufacturing capacity. As I reported in late March, Trump’s plan to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement would not push automakers to build new, $1-billion+ factories in the United States (although Volvo, for one, already plans its first assembly plant here). The president specifically attacks Ford for moving Focus production from Michigan to Mexico in 2018, though it’s adding more profitable Ranger pickup and Bronco sport/utility production in its place in Michigan. Ford has since rescinded its plans for a new Mexican plant, and instead will move Focus production to China. President Trump has yet to act on rescinding U.S. participation in NAFTA.

Tesla’s market cap exceeds GM’s and Ford’s: Tesla’s market capitalization first passes Ford Motor Company’s, then in April, General Motors’. Tesla stock has since settled into the low $300s-per-share range, while GM stock has rallied to top the disruptive EV automaker’s cap, again. As of December 21, Tesla was worth about $55.1 billion to GM’s $60.1 billion. Wall Street bulls have defended Tesla’s stock value as a sign of an all-electric future. Tesla will be well positioned to lead that future, the bulls say, though as it continues to lose money and have problems getting Model 3 production up to speed, more and more bears are popping up in the analysts’ community.

Tesla loses $397 million in the first quarter: The losses are worse than analysts’ expectations, but by early June, stock values start to rise again.

Ford fires Fields: Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields, a corporate veteran credited for turning around Mazda (which Ford formerly controlled) in the late 1990s, is fired allegedly for lagging on electric car development. The real reason is Ford’s lagging stock value, a bigger concern for William Clay Ford and his relatives, who control the company with 40 percent of its stock. Fields’ replacement is Jim Hackett, hired away from the office furniture company, Steelcase.

GM shareholders reject a dual-class stock proposal: Greenlight Capital wants to split GM stock into two classes [not unlike Ford’s Class B stock] in order to cash in some value out of the automaker. To those of us far from Wall Street it seems the sort of action that would put GM in the same position it was in 12 years ago, when an economic downturn or a change in automotive tastes due to something like a spike in oil prices could lead to serious cash shortage. At GM’s annual meeting in June, shareholders roundly reject Greenlight’s proposal.

BMW 2 Series to lose manual option?: In June, a BMW executive in Germany was quoted indicating that the company would stop importing manual transmission 2 Series models to the U.S. The uproar that caused in the purist-enthusiasts’ community resulted in a clarification. If BMW stops selling stick shift 2 Series models here, it won’t be until the car’s next generation, expected to be the 2020 model year (now less than two years away). Automobile magazine’s Four Seasons ‘17 M2 came with just one option; the dual-clutch seven-speed automatic, because, BMW said, customer demand for the manual created a shortage. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next 2 Series came only with a DCT, which is handy for Level III or IV autonomous features. And the upcoming X2 “sport/activity vehicle” almost certainly will not be offered with a three-pedal layout.

Volvo goes all-electrified by 2019: The misleading headline at Volvo’s own website reads, “Volvo goes all-electric,” but the copy underneath says that by ’19, all Volvos will have an electric motor. While the hyperbole led The Cult of Elon to believe they had won their revolution, at Volvo, this entails everything from pure battery-EV to plug-in hybrid to 48-volt. For sure, the 48-volt revolution is coming, with that technology aiding stop/start systems and in some cases limited EV driving while accommodating the expansion of elaborate infotainment systems. In any event, Volvo’s announcement spurred similar claims later in the year from rival premium automakers.

Nissan launches ProPilot Assist in its all-new, 2018 Leaf: The automated cruise control will start and stop in rush hour traffic, but you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel, which gently helps you around curves. The new Nissan Leaf’s range is now 150 miles on a full charge, still 78 miles short of the Chevy Bolt’s stated range.

Cadillac launches Super Cruise: Is Cadillac in the autonomy lead? Yes, I think it is, even if Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have slightly more capable systems in the works. As part of Super Cruise’s safety redundancy, GM mapped 180,000 miles of U.S. roads. You must take the wheel of the Cadillac CT6 to change lanes, but otherwise it’s even easier than two-fingertip steering on long, boring Interstates.

Toyota and Mazda announce joint-venture U.S. assembly plant: Likely to be built somewhere in the UAW-bereft Southeast, the joint venture also will help struggling Mazda get into electrified powertrains. Let’s hope it leads to a future for the Mazda MX-5 Miata and Toyota 86, as their Fiat and Subaru deals are not likely to have sequels.

Mazda announces Skyactive X engine technology: Mazda will equip its next 3, coming in 2019, with a compression ignition gasoline powered engine said to nearly equal a similar-sized four-cylinder turbodiesel, and match it for CO2 emissions.

Fiat Chrysler ‘confirms’ it has not been approached by Great Wall Motors: The late-summer denial that a Chinese automaker was looking to buy Fiat Chrysler comes in the middle of a year in which CEO Sergio Marchionne is pretty transparent about his desire to find a dance partner. In my Motor City Blogman column, I note that Jeep and Ram are the two brands that would attract such a partner, and that if Marchionne expected value to be paid for the rest of the brands, the company might have to go it alone for a while longer.

IAA Frankfurt motor show highlights: The Honda Urban EV concept, Mercedes-AMG Project One, a roadgoing F1 car driven onto the stage by Lewis Hamilton (who would soon win his fourth World Driver’s Championship), Renault Symbioz concept, a modern rolling living room, Ferrari Portofino, Hyundai Kona, Kia Proceed concept, and according to Robert Cumberford, the new Borgward Isabella and something called the Aspark Owl.

Delphi splits in two: We don’t often cover Tier One suppliers, but it’s worth noting that this former GM parts division this year split into two companies. Delphi Technology continues to work on updating and improving powertrains, mostly the internal combustion engine, while Aptiv covers autonomy and connectivity. While I often write about automakers’ latest autonomous technology breakthroughs, much of the advances are coming from companies like Aptiv, Continental, Bosch, etc.

GM will launch ‘at least’ 20 new battery-electric or fuel cell vehicles by 2023: While no one has figured out how to make money on BEVs or fuel cells yet, this announcement spurs on GM’s already soaring share prices. The first two new EVs will arrive by mid-2019 and will be based on the current Chevy Bolt, while the new models after that will be off a new electric/fuel cell platform, including what looks to be the C8 Corvette E-ray.

Tokyo Motor Show highlights: The Honda EV Coupe concept, Mazda Vision Coupe concept, Mazda Kai concept (next Mazda3), Subaru Viviz Performance concept (next WRX/STI), Daihatsu DN Compagno concept, and the Toyota TJ Cruiser. In time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Toyota also displays a new Century limousine and a Tokyo cab, replacing models first designed for the 1964 Olympics that raised the city out of its postwar doldrums.

Tesla loses record $619 million in the third quarter: The cost of developing the much-awaited Tesla Model 3 and its production facility no doubt contributed to all this red ink. CEO Elon Musk says Tesla delivered just 233 of its mass-market EVs as of the end of the quarter, and says ramp-up of production to 5,000 per month now is delayed to the end of the first quarter of 2018—originally, this was the goal for the end of the year.

Peugeot-Citroen launches car-sharing service ahead of return to the U.S.: Free2Move is launched as an aggregation app for Car2Go and Zipcar in Seattle. The app will help PSA relearn the U.S. market ahead of its planned return selling cars here, says North American chief Larry Dominique. PSA will sell one of it from Performance Junk Blogger 6 http://ift.tt/2BXQdmE via IFTTT

[jonathanbelloblog]

Wheelspinning Our Way Through 2017

If 2017 was the year of President Trump everywhere else, in the automotive world, it seemed to be the year of Elon Musk. Again. Musk’s Tesla began 2017 with some 440,000 intenders each holding $1,000 deposit receipts for a new $35,000+ Model 3 with hopes they would start to get their cars by midyear.

Tesla ended 2017 with Musk now building anticipation for a new semi truck, apparently named “Semi,” which he says will have a 500-mile range and will begin deliveries in 2019, with a new Roadster model—actually a 2+2 targa grand touring car capable of 250 mph+ and 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds—arriving at dealers a year later.

Musk said Tesla delivered just 233 Model 3s by the end of the third quarter. When I asked Tesla public relations for an update on deliveries through, at least, mid-December, the response was to refer to Musk’s third-quarter analysts’ call held November 1. Tesla PR said the number of deliveries will be updated in the first quarter 2018 analysts’ call. So it goes.

In reality, 2017 was the year that traditional automakers ramped up their counter-assault on Tesla’s electric vehicles, with plans for everything from fuel cells and solid-state batteries to new ways to make the internal combustion engine cleaner and more efficient. Here’s how I saw the year in automobiles …

Fords with a future: CEO Mark Fields announces a $700-million investment in its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build a hybrid Mustang, a 300-plus mile EV SUV by 2020, and a hybrid-powered fully autonomous vehicle by 2021. Ford also will build hybrid versions of its F-150 pickup, and its Explorer-based Interceptor Police Utility vehicle and Taurus-based Police Interceptor sedan. At the same time, Fields attempts to assuage President-elect Trump’s anti-North American Free Trade Agreement position by cancelling plans for a new Mexican assembly plant.

Mary Barra adds “chairman” to her title: General Motors’ board elects its first female CEO to become its first female chairman, as well. Through much of its 109-year history, GM has assigned those titles to separate executives.

U.S. auto sales hits another record: Automakers report January 5 that they sold 17.54 million cars and light trucks in 2016, topping 2015, the previous record year, by 56,211 units. While car sales clearly have peaked, we’ll finish off calendar year ’17 at a still-healthy 17.1 million, according to AutoTrader’s mid-December estimate.

North American International Auto Show highlights: The 2017 Detroit Auto Show featured the new Kia Stinger, Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, Toyota Camry, Nissan Vmotion 2.0 concept (the next Altima), Honda Odyssey, Infiniti QX50 concept, Chevrolet Traverse, Lexus LS, and Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept (a modern EV Microbus). Sergio Marchionne reveals in his annual Detroit show press conference that the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee will share the new longitudinal engine platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Ford shows nothing of significance.

EPA says Fiat Chrysler’s diesel Jeeps and Rams violate the Clean Air Act with defeat devices: Just prior to President Trump taking office, the Environmental Protection Agency announces it’s investigating Fiat Chrysler for alleged fuel economy/emissions test cheating devices on its Jeep and Ram EcoDiesel engines. Fiat Chrysler in May announces it has a software fix to solve the problem.

GM and Honda announce a fuel cell deal: In late January, General Motors and Honda announce a joint venture to design and develop a next-generation, compact fuel cell stack. They plan to build these fuel cell stacks together at a GM plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan, that assembles battery packs for the Chevrolet Bolt and Volt by 2021.

Geneva International Motor Show Highlights: The new McLaren 720S was the show’s runaway hit, though Robert Cumberford also singles out the Fittipaldi EF7 by Pininfarina. Automobile staff also like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Mercedes-AMG Concept GT, Volkswagen Arteon, Range Rover Velar, Alpine A110, Volvo XC60, and Bentley EXP12 Speed 6e.

GM sells Opel/Vauxhall to PSA Peugeot Citroen for $2.3 billion: The world’s third-largest automaker runs from one of the world’s largest markets¬—the European Union, collectively, is about as large as the U.S. market in millions of annual sales. It’s also a very tough market, with strict regulations, loose enforcement (see, German-brand diesels), and relatively strong unions that make it hard to move assembly plants to former Soviet satellite countries with lower labor costs. In the end, though, it may have been Brexit that pushed the sale over the line. GM’s Vauxhall was stronger in the United Kingdom than was Opel on the Continent.

Trump rescinds the Obama administration 2025 CAFE standard: Automakers selling cars and trucks in the U.S. were required to reach a 54.5-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard under an agreement reached with the Obama administration in 2010, shortly after the GM and Chrysler loan guarantee bailouts. But the standard always was subject to a “mid-term review” that could pull back the standards. The new Trump administration jumps ahead of that review with an executive order. For automakers, it will offer relief from having to reach the 54.5-mpg CAFE number. However, automakers already were well on their way in engineering new powertrains and lighter, more aerodynamic (and CAFE standard “footprint” measurements) bodies. We’re not likely to see much pullback from those plans, so most automakers will probably be close to meeting the ’25 standard, if a few years late, anyway. What’s more, Trump’s executive order does nothing to the California Mandate requiring a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles sold there and in 16 other, mostly coastal states. The California Zero Emissions Mandate already is responsible for cars like the Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf, as well as Tesla’s relative success.

Trump wants to tear up NAFTA and place a tariff on Mexican-built autos: After the U.S. auto sales peaks of 2015 and 2016, there’s no shortage of auto manufacturing capacity. As I reported in late March, Trump’s plan to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement would not push automakers to build new, $1-billion+ factories in the United States (although Volvo, for one, already plans its first assembly plant here). The president specifically attacks Ford for moving Focus production from Michigan to Mexico in 2018, though it’s adding more profitable Ranger pickup and Bronco sport/utility production in its place in Michigan. Ford has since rescinded its plans for a new Mexican plant, and instead will move Focus production to China. President Trump has yet to act on rescinding U.S. participation in NAFTA.

Tesla’s market cap exceeds GM’s and Ford’s: Tesla’s market capitalization first passes Ford Motor Company’s, then in April, General Motors’. Tesla stock has since settled into the low $300s-per-share range, while GM stock has rallied to top the disruptive EV automaker’s cap, again. As of December 21, Tesla was worth about $55.1 billion to GM’s $60.1 billion. Wall Street bulls have defended Tesla’s stock value as a sign of an all-electric future. Tesla will be well positioned to lead that future, the bulls say, though as it continues to lose money and have problems getting Model 3 production up to speed, more and more bears are popping up in the analysts’ community.

Tesla loses $397 million in the first quarter: The losses are worse than analysts’ expectations, but by early June, stock values start to rise again.

Ford fires Fields: Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields, a corporate veteran credited for turning around Mazda (which Ford formerly controlled) in the late 1990s, is fired allegedly for lagging on electric car development. The real reason is Ford’s lagging stock value, a bigger concern for William Clay Ford and his relatives, who control the company with 40 percent of its stock. Fields’ replacement is Jim Hackett, hired away from the office furniture company, Steelcase.

GM shareholders reject a dual-class stock proposal: Greenlight Capital wants to split GM stock into two classes [not unlike Ford’s Class B stock] in order to cash in some value out of the automaker. To those of us far from Wall Street it seems the sort of action that would put GM in the same position it was in 12 years ago, when an economic downturn or a change in automotive tastes due to something like a spike in oil prices could lead to serious cash shortage. At GM’s annual meeting in June, shareholders roundly reject Greenlight’s proposal.

BMW 2 Series to lose manual option?: In June, a BMW executive in Germany was quoted indicating that the company would stop importing manual transmission 2 Series models to the U.S. The uproar that caused in the purist-enthusiasts’ community resulted in a clarification. If BMW stops selling stick shift 2 Series models here, it won’t be until the car’s next generation, expected to be the 2020 model year (now less than two years away). Automobile magazine’s Four Seasons ‘17 M2 came with just one option; the dual-clutch seven-speed automatic, because, BMW said, customer demand for the manual created a shortage. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next 2 Series came only with a DCT, which is handy for Level III or IV autonomous features. And the upcoming X2 “sport/activity vehicle” almost certainly will not be offered with a three-pedal layout.

Volvo goes all-electrified by 2019: The misleading headline at Volvo’s own website reads, “Volvo goes all-electric,” but the copy underneath says that by ’19, all Volvos will have an electric motor. While the hyperbole led The Cult of Elon to believe they had won their revolution, at Volvo, this entails everything from pure battery-EV to plug-in hybrid to 48-volt. For sure, the 48-volt revolution is coming, with that technology aiding stop/start systems and in some cases limited EV driving while accommodating the expansion of elaborate infotainment systems. In any event, Volvo’s announcement spurred similar claims later in the year from rival premium automakers.

Nissan launches ProPilot Assist in its all-new, 2018 Leaf: The automated cruise control will start and stop in rush hour traffic, but you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel, which gently helps you around curves. The new Nissan Leaf’s range is now 150 miles on a full charge, still 78 miles short of the Chevy Bolt’s stated range.

Cadillac launches Super Cruise: Is Cadillac in the autonomy lead? Yes, I think it is, even if Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have slightly more capable systems in the works. As part of Super Cruise’s safety redundancy, GM mapped 180,000 miles of U.S. roads. You must take the wheel of the Cadillac CT6 to change lanes, but otherwise it’s even easier than two-fingertip steering on long, boring Interstates.

Toyota and Mazda announce joint-venture U.S. assembly plant: Likely to be built somewhere in the UAW-bereft Southeast, the joint venture also will help struggling Mazda get into electrified powertrains. Let’s hope it leads to a future for the Mazda MX-5 Miata and Toyota 86, as their Fiat and Subaru deals are not likely to have sequels.

Mazda announces Skyactive X engine technology: Mazda will equip its next 3, coming in 2019, with a compression ignition gasoline powered engine said to nearly equal a similar-sized four-cylinder turbodiesel, and match it for CO2 emissions.

Fiat Chrysler ‘confirms’ it has not been approached by Great Wall Motors: The late-summer denial that a Chinese automaker was looking to buy Fiat Chrysler comes in the middle of a year in which CEO Sergio Marchionne is pretty transparent about his desire to find a dance partner. In my Motor City Blogman column, I note that Jeep and Ram are the two brands that would attract such a partner, and that if Marchionne expected value to be paid for the rest of the brands, the company might have to go it alone for a while longer.

IAA Frankfurt motor show highlights: The Honda Urban EV concept, Mercedes-AMG Project One, a roadgoing F1 car driven onto the stage by Lewis Hamilton (who would soon win his fourth World Driver’s Championship), Renault Symbioz concept, a modern rolling living room, Ferrari Portofino, Hyundai Kona, Kia Proceed concept, and according to Robert Cumberford, the new Borgward Isabella and something called the Aspark Owl.

Delphi splits in two: We don’t often cover Tier One suppliers, but it’s worth noting that this former GM parts division this year split into two companies. Delphi Technology continues to work on updating and improving powertrains, mostly the internal combustion engine, while Aptiv covers autonomy and connectivity. While I often write about automakers’ latest autonomous technology breakthroughs, much of the advances are coming from companies like Aptiv, Continental, Bosch, etc.

GM will launch ‘at least’ 20 new battery-electric or fuel cell vehicles by 2023: While no one has figured out how to make money on BEVs or fuel cells yet, this announcement spurs on GM’s already soaring share prices. The first two new EVs will arrive by mid-2019 and will be based on the current Chevy Bolt, while the new models after that will be off a new electric/fuel cell platform, including what looks to be the C8 Corvette E-ray.

Tokyo Motor Show highlights: The Honda EV Coupe concept, Mazda Vision Coupe concept, Mazda Kai concept (next Mazda3), Subaru Viviz Performance concept (next WRX/STI), Daihatsu DN Compagno concept, and the Toyota TJ Cruiser. In time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Toyota also displays a new Century limousine and a Tokyo cab, replacing models first designed for the 1964 Olympics that raised the city out of its postwar doldrums.

Tesla loses record $619 million in the third quarter: The cost of developing the much-awaited Tesla Model 3 and its production facility no doubt contributed to all this red ink. CEO Elon Musk says Tesla delivered just 233 of its mass-market EVs as of the end of the quarter, and says ramp-up of production to 5,000 per month now is delayed to the end of the first quarter of 2018—originally, this was the goal for the end of the year.

Peugeot-Citroen launches car-sharing service ahead of return to the U.S.: Free2Move is launched as an aggregation app for Car2Go and Zipcar in Seattle. The app will help PSA relearn the U.S. market ahead of its planned return selling cars here, says North American chief Larry Dominique. PSA will sell one of it from Performance Junk Blogger Feed 4 http://ift.tt/2BXQdmE via IFTTT