AUTOMOTIVE
Consumer Reports says EVs less reliable
Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80 percent more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines. Consumer Reports said EV owners most frequently reported troubles with battery and charging systems as well as flaws in how the vehicles’ body panels and interior parts fit together. The magazine and website noted that EV manufacturers are still learning to construct completely new power systems, and it suggested that as they do, the overall reliability of electric vehicles should improve. Still, Consumer Reports noted that lingering concerns about reliability will likely add to the issues that give many buyers pause when considering a switch to the new technology, joining concerns about higher costs, too few charging stations, and long charging times. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
RETAIL
Foot Locker raised its full-year forecast, citing strong results over Thanksgiving week and progress on its strategic growth plan. The athletic retailer now expects a full-year comparable sales decline of 8.5 percent to 9 percent, compared with a previous forecast for a decrease of as much as 10 percent. Comparable-store sales, a key retail metric, fell 8 percent for the quarter ended Oct. 28. That was better than Wall Street anticipated. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
SLEEP DEVICES
Philips continues to have problems with apnea machines
Philips stock slumped after a US regulator warned about a safety issue involving the company’s DreamStation 2 sleep apnea machine, whose predecessor is already the subject of a major product recall. The Food and Drug Administration has received a surge in reports of signs of overheating including fire, smoke, and burns while using the device, it said late Tuesday. The faults deepen the company’s existing issues with similar products where disintegrating foam sparked health concerns. The Dutch manufacturer has long struggled with its sleep therapy products and more than two years ago began recalling some devices over health concerns related to disintegrating noise-dampening foam. Philips has so far set aside about $1.1 billion for the recall, and in September agreed to pay at least $479 million to resolve some of the litigation. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
MOVIES
‘Wish’ disappoints at the holiday box office
Walt Disney Co.’s “Wish” was supposed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company that invented animated princess movies like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella.” Instead, the picture landed with a thud, delivering just half of its expected ticket sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. It became the latest disappointment in a dismal year for Disney that’s included duds from Marvel and Lucasfilm. “Wish,” also the name of Disney’s newest cruise ship, took in just $31.6 million over the five-day weekend, which the Burbank, Calif.-based company has historically dominated with titles such as “Frozen” and “Toy Story.” The picture, which cost about $200 million to produce, finished in third place behind Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and Apple’s “Napoleon.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS
MOTORCYCLES
Honda to invest billions in electric motorcycles
Honda will invest $3.4 billion in its electric motorcycle business by 2030 and has raised its target for their annual sales to 4 million units for that year, up from a previous goal of 3.5 million. The company plans to introduce 30 new electric motorcycle models worldwide by 2030 and will start operating dedicated electric motorcycle plants globally from around 2027, it said in a statement Wednesday. New technology will reduce the length of assembly lines by about 40 percent, it said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
AUTOMOTIVE
Toyota had a record October
Toyota posted record October global sales and production on strong demand for its cars in North America and Europe. The world’s largest automaker produced 1,035,569 vehicles last month, including output from subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., up 12 percent from a year earlier. Sales rose 5.6 percent to 970,313 vehicles, of which 190,835 were sold in its home market of Japan, Toyota said in a statement Wednesday. European sales climbed 15 percent from a year earlier, and North American sales gained 7.4 percent. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
MEDIA
Popular Science online magazine shuttered
In yet another sign of its decline, Popular Science has stopped publishing its online magazine, three years after it shut its storied print edition, which began in 1872. Popular Science will continue to publish articles and videos on its website, and will still produce its podcast, “The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week.” But its digital magazine, which was published quarterly since it began in 2021, has ceased publication and will no longer charge for subscriptions, according to Recurrent Ventures, the magazine’s parent company. Its last online issue, titled “Fake,” was published in September and featured articles about taxidermy, artificial intelligence, and fake crystals. — NEW YORK TIMES
WEBSITES
Jezebel is revived weeks after announcing its demise
Jezebel, the famed feminist website, is set to return less than a month after it was shuttered. Paste Magazine, a music and culture outlet, acquired Jezebel on Tuesday and planned to start publishing on the site again as soon as Wednesday, said Josh Jackson, a cofounder and the editor-in-chief of Paste. Jezebel, once part of the Gawker universe of websites, brought a brash new kind of internet writing to feminist issues when it was introduced in 2007, paving the way for a generation of like-minded outlets. In 2019, private equity firm Great Hill Partners bought Jezebel as part of what is now called G/O Media, a portfolio of digital news outlets that includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, and The Root. But on Nov. 9, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said Jezebel would shut down and that 23 people would be laid off because of “economic headwinds.” — NEW YORK TIMES
(function () {
/* eslint-disable */
const fbqEvents = () => {
fbq(‘set’, ‘autoConfig’, ‘false’, ‘884869448226452’);
fbq(‘set’, ‘autoConfig’, ‘false’, ‘493062270895851’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘884869448226452’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
};
if(typeof fbq === ‘undefined’) {
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {
if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s);
}
(window,document,’script’, ‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbqEvents();
} else {
fbqEvents();
}
})();