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Insightful Articles

From Our Point of View

Ford to produce own EV battery in 2025

Ford Motor should be selling enough electric vehicles in North America to produce its own battery cells domestically by 2025, an executive with the automaker told CNBC. The timeline is the most detailed Ford has given for EV battery production, which Wall Street is closely watching, and its a reversal in the company’s strategy under former CEO Jim Hackett. Producing battery cells internally is expected to be key for automakers to cut costs of EVs and secure sourcing for an expected surge in demand this decade.

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GM introduces new EV charging network

Through an Ultium Charge 360 smartphone app, owners of future Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac EVs will be able to locate a charging station on the network, unlock a plug and pay for a charging session. Today, there are 60,000 stations the network supports. However, GM and EVgo plan to add 2,700 DC fast-charging stations available in the US over the next five years, based on a previous collaborative effort announced last year. The first of many are now operational in Washington, California and Florida, with the first 500 set to come online by the end of this year.

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Netflix wins 7 Oscars

In one night, Netflix has nearly doubled its number of Oscar wins. Heading into Sunday’s 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony, the streaming service had 36 Oscar nominations across 17 films — the most of any distributor in this year’s slate. By the end of the night, it garnered seven trophies. The second-highest tally went to Disney, which took home five awards. Since 2013, when Netflix earned its first nomination for best documentary feature for “The Square,” the platform has taken home eight Academy Awards. Now, its collection is 15 strong.

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All you need to know about vaccine passports

Travelers may need to use vaccine passports to enter certain countries or to be exempt from strict testing and quarantine requirements in a post-pandemic world. Currently, the only way to confirm vaccine status in the United States is a card from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Getting COVID-19 test results for travel is a little easier as many facilities put them online, but we’re not yet close to a standardized system used worldwide. Still, with more than 50 million people in the United States having been fully vaccinated, travelers are naturally curious about their vaccine passport options.

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California allowing theme parks and outdoor stadiums

California health officials on Friday gave Walt Disney’s Disneyland and other theme parks the go-ahead to reopen at limited capacity from April 1, after a closure of almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Capacity will be limited to between 15% and 35%, the California Department of Health said in an update. Masks and other safety measures will be required and the parks initially will be open only to state residents.

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Viacom believes households will subscribe to 5+ streaming services Thumbnail

Viacom believes households will subscribe to 5+ streaming services

ViacomCBS had a compelling presentation Wednesday to illustrate why TV lovers should sign up for its newly branded flagship streaming service, Paramount+. But the most important point company executives referenced — one that will define the success of the service — came fairly late in the nearly 3-and-a-half-hour investor day event. ViacomCBS showed a slide showing the uptick in the average amount of subscription streaming services to which American families subscribe. That number, the company said, has gone from 1-to-2 in 2016 to 2-to-3 in 2019 to 3-to-4 in 2020. ViacomCBS suggested it won’t be long before households subscribe to five or more services.

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