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Greg Pajo, Michael Simari, and the Manufactuer

More than 10,000 Hyundai Ioniq hybrids and plug-in hybrids from the 2017 and 2018 model years are subject to a recall over danger of back-seat fire.In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Hyundai says the problem is with the power relay assembly located beneath the rear seat. In affected vehicles, it is susceptible to overheating.The automaker had already issued a recall for the issue, but after receiving several reports of fires in vehicles that had already received the fix, it has called for a second round of recalls.If the news about a Hyundai Ioniq recall for danger of fire sounds familiar, It should. In new filings with NHTSA, Hyundai reports that previously recalled Ioniq hybrid and plug-in-hybrid vehicles are being called back again. The problem, Hyundai says, is a defect in the power relay assembly of 10,575 Ioniqs. This could cause the assembly to overheat, leading to risk of heat damage and fire where the assembly is located under the rear seats. The same set of vehicles was recalled in October 2018 for the same issue. At that time, Hyundai’s remedy was to replace the main relay or the entire assembly, depending on the extent of the damage. The original filings claimed no accidents or injuries were reported. Post-recall, four fires have been reported in the past year, according to the chronology of events. In addition, Hyundai has identified five “vehicles that were improperly repaired” in a survey of 11 previously recalled Ioniq vehicles. The automaker estimates only about 1 percent of the 10,575 vehicles will be found to have a problem.Dealers and owners will be notified by August 26, and owners should have their vehicle inspected by the dealer. Affected vehicles will have their main relay or PRA replaced free of charge regardless of warranty status, with the component provided by a different supplier than the defective components. Until then, illumination of the HEV warning light or an inability to start could indicate a problem with the vehicle. You can check if your vehicle is affected on the NHTSA recalls website.

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More than 50,000 catalytic converters were stolen off parked vehicles in the U.S. last year, a massive increase from 2020 (around 14,500) and 2019 (3400).The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is tracking more than 150 pieces of legislation that have either been enacted or are in some stage of consideration in state houses across the country.A federal bill, the bipartisan Preventing Auto Recycling Theft Act, or PART Act, is also working its way through Congress.Across the country, state governments are trying to do something about the rising number of catalytic converter thefts. The responses often center on redefining the status of a converter in legal terminology—for example, including converters in the list of “major component parts” in Indiana—or placing additional rules on people who might be buying or selling converters. For such a simple act of thievery, the reaction is most certainly scattershot, but national legislators in Washington, D.C., are also talking about solutions.

Just under 3400 catalytic converters were stolen from cars in the U.S. in 2019, but that number jumped by a factor of four in 2020, when almost 14,500 were stolen. In 2021, more than 50,000 converters were stolen, according to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). As we recently reported, converters from the popular Ford F-series trucks and Honda Accord sedans were the most common targets for catalytic theft.The increase in the number of stolen converters comes as the price to replace them went from $1000 to around $3000 in recent years, NICB president and CEO David Glawe told NBC News.”Crime’s a business, and business is really good in this space,” he said. “There’s a lot of money to be made. And there’s very little deterrent.”One Solution: Putting the VIN on ItThat could be about to change, if you take seriously all the related legislation in NCIB’s database that is under consideration for 2022. Aside from the 152 different pieces of state legislation NCIB is tracking on its website, there’s also a bipartisan bill currently under discussion in Congress. Called the Preventing Auto Recycling Theft (PART) Act, this bill would codify the federal penalties for anyone convicted of stealing a converter. It would also set some federal rules on making catalytic converters trackable by stamping VINs onto them in new cars. The bill would also require that people who buy and sell converters keep records of these transactions.

NICB’s map of catalytic converter bills in the works. Darker = more legislation.
National Insurance Crime Bureau

Of the 152 pieces of state legislation, only 26 have been enacted. Most of the others are in the early “introduced or prefiled” category, while some are being seriously discussed in various committees. Some of the states that recently enacted laws regarding converter theft include Connecticut and Mississippi.In Connecticut, it is now illegal for vehicle recyclers to acquire a converter that’s not connected to a car, and recyclers now need to keep written records of any transactions involving converters. Mississippi’s new law increases fines for anyone caught stealing a converter and requires sellers to provide their personal ID and the VIN of the vehicle that the converter came from in order to sell it. Buyers also need to pay by check.Hawaii with 16, Minnesota (14), and California (11) are the three states considering the most pieces of converter theft legislation. Many of the rest are considering between one and a half-dozen. According to the NICB, 13 states are not considering any type of legislation regarding catalytic converter thefts. They are Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming.
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An environmentalist group called the Tyre Extinguishers has tips on how to deflate—not slash—the tires on SUVs in crowded city areas as a way to convince people not to drive the behemoths there.After starting in the U.K. earlier this year, the group has reported its first actions in the U.S., with SUVs in New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area all targeted.The decentralized Tyre Extinguishers (who claim no leader) say that large vehicles used by the handicapped or groups should not be hit, but that electric vehicles and hybrids are valid targets.Anti-SUV protests are nothing new, and have existed pretty much ever since the large vehicles—too large, to some—became increasingly popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. Those of us who were there remember the Hummer salute, for example. Calls for a ban on SUVs have surfaced now and again over the years. In 2019, anti-SUV activists protested at the Frankfurt auto show, calling out the “SUV-ization” of the industry. These protesters were glad to make their claims in public, where they were certain to be not only noticed but also apprehended.

Now, a new wave of attacks on SUVs is taking place way, way out of sight. Or, at least, that’s the idea. As first reported by The Drive, a decentralized group called the Tyre Extinguishers (the spelling hints at the group’s U.K. origins) is promoting the idea of deflating the tires of as many SUVs as possible to help make it “impossible to own a huge polluting 4×4 in the world’s urban areas.” By deflating enough tires on these “massive, unnecessary vehicles,” the group hopes to cause enough “inconvenience and expense for their owners” that people just stop driving big vehicles in crowded areas.
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The group said in March that supporters had deflated the tires of around 100 SUVs in cities across England, and that was just the start. The group now offers flyers in 10 languages and, earlier this month, celebrated the first actions in the U.S., claiming that dozens of SUVs in “several major cities, including New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area” had been targeted.

From the Tyre Extinguishers’ leaflet.
Tyre Extinguishers

The group’s reasoning and politics are abundantly clear. Large vehicles like SUVs are “a disaster for our health, our public safety and our climate,” the group says on its website. “Bigger and bigger cars are dominating our towns and cities, and all so a privileged few can flaunt their wealth. Because governments and politicians have failed to protect us from this danger, we must protect ourselves.”Before we go any further, let us point out that letting the air out of a stranger’s tires has got to be at least a misdemeanor, right? In 2006, a member of the Houston Police Department wrote in the Houston Chronicle that anyone letting air out of another person’s tire “would be breaking the law whether you damaged the tire or not. Simply letting the air out would be a violation of the law for the inconvenience caused the owner. You would also be responsible for any amount the person paid for towing or tire service.” State laws against “tampering with a motor vehicle” are likely to be enforceable, but of course, first the person would have to be caught in the act of letting the air out of the tires.The Tyre Extinguishers’ website gives specific instructions on how to deflate an SUV’s tire in less than 10 seconds without doing any permanent damage, and it makes clear that the mission here isn’t simply to make someone late for work. The group recommends targeting SUVs in posh or middle-class areas and then leaving a leaflet on the windshield explaining why their SUV now has a flat tire. The Tyre Extinguishers also declare their limits, saying that cars clearly used by people with disabilities, commercial vehicles, minibuses and “normal-sized cars” should all be left alone. The group does not care about a vehicle’s powertrain, either, proclaiming that hybrids and electric cars are fair game. “We cannot electrify our way out of the climate crisis—there are not enough rare earth metals to replace everyone’s car and the mining of these metals causes suffering,” they write.
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First, the good news: despite a lot of nerve-racking volatility, the price of crude oil is expected to go on a downward trend, reversing the record levels we’ve seen so far this year.The bad news: That isn’t likely before 2023, and anything can happen between now and then.Don’t blame gas station owners or the president. They have less control over the situation than we’d like to think. It’s a complex global landscape out there.You may have felt a slight tingle if you visited a gas station after July 4. Whatever libations you may have consumed during the fireworks or the tinnitus that came after is not our concern. It’s gas prices: They went down for the first week in months. But are they on a downward trend that will get us back to pre-pandemic levels? The answer is no, not this year.Republicans blame Joe Biden, Democrats blame Big Oil, the Greens would like us to convert to bicycles, and in northern Connecticut, Ralph Nader is laughing at everyone. What’s happening with record-high gas prices is simple and yet so complex that not one single actor deserves all the blame. Let’s dive into the crude world of gasoline.A Non-Political Explanation of Crude Oil Prices In North America, we track oil prices using West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a crude blend sourced primarily from Texas that serves as one of several global benchmarks for oil futures, or the contracts that buyers agree to pay oil producers for a barrel of crude at a specified future date. The WTI price you see quoted in the news is what’s called a “front month,” which refers to the futures contracts that expire closest to the current date. At present, WTI closely mirrors Brent crude, which makes up the majority of European and global oil futures. WTI prices for a barrel of crude dipped below $100 this week for the first time since May 10, according to the Wall Street Journal’s price chart. Oil began trading above $100 in the week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late February, when investors worried that Russia’s lucrative oil reserves could be upset with potential economic sanctions. But oil prices were already rising before the war, in sync with the general uptick of the global economy since the 2020 shutdown when WTI briefly traded negative and barely rose above $40. With resurgent demand and economic activity in 2021, WTI rose into the $60s, $70s, and low $80s. It climbed again during the first quarter of 2022 and reached into the high $80s and low $90s during the weeks and days before the invasion. Crude is a huge portion of every gallon of retail gasoline—nearly 60 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Retail gas prices and crude prices go hand in hand, as everyone has watched since a gallon of regular-grade gas sank to a low of $1.77 in April 2020 and then rose to $2.85 by the end of March 2021, according to EIA records. Average prices rose past $3 last July, mirroring the rise in crude, and matched the crude spike in early March 2022 when prices soared past $4—and never went back. Gas reached a record $5 on June 13, only to trickle down to $4.77 on July 4, according to the EIA. The last time gas was this expensive (when it was $4 during July 2008), crude prices had peaked just as high as they have this year. Crude oil has been especially volatile for the past four months. WTI prices shot past $120 early in the Russian invasion and after European sanctions blocking all Russian oil took effect on June 1. In this same time span, crude fell to the mid-$100s only to rise days or weeks later. Final closing prices on July 5 and July 6 dipped below $100, yes, but this happened at least nine times since the first spike in March. The war, record-high inflation, surging interest rates, the worry over slumping global demand from the high shipping costs that high oil prices cause and trickle into equally high consumer prices—it has been another unpredictable year, to put it lightly. This past week, the Biden administration floated the idea of a cap on Russian oil prices, which make up close to 10 percent of the global supply. The New York Times called it a “novel and untested effort to force Russia to sell its oil to the world at a steep discount” that could “starve Moscow’s oil-rich war machine of funding and . . . relieve pressure on energy consumers.” It’s too soon to know whether other countries will agree to such a plan.Meanwhile, its latest forecast, the EIA predicts WTI prices will remain around $102 and then dip to $93 sometime in 2023. Futures contracts seem to agree, with contracts expiring as far out as April 2023 trading in the mid-$80s, according to Barron’s. But literally anything can happen between now and then to shift that trajectory.

U.S. Energy Information Administration

The Added Costs of Federal RegulationsThere’s competition for crude. White gasoline and diesel are the main product that comes out of U.S. refineries, the same barrel of crude goes to making kerosene, jet fuel, heating oil, asphalt, solvents, and other petroleum products like waxes and lubricants. There is product overlap among the various companies that sell these products, and yet they are all diverse industries with differing demands. Beyond the huge conglomerates that still have to import foreign oil to meet demand across the entire country, factor in the 9000 smaller oil producers in the U.S., which operate in very different markets with varying state regulatory mandates. Now consider how the Environmental Protection Agency regulates smog by requiring at least 14 summer gasoline blends tailored to specific regions (which many, consequently, have to switch to winter blends). Then there’s the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, which requires more ethanol and biodiesel blends than the industry can feasibly produce. The industry publication Fuels Market News noted that the 2022 targets “were deliberately set at a high level to facilitate investments in E15 and E85 infrastructure.” These targets have contributed to high ethanol credit prices that refiners must buy to stay in compliance (similar to California’s zero-emissions credits). Ultra-low-sulfur diesel is costlier than the soot-burning diesel of years past, and it’s not getting cheaper. Producing premium and mid-grade gasoline requires special additives that are costly to make, too—higher octane doesn’t come cheap. None of these costs are insignificant, and they’re all reflected at the pump. Shocker: President Can’t Command Oil Industry to Lower PricesOver the July 4 weekend, President Biden tweeted this: “My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.”
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He’s right to some degree, as margins between the price of Brent crude and the wholesale price of gasoline—the price gas stations pay before adding their costs, profit, and state taxes—have reached record highs at gasoline stations. The EIA reports that those margins were $1.17 per gallon in May. But even with diesel hitting $6 in many places, are gas stations really out to destroy America? The Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing, an industry lobby, reports that individual gas stations—more than half of which are run by independent owners that franchise with large brands—typically make only 10 cents a gallon after all costs and fees. Believe that or not, but most gas station owners make more money from in-store sales than pump sales. We all know how far we’re willing to drive for even a five-cent drop in prices.As we’ve described, oil companies and gas stations play on a national and global market and can’t control what independent U.S. oil producers do or what Middle Eastern countries in OPEC choose to do. OPEC has agreed to increase oil production and President Biden has been begging Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to increase production—both of which would not reduce gas prices any more than his canceling of the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline would raise them. As the New York Times reported, Keystone XL was only 8 percent complete and was a planned extension to an already hefty pipeline. Neither situation would be a game changer at the pump.Biden has demanded that oil companies increase production, but they physically can’t. While the shale boom has more than doubled domestic oil and gas production since 2008, the nation’s 125 refineries are operating at or near max capacity just as they were before the pandemic. As of January 1, the U.S. was refining 17.8 million petroleum barrels a day—again, for all petroleum products, not just gasoline and diesel—compared to the 18.5 million barrels as of January 1, 2020. Crude production from U.S. oil fields is down from its 2019 peak, but at 11.6 million barrels per day as of April, the oil industry is sucking more dino juice out of the ground than ever—it’s more than double the amount they barreled in 2008. Biden also said that there are 9000 approved permits for oil producers who he claimed “could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year,” except the Poynter Institute says it’s standard practice to have thousands of unused permits in any presidency and that it’s economically unviable to rush on a permitted land. Drilling—a huge investment with huge potential losses—takes a lot of careful measurements. It’s not a stick-it-in-the-ground operation by any means.Biden has proposed a federal gas tax holiday, but longer relief would be felt if the EPA could relax the Renewable Fuel Standard Program and temporarily suspend the regional requirements to formulate summer gasoline. Even so, the oil market goes beyond what Congress or a president can attempt to influence. Right now, we’re just stuck with high prices.

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