The Nord Stream Pipelines That Supply Gas To Europe May Have Been Sabotaged

The critical Europe-supplying Nord Stream gas pipelines have sprung suspicious leaks, Mazda considers pulling out of Russia, a Carvana executive faces criminal charges. All this and more in today’s issue of The Morning Dump.

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.

The Nord Stream Pipelines Have Sprung Suspicious Leaks

A bit of news on gas pipelines may seem strange to see on an automotive website, but bear with me. New car production in Europe relies fairly heavily on gas-fired electricity, and a shortage of gas could really throw a wrench in the works. The BBC reports that the Russian-owned Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have sprung three leaks, and that sabotage can’t be ruled out.

The operator of Nord Stream 1 said the undersea lines had simultaneously sustained “unprecedented” damage in one day.

Both pipelines have been flashpoints in the energy tussle between Moscow and Europe.

While these leaks won’t immediately impact European energy supply due to Russia shutting off the Nord Stream pipelines’ flow to Europe, the possibility of sabotage makes for an unsteady future.

The operators of Nord Stream 2 warned of a loss of pressure in the pipeline on Monday afternoon. That led to a warning from Danish authorities that ships should avoid the area near the island of Bornholm.

The Danish energy authority told the Reuters news agency that the leak could continue for several days, and perhaps even a week.

Hours later, the Swedish Maritime Authority also issued a warning over two leaks in Nord Stream 1.

The timing and damage seem quite suspicious, so it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if the leaks were intentional. In any case, this brings more urgency for European legislators already considering a shift in energy policy to ensure safety of citizens and industry.

Mazda Considering Ending Russian Production

Wait, Mazda’s still making cars in Russia? Apparently so. Reuters reports that the Japanese brand is in talks to sell its stake in a Russian joint venture to partner Sollers.

Mazda, which sold 30,000 cars in Russia last year, said in March that exports of parts to the venture’s Vladivostok plant were going to end and production would cease when stocks ran out. The Nikkei newspaper on Saturday first reported the talks with Sollers.

Sollers said it was in talks with Mazda over stopping car production in Vladivostok and on buying out Mazda’s stake in the venture.

“At the same time, Sollers Auto has already developed a plan to relaunch the factory for production of other automobile brands and negotiations on this issue are currently being finalised,” Sollers said in a statement.

Well, that’s another company hopefully pulling out of Russia. Things are a bit tricky when it’s a joint venture compared to an in-house plant as joint ventures generally exist to share knowledge. From the sounds of it, even though Mazda may be out, the joint venture seems like it may have been successful. Now Sollers can do its own thing, assuming it has the people and parts to do it.

More Chaos At Faraday Future

Some companies never seem to make the news for good reasons, and Faraday Future is one of those companies. After allegations that its executive chairperson was reportedly pushing the company into bankruptcy, Reuters reports that this arc in the electric vehicle startup’s soap opera should be winding down.

Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc said on Monday the electric-vehicle startup had reached an agreement with its largest shareholder to resolve a governance dispute, adding that Sue Swenson will step down as executive chairperson.

The company said it had raised $100 million to start the production of its FF 91 electric luxury car, adding that Brian Krolicki will also step down Faraday Future’s board.

The company, whose shares rose 30% in trading before the bell, said Adam He has been appointed as a new independent board member.

I’m not a financial analyst, nor do I care to think much about a company that still hasn’t made a single consumer vehicle yet, but shares rising 30 percent must be good, yeah? Either way, the world will generally continue to forget about Faraday Future until the company actually starts production or until the next scandal breaks. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Carvana Exec Faces Criminal Charges

It took absolute ages, but something seems to actually be happening as a result of Carvana woes. Automotive News reports that one executive faces dozens of criminal charges in Illinois.

In mid-May the Illinois Secretary of State filed several motor vehicle-related charges against Paul Breaux, who is identified on Carvana’s investor relations website as a vice president and the company’s general counsel since August 2015. Illinois court records show regulatory officials in a May 13 filing charged Breaux with 27 counts of failure to transfer vehicle titles by a dealership and 50 counts of improper use of titling and registration.

Let’s see what Breaux has to say about these allegations. Maybe he’ll approach them with humility and sincerity.

Breaux, who has been ordered to appear in an Illinois court on Nov. 1, denies any wrongdoing.

“The State of Illinois has charged me because Carvana delivered a car to a customer’s home,” Breaux said in a statement provided by Carvana. “This is surprising and confusing both because it feels extremely anti-consumer and because I proactively met with several Illinois officials in 2017 to describe this exact practice and they did not then nor have they since raised any concerns, during which time we’ve delivered tens of thousands of cars to Illinois homes and provided exceptional customer experiences.”

Uh-huh. Sure.

The Flush

Whelp, time to drop the lid on this particularly steaming edition of The Morning Dump. It’s Tuesday, which means absolutely nothing now that I think of it. Anyway, let’s play a game. Let’s say you’re given a blank check to buy one race car and its road-going counterpart. The twist is that it doesn’t have to be a homologation special. Will you tow your NASCAR truck with a Chevrolet Silverado? Perhaps a Super Touring car for the weekend and a sensible sedan for the weekdays? Whichever way you go, let me know what pair of vehicles you’d pick in the comments below.

Lead photo credit: Pjotr Mahhonin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.