Around the Wire: 4 News Trends in Auto and Transportation

A look at the transportation news from PR Newswire in September and October that you might have missed.

 

Transportation News Trends, September-October 2022

 

By Sakib Hossain, Courtney Pleasant | Published Nov. 15, 2022

 

Combing through all the auto and transport releases on PR Newswire’s website is no easy task. Over 2,000 transportation-related releases were distributed over the wire in September and October.

With the end of the calendar year approaching, many companies are focused on what is to come next, in 2023 and beyond.

Electric vehicles, the rebounding of the travel industry, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) were the most prominent trends our team found while sorting through these releases.

Let’s take a deeper look at these trends.

 

Some of the Most Popular Auto/Transport Releases:

Over the past two months, these auto/transport press releases received a standout number of reads and/or engagement:

  • Hawaiian Airlines announced an agreement with Amazon, in which Hawaiian will maintain and fly Amazon's A330s under Hawaiian's FAA air carrier certificate to move cargo between airports near the online retailer's operations facilities.
  • XCMG, a multinational heavy machinery manufacturing company, developed the world's largest tonnage all-terrain crane and it completed the first test to lift a 173-ton weight.
  • The U.S. Postal Service announced it will raise First-Class Mail prices by 4.2% in 2023 to offset the rise in inflation.
  • Kawasaki Engines unveiled a new line of engines. EVO is an electronic fuel-injected (EFI) engine that offers increased power density and improved fuel efficiency.

 

Transportation News Trends

Here’s a look at a few of the trends we noticed among auto- and transport-related press releases in September and October, with a few examples of each.

 

1. Electric Vehicles

The industry is quickly evolving and not necessarily by choice. On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act that will incentivize domestic production of clean energy technologies like solar, wind, carbon capture, and clean hydrogen.

In September and October, many of the top-performing releases were the announcements of major manufacturers' new 2023 vehicles, many of them with new electric components or counterparts. In addition to major passenger vehicles launching EV enhancements, we saw an increase in the number of releases discussing the innovation of commercial vehicles like trucks and buses.

Here are a few examples from September and October:

In September and October, 1,047 releases that crossed the wire in the U.S. and Canada mentioned “electric vehicles.” It’s a trend we’ll surely continue to monitor.

 

2. Travel Industry Continues its Rebound

A major component of the auto/transportation vertical is travel. During the early days (what turned into years) of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all witnessed travel and tourism come to a complete standstill. Finally, due to a variety of factors, including economic and political considerations, many countries are now dropping their COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions.

The U.S. Travel Forecast predicts that despite inflation, travel will be quick to bounce back, and domestic travel is “expected to reach 81% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and 96% in 2023.”  Across the wire, we can see the resurgence of airlines, cruise lines, and even rideshare companies in the post-pandemic world. Although each industry has its own struggles, such as the labor shortage, the future is looking bright for the travel industry.

Here are a few examples from September and October:

 

3. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiatives

ESG initiatives in the transportation industry have become the standard rather than the exception. With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration has pledged billions of dollars to not only improve the public transit system, but to provide historic funding to all 50 states in an effort to transform America's school bus fleet.

Here are a few examples of ESG in transportation news from September and October:

Of the transportation-related press releases sent out in September and October, 442 of them were tied to companies’ ESG initiatives.

 

4. Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence has contributed in a major way to transport news in the last two months. Nearly a quarter of the transportation industry releases related to AI in some capacity.

While the initial relevance of artificial intelligence in the automotive industry may have been limited to self-driving vehicles, AI and machine learning are being implemented in a variety of ways in how vehicles are built and operated on the road. From vehicle design and testing to managing supply chain logistics, the implementation of AI in the automotive/transportation industry is revolutionizing the process of vehicle manufacturing.

Here are a few examples from September and October:

 

Conclusion

The auto/transport industry is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and is looking toward the future. The releases distributed over PR Newswire show that companies must evolve with the fast-moving industry and world or miss out on major opportunities.

 

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About the Authors

Sakib Hossain headshotSakib Hossain is a Customer Content Specialist with Cision PR Newswire. Since joining the company in 2020, he has served as one of Cision's Automotive and Transportation Industry Ambassadors and manages the @PRNtrnsp Twitter handle. Sakib is also a student at Concordia University. He is working towards his joint degree in Journalism and Psychology.

 

 

Courtney Pleasant headshotCourtney Pleasant is a Senior Content Specialist at Cision PR Newswire. She serves as one of Cision’s Auto and Transport Industry Ambassadors. In her free time, she enjoys going to concerts, binging the newest true crime documentary, and traveling.