This month, a change of pace as we spotlight a newcomer to the world of custom car building. Meet Frances Farnam, age 13, who explains the origins of her upcoming project. “It started with me saving up money for my first car. I picked grapefruit and veggies from our garden and sold them through a local farmer’s market, and I saved up enough money to buy my first car, a ’76 Porsche 914.” Not content to simply build a Porsche from the ground up, she also plans to electrify it and display it at SEMA Electrified during this year’s SEMA Show. While she acknowledges the build won’t be complete by November, she aims to have it finished by the time she can legally drive it, and in the meantime her project can be followed at her You Tube channel, Tinkergineering.
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress did not grant the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to devise carbon emissions caps for power plants that would shift the way they generate energy away from coal.
Once the province of outback adventurers in Australia and southern Africa, overlanding has gone global since the birth of the 21st century. The term may mean many things to many people, but it’s generally a form of vehicular adventure travel where the journey, not the destination, is the ultimate goal. Regardless of definition, it’s a rapidly expanding component of a $112 billion adventure tourism industry that’s projected to surpass $1 trillion by the end of the decade, according to a recent study published by Allied Global Insights.
Industry icons, SEMA leadership and volunteers gathered July 29 in Anaheim, California, to honor the association's new Hall of Fame inductees at the 2022 SEMA Awards Gala. The celebration took place at the Westin Anaheim Resort, not far from the Anaheim Convention Center, a place of historical significance for the association.
For the first time ever, specialty-equipment retail sales in the United States have topped $50 billion. Overall consumer spending on parts and accessories jumped 6.3% last year, pushing our industry’s market size to a record $50.9 billion in 2021. Consumers continue to show that they love their cars and accessorizing them. Although there are some economic headwinds on the horizon, our forecast remains optimistic. Sales may slow a bit in 2022, but a drop is not expected. As we get further past the pandemic and resolve supply-chain issues, we expect a return to the growth levels seen over the last decade.
The products featured below are from SEMA Data member companies that have attained Gold- or Platinum-level data, which means that their product data is robust and complete—likely to drive customer purchase decisions. SEMA Data members meeting data scorecard requirements are invited to submit product releases for consideration to enews@semadatacoop.org.
If we’re not already at it, we’re likely near the cusp of an electric vehicle (EV) tipping point. Two years ago, the state of California mandated 35% EV sales by 2025 and banned all new non-EV sales by 2035; Washington state’s mandate is even more ambitious: by 2030 it will refuse to license any vehicle made that year or later unless it’s electric, a push that resembles the one in several Western European countries.
The SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund awarded $297,000 to 119 individuals this year. The financial awards include scholarships for current students and loan-forgiveness awards to employees of SEMA-member companies.
An interview format where hosts pitch ads feels a touch anachronistic in this digital-everything age. Podcasts seem more like the kind of medium our grandparents’ generation would’ve invented, had the internet spontaneously appeared in their youth. You just know Milton Berle would’ve slayed.