Speed – looking back, and ahead…

A sign of progress can appear very quick indeed…
I spent part of the weekend attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed, what some describe as “petrolhead heaven”. Some of this was spent looking back on periods of transportation history, like the 60 year birthday of the Mini, or the “New” Morgan 3 wheeler (above – with me complementing the car nicely). The big news came on Saturday when the course record was broken – by a car not powered by a fossil fuel. While many miss the roar of a screaming petrol engine, could the record breaking VW id show the way ahead for electric cars? Another reason to not start your PESTLE analysis with “P”?
https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-coverage/festival-of-speed/2019/7/video-volkswagen-id.-r-smashes-goodwood-hill-record-with-39.9-second-run/

Buzzword of the Week

Gearing
Definition – the ratio of Debt to Equity, or maybe Debt to Capital Employed. A measure of how much a company borrows, and the higher the gearing, the greater the financial risk. Also connected to petrol/diesel engines, but not electric ones – see story above.
Alternative View – Useful Key Indicator, especially if you have a financial interest in a company ( as a supplier or lender for example). But the level of corporate debt, especially in some US corporations, has lead to gearing being replaced by Debt/EBITDA – measuring debt to a cashflow measure. While this helpfully shows a way in which the debt will be repaid, it is also becoming more popular, because somehow 4 x EBITDA sounds less than 85% geared…