AD #3661 – UAW Strike Losses Near $4 Billion; BYD Catches Tesla in Global EV Sales; Honda Hints at Tesla-Like Assembly

  

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

UAW GIVES GM COUNTERPROPOSAL
Day 19 of the UAW strike and maybe we’re starting to see some progress. After GM’s CEO Mary Barra slammed UAW President Shawn Fain for his tactics and theatrics, the union finally presented GM with a counteroffer yesterday. GM’s last offer was on September 21, so it took the union 12 days to respond. GM says it’s evaluating the union’s counteroffer but that big gaps remain. So, it’s likely to reject it, but at least the union responded. And with news that the UAW also held a new round of bargaining with Stellanis, we’re taking this as a step forward.

UAW STRIKE COSTS D3 $4 BILLION SO FAR
Meanwhile, GM is laying off about 160 workers from non-striking plants in Indiana and Ohio, which have been impacted by the strikes at other production sites and parts distribution centers. And a quick correction. Yesterday I said the UAW was striking GM’s Lansing Grand River facility, but it’s actually GM’s Lansing Delta Township plant. Ford is also laying off another 330 employees at non-striking facilities in Ohio and Illinois. There have been 3,800 workers laid off at non-striking facilities between GM, Ford and Stellantis. The total number of workers on strike is now 25,300. We calculate the strikers and people on layoff are costing the union $14.5 million a week in strike pay. And the Anderson Economic Group estimates that the first two weeks of the strike resulted in total losses of nearly $4 billion to the automakers, their suppliers and their dealers.

VW CARIAD HIRES SOFTWARE EXPERT
The struggles at Volkswagen’s software division CARIAD have been well documented, but it’s about to get some help. The VW Group announced it hired Sanjay Lal who has over 25 years of experience in the automotive software field and previously held jobs at Rivian, Tesla and Google. Lal will head up the Software Defined Vehicle Hub, a new division within CARIAD, and will work with teams from both Volkswagen and Audi. We think this is a good move for VW. Up to now the executives running the software division were long time industry veterans. And if you’re going to start a software company, it ought to be run by software experts from the tech industry.

NHTSA INVESTIGATES FORD ICE FAILURES
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is significantly expanding its investigation into Ford engine failures. It’s looking into nearly 709,000 vehicles equipped with 2.7L or 3.0L V6 turbocharged engines and it’s one step closer to a recall. The affected models include the Ford Bronco, Edge, Explorer and F-150 as well as the Lincoln Nautilus and Aviator, all from the 2021 and 2022 model years. NHTSA blames the engine failures on faulty intake valves. Ford says it has received 861 complaints, warranty claims and engine replacements related to the issue. It also says that the failures occur early in a vehicle’s life and that nearly all the failures have already happened. Ford has made a design change to the valve to fix the issue.

TESLA Q3 SALES FALL
Tesla’s Q3 vehicle deliveries missed estimates. It delivered a little more than 435,000 vehicles in the third quarter, which was lower than some of the lowest estimates. But this was a bit expected. Tesla previously warned that its planned downtime for factory upgrades would hurt deliveries, and investors largely shrugged off the news.

RIVIAN BEATS SALES ESTIMATES
Meanwhile EV startup Rivian did beat sales estimates. It’s a bit of the opposite of Tesla right now. Rivian was able to boost production in the third quarter and delivered more than 15,500 vehicles, which is nearly 3,000 more units or a 23% increase from Q2. It also puts Rivian on track to meet its full year production target of 52,000 EVs. The startup said it started seeing supply chain relief in June and is ramping up production of LFP batteries as well as a new in-house developed electric motor, called Enduro.

BYD CATCHES TESLA IN GLOBAL BEV SALES
Chinese automaker BYD has pretty much caught up to Tesla in terms of pure electric passenger vehicle sales worldwide. In the third quarter of this year, BYD sold 431,603 BEVs while, as we mentioned earlier, Tesla just edged it out with 435,059 sales. That’s a 26.5% increase compared to a year-ago for Tesla but it’s a drop of 6.7% the previous quarter. Meanwhile, BYD’s sales represented a 67% increase year over year and a 22% boost from the previous quarter. So if Tesla continues to get hit by production slowdowns, BYD will likely pass it in pure electric sales in the fourth quarter.

FIA GIVES ANDRETTI GREEN LIGHT FOR F1
There’s big news in the motor racing world. Andretti Motorsport was given the green light by the FIA to field a team in Formula One. Andretti is teaming up with General Motors, which will develop the powertrain for the team under the Cadillac brand. But even though the FIA, or International Federation of Automobiles, gave Andretti the go ahead, there’s still another hurdle it has to get over. Now the rest of the team owners, and there are 10 of them, have to give their approval. And they’re not too keen on allowing another team to join the series. They’re afraid that adding another team will dilute the prize money they earn and will just add another competitor chasing sponsorship money. Even so, the FIA will likely put enormous pressure on them because it doesn’t want to turn away a historic racing name like Andretti, or a major automaker like General Motors.

HONDA HINTS AT TESLA UNBOXED ASSEMBLY
Honda is giving us a little glimpse into its future with a video, called “Keep Dreaming.” It shows it’s still working on new technology like urban flying aircraft and eVTOLs as well as fuel cell stacks and autonomous transport vehicles. But the most interesting part to me is this line: “And someday we’ll turn your old Honda into your brand-new Honda.” I don’t know if it will ever get to the point where Honda will be able to replace drive components and body panels to make a new car, like it shows in the video. But it says to me that Honda is thinking about modular vehicle design and could use a Tesla-like approach to building vehicles.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for joining us.