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Runtime: 9:39
0:00 UAW Reaches Agreement with D3
1:07 UAW Leaks Info on Ram Mid-Size Pickup
1:52 Unifor Reaches Agreement with Stellantis
2:55 BYD Posts Record Profits
3:31 NEVs Hit 36% Market Share in China
4:23 Panasonic Cuts Japan EV Battery Production 60%
5:10 Hyundai Slices Ioniq 6 Prices
5:57 More Problems at VW CARIAD
6:47 VW Teases EV Station Wagon
7:14 Nissan Takes Z Rally Concept to SEMA
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
UAW REACHES AGREEMENT WITH D3
Looks like we’re in the final innings of these contract negotiations. Last night the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Stellantis and this morning it reached one with General Motors. But the agreement at GM didn’t happen without the threat of another strike. UAW president Shawn Fain announced they were going on strike against GM’s Spring Hill assembly plant that makes the Cadillac XT-5, XT-6 and Lyriq and GMC Acadia. It’s also the site where GM is building a $2.3 billion battery plant with LG Energy Solutions. But obviously both sides were able to patch up any differences and come to a tentative agreement. We think workers at all three companies will likely ratify these contracts, but it will still take several weeks to get everything settled. And finally everyone can get back to building cars and trucks.
UAW LEAKS INFO ON RAM MID-SIZE PICKUP
Over at Stellantis we also got a bit of a new-product leak from Rich Boyer, the UAW vice president for Stellantis.
“UAW family, it is my great honor to announce that we saved Belvedere. Again, we have saved Belvedere. From the strength of our Stand Up strike we will bring back thousands of jobs to Belvedere. We have won a new vehicle at Belvedere. It will be a mid-size truck and we will have two shifts.”
So thanks to the UAW we now know that Ram will get a truck to compete with the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. And you could also throw the Honda Ridgeline and Hyundai Santa Cruz in there if you wanted.
UNIFOR REACHES AGREEMENT WITH STELLANTIS
Meanwhile, at midnight last night, Unifor, the Canadian union, announced a strike against Stellantis and told its members to walk off the job. Stellantis said it was extremely disappointed, but then, only hours later, the two sides announced they reached a tentative agreement and called off the strike. So Unifor now has ratified agreements with Ford and GM, and we have little doubt that workers will approve the contract with Stellantis.
BYD POSTS RECORD PROFITS
BYD is really on a roll. The Chinese EV maker posted record earnings in the third quarter. Its revenue rose 38% compared to a year ago to $22 billion. And its net profit soared 82% to $1.4 billion. It sold 824,000 vehicles in the third quarter, which is a 53% gain compared to last year and also a record. And more than 71,000 of those sales were outside of China, which is a whopping 323% increase.
NEVS HIT 36% MARKET SHARE IN CHINA
Speaking of sales in China, new energy vehicles or NEVs, which include BEVs, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, were up strong in September. Automakers sold 687,000 NEVs last month, up 27% year over year and they now account for 36% of the total market in China. BYD holds a commanding lead over all brands in NEV sales, more than 232,000 compared to just over 42,000 for Tesla, which is in second place. And Chinese BEV maker Aion is hot on Tesla’s heels, only 514 units behind it in September. But the Model Y was still the best selling NEV model in China last month.
PANASONIC CUTS JAPAN EV BATTERY PRODUCTION 60%
Last week LG warned of slowing demand for EVs and now another battery maker is doing the same. Panasonic says that weak demand for high-end EVs that no longer qualify for federal tax credits in the U.S. caused it to cut battery production in Japan by 60% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of the year. It also announced that it would be cutting its profit forecast for this year by 15%. However, Panasonic also says production at its North American plants is steady and that sales for vehicles that qualify for the tax credit are good. That suggests as more affordable EVs hit the market that we’ll get a clearer picture of true EV market demand.
HYUNDAI SLICES IONIQ 6 PRICES
And Hyundai just announced that it’s slashing the price of the IONIQ 6 in the U.S. The cuts range from about $2,500-$3,000 for higher-end models up to over $4,000 off the base model, which brings the starting price to under $39,000. It says it was able to make the price trimmings because it built more versions of the electric sedan and did it at a lower cost, which we hope more automakers are able to do. We should also note that Hyundai vehicles that are purchased or financed don’t qualify for the federal tax credit because of battery sourcing and production rules. But they do if they’re leased and Hyundai cuts its EV lease prices earlier this month as well.
MORE PROBLEMS AT VW CARIAD
Problems continue to persist at VW’s software unit CARIAD. Reports out of Germany say VW is going to cut up to 2,000 jobs at its software unit over the next few years, which is going to delay the launch of its new software system again by up to a year and a half. It was supposed to launch in the new all-electric Porsche Macan, which is scheduled to come out early next year. No word if this new move will impact that timeframe. The layoffs will also impact its future EV architecture called SSP, which it says it’s completely redeveloping now. It’s been shocking to see how poorly CARIAD has executed its plans and we wonder if it will lean more heavily into its Chinese partnerships?
VW TEASES EV STATION WAGON
However, this won’t impact VW’s current MEB-based vehicles and it revealed a couple of pictures of the new station wagon version of the ID.7. While the car is covered in a special wrap, you can still get a good idea of what it looks like. VW didn’t release any details about the powertrain. We suspect it’s the same as the sedan, but we’ll know more soon. It launches in Europe in 2024.
NISSAN TAKES Z RALLY CONCEPT TO SEMA
Nissan showed off another concept it will have on display at the SEMA show which kicks off tomorrow in Las Vegas. It’s a rally version of the Z sports car called the Safari Rally Z Tribute which was built by Tommy Pike Customs. Its suspension has been raised 2-inches and it features a new front bumper and skid plate. The interior includes a custom roll bar with 4-point harnesses and custom Recaro seats. Powering the concept is an AMS-tuned, 400 plus horsepower engine combined with a NISMO Track cat-back exhaust system, cold air intake, carbon fiber engine cover, coolant expansion tank, heat exchanger and street twin-disc clutch and flywheel. And the styling of the Z Concept pays homage to the Datsun 240Z rally car which won the 1971 East African Safari Rally. And Nissan will also have a replica of that car at SEMA as well.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.
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Any word on when the new Dakota pickup go on sale?
So I wonder if the RAM mid-size will be called the Dakota?
Battery production down yet manufacturers saying they cant produce models due to battery capacity. Hum seems like something could be worked out here.
VW station wagon looks like a slightly taller Dodge magnum.
I don’t know if CARIAD is responsible for braking software in the Audio A4, but if it is, someone deserves to be fired. I have a good friend with a 2023 A4 that is in the process of buyback with Audi right now over the stuff. It seems the car wants to stop for no reason whatsoever, far too often.
Analysts estimate that the new contracts that the Big 3 agreed to will result in UAW average compensation going from $62 per hour to $88 per hour. Both numbers include their benefits. Comparable all-in wages at Tesla are currently $45 per hour and the import transplants are at $47 per hour. I imagine that the import transplants and Tesla will provide significant wage increases to their workers over the next four years, but I don’t think they will come close to matching the UAW compensation. I also don’t think they will be successful in organizing any of those non-union plants. No word yet on how much compensation the earliest striking workers had to give up over the last 40 plus days to help their fellow UAW workers get their new contract.
I still think that BEV sales will remain ‘soft’; yes increasing, but demand is still luke warm. The promised inexpensive BEV’s haven’t materialized either. Even the low-cost Blazer has inflated; I saw an RS reviewed and it listed at 60k (don’t even know what the SS all-wheel drive will cost. Maybe slow but sure is better than the “EV revolution” that earlier reports touted. Make ‘them’ better than ICE and then you’ll see those sales rise.
Auto dealers have a strong financial incentive not to sell BEVs since their incomes come from repairs and ICE cars are much better at driving revenues so unless a customer comes in demanding a BEV they will be SOLD an ICE car and what if a salesman sells too many BEVs will he be $$ penalized of course some car companies only sell BEVs and their sales keep going up.
Then their is the auto executives the youtube channel connecting the dots and in Xspace their is connectingodots which explains in detail how auto execs are highly financially rewarded for BEV failure at both production and sales levels.
In all that we will have definitive answers within 2 years.
Sorry Dave, your last conspiracy comment about auto execs wanting EVs to fail is very far from the truth. With major markets in Europe, China, and U.S. mandating EVs, auto execs are working hard at trying to make EVs desirable and profitable.
Unless you have home charging, EVs are just inconvenient, and not particularly cheap to charge, using commercial chargers. Then, even if you have home charging, EVs are not convenient for long road trips. I’m in a 240 unit condo, and there are zero EVs, for the same reason I don’t have one.
EVs getting cheaper will help sell them, but look around. There are a lot of expensive cars out there. A couple in my condo just bought a Lexus CUV that probably cost $10K more than a mid trim Model Y. The Lexus has a much nicer interior than a Tesla, but the main reason they bought the Lexus over a “mainstream” brand is to get gadgets, like memory seats, that aren’t available in most similar size mainstream CUVs. Model Y probably has the gadgets, but with no home charging, these people didn’t consider it, or any EV.
EVs can be purchased at an almost reasonable $40k and if you predominantly plug in at home, can be cheaper to use than an ICE vehicle. Of course, aficionados like those of us frequenting this site, aren’t interested in $40K cars. We want the dual motor big battery models with a full feature set. Those can easily be twice as much. The elephant in the room is an easy to use built out infrastructure. We are a long way from that and people will continue to have range anxiety until that changes.
Hey, the EV writing has been on the wall from the beginning. They still have the same inconvenient problems that they had 10 years ago. Yeah, charge times have been reduced some and range is increasing a little. But pushing EVs onto the general public is just doing something for the sake of doing something. We have many more places we could be attacking to improve emissions and air quality. They need to be looking at EVs as supplemental transportation and not a replacement. They would make great fleet vehicles for anything that returns to a central location each night where they could be recharged. Fire, police, refuse collection, mail, UPS, Amazon, Cab’s & Busses. Thats where EVs make the most sense. In many of those cases replacing a diesel engine. As kit stated the personal EV doesn’t make much sense unless you can charge at home. If you remove all the folks in apartments, condos, and any place that’s rented, folks are not going to spend 5K to install a charger at a rental property. Then remove all the folks that don’t have driveway and park on the street, and they are likely out. Remove all the people whose homes are not equipped to add a charger. And even more importantly remove all those that cannot afford to add a charger on top of buying a new more expensive car and you have maybe 30% of Americans that an EV actually will work for them.
Rather than our government providing tax credits to buy an EV they should be offering a credit to install a home charger. I personally feel like if our government was so serious about going electric then why provide a 10 year contract to buy all new mail trucks which are mostly ICE? Lead by example not just do as I say.
I would really like to know how many current EV owners did not have home charging when they bought their EV. How many installed a charger and how many of those buyers would buy an EV again. That would be truly insightful.
An EV would work for many people’s commutes charging from nothing more than a 120v outlet, but many of us don’t even have that.
@Fensterlips: If one ICE vehicle is replaced by an EV that will work well for most. Most people with a garage have a daily commute below 250 miles per day and the EV is simply charged once or twice per week overnight at home.
If all vehicles in a household are replaced by EVs there may be range anxiety, but in our market which is in the early stage of EV adoption those cases are outliers.
@Lambo: intuitively your estimate of 30% seems good to me. It may even be at the high end.
I don’t have statistics to offer but from my micro-cosmos with around 25 EVs I know: 100% needed to install a charger; 100% is very happy and will not go back to ICE. For that one vehicle in their household, to be precise. They all have at least one ICE-powered vehicle for long distances. We have one EV (my wife) and I have two gasoline powered cars and one Diesel.
I also agree with suitability of EVs for parcel services, USPS, and trash haulers: since the EVs have regenerative braking the more start-stop the better the efficiency of an EV versus ICE.
Wim, do all of those 100% drive their EVs more than 40-50 miles a day, or could somr of them use a standard wall oitlet?
@Kit: I am guessing but based on the location of their homes and offices I believe that most of them do not drive more than 60-70 miles per day.
If they drive 60-70 miles a day, the ~1400 watt charge rate from a standard US outlet wouldn’t quite do it.
In August, I bought a 2017 BMW i3-REx for $15,000 at 441 Toyota in Royal Palm Beach. Benchmarks revealed a 106 mi EV range and 88 mi gas range on the motor scooter sized tank. Driving 830 mi home cost $88 going truck stop to truck stop.
A perfect car for empty nesters in an urban area, it has highway cross country capabilities at 70 mph, 24×7.
Using free chargers can reduce affordable commercial charging … still competitive with gas. My Tesla trip cost $66 over the same 830 miles.
Dang Bob 88 mile gas range. My motorcycle must have a bigger gas tank. Sounds like it was designed for city commuting and not really interstate traveling. The gas light comes on in my car when I get down to 50 miles of range. So in that BMW the light would below 3/4 tank.
Lambo, the i3 REx was intended primarily for city use, but you can use it for highway trips, as Bob Wilson has done. With the small gas tank, and not very good mpg on gas, given its purely series operation, you need to stop a lot.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=43745
“And finally everyone can get back to building cars and trucks.”
…that is, with more and more automotive production facilities being moved to right-to-work states or Mexico.