View in Browser

Sign up for Reuters newsletters

By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

Here in Detroit, we are cruising into Day 27 of the United Auto Workers strikes against the Detroit Three automakers with not much new to report. Though as UAW President Shawn Fain said last Friday, “It’s hard to give an update that won’t be obsolete by the time the update’s done.”

With that caveat, we can take stock of developments that show automakers are looking around the corner to what’s ahead. Stellantis has announced another U.S. battery plant to supply future EVs, and Ford and Hyundai are bringing a technology Tesla pioneered into their factories. Start your engines.

Today –

• • Ford, Hyundai follow Tesla’s giga-casting lead

  • Stellantis plans a new battery plant in Indiana

  • GM settles with Canadian union after a mini-strike

An IDRA Gigapress. REUTERS/Giulio Piovaccari

IDRA, the Italian manufacturer of the massive gigapresses Tesla uses to replace hundreds of small parts in vehicles with single-piece castings is now building presses for Ford, Hyundai and other automakers and major suppliers.

Reuters colleague Giulio Piovaccari spotted an IDRA gigapress with a Ford logo on it while touring an IDRA factory.

The growing interest among legacy automakers in acquiring gigapresses from IDRA underscores how Tesla is driving a revolution in automotive manufacturing – a change that could have as profound an impact on automakers’ workforces and customers as the Toyota Production System did in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gigapresses make it possible for automakers to replace hundreds of stamped parts – and the workers who handle them and put them together.

Why is United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain fighting so hard with the Detroit Three automakers over the terms of the transition to EVs? This is one reason why. The union has not forgotten Ford CEO Jim Farley’s comment that new technology could allow the company to assemble EVs with 40% less labor.

Farley also said Ford jobs could be saved by bringing more EV production in-house – recreating the vertically integrated Ford of the Model T and Model A eras. But Farley and Fain have not yet agreed on the wage levels and working conditions that would allow Ford to be competitive with non-union EV makers, such as Tesla.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.  REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Stellantis is grinding through complex negotiations with the United Auto Workers over unionization of future joint-venture electric vehicle battery plants.

What better time to announce plans to build a second large-scale EV battery factory in UAW leader Shawn Fain’s home town of Kokomo, IN?

Stellantis now plans to build two battery giga-factories in Kokomo with South Korean battery partner Samsung SDI, creating up to 2,800 new jobs in total in a city that has suffered job losses as General Motors and Chrysler shifted electronics and other parts manufacturing to Mexico and Asia.

Stellantis has many reasons to site battery production in the United States – notwithstanding the uncertain outcome of the UAW talks. Federal EV battery production subsidies of up to $45 a kilowatt-hour, and access to consumer EV tax credits of up to $7,500 hinge on high domestic content.

Stellantis is forging ahead with its U.S. battery capacity investments while Ford is hitting the brakes on a planned battery mega-factory in Marshall, Michigan. The difference: Ford planned to rely on China’s CATL for the know-how to build low-cost lithium-iron batteries in Michigan. That plan has run into a political buzz-saw.

GM Canada workers on strike. REUTERS/Arlyn McAdorey

It took General Motors and Canada’s Unifor industrial union only about 12 hours to end a strike  that shut down the automaker’s Canadian factories starting at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.  

The mini-strike could help Unifor leader Lana Payne win ratification of a package that was approved by a relatively thin 54% margin by Unifor members at Ford.

GM could ill afford a long strike in Canada, where engines for several popular models including Silverado pickups are built.

Exports of Tesla EVs and other vehicles from China jumped by 50% in September, notwithstanding threats of new tariffs from the European Union.

Meanwhile, China’s domestic vehicle sales rose just 4.7% overall. Combustion vehicle sales in China continued dropping, while sales of EVs and hybrids rose by 22% and now make up 36% of total sales in the world’s largest market.

Stockholm plans to ban internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles from the center of the city starting in 2025, a senior city official said.

The ICE ban would affect 20 blocks in the center of town, so it’s not the end of ICE in Sweden. But it is a sign that concerns about the climate grow and automakers cannot count on a hospitable regulatory status quo to continue.

Wall Street likes oil better than the cars that burn it. Exxon is paying nearly $60 billion for Texas shale oil company Pioneer. By comparison, Exxon could buy General Motors today for $43 billion – based on the No. 1 U.S. automaker’s current market cap.

Vinfast is taking over an EV battery operation owned by company founder Pham Nhat Vuong in return for assuming about $462 million worth of debt owed by the unit. Vinfast lost $623 million in the third quarter.

Scratch one online used car retailer: Shift Technologies, a would-be rival to Carvana, CarMax and other online used vehicle outlets, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company said it will wind down operations.

And goodbye WM Motors. The Chinese EV startup filed for bankruptcy, an apparent casualty of the pandemic and the subsequent EV price wars.

Daimler Trucks showed off its electric long-haul Tesla Semi fighter, the eActros 600 and said it plans to start mass production in 2024. One challenge: The eActros (see image here) will list for 2.5 times the price of a diesel equivalent.

India could give points for improved vehicle connectivity in its crash rating system under a government proposal.

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content.

Auto File is sent three days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.

Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement