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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

It is Day 10 of the United Auto Workers’ three-company strike, and as this is written the situation is about the same as it was on Friday.

I’m mindful that writing there’s no major development today in Detroit’s auto strike is the equivalent of calling a no-hitter in the seventh inning – or a Premier League game before the 90th minute, or whenever it is they end those matches.

But the pause gives us a minute to look at other important developments in the World of Cars, including good and bad news for autonomous vehicles and Nissan’s bold EV strategy for Europe.

Today –

• • Robo-trucks get a break in California

  • Detroit’s labor dispute hits customers

  • Nissan goes all-in on EVs for the EU

This self-driving semi has a friend in Gov. Gavin Newsom – Reuters/Tina Bellon.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a helping hand to struggling robo-trucking startups by vetoing a bill that would have undermined the nascent industry’s business model in one of its biggest potential markets.

The legislation would have required robo-semis to have trained humans on board – defeating the purpose of automating the vehicles. The proposal could still become law if two-thirds of lawmakers vote to override Newsom’s veto.

Meanwhile, automated vehicle optimists got a reality check from analysts at S&P Global Mobility who said in a report Monday that wide deployment of fully-automated, go-anywhere driverless vehicles is more than a decade away.

Through 2035, AVs will exist mainly as geo-fenced robo-taxis operated by fleets (think Cruise and Waymo), S&P Global concluded. “A car that is able to drive anywhere and everywhere a   human driver can go is simply not going to happen anytime soon,” SPG analyst Jeremy Carlson writes.

Elon Musk might disagree. But S&P Global’s view won’t help investors looking for an exit ramp to cash out AV bets made when a world of automated cars seemed to be just around the corner.

Automakers will continue to push semi-automated systems that can take over driving under certain conditions, but with the requirement that drivers be ready to re-take control at a moment’s notice.

A UAW worker picketing outside a Stellantis parts depot. REUTERS/Dieu-Nalio Chery

United Auto Workers’ President Shawn Fain’s decision to call strikes at the U.S. parts warehouses of General Motors and Stellantis could have consumers and auto dealers in every U.S. state paying attention to the union’s drive for higher pay and better benefits from the Detroit Three.

The strikes shut off the flow of original equipment repair parts usually required for recall and warranty repairs – an inconvenience for customers and a clamp on a significant source of revenue and profits for franchised dealers.

In other Detroit Three labor developments:

• Ford workers in Canada ratified a new contract. The majority of about 5,600 Ford workers in Canada represented by Canada’s Unifor approved a new contract that boosts wages by 15%. Ford committed to new investments to expand production of 7.3 liter truck engines at its Essex plant near Windsor, Ont.
• Ford and the UAW are still talking. The company said “significant gaps” remain between the union and company positions on wage increases and other economic issues. Ford was not hit with new strikes on Friday, but workers at its Wayne, Mich. Bronco and Ranger assembly plant are still walking picket lines.
• U.S. President Joe Biden and former Republican President and current candidate Donald Trump plan back to back visits to Detroit on Tuesday and Wednesday to woo UAW votes. 

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida in London. Reuters/Nick Carey

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said the company intends that all its new vehicles sold in the UK and Europe by 2030 will be electric. All new models launched from this year on will be EVs, Uchida said during a visit to Britain, where Nissan has a large assembly plant.

“There is no turning back now,” Uchida said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just last week found room for turning back, saying the government’s plan to completely ban sales of new combustion vehicles by 2030 will now be delayed five years.

Sunak’s back-peddling provoked an outcry from Britain’s automakers, but may not make a huge difference to EV investment  strategies. Nissan’s 2030 timetable illustrates the disconnect between automotive industry product technology strategies that get set on five and ten year cycles, and the two to four year (or two to four minutes) cycles of political policymaking.

Speaking of which, EU and UK officials are meeting this week in search of a deal to postpone a 10% tariff on UK-made electric vehicles that don’t meet domestic content rules. Automakers say the tariff would cost 4.3 billion euros and make  harder for them to compete with Tesla and Chinese imports.

European automakers are headed for a win in their efforts to dodge tougher “Euro 7” emissions standards for the combustion vehicles they sell between now and 2035.

European Union ministers agreed not to change current Euro 6 standards for cars and vans, bending to pressure from Italy and France (Renault/Stellantis) and five other EU states.

The industry argument against tougher standards was that capital spent squeezing more CO2 out of petrol powertrains would be better spent ramping up EVs toward the eventual 2035 ban on combustion technology … assuming that happens.

Thailand expects $5 billion in investments by Tesla, Google and Microsoft, the country’s prime minister said. Tesla is considering an EV manufacturing operation, Srettha Thavisin said.

German car makers are walking a fine line as Europe wrestles with China over EV trade and other matters. Germany’s VDA auto industry association said the German government should urge China to protect automakers’ trade secrets, but not “decouple” from the Chinese economy. Germany’s transport minister on Monday rejected the EU threat to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese EVs – tariffs that would likely be countered by levies on German-made vehicles in China.

India will auction rights to extract lithium from reserves discovered in Jammu and Kashmir within a few weeks, sources said.

Cheaper EV batteries? Prices for cobalt used in many EV batteries are tumbling, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

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