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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

Decisions, decisions, decisions! If I won the lottery, what new vehicle would I buy to celebrate? There are more than 99 problems in the world these days, but a lack of choice in the auto market is not one.

How about an electric Dodge Charger Daytona muscle car with the equivalent of 670 horsepower? (Surprise! There will also be versions that burn gasoline – wink, wink!)

Or I could put down just $100 to order an adorable Rivian R2 electric SUV (and maybe an R3, too!) Unless I’d rather have an electric Scout truck? Flip a coin? They’re both arriving in 2026.

But if I really hit it big, I might just sign up for an electrified vintage Land Rover Defender  from the British boutique restoration company Everrati. All I need is 159,950 GBP (plus extra for taxes) and a rust-free Defender with a clean title. I’m more likely to acquire the former than the latter. I’ll stick with my patina Town Wagon.

Fun to think about. But we have serious business to do before quitting time. Let’s get to it – have a great weekend!

Today –

• • Investors cheer Rivian’s strategic pivot

  • Price cuts aren’t enough to lift China’s EV market

  • State of the Union – the UAW, that is.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe did have something up his sleeve. Reuters/Mike Blake

Rivian added nearly $2 billion to its market cap on Thursday and Friday after announcing plans to delay a $5 billion factory in Georgia, and start building its line of more affordable R2 electric SUVs at its existing factory in Normal, Ill.

The market cap gain roughly equaled the projected $2 billion to be saved by shifting initial R2 production to Normal – a move some investors have been urging on CEO RJ Scaringe as Rivian’s cash cushion has dwindled.

Rivian shares surged again in early trading Friday.

Scaringe got virtual cheers from Wall Street for delaying the Georgia investment. He got real cheers from a crowd of Rivian fans gathered at a theater in Laguna Beach, Calif. on Thursday.  Scaringe used the venue to unveil future Rivian models aimed at broadening the brand’s sales beyond the very affluent – and insufficiently large – audience for the $80,000 and up R1 models on sale today.

The R2, coming in 2026 and starting at $45,000, was expected. But Scaringe had a Steve Jobs-style “one more thing” surprise: A compact crossover wagon smaller than the R2 that could have an even lower starting price. Of course, it is called the R3. Launch date and exact base price still TBD.

Scaringe was one of two high-profile U.S. citizens who needed to deliver a home-run speech on Thursday. Scaringe appears to have stuck his landing with the strategic pivot on the Georgia plant and the demonstration that Rivian’s product creation factory has kept on track despite a year of layoffs and financial stress.

Now, Rivian must make it through the next two years before R2 deliveries start – and hang on to orders as Tesla and other rivals slash prices. Scaringe is not alone among EV industry CEOs racing to build more affordable models.

Combustion cars feel the heat from China’s EV price war.

Despite relentless price cutting by China’s electric vehicle manufacturers, growth in sales of fully electric vehicles slowed during the first two months of 2024 to 18.2% from 20.8% a year earlier, according to new data.

The dynamics of the world’s largest car market are increasingly complex. Are Tesla’s disappointing sales in China the result of BYD’s price cutting, or a manifestation of a broader turn away from foreign brands by Chinese consumers?

One thing seems clear: Combustion engine franchises are getting caught in the crossfire.

Sales of all so-called New Energy Vehicles – including fully electric vehicles and increasingly in-demand plug-in hybrids – grew at 37.5% during January and February. That’s more than twice the growth rate for the market overall.

Electrified vehicles now account for 35% of the Chinese market. Petrol-only vehicles have lost roughly 30 points of market share since early 2021, according to China Passenger Car Association data.

Put another way: Combustion car makers have surrendered the equivalent of 9 million vehicles of annual sales in China over the past three years, based on 2023 sales levels. That’s 30 to 36 factories worth of production.

BYD is now advertising electric vehicles as cheaper than gas as it hacks prices for models such as the Seagull below the U.S. dollar equivalent of $10,000.

The longer Chinese demand for vehicles stays sluggish, the more pressure there will be on China’s automakers to put vehicles of all kinds on ships bound for other markets.

Small wonder that policymakers in the United States and Europe are stepping up calls for protective tariffs.

UAW President Shawn Fain at the State of the Union address. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

UAW President Shawn Fain got a seat near the First Lady and a shout-out from U.S. President Joe Biden during Thursday’s State of the Union – a timely boost for the union leader as his organizers fight to win over workers at non-union automakers in the United States.

The UAW’s unprecedented campaign to organize all non-union U.S. auto factories all at once has made progress. Half the workers at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Alabama and the Volkswagen vehicle factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. have signed cards stating they want UAW representation.

At a Toyota components plant in Missouri and Hyundai’s Alabama vehicle factory, the union has said 30% of workers have signed on.

The union says 10,000 workers across 13 auto manufacturers have signed on in support of the organizing effort.

However, that leaves roughly 140,000 workers in the non-union auto sector to go.

Absent, so far, from the UAW’s public list of organizing successes are Tesla’s California, Nevada and Texas assembly and battery factories, Toyota’s biggest U.S. assembly plants and any of Honda’s operations.

Fain has a low bar to make history. Winning a vote to represent all workers at any one of the major non-union U.S. auto plants would be one more win than the union has achieved in two decades of effort. But the mountain is steep.

The suspected arson attack that took out the power supply to Tesla’s Berlin vehicle assembly plant will keep the operation shut down until March 17, the company said.

German authorities are investigating evidence that the sabotage was the work of a left-wing group that has targeted infrastructure. The Tesla incident prompted a new round of worry among German industry and political leaders about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, analysts began dialing down their estimates for Tesla’s first quarter production and profits. Losing production at Berlin, combined with the costs of the price war in China, could tip Tesla into the red, Morgan Stanley warned.

Tesla and Volkswagen have quit Australia’s motor industry lobby in a dispute over the group’s response to government proposals to cut vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

Tesla and VW said they support the government plan to increase incentives for clean vehicle imports and penalize importers of dirtier vehicles. Toyota, the dominant automaker in the market, opposes the proposals. Toyota has chosen to restrain investment in electric vehicles, arguing its gas-electric hybrids are a more economical approach to cutting CO2.  

The spat illustrates how automaker climate policy positions are driven by the technology and product bets individual companies have made.

China will approve a joint venture between Stellantis and Leapmotor, sources told Reuters. That’s good news for Stellantis, which aims to use Leapmotor’s EV designs to compete in various markets with other low-cost Chinese EV makers.

Tesla won a key decision in litigation brought by customers angry that their vehicles don’t deliver the promised driving ranges. A judge ruled dissatisfied customers will have to pursue their cases in individual arbitration proceedings, not a class action lawsuit.

European trade cops have evidence that China’s government has subsidized Chinese EV makers with direct transfers of money and goods, and forgiveness of taxes, according to a document posted by the European Commission this week. Europe has warned it will impose steeper tariffs on Chinese-made EVs to offset the impact of government subsidies. European automakers have been sounding alarms about the growing sales of low-cost Chinese EVs. Washington is also threatening to build bigger walls to keep out Chinese EVs.

Nissan will take over building one of its most successful EV models from partner Mitsubishi starting in 2028. The Nissan Sakura mini-car was Japan’s No. 1 selling EV last year – although that means owning a large share of a very small market.

The original Model T factory in Detroit turned 120 years old this week. Time flies.

CATL and BYD combined accounted for 54% of global EV battery production, according to data compiled by SNE Research and reported by CNEVPost.com. No U.S. company is in the top 10.

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