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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

It is a mixed-up, shook-up world. It was just last week that the U.S. stock market was sliding and some of the world’s biggest automakers were warning of tough times ahead.

But as we head into this weekend, the World of Cars seems like a brighter place. Detroit’s auto workers are looking at big pay increases, rich people are buying more Ferraris than Ferrari can build, and Wall Street is heading for its best week in a year.

What’s going on? We can’t sort it all out, but we will give the auto industry news a try.

But first: My colleagues at Reuters Events have two big shows coming next week.

Number one, for me, is the Reuters Automotive USA conference in Detroit, Nov. 8-9. The schedule is packed, and I will be on stage interviewing executives from Stellantis, Ford and General Motors – and the President of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain.

On the same days, the Reuters Next conference in New York will bring together leaders in the realms of finance, technology and international relations.

Mark your calendars, then let’s dive in. Have a great weekend!

Today –

• • The UAW puts a target on Toyota

  • Ferrari and BMW ask: What slowdown?

  • What Stellantis won in the UAW contract

Coming soon to non-union auto plants. Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein

UAW President Shawn Fain (above) is not done closing out the union’s historic round of contract bargaining with the Detroit Three, but he’s already gearing up for the ambitious task of organizing workers at Toyota.

Fain called out Toyota during a video talk Thursday billed as a summary of the union’s agreement with Stellantis, which follows the pattern set at Ford. (More on that below.)

The UAW has a long record of failure in efforts to organize factories in the Southern United States operated by Nissan, Toyota and other foreign automakers. It has not yet cracked the code to organize Tesla’s factories in California and Texas. Non-union plants and imports together account for more than half the vehicles sold in the United States.

That undermines the UAW’s long-term bargaining leverage – notwithstanding Fain’s extraordinary success in using the UAW’s control over General Motors, Ford and Stellantis SUV and truck factories to extract record-setting wage hikes from the companies.

Fain said Thursday the UAW wants to return in 2028 to bargain new contracts with the Detroit Three “a much stronger union, a much louder union and a much larger union.” That’s not just a goal, it’s an imperative.

Eventually, the UAW will have to take on Tesla and Elon Musk, who has gone the extra mile and beyond to fight the union’s organizing efforts. Near term, the UAW could have a better shot with Toyota and its older U.S. factories, such as the 38-year-old Georgetown, KY complex and its 9,500 full-time workers.

Toyota delivered stunning financial results for the July to September quarter, blowing past investor expectations with an operating profit equivalent to $9.5 billion. That helps Fain use the same argument he used in Detroit: Record profits mean record contracts.

It was only this week, after the UAW reached tentative deals with the Detroit automakers, that Toyota announced raises for U.S. workers that narrowed the gap with top UAW wage scales. Honda said it too is reviewing pay scales. Fain called these moves “the UAW bump.”

Toyota said unionization is up to workers. UAW officials say Toyota workers have been reaching out, eager to learn more about the fat pay increases the union won in Detroit.

The UAW has momentum – and for at least 14 more months a pro-union administration in Washington to support bargaining efforts. The test of whether the UAW can finally represent not just the Detroit Three, but the U.S. auto industry’s Big Five or Big Six could come soon.

Ferrari: Red cars, black ink. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

Luxury automakers Ferrari and BMW brushed off fears expressed by rivals that even the world’s wealthy are feeling the strain from high interest rates and volatile financial markets.

Ferrari’s order books are bulging through 2025, CEO Benedetto Vigna said Thursday, countering the dour view from rival Porsche.

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse was also bullish while announcing robust quarterly results on Friday. BMW’s order books are strong, Zipse said, and he sees no need to participate in the price-cutting games that Tesla and some other automakers are playing to sustain volume.

The upbeat tunes played at Ferrari and BMW helped lift European shares Friday, and U.S. markets were bouncing back, too. That should help luxury automakers, whose fortunes correlate to the size of their clients’ investment portfolios.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares (center). Win-win! REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

We’ve heard a lot about what the United Auto Workers won in their new contract deals with the Detroit Three. But Stellantis achieved some important goals in return, according to UAW officials and documents released Thursday night.

Stellantis went into the talks with a plan to consolidate Mopar parts distribution warehouses scattered around the United States into a smaller number of large, “mega-hubs.”

The company won clearance to do that, with the proviso that it will offer richer moving bonuses to workers whose operations are phased out. The UAW called this “MOPAR Heartburn” in its contract summary – the rare instance where Fain conceded he’d not gotten what he wanted.

The UAW pushed Stellantis to include workers at new battery plants under the UAW national agreement, but new hires at those plants will not earn top UAW wages. The company also will be able to re-deploy to battery plants UAW workers whose current jobs are made redundant.

Here’s a win-win: UAW-Stellantis workers will for the first time get access to the discounted vehicle lease deals that previously only managers used to get. That makes a new Jeep or Ram truck more affordable for the people who build them – and helps Stellantis move iron off dealer lots.

Big Tier One auto suppliers Magna and Aptiv took hits from the United Auto Workers strikes, but the companies said their optimistic long-term outlooks haven’t changed.

Magna raised its full-year profit outlook, and its shares powered ahead by 11%.

Aptiv beat Q3 expectations – and reminded investors that only 8-9% of its business is tied to the Detroit Three. However, shares fell as the company warned that semiconductor costs are not easing.

The parent of South Korean battery maker SK On said it expects SK On to turn a profit in the fourth quarter, and said the operation is working on a lithium-iron battery to compete with low-cost LFP batteries made by China’s CATL.

U.S. automakers would welcome a viable South Korean LFP alternative to help cut EV costs. Imported Chinese LFP batteries do not qualify for U.S. EV subsidies, and there is a political backlash against CATL setting up production in the United States.

Tesla sales fell in China last month compared to September. Tesla lost share in the world’s largest EV market to BYD and other domestic brands. Telecom giant Huawei’s new Aito brand made a splash, saying it received 50,000 orders for its M7 EV.

Nio is cutting its workforce by 10% in the face of price pressures in the Chinese market.

Volvo sales jumped 10% in October, as sales of the Swedish brand’s EVs rose 29%, offsetting a drop in demand for hybrids.

Ford lost ground in October in the United States, reporting a 5.3% drop in sales. Sales of F-series trucks dropped 5% as workers at the Kentucky Truck F-series Super Duty factory walked picket lines.

Nikola reported a wider loss for the third quarter driven in part by an expensive recall of its electric trucks. But the company’s shares rose after it reported securing more orders for its hydrogen fuel-cell trucks.

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