Tensions rise as UAW contract talks stall, with potential strikes threatening massive financial losses for automakers. Ford is secretly training white-collar workers to maintain parts production during a strike. Toyota's electric bZ4X lease is now cheaper than its hybrid counterpart, leveraging tax credits. One Energy reveals a cost-effective LFP battery range extender concept. Ford, SK On, and Eco PROBM invest heavily in Canadian cathode production for EV batteries. Ford unveils the high-performance Mustang GTD, a track-focused supercar. Acura launches its first EV, the ZDX, and teases a future electric supercar concept, signaling a strong push into electrification.
Topics:uaw contract negotiationsstrike preparationstoyota ev leasinglfp battery range extenderbattery supply chainford mustang gtdacura electric vehiclesev tax creditsautomaker investmentselectric supercar concept
- UAW’s Fain Says D3 Not Bargaining Seriously - UAW Strike Could Cost D3 Billions - Ford Trains White Collar Workers to Do UAW Jobs - Toyota bZ4X Lease Cheaper Than Camry - ONE Uses LFP Battery as Range Extender - North American EV Supply Chain Grows - Will Farley Race Mustang GTD At Le Mans? - Acura Unveils Its First EV - Acura Teases New Electric Supercar
"...ing from its deal with GM. The other is the Honda Prologue. Designers did a pretty good job of styling the Z..."
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This is Auto Line Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The closer and closer we get to the deadline for the UAW contract,
the more chatter we keep hearing from both sides. UAW president Sean Fain
tells Reuters that GM, Ford and Stellantis are still not bargaining seriously over the union's demands. One of those demands is the restoration of defined benefit pensions.
Fain says the cost of doing that is close to what the car companies are already paying union workers further four oh one K retirement plans. Ford, for
example, puts over two thousand dollars a year in the four oh one K plan for each worker, but shareholders would likely revolt since retire repension costs are what helped push GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and crippled Ford financially during the Great Recession. However, if there is a strike, even a short one,
it will cost the car companies hundreds of millions of dollars. The Anderson Economic
Group estimates that a ten days strike would cost Ford three hundred and twenty five million dollars GM three hundred and eighty million and stillantis two hundred and eighty five million dollars, but if the union strikes all three at the same time, the losses would balloon to one point eight billion dollars for the automakers and could cost five point six billion dollars including losses to dealers and consumers. Meanwhile,
the Detroit Free Press reports that Ford is quietly training white collar workers to run parts plants so it's dealers will still continue to get service parts in case of a strike. They're getting training for safety and material handling, like driving forklifts.
Ford asked employees to keep this a secret, but obviously and leaked it to the Free Press. It's now cheaper to lease and all electric Toyota Beez
four X than it is a camera hybrid in northern California. Toyota's advertised lease
deal for a camera hybrid is four hundred and sixty nine dollars for thirty six months with three thousand dollars duet signing, while a Bez four X lease is three hundred and eighty nine bucks with five thousand dollars duet signing. That works
out to five hundred and fifty two dollars a month for the Camera Hybrid and five hundred and twenty eight for the Beez four X. While that's not much
of a difference, the Bez four x's MSRP is twelve brand higher than the Camera Hybrid, So Toyota is clearly taking advantage of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which allows evs to be exempted from North American sourcing requirements and qualify for up to the full seventy five hundred dollars tax credit if it's leased. The
loophole let's automakers classify EV leases as commercial transactions. Here's an intriguing idea for
a range extender for evs. A second battery that charges the first battery.
That's what Mujiba Jazz, the CEO of a company called One or Our Next Energy, told us on Autoline after Hours. He says this would allow for
long distance towing or eighty mile an hour driving on the highway. So it's
hybrid or dual chemistry battery, which is called Gemini, doesn't go through the same duty cycle, and it can be made a lot cheaper. Take a
listen. Interestingly, Gemini is cost modeled out at around fifty dollars a kilo
one hour right now, that's lead acid battery level. Wow, that's cheaper
than the lowest costs that I could have predicted for where LFP will ever get to LFP. You know, if I go to where the lowest cost centers
are in the world is China, you can make an LFP cell for mid sixty dollars perkilo, and our arrange we can make an anode pre cell for fifty dollars pakilo when O're here in the US. And that's just us getting
started. As time goes on, I think we can even improve that.
That fifty dollars at kilowatt hour mujib is talking about is at the cell level.
At the pack level, it would still be under one hundred dollars per kilowatt hour. And if you want to learn more about how one is getting
cost down, be sure to check that show out on the Autoline website or on our YouTube channel. We want to know what drives you're testing. OTA
Connected Car Diagnostics remote Testing Intrepid Control Systems is here to help you work from anywhere. Intrepid Control Systems driven by your data. The North American supply chain
for battery materials is really starting to build up. Yesterday, Ford, South
Korean battery maker Skon and cathode material producer Eco PROBM announced they're investing eight hundred and eighty five million dollars to build a cathode manufacturing plant in Quebec. Production
is scheduled to start in the first half of twenty twenty six, and it will have the capacity to produce forty five thousand metric tons of cathode active material a year for NMC batteries. That's enough to support two hundred and twenty five
thousand evs a year. Quebec is becoming a popular location for battery and EV
production because almost all of its electricity comes from hydro power, meaning it's carbon free. I think Ford CEO Jim Farley just built his dream toy. We
teased it would unveil a new mid engine version of the Mustang, and here it is, the Mustang GTD, which will come out late next year or early in twenty twenty five. And really we should say this is a front
mid engine sports car, meaning the engine is mounted in the front, but it's shoved really far back. The GTD is basically a three hundred thousand dollars
road legal version of the Mustang GT three. It starts out life as a
Mustang dark horse at Ford's flat Rock assembly plant before being shipped off to Multi Mattic, where it's fitted with a carbon fiber wide body package, a completely unique front rear adjustable suspension set up, carbon ceramic brakes, wide wheels and tires, and an optional arrow kit. Instead of the GT three's naturally aspirated
five point four Leader V eight, the GTD will feature an eight hundred plus horsepower supercharged five point two Leader V eight with a dry sum oil system and a red line of over seventy five hundred rpm. All that power is fed
through a carbon fiber drive shaft into a rear mounted a speed transaxel. Ford
says it's targeting a sub seven minute lap time on the Nerburgring. In fact,
Ford CEO Jim Farley said quote, I'll take track time in a Mustang gt D against any other autoboss in their best road car. We had a
hard time coming up with any company that even offers a car that could compete with the GTD, and there's probably only a handful of auto executives that could match Jim Farley's bronze level FIA license which is to say that he's a pretty darn good racer. Those execs include Akyo Toyota, Carlos Taveras, and Mark
Royce, and we wonder if Farley himself will strap on his racing gear when the new Mustang GT three heads back to Laman next year. Accura pulled the
wraps off its first electric model, the ZDX. This is one of at
least two SUV evs that Honda is getting from its deal with GM. The
other is the Honda Prologue. Designers did a pretty good job of styling the
ZDX to match the other models in its lineup, despite being based on the Altium platform. It will be offered in both rear and all wheel drive,
with the top type S version making an estimated five hundred horsepower. Like some
of GM's evs, the battery pack is one hundred and two kilowatt hours, and the ZDX will get an estimated three hundred and twenty five miles or five hundred and twenty three kilometers of range in rear drive configuration. The interior is
highlighted by two eleven inch display screens. The instrument cluster sits tucked away in
the dash, while the infotainment screen floats set out proud at the front.
Accura says it'll start taking orders for the ZDX later this year and deliveries will start early next year. The rear drive model will start around sixty grand,
while an all wheel drive type S is expected to start in the seventy thousand dollars range. Speaking of Acura, it also teased a sleek new concept that
looks like it could be an evy supercar. It's meant to be a preview
of certain design elements of its future evs, but that's all we know about it for now, and that brings us to the end of today's show.
Thanks for tuning in, and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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