AD #3633 - Stellantis Could Be UAW Strike Target; VinFast Adds $55 Billion In Market Cap; GM Ultimum Plant Has Chemical Spill
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This is Autoline Daily to show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Sean was called into jury duty today, so I'm filling in. You know,
we're now only twenty two days away from a potential UAW strike, and while the union has not declared which automaker may be at strike target, Stillantis is increasingly in the uaw's crosshairs. There's several reasons for this. First,
Stellantis is bigger and more profitable than GM or Ford, so it's easier to say the company can afford a richer contract. Second, Stillantis is not an
American company, making it an easier target politically for the union. And Third,
UAW President Shan Fayne worked at Chrysler, which became Daimler Chrysler, which was bought by Cerberis, which became the Chrysler which then merged with Pougeot to become Stillantis. Sean Fayne doesn't seem to like the company or at CEO Carlos
Tavares. Now, none of this means that Silantis will be the strike target,
but it's sure starting to look that way. You know, no one
knows for sure how many electric car companies there are in China. It could
be two hundred, it could be three hundred, but whatever the number is.
Now there's one more. Show Me, which is one of China's largest
smartphone manufacturers, just got permission from the government to start building electric cars.
It wants to make one hundred thousand of them next year and then double it after that. But it's going to be entering the market at a time where
there are a glut of evs and a price wark that's showing no signs of slowing down. Reuters reports that capacity utilization in China is only an average of
fifty four percent. Many automotive experts believe there will ultimately be a big shakeout
in the Chinese auto industry, but it could be a long time for that of her happens. In China, automotive manufacturing is considered a key way to
generate hundreds of thousands of jobs. Many Chinese car companies are state backed enterprises
in the state will continue to prop them up to protect those jobs no matter what. And right on q Stilantis is trying to get back into the Chinese
market. It's exploring a potential tie up with Leap Motor, which makes electric
cars last year, Stilantis folded its joint venture with Guangzhou after Stilantis tried to take majority control over Guangzhou's objections. At the time, Stilantis said it would
just serve the Chinese market by exporting cars there, but by trying to join forces with Leap Motor. It sure looks like it changed its mind. Interestingly,
Volkswagen is also exploring a partnership with Leap Motor, which means we need to start paying attention to this company. ABI Research says that in twenty thirty
Chinese automakers will be exporting one point two million BEVs a year to the European Union. Last year, twenty eight percent of all the BEVs sold in the
EU were made in China, but that also includes China made evs imported by BMW, Tesla, Renoan, other European brands. Europe is an attractive target
for Chinese exports because it's a rich market with relatively little protectionist measures, which is why several European car execs are calling for higher tariffs. General Motors is
struggling to ramp up eed battery production at its Ultium plant in Ohio, and now it's dealing with a chemical spill that disrupted production. The Detroit News reports
that over the weekend, a slurry containing battery materials and a hazardous solvent leaked onto the ground near equipment in a mixing area. No employees were injured or
exposed to the spill, but the company halted mixing operations and they will remain paused until the area is deemed safe. The spill was reported to the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration. That's OSHA, of course, and it's now investigating
the incident. And this gives more AMMO to the UAW, which has criticized
the working conditions of the plant, which it calls hazardous. Look, there's
good news here on the right to repair front for independent repair shops in Massachusetts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of course no longer oppose as a Massachusetts law requiring automakers to provide vehicle data to independent repair shops. NITZA was against
the law because it said allowing independent shops access to that data would make vehicles more vulnerable to hacking. But now NITZA reversed its subjection and says diagnostic data
can be shared with an independent shops as long as they use short range wireless technology. The agency says long range wireless technology still poses a hacking risk.
Tesla was making progress ramping up production at its German plant earlier this year, but now output is slowing down at the plan. In February, it hit
four thousand vehicles a week and boosted that to five thousand a week in March.
But now Business Insider reports that Tesla lowered its production target to four thousand, three hundred and fifty a week in July and August. And that's according
to internal documents and anonymous sources, and they say Tesla plants to lower that target again to less than four thousand a week. The plant was tooled for
about five hundred thousand vehicles a year, which is about ten thousand a week, and in July Tesla announced it wants to boost that to a million vehicles annually. According to the website euevs, Tesla sales in Europe were up one
hundred and seventy one percent in the first half of the year compared to the year before. Say what the heck is going on with the stock price of
Enfast? On Monday, we reported the price fell in a half, wiping
out thirty billion dollars in market capitalization. Yesterday, share shot up one hundred
and twenty seven percent, adding fifty five billions in market cap. One reason
for all the volatility is that very few shares are available for trading. That's
because ninety nine percent of all the shares are owned by the founder of the company, billionaire, not Voong. The shares have been going up down by
fourteen percent almost every single day, which is attracting the attention of a lot of day traders, which means we're probably in stored for a lot more wild swings, and that brings us to the end of today's report. Thanks for
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