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AD #3653 - UAW Cripples Mercedes-Benz Production; Could UAW Target Tesla?; EV Sales Up 102% in Europe

AD #3653 - UAW Cripples Mercedes-Benz Production; Could UAW Target Tesla?; EV Sales Up 102% in Europe

Autoline Daily Sep 21, 2023 10 min
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About this episode

The UAW strike is disrupting Mercedes-Benz production by targeting a key axle supplier, signaling a potential new strategy to pressure transplant automakers and possibly Tesla. The union faces financial strain as layoffs increase, while negotiations continue with no major breakthroughs. Meanwhile, EV sales in Europe surged 102%, impacting internal combustion engine suppliers. Advances in automotive tech include Mercedes’ digital twin manufacturing and AI-driven painting processes, plus Chinese automakers launching smartphones integrated with EV functions. The episode also highlights new automotive-grade chips developed in China and Germany, reflecting the industry's tech evolution.

Topics: uaw strike mercedes production disruption labor negotiations ev sales europe automotive manufacturing technology ai in manufacturing automotive-grade chips chinese automakers electric vehicles union financial impact
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This is Auto Line Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We're now a week into the UAW strike in Union President Sean Faine
figured out a way to indirectly cripple Mercedes Benzes production in the US. The
UAW went on strike against a ZF plant that makes axles for the Mercedes plant in Alabama, which makes the gl coop and a couple of SUVs, including the one hundred and seventy one thousand dollars my Box GLS. Without any axles,
it will bring the Mercedes plant to a screeching halt. The ZAF plant,
whose workers are organized by the UAW, are asking for the same things as workers at the Detroit three and this could signal a new front in the labor war where the UAW figures out ways to shut down the transplants. After
all, the Detroit automakers are worried that their new labor contract will put them at a severe labor or cost disadvantage to the transplants and Tesla. But if
the union can pressure the transplants to unionize, then gm Ford and Stillantis will not be at a disadvantage. And here's something to keep a lookout for.
Can the UAW figure out a way to shut down Tesla. But Sean Fayne
says, if there isn't any significant progress in the negotiations, he's going to start shutting down other plants at gm Ford and Stillantis at noon tomorrow. So
yesterday Stillantis gave the union its fifth proposal. No details were announced, but
our sense of the situation is that Fayne feels he can still get more and we expect he'll follow through on his threat to expand the strike. But here's
something that maybe the union didn't consider and its strikes strategy. So far,
FAIN has only gone on strike against three plants, one at each of the Detroit three. That helps the union preserve a strike fund, which had eight
hundred and twenty five million dollars before the strike started. But gm Ford and
Stellantis are laying off workers at plants that can't get or supply parts to the plants that are on strike. So far, they've laid off two thousand,
nine hundred and seventy workers. Fayn may have not seen that coming, and
since the union promised to pay any laid off workers five hundred dollars a week, that means the union is burning through one point four eight million dollars a week more than it probably planned four And if FAIN does expand the strike tomorrow, we can expect many more UAW workers who are not on strike to get laid off anyway. And by the way, we're going to get into a
lot more detail of what this strike means and how it likely will end up on autoline after hours later this afternoon. Laurie Harbor from Harbor Results, Kaylee
Hall from the Detroit News, and Sam Furani from Auto Foecast Solutions will be on the show. So if you want to learn how this labor war is
really being fought, join us when the show goes live at three pm Eastern Time. 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. How long will the batteries last? That's
one of the first questions you hear from people who are skeptical about evs.
Well, how does this sound to you? They'll probably last the entire life
of the car. A new study from battery analysis company Recurrent found that only
one and a half percent of evs have had to have their batteries replaced.
It looked at real world data from fifteen thousand evs in the US from different automakers and found that batteries likely will last longer than the vehicle. The data
showed that most evs with around one hundred thousand miles on them still have at least ninety percent of their original range left. But the researchers point out that
the data is constantly evolving because most evs aren't that old. Thirty percent of
them are only a year old and the majority of the rest are less than six years old, and if one of those goes bad, batteries can be costly to replace anywhere from five thousand to twenty two grand, depending on the model. A bunch of different tech companies are dipping their toes into the auto
industry, so it seems only fitting that Auto dips its toes into the tech industry. Chinese automaker Neo's launching its own smartphone, which is an Android based
device that appears to offer similar specs to other top phones. It's roughly the
same size as the new iPhone fifteen and pricing starts right around nine hundred dollars.
There's extra benefits for Neo's EV owners, like seamless integration with their infotainment system and the ability to control vehicle functions like the doorlocks. Neo's not the
only Chinese automaker getting into smartphones. Geelie also has a device on the way.
EV sales in Europe are really starting to take off. According to the
European Automobile Manufacturers Association, EV registrations soared one hundred and two percent in August to nearly one hundred and ninety seven thousand units, and they hit twenty percent market share for the first time. The overall car market in Europe is going
strong. Registrations were up twenty one percent to more than nine hundred thousand vehicles,
the thirteenth straight month. Car sales have increased in Europe, and while
that's great news, overall sales are still down a quarter from pre pandemic levels.
That sales surge of EV's in Europe is starting to impact the Icast side of the business, though. The supplier Morelli, announced that it's closing a
plant in Italy that produces parts for internal combustion engines because the business is quote unsustainable due to the ongoing drop in ice sales. The US band sales of
high tech chips to China, so China is making some of its own.
Chinese automaker Lincoln Co, which is part of Gili, is kicking off sales of the OASUV, a plug in hybrid that features China's first domestically developed automotive grade seven nanometer chips. The O eight actually has two of these chips,
which reportedly have the same computing power as Qualcom's snap Dragon chips, the same chips that several legacy automakers will use for their future software to find vehicles.
The O eight SUV is priced between twenty eight thousand and thirty nine thousand dollars and got ten thousand orders in the first ten days at one on sale.
Speaking of automotive grade seven nanometer chips, the German supplier Continental is going to make them with a Silicon Valley startup called Ethernovia. These chips will be used
in software to find vehicles and will allow faster data transfer, connectivity solutions, and aid as including autonomy. The two did not reveal when they will start
offering the chips, but Ethernovia does have two other investors we find interesting, and those are Portia and the previously mentioned Qualcom. While the Mercedes plant in
Alabama may be shutting down because of the UAW strike, it's using innovative technology to improve its manufacturing at other plants. It's completely digitizing its plants in Germany,
Hungary and China to more efficiently prepare for its all new ev platform, called the Mercedes Modular Architecture or MMA for short. The concept CLA class that
was shown at the IAA Auto Show in Munich is the first vehicle revealed that rides on an early version of this platform. But by creating a digital twin
of its manufacturing sites, Mercedes is already able to map out where all the machines will go that will build those cars, even though they won't go into production until some time around twenty twenty five, so once it does go in and put in the actual machines, it takes half the time it normally would.
It also allows Mercedes to get its suppliers more involved earlier in the process, which cuts down on even more time. Another interesting implementation of tech is
the use of AI and the painting process. By allowing AI to control the
booth where the cars are painted and get their top coat. It slashed energy
used by twenty percent. So now Mercedes is looking at other areas where it
thinks AI might be able to help. That brings us to the end of
today show. Thanks for making Auto Line a part of your day. Autoline
Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey, Intrepid control systems over the year engineering boost your game. Scheffler We pioneer motion and by Taging
Automotive Technologies the Formula for Better Mobility. At Scheffler We pioneer motion, electrifying
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