The episode covers the ongoing UAW strike and its impact on automakers' EV investments, contrasting it with successful Canadian union negotiations. It highlights Cruise's expansion of autonomous services in Houston and Toyota's upcoming electric vehicle concepts debuting at the Japan Mobility Show. California's new mandate for electric school buses by 2035 is discussed, alongside China's luxury Hongqi L5 limousine and the all-electric Fall Those EM90 minivan. Ferrari's new acceptance of cryptocurrency payments in the US and Europe rounds out the episode's diverse automotive updates.
Topics:uaw strikeev investmentscanadian union contractsautonomous vehiclestoyota ev conceptselectric school buseshongqi limousineelectric minivancrypto paymentsautomotive labor relations
- UAW A Threat to D3 EV Investments - GM Canadian Workers Ratify New Deal - UAW’s Shawn Fain Shows Solidarity with EU Unions - GM’s Cruise Expands Its Business - Toyota Unveils Electric Concepts - California Mandates Electric School Buses - Hongqi’s $680,000 Limousine - First Look at Volvo’s Electric Minivan - Ferrari Now Accepting Crypto for Car Payments
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Day thirty two of the UAW strike, and it looks like the automakers are in no mood to concede anything more to the union. JP Morgan estimates
that Ford is losing forty four million dollars a day while GM is losing twenty one million dollars, and the automakers worry that the union is trying to force them into a bad deal that will leave them uncompetitive in the marketplace. Morgan
Stanley says a new contract could force the automakers to cut back on their capital spending and delay their EV programs. In contrast to the uaw's approach, the
Canadian union Uniform is getting the results it wants without all the bitterness. Even
though it took a brief strike that only lasted hours, GM workers in Canada overwhelmingly approved a new contract that includes twenty percent raises, a transition to top pay in four years instead of eight years for new employees, plus fully defined pensions. In Coola, Unifour has settled with GM and Ford and it will
now negotiate with Stalantis and the Canadians will likely have a contract with all three automakers before the union even gets one. Meanwhile, Sean Fain is generating solidarity
with other unions from Europe. Here's what he said in his latest video.
I want to acknowledge our international union family who've made the long trip to the United States to stand in solidarity and stand up with our members. Leaders from
FIOME, the largest industrial union in Italy, came here. I'm wearing their
hoodie today. They were joined by our union family from Unite the Powerhouse UK
union also attending. We're leaders from industry, all the global elite labor federation
that we all belong to. Our fights not just about us, It's about
the working class. Our companies exploit workers across borders. It's our job to
unite and organize across the borders as well. While Faine is talking about working
with European unions, we wonder if he'll reach out to unions in Mexico as well. Okay, let's move past our union coverage. GM's autonomous division,
Cruise, is expanding its business. It's now offering rights to the public in
Houston for its driverless service, and the company says it updated its vehicles to improve interactions with emergency vehicles and first responders after several incidents. By working with
the police, ems and fire officials, Cruise's vehicles can better recognize an emergency situation, exit a scene more quickly, and have improved emergency vehicle prediction behavior.
Cruise has also made it so far first responders can move a vehicle manually if they need to. At Scheffler we Pioneer Motion electrifying mobility, manufacturing smarter,
reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the world moves. Toyota has started putting a lot more effort into its
evs and will use the Japan Mobility Show at the end of the month to reveal a couple of concepts that hint at its electric future. The FT three
E is an suv that looks like it could have a similar shape to the Jaguar Ipace and will display the charge level and interior temp and air quality on a long band that stretches across the lower part of the front doors. And
the ftse is a sports car that is meant to have a more immersive driving experience with several display screens mounted around the rectangular steering wheel. Toyota recently showed
how it's going to take a more modular approach to vehicle manufacturing, and despite the big differences in these concepts, they'll share major components with each other.
It also says it wants these cars to continue to grow with the driver through software updates, as well as offer convenience functions that sound like different levels of eight ass and hands free driving. We'll learn more when the Japan Mobility Show
kicks off on October twenty sixth. California has already mandated that all new car
sales must be electric by twenty thirty five, and now it's mandating that all new school buses must also be electric by the same time. The state estimates
that it will cost five billion dollars to make the transition, but school districts will save money in the long term from not having to spend money on fuel, and they could also earn money with bidirectional charging. California is the fifth
state to mandate electric school buses, joining Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, and New York. Chinese automaker hon Kei, which is the high end luxury brand
of state owned FAW just got approval for the newest version of its L five sedan. Not much has changed from the all new model that came out in
twenty fourteen, other than a bigger grill and a two tone paint job, but with an intended target of high ranking Chinese officials and the ultra wealthy, the L five has some impressive stats that are hard to pass up. It's
over nineteen and a half feet or nearly six meters long, which is more than sixteen inches longer than a my box. It weighs three thousand, one
hundred and fifty kilograms or about seven thousand pounds, and features are roughly three hundred and ninety horse power four liter V eight engine. A price tag of
five million yuan or six hundred and eighty thousand dollars is just as impressive as its size. Thanks to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Car
News China, we're getting our first look at fall those first minivan, the EM ninety. It's an all electric model that's based on the same platform as
the Zeker Double nine, which comes from parent company gl It's nearly the exact same size as the current Chrysler pacifica minivan. A single two hundred and seventy
two horsepower electric motor will drive the rear wheels, and it will feature an NMC or nickel manganese cobalt battery pack from CTL, but its capacity is unknown at this time spec There will also be several other variants of the EM ninety, including with all wheel drive, but that's all the details we have for now. You can now buy a Ferrari with crypto. The automaker's head of
marketing told Reuters that it's now accepting crypto currency as payment for its cars in the US, and it will start doing the same in Europe in the first quarter of next year. It will eventually extend to other markets where it's legally
accepted as well. Ferrari says it made this decision because of requests from customers
and dealers, and that makes a lot of sense because there's a lot of crypto millionaires out there. As you may remember, Tesla began to accept payments
in bitcoin in twenty twenty one, but Elon Musk put a stop to it over environmental concerns because of all the electric energy that's needed for mining the currency.
But that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning
in. Altoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey,
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