The UAW has launched legal action against Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen, accusing them of unfair labor practices amid efforts to unionize non-union automakers in the US. Ford is cutting production of its F-150 Lightning electric truck due to shifting demand, while Renault and Volkswagen explore co-developing an affordable EV platform to compete with Chinese imports in Europe. The episode also covers Lucid's financial struggles, new government-funded EV charging stations, GM and Komatsu's fuel cell mining truck collaboration, and Mercedes-AMG's powerful hybrid performance upgrades.
Topics:uaw unionization effortslabor disputesford f-150 lightning production cutrenault volkswagen ev collaborationchinese ev safety ratingslucid financial challengesus ev charging infrastructuregm komatsu fuel cell trucksmercedes amg hybrid performance
- UAW Attacks Honda, Hyundai and VW - OESA's Fream Steps Down - Licid's CFO Leaves - 1st Biden-Funded Charging Station Opens - Renault Sells 5% of Nissan Stock - Renault and VW Could Co-Develop Sub 20,000 Euro EV - Chinese EVs Get 5-Star Euro NCAP Ratings - Ford Slashes Lightning Production - Cybertruck Offers Wade Mode - GM and Komatsu Partner on Fuel Cell Mining Trucks - Mercedes' Most Powerful SL Ever
"...eping its head above the water, it looks like the Tesla cyber truck will have no problem mixing water and electricity..."
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This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
The UAW just fired its first shots in its organization battle against non union automakers in the US. Yesterday, it filed unfair labor practices against Honda,
Hyundai, and Volkswagen with the National Labor Relations Board. It says the automakers
are using illegal tactics like putting union organizers under surveillance and stopping them from passing out union material and non working areas during non working times. The car companies
deny this and say they welcome the opportunity to defend themselves through the legal process.
But the board of the NLRB currently has a majority of pro union Democrats and could be very sympathetic to the UAW. Here's what UAW president Sean Fain
said it in its latest video. Don't auto workers at Toyota, Honda,
Hondai, Nissan, Subaru, and Mazda deserve a record cut of those record profits? And how about the German three, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes.
They've made almost the same as the Japanese and Korean companies four hundred and sixty billion dollars in the past ten years, the Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes workers not deserve their fair share of this booming auto industry. The UAW is trying
to get workers at all non union car companies in the US, including Honda, Hondai, and VW, to sign union cards, saying they want them there. If thirty percent of the workers sign the cards, the union will
publicly announce it. If they hit fifty percent, FAME will personally hold a
rally at the plant to get more. And if seventy percent sign the union
will demand the company recognize the union or it will hold an election. And
it's going to be fascinating to see how this develops. In the past,
the union was able to pressure workers into signing union cards, only to see them vote against the union when they could vote in secret at the ballot box.
We've got some key executive changes to report. Julie Freeme is stepping down
from the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, which is the main lobbying group for the automotive suppliers in the US. The OSA is part of MIMA, or the
Motor Equipment Manufacturers Association, a larger lobbying group for manufacturing companies Freem, who is sixty years old, is leaving to pursue other opportunities and will be replaced by Colin Shaw, who, like Freeme, has extensive experience in the auto industry. And Lucid's chief financial officer, Sherry House, is also leaving to
pursue other opportunities while the company searches for a replacement. It's been a tough
year for Lucid. Sales are down thirty percent, it missed the guidance it
gave to Wall Street, its stock is down forty four percent, and it's getting dropped from the Nasdaq one hundred, which is a list of the top one hundred companies on the exchange. Of course, Lucid isn't the only one.
eBay and Zoom are also getting booted off the Nasdaq one hundred. There
simply aren't enough public ev charging stations in the US, but the first one funded by government money just open near Columbus, Ohio. The Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act earmark seven and a half billion dollars to build a network of charging stations across the US. Even though it was enacted two years ago, the
work is just getting going. Vermont, Pennsylvania and Maine also broke ground on
new stations. The US currently has one hundred and sixty five thousand charging ports,
but the Biden administration wants to grow that to five hundred thousand by twenty thirty and have them placed no more than fifty miles apart along highways and interstates.
That could go a long way to answering complaints about a lack of a charging infrastructure. Renault promised to give Nissan more of an equal footing in its
alliance. So the French automaker is selling five percent of its Nissan stock and
Nissan is buying those shares and retiring them. Renault will book a one point
six billion dollar loss from the transaction. The stock sale is actually part of
an agreement that two automakers made earlier this year, in which Renault will reduce its stake in Nissan from forty three to fifteen percent. Renault plans to sell
off its stake gradually. And speaking of Renault, German newspaper Hondelsblot reports that
the French automaker is in talks with Volkswagen to develop a low cost beev to compete against Chinese imports in Europe. The talks are still in a quote very
early stage, but the two companies want to share a BEEV platform for models that cost below twenty thousand euros. VW also has an EV partnership with Ford,
where some of Ford's European models will use VW's MEB platform, and no wonder they're doing that. Chinese automakers are really making a push into Europe.
The euro n CAP, which rates the safety of new vehicles crash, tested nine Chinese evs this year and all of them received five star safety ratings.
The models were the byd Dolphin Seal Seal You and Tang, the Japong G nine and P seven, the Neo EL seven and ET five, and the Smart Number three. While Smart isn't completely Chinese, it's partly owned and built
by Gli and China. And not only was the Neo ET five the safest
among all the Chinese vehicles tested, it was the safe this vehicle tested by the euro and CAP this year. Here's another sign that Warren Brown, our
recent guest on Auto Line After Hours, might be right about electric pickup adoption being a lot lower than expected. Ford will cut production of the F one
fifty Lightning and half at the start of next year due to quote changing market demand. Automotive News reports that Ford told suppliers to plan for about sixteen hundred
Lightnings to roll down the line each week at its Rouge evicenter in Michigan.
That means it will make about seventy five thousand electric trucks for the full year instead of a planned one hundred and fifty thousand, and Ford says it will continue to match production of the Lightning to meet customer demand, so that new output number could easily change in either direction. And while you might joke that
the Lightning is barely keeping its head above the water, it looks like the Tesla cyber truck will have no problem mixing water and electricity. Some of the
first owners are showing that the truck has a wave mode in its off road settings that raises the ride height of the truck and pressurizes the battery when driving through water. I have not seen anyone test these capabilities yet, but Elon
Musk previously said he wanted the cyber truck to be able to cross the water between space Ax's starbase and South Padre Island in Texas, which is about eleven hundred feet or three hundred and sixty meters. General Motors in Kamatsu are collaborating
to develop fuel cells for mining trucks. Specifically, they're for Komatsu's nine thirty
E mining trucks, which are as big as a house and can haul three hundred and twenty tons per load. The fuel cells for those trucks will generate
two megawatts of power, or the equivalent of two thousand, six hundred and eighty two horse power. GM wouldn't provide any other information about the fuel cells
except to say they're far bigger than anything it's shown to date. The nine
point thirty E is a diesel electric where the diesel runs a generator to power the electric motors that drive the wheels, so the fuel cell would merely replace the diesel and generate electricity directly. No word yet on when these fuel cell
trucks will be available to customers, and we're offering bonus points to anyone who can name the division of GM that made mining trucks from nineteen fifty three to nineteen eighty one. And that's right. GM used to make some of the
biggest mining trucks in the world. Mercedes has now how applied its AMG specific
e Performance Hybrid setup to five of its models, which pairs a twin turbo four liter V eight engine with an electric motor for eight hundred plus horse power, and the setup instantly made some of them the most powerful version of that model ever, and the new SL sixty three S performance is no different.
With six hundred kilowatts or eight hundred and four horse power and one thousand and forty seven pound feet of torque, this is the most powerful SL ever and will do zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in two point nine seconds.
The model is actually a plug in hybrid and all wheel drive, with the engine in the front and the motor, two speed transmission, limited slip diff and six point one kilowatt hour battery pack in the rear. Other highlights include
all wheel steering, active arrow ceramic brakes, and a semi active suspend system that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making online a
part of your day. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by bridge Stone
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