The discussion covers the UAW's unionizing efforts at Hyundai's Alabama plant and challenges faced, including political opposition. Used car prices are easing but remain high, with supply tightening. GM remains committed to autonomous vehicles despite setbacks and regulatory scrutiny. Tesla faces a recall over dashboard font size and redesigns Cybertruck wheel covers. EV pickup demand outpaces production at Tesla and GM, leading to long wait times. US new car sales show mixed results, with dealers skeptical of aggressive EV pushes and favoring hybrids. Toyota's focus on hybrids gains traction amid slowing EV demand, especially in pickups. Buick expands EV charging in Brazil, while Toyota highlights plug-in hybrids as a practical truck solution.
Topics:uaw union driveused car pricesgm autonomous vehiclestesla recallcybertruck wheel coversev pickup productionus new car salesev adoption challengestoyota hybridsev charging infrastructure
- UAW Launches Organizing Drive at Hyundai - Used Car Prices to Come Down - GM Still Committed to Autonomous Tech - Tesla Recall Is Over Font Size - Cybertruck Wheel Covers Causing Tire Problems - GM Has 100,000 EV Truck Reservations - U.S. January Sales a Mixed Report - Dealers Think EV Push Is Premature - Hybrid Sales Going Strong - BYD Building Charging Network in Brazil - Toyota Bullish on PHEV Pickups
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The UAW has turned its attention to workers at Hyundai's assembly plant in Alabama, and it says that thirty percent of the four thousand workers at the plant, or twelve hundred people, have signed cards saying they want a union. That
same percentage have signed cards at the Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama and Volkswagen's plant in Tennessee. UAW president Sean Fein said he would personally hold a rally if
any non union plant reaches fifty percent enrollment, and at seventy percent, he'll demand the company recognize the union or the UAW will hold a union vote with workers. Over the last four decades of trying to organize non union car plants,
the union has hit the thirty percent threshold, but it hasn't been able to get more than fifty percent of workers to vote in favor of the UAW.
The union has blamed management interference for its failures in the past, and it could do the same thing this time if it can't get enough workers to vote. But politicians and business groups are also fighting the union. Alabama's governor
Republican Kivy and the Business Council of Alabama are actively taking stands against the UAW.
Use car prices in the US skyrocketed during the pandemic, but they're starting to come back down. According to JD Power, use car prices fill three
and a half percent in twenty twenty three, and this year it expects price drops of another five point seven percent. However, prices are still significantly higher
than before the pandemic. In twenty nineteen, the average used car costs twenty
four one hundred dollars. Today it's about thirty one thousand, four hundred,
or about twenty percent higher. And while prices are coming down, affordable used
cars are becoming hard to find. In twenty nineteen, forty one percent of
used cars sold were below twenty thousand dollars. Now it's only twenty percent,
and not surprisingly, payments are also going up. The average used car buyer
is now paying five hundred and fifteen dollars a month on average, up from four hundred and fourteen dollars in twenty nineteen. JD Power also says the used
car supply will decline this year, which could impact prices, but overall it expects a favorable market. Despite all of its recent troubles, General Motors is
still committed to developing autonomous vehicles. GM president Mark roy Seti expects its Cruise
robotaxis to be back on the road in the next one to two years.
GM halted all of its AV operations in the US after a Cruise vehicle dragged a pedestrian after they were struck by another car. The company is being investigated
by the Department of Justice, the SEC, and KNITSA over the incident.
Cruz also fired nine executives, its CEO and co founder resigned, and it laid off a quarter of its workforce in the wake of the accident, and while Mark Roycea's GM is still committed to Cruz. During GM's earnings call earlier
this week, CEO Mary Barrs said it plans to cut spending at its AV business by a billion dollars this year. We have regulations for a reason,
but sometimes they just seem a little ridiculous. Nits is ordering a recall of
nearly every vehicle Tesla has ever sold in the US because the font to use for warning lights on the dash is not the right size. Nitsa says it's
too small and could therefore increase the risk of a crash. Like many of
the recalls Tesla has been issued, this will be fixed with an over the air update. Speaking of Tesla, it looks like it has to go back
to the drawing board for its aerodynamic winshel covers on the cyber truck. Wheel
covers can improve in EV's range by as much as five to ten percent, and the ones on the cyber truck extend out and fit into little grooves on the tires. There's still a gap between those two, but it's not big
enough, and with natural flexing, the cover is wearing an even deeper groove into the tires. Reports say some cyber trucks are being delivered without the covers
now and that Tesla is working on a new design. Many of the people
that have a reservation for an electric pickup either need the patience of a saint or are just going to buy something else. At one point, Tesla had
a report a two million plus pre orders for the cyber truck, but at today's production rate it would be ten plus years before everyone got their truck, and now CEO Mary Barras says that GM has one hundred thousand reservations for its electric pickups, including the Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra and Hummer evs.
But GM is also struggling to ramp up production of its altium based evs.
The Sierra EV is not even on sale yet. In two quarters of producing
the Silverado Electric it sold four hundred and sixty one examples, and for all of last year it sold a little over thirty two hundred Hummer evs and some of those were the SUV version. So GM is also on the ten year
plus delivery plan at the moment. So how are new car sales going in
the US market, Well, it's hard to say. Ever, since GM,
Ford and Stillantis decided to report sales on a quarterly basis, it's become very difficult to figure out how the market is due on a month to month basis, and other automakers seem to be dragging their feet on reporting their numbers.
So far, only four automakers have reported their January sales, Honda, subru Mazda and the Hondai group which includes Hondaikia and Genesis. Overall, their
sales were up four point two percent. But it's a mixed bag Mazda's sales
shot up nearly thirty two percent. Honda posted a ten percent gain, while
Subaru was flat. But Hondai's sales fell over eight percent and Kias were down
nearly two percent. But Hondai's EV sales shot up forty two percent, Kias
were up fifty seven percent, while Subaru Soltera EV saw sales fall by forty two percent. Most US dealers think the market should be driving EV sales,
not the federal government. Almost eighty three percent of the two hundred and eight
dealer and dealer Manager's Automotive News spoke to in its twenty twenty four Dealer Outlook survey said that the BIDED administration is pushing too hard with EV adoption. They
say evs aren't generating as much interest from customers, that prices are too high, and strict eligibility rules for EV purchase incentives are a few of the challenges.
It also doesn't help that you continue to hear stories about salespeople that aren't knowledgeable about electric vehicles. Dealers in the survey think the focus should be on
offering more affordable hybrids and plug in hybrids. You know, Toyota has received
a lot of criticism for its slow transition to evs and wanting to stick with hybrids, But with ev demand slowing, it looks like that strategy could pay off. Reuter's reports that more car buyers in the US are opting for hybrids
instead of evs because they're more affordable and there's less range anxiety issues. In
the first eleven on to twenty twenty three, hybrid's accounted for nine point three percent of new vehicle registrations, and a third of those were Toyotas, and globally, last year, hybrids accounted for a third of Toyota sales. One
Toyota dealer in Minnesota says it's aiming for hybrids to account for forty to fifty percent of its total sales, and in some cases, hybrid demand is so strong that buyers are waiting for up to a year for delivery and they're paying full MSRP. Despite what the legacy automakers say, Buid continues to push its
evs into emerging markets like Brazil. The Chinese automaker is partnering with a company
controlled by Shell to install charging stations in eight cities in Brazil over the next three years. They plan to roll out six hundred stations under Shell's charging network
called Shell Recharge. Toyota is skeptical that evs are going to catch on in
a big way, and that's a specially true in the pickup truck segment.
What plug in hybrids are a different story. This is what Sheldon Brown,
the chief engineer on the Toyota Tacoma, had to say about pe haves on autoline after hours yesterday. You know, I think the real debate is going
to come between do we want to go battery electric in the body and frame and pick up in the off road vehicles that are going to go plug in?
And right now, you know, I'll say from a general trending, I don't think the phivs have been getting the attention or frankly speaking, you know, really the credit if you will, that they that they deserve, because it's a really interesting solution to me in the truck market. Sheldon Brown
shared a lot of his insights into the mid sized truck segment and you can listen to what he had to say on our website or on our YouTube channel.
But that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making
autoline a part of your day, and I hope that you have a great weekend. Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your Journey. Wards
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