AD #3949 - UAW Organizers Go On Strike Against UAW; U.S. Approaching EV Tipping Point; Nissan in Deep Trouble

Speaker 1: This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Nissan is in deep trouble

and CEO Makoto Yuchetah is struggling to hold on to his job. Global sales have fallen from five million a

year when he took over in twenty nineteen to only three point three million this year, a thirty four percent drop, and the stock price is down forty three percent, which is the worst performance of Nissan stock under any CEO over the last five decades. The company is now a

target of activist investors, and they don't like CEOs who destroy shareholder value. One big problem Nissan faces is that

it doesn't sell any hybrids in the US, which has Benett's most profitable market. U Cheatah's response is to cut

global production capacity, slash costs, and lay off thousands of employees.

But that may be too little, too late eight and those activist investors are almost certainly going to try and push them out. And to show you just how desperate

the situation at Nissan is, Automotive News reports that Infinity dealers in the US can now co locate their stores with Nissan outlets. Infinity's sales have fallen fifty one percent

in the last five years, and so far this year, Infinity dealers are only selling about one car a day on average, and they're all losing money. By co locating stores,

they can combine their back office operations and cut costs significantly.

But what Infinity really needs is an updated product lineup.

The US is fast approaching a tipping point where a lot more people will consider getting an ev and that's because the number of public fast chargers is ramping up fast.

In twenty twenty, only twenty eight percent of the most heavily traveled roads in the US had a fast charger within fifty miles of them. Today it's fifty nine percent,

and by the end of next year it will be seventy percent. According to the Department of Transportation, which is

when that tipping point will happen, there are over two hundred thousand fast chargers in the US today and there will be half a million by twenty thirty. And as

if to put an exclamation point on that, General Motors in EVgo announced they have more than two thousand, three hundred and fifty kilowad DC fast chargers installed at three hundred and ninety locations in forty five metropolitan areas. The

chargers are located in shopping areas, coffee shops, and dining destinations near interstate highways, as well as city centers and apartments.

The charging stations are co branded as EVgo and GM and the goal is to build another eight hundred and fifty of them. The EU is trying to tamp down

a flood of Chinese evs to Europe with its new import tariffs, but those tariffs don't include hybrids, so now that's what they're shipping. Automakers are ramping up exports of

China made hybrids to Europe, with one analyst forecasting that those shipments will go up twenty percent this year and continue to grow in twenty twenty five. Sales of plug

in hybrids, especially extended range electrics or e revs, have really taken off in China, so much so that automakers are now introducing e REV versions of models that launched as BEEV only, and we think that's another area where Chinese automakers will attack the European market. Looks like November,

car sales in the US came in better than expected, while many automakers only publicly report sales on a quarterly basis, the numbers are actually available to select outlets, and Global Data reports that total sales hit one point three seven million vehicles, up of very healthy twelve percent, and the Star came in at sixteen point seven million units, which is the strongest it's been all year. And right on,

q Ford reported its sales which were up more than fourteen percent, and it just set a monthly sales record with EV sales up twenty percent to ten thousand, eight hundred and twenty one vehicles.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composite material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

Speaker 1: Genesis is pulling back the reins on its EV push.

It had planned to only introduce new evs after next year and go fully electric by the end of the decade, but instead next year it will start introducing hybrids to its IC models and then go to E, which according to some reports, could come out as early as twenty twenty seven. Not only will its lineup be more in

tune with market demand, but because E revs are considered close to B evs. In terms of North American environmental standards,

Genesis should still be able to meet its emission targets.

The word is the range extender will first go into the GV seventy SUV, which will be built at the Hondai Group's new plant in Georgia instead of Alabama, where the GV seventy is currently built. And in other Genesis news,

it announced its getting into endurance racing, revealed a wild new hybrid race car, and built a brand new team called Genesis Magma Racing to run it all. It will

field two cars in the hypercar in LMDh categories, first in the WEC series in twenty twenty six and then in IMSAHN twenty twenty seven. By adjusting the rules a

couple of years ago to allow similar spec cars to run in both racing series, organizers got more participation from the car companies and will now have seven participants, including Genesis.

While this is pretty bizarre, a group of UAW organizers is striking against the union, claiming it's not bargaining in good faith. They also want job security and protections for

temporary workers who work on three month contracts for up to three years. They want higher wages, severance payments, a

two month layoff notice, and six days for tempts. The

UAW claims it has been bargaining in good faith and that it offered two proposals addressing the concerns, but that didn't stop the strike. And what a coincidence fighting over

temp workers. These are almost the same issues that the

UAW used against the Detroit three last year in contract negotiations, which eventually led to strikes. The cost the automaker's billions

of dollars in loss production, Jeep is significantly cutting the price of its all electric Avenger SUV in Europe. When

it launched last year, it had a starting price around forty five thousand dollars, but the automaker is slashing that by over six thousand dollars and it now starts at over thirty eight thousand bucks. The Avenger is now cheaper

than the Volvo Ex thirty and Mini Aseman Electric, and its price is about the same as the Ford Puma Gene that launched earlier this week. By slashing the price,

Stillanta seems to be dumping former CEO Carlos Tavares's strategy for improving margins in favor of going for sales. BYD

is putting its vehicle to home function to good use.

It partnered with local governments in Japan to use the bi directional charging capability of its evs at ten of its dealerships in the country to power places like shelters and hostapits during natural disasters. While Japan has made deals

with other automakers for relief efforts during natural disasters, those have typically been with local companies, so this could be a way for a Chinese automaker to get on the good side of Japanese buyers. Foreign automakers have never really

had any sales success in Japan. BYD first started selling

cars there in January of twenty twenty three, but through September of this year it sold less than eighteen hundred units.

And here's something we found interesting. Amtrak set an all

time ridership record this year with thirty two point eight million passengers using its trains that brought in two and a half billion dollars in ticket revenue, up nine percent from a year ago, and it posted a total operating revenue of three point six billion, a seven percent gain.

Amtrak also invested four and a half billion bucks to improve infrastruy diructure to support future growth. It's aiming to

double its ridership to sixty six million passengers by twenty forty and it's surprising to see Americans flocking back to trains.

If you want to learn more about the Scout brand strategy to hit the market, you won't want to miss Autoline After Hours. Today. We've got Chris Benjamin, the chief

Design officer of Scout, coming on the show and it will be fascinating to hear about how he and his team went about reviving a brand that went out of the market in nineteen eighty And Chris has a great design background, including stints at BMW Design Works, Volvo and at GEEP. So join John and Gary when the show

goes live on our website and YouTube channel at three pm Eastern Time today. But that's a wrap for today's show.

Thanks for tuning in.

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AD #3949 - UAW Organizers Go On Strike Against UAW; U.S. Approaching EV Tipping Point; Nissan in Deep Trouble

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