The episode covers major labor and industry challenges, including Volkswagen's tense negotiations with German labor unions and potential plant closures amid low European auto sales and soaring vehicle prices. Rivian's secret neutrality deal with the UAW hints at unionization efforts in the U.S., while struggling EV startup Canoo faces severe financial troubles. Dodge revives the iconic HEMI engine in the Durango, signaling a shift after CEO Carlos Tavares' departure. Other highlights include Jaguar's new brand engagement via podcasts, Corvette ZR1's performance stats, Chinese automakers expanding aggressively in Mexico, and Waymo's autonomous cars proving significantly safer than human drivers.
Topics:volkswagen labor negotiationseuropean auto industry strugglesrivian uaw neutrality dealcanoo financial troublesdodge hemi revivaljaguar brand strategycorvette zr1 performancechinese automakers in mexicowaymo autonomous safety
- VW and Unions Closer to A Deal, Or Maybe Not - Average Car in Germany Is $60,000 - Rivian Cuts Secret Deal with UAW - Canoo At Death’s Door - Stellantis Revives the HEMI - Jaguar Turns to Podcast Marketing - Corvette ZR1 Posts Smoking Hot Times - Dongfeng Launches 10 Models in Mexico - Waymo AV’s Far Safer Than Humans
"Speaker 2: Are a new one for us. Speaker 1: The Corvette ZR one is an impressive machine, and now it has t..."
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Speaker 1: This is Onderline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We're getting conflicting stories out of
Germany over negotiations between Volkswagen and its labor representatives. Some
reports say the two sides are as far apart as ever.
Speaker 2: Others say they're inching towards a deal.
Speaker 1: And that just shows the back and forth nature of these negotiations. VW said it may need to close three
assembly plants in Germany, and analysts say it needs to lay off thirty thousand employees to hit its modest profit goal, which is a six and a half percent profit margin by twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Of course, the labor.
Speaker 1: Side doesn't want any of those plant closings or layoffs to happen, but Volkswagen is in.
Speaker 2: A really tough position.
Speaker 1: If it gives in to labor demands, it won't be competitive and could die a slow death. If it rejects
labour's demands, it faces crippling strike. We think they'll probably
hammer out some sort of compromise that will leave both sides dissatisfied. And it's not just problems at Volkswagen, the
entire European auto industry.
Speaker 2: Is struggling.
Speaker 1: It's only on pace to sell thirteen million vehicles this year, which is at least three million units below where it needs to be to have a healthy industry. To deal
with the low volume, automakers have been raising prices and the numbers are enough to set your hair on fire.
According to Jaedo Dynamics, the average new car in Germany costs nearly sixty grand. That's more than the average worker
makes in a year, which is fifty four thousand dollars.
In France, the average new car costs fifty one thousand bucks.
In Spain it's fifty six thousand, five hundred, in Italy it's more than fifty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: And in the UK it's sixty two grand.
Speaker 1: Car makers are also raising prices on ice vehicles to make them less appealing so they can meet stricter CO two standards, and with low cost Chinese evs starting to enter the market, Jado says this is threatening the viability of the European auto industry and okay, back to the labor issue again, only this time in the United States and with Rivian specifically. Bloomberg reports that Rivian caught a
secret deal with the UAW that could make it easier to organize its workers at its assembly plant in Illinois.
Rivian promised to remain neutral if and when the UAW tries to get the workers to.
Speaker 2: Join the union.
Speaker 1: It looks like the neutrality agreement only goes into effect after some specific metrics are met, but those specifics remain secret.
One trigger point might be when Rivian posts a quarterly profit, but we really don't know yet. We also find it
odd that Rivian would agree to remain neutral. That's pretty
much what Volkswagen did and ended up with the union representing the workers at its planting Chattanooga, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Mercedes
actively opposed the UAW and its workers rejected the union.
VW is currently negotiating with the UAW and has proposed a fourteen percent raise over four years, but we think that VW is a lot more likely to end up with the same UAW contract that the Detroit three got.
Ev startup Canoe looks like it's on its last legs.
The company announced that it furloughed another eighty two employees earlier this week, which puts its total to one hundred and thirty two workers. In the last ninety days, and
it idled its factory in Oklahoma because it needs more money to keep its operations going. Canoe says it's in
talks with quote various capital sources and it hopes to bring back its employees soon. But that's the same thing
Fisker said before it folded. Canoe also announced that it's
going to do a reverse stock split in order to regain compliance on the Nasdaq. The stock exchange requires companies
to have a minimum stock price of a dollar per share, but Canoe stock closed at less than a cent yesterday.
Hopefully for the company, these moves work, but it sure looks like it's dead.
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Speaker 2: But Behemi isn't dead.
Speaker 1: Dodge announced that V eight powered Durangos will continue to be sold in the twenty twenty five calendar year. Specifically,
the five point seven liter Hemi, which is standard in the Durango RT, and the six point two Leader supercharged Hellcat engine will still be available. Dodge says it made
the move quote do in part to market demand and customer feedback, but we think the decision to keep the hemy came with the departure of CEO Carlos Tavares a little over a week ago. Stilantis insiders told Mike Wayland
at CNBC that it was Tavaraz's stubbornness to have a greener lineup and unwillingness to listen to us executives. That
the engine was even dropped from some models in the first place, so it's soldiering on in the Durango. But
we say, if you're going to keep it there, why not get more volume and add it back to other models.
Jaguar announced a bold new brand direction recently, and while people had mixed feelings, the company's managing director thinks there's space for a disruptive brand, and says the people that will buy these cars want to be treated like insiders, so JAG came up with an interesting way to connect with them podcasts. There will be podcasts with the head
of design and engineers, and more so, customers will get access to information that they wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. The director says, quote, they're joining a community.
All these ultra luxury brands do things to make the buying experians as unique as possible, but podcasts.
Speaker 2: Are a new one for us.
Speaker 1: The Corvette ZR one is an impressive machine, and now it has the numbers to back it up. The standard
version will do zero to sixty and two and a half seconds and run the quarter mile in nine point seven seconds, while the optional ZTK Performance package shaves two tenths of a second off that zero to sixty time and another tenth off the quarter mile. Earlier this year,
it earned the title of fastest car ever built by an American auto manufacturer by running two hundred and thirty three miles an hour at a test track in Germany.
The ZR one is powered by a twin turbo five and a half liter flatplane crank V eight that makes over one thousand and sixty horse power. Chinese automakers are
taking the Mexican market by storm, and their momentum is only building. Dong Fung announced that it's going to introduce
ten models to the Mexican market, including both battery electrics and plug in hybrids. While dong Fung makes cars in
China for Nissan, Renault, Honda, and Stilantis, the vehicles it's launching in Mexico are made on its own platforms, and it's notable to see that dong Fung isn't just sticking its toe in to test the waters. It's launching with
a full lineup. Weimo says autonomous cars are a lot
safer than cars with human drivers. It partnered with Swiss re,
one of the world's largest reinsurers, to analyze the liability claims of its self driving cars, and they found that Weimo's system is safer than humans and even vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems. Compared to human driven vehicles,
Weimo had eighty eight percent fewer property damage claims and ninety two percent fewer claims for bodily injury, while vehicles with eight s tech were only slightly better than human drivers.
Of the twenty five point three million fully autonomous miles driven by Weimo, vehicle was involved in just nine property damage and two bodily injury claims. Compared to human drivers
traveling the same number of miles, they'd be expected to have seventy eight property damage and twenty six bodily injury claims. However,
it is still important to note that Weymo vehicles don't operate in all areas and conditions that human drivers do.
Speaker 2: And hey, this is the last show of the year.
Speaker 1: We'll be offer a well deserved break and to enjoy the holidays. We wish you a merry Christmas or however
you celebrate. And we're going to hit the ground running
on January second of twenty twenty five. And oh, just
in case you're wondering about the sweater here, I've had it for several years. They reached I should say they
Mopar reached out to me several years back, and I really liked it and I said, hey, if you send me one, I'll wear it on the show. So they
did send me one. I looked it up today. They
do offer sweaters, not this exact one. It sells for
about seventy bucks. If that's a little much for an
ugly holiday sweater for you, I did see that they have a sweatshirt that's a little more affordable. But thanks
for watching and we'll see you back again in twenty twenty five.
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