The episode covers major shifts in the automotive industry including GM scaling back production of its full-size electric trucks due to low sales, and Ford's battery plant union vote facing challenges. It highlights global production cuts from Ford in South Africa and Lotus in the UK amid competitive pressures and slumping sales. Innovations in EV charging technology by ChargePoint and Eaton promise greater efficiency and reduced pollution. BYD's strong first half sales contrast with doubts about meeting annual targets. Mercedes tests robotic automation in plants and claims a first with an electric F1 transport truck. Honda's planned Tokyo HQ move sparks a historical note on its US market focus.
Topics:gm ev production cutsuaw union vote challengesford production cuts south africalotus workforce reductionev charging technologybyd sales performancemercedes plant automationelectric f1 transport truckhonda headquarters move
- UAW Victory at Ford Battery Plant Challenged - GM Scales Back Full-Size EV Production - Ford Cuts Jobs in South Africa - Fiat Extends Plant Closure For 5 Months - Lotus Slashes 40% Of UK Workforce - ChargePoint and Eaton Improve EV Charging - BYD Likely to Miss 2025 Sales Target - Mercedes Tests Robot Dogs at German Plant - Mercedes F1 Transports Racecars with Electric Truck - Honda Considered Moving HQ To U.S.
"...ts workforce, mostly at the plant that builds the Amira. It's the same old story, slumping sales and US t..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Looks like the UAW could organize
workers at Ford and Skon's battery plant in Kentucky, or maybe not.
Speaker 2: The UAW claims it won the.
Speaker 1: Vote, but there's a bunch of ballots being challenged which could change the outcome. The union claims that the challenge
ballots are illegitimate and this is attacked by the company to undermine the election. But the UAW is probably worried
because it only won by a slim margin with fifty point five percent of the vote. A representative for the
joint venture says it will leave the results of the vote up to the National Labor Relations Board. If the
UAW ends up losing, it would be another slap in the face to union president Sean Fain, who already has a number of UAW locals that want him tossed out.
This is a tough industry, and our next couple of stories really drive that home. Let's start out in the
United States where General Motors is tapping the brakes at its Factory zero assembly plant in Detroit. That's the plant
that makes its full size electric pickup trucks and SUVs, including the Chevrolet Silverado, ev GMC Sierra and Hummer, and the Cadillac Escaladic. Sales of those trucks are far below
what the plant can make.
Speaker 2: For the first six months of.
Speaker 1: The year, GM sold less than twenty thousand of them, so it's gonna shut down production of one shift for a month. Now, let's jump down to South Africa. Ford
is cutting production at two plants where it makes the Ranger pickup truck in engines, which are exported to one hundred different markets. South Africa has quite a few automakers
making cars in the country, including BMW, Mercedes, Hondai, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Nissan. Collectively, they make about six hundred thousand vehicles
a year, but they're all under threat as cheap imports from China and India are flooding into the market. Those
imports give customers more choice and affordable prices, but they will likely wipe out the domestic auto industry, just like we saw happen in Australia. Next we go to Italy,
where the massive mirror Fiori plant will pretty much stay closed for another five months. That plant makes the electric
Fiat five hundred and the Maserati Gran Turismo and Grand Cabrio.
The five hundred eight is barely selling and Maserati.
Speaker 2: Looks like it's on its deathbed.
Speaker 1: In the first half of the year, it only sold four three hundred cars around the world. Antonio Filosa, the
new CEO of Stalantis.
Speaker 2: Could be looking for a way to sell or spin.
Speaker 1: Off Maserati, but he'll also come under enormous political pressure in Italy to keep investing in the company.
Speaker 2: And finally, in the UK, Lotus is going.
Speaker 1: To act forty percent of its workforce, mostly at the plant that builds the Amira. It's the same old story,
slumping sales and US tariffs. Lotuses sales drop forty two
percent to only one two hundred and seventy four vehicles in the first quarter, and it posted a net loss of one hundred and eighty three million dollars.
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Speaker 1: Charge Point and power company Eaton have partnered up to improve EV charging. Since the electrical grid pumps out AC
voltage and EV batteries only accept DC voltage, EV charging units need to have AC to DC converters and then DC to DC converters to step up the voltage for fast charging.
Speaker 2: But now Eaton will.
Speaker 1: Build little micro grids that only kick out DC voltage, and charge Point is making new charging units that can accept the DC to DC connection. It's a much more
efficient way for EV chargers to operate and allows for higher charging rates too. It's up to six hundred kilowatts
for passenger cars and can provide megawatt charging for heavy duty applications. However, the charging units still come with DC
to DC converters in case whoever operates the site wants to add in solar wind or battery storage. Charge point
and eat and claim that the new system requires thirty percent less investment, takes up thirty percent less space, and reduces the cost to operate the station by thirty percent.
And there could be another benefit too. When charging units
convert power from AC to DC and then ramp up that DC voltage, energy is wasted in the form of heat.
So the chargers have cooling fans installed on them. But
as we reported the other day, the amount of fine particulate matter in the air around charging stations is higher than gas stations, and experts believe it's those cooling fans that are kicking up those fine particulates. So if these
new charging units don't need cooling fans, or they don't need to run as often, the amount of air pollution around charging stations could go down to BYD reported its first half earnings, and while the numbers look good, it could have trouble hitting its full year targets.
Speaker 2: The automakers sold two.
Speaker 1: Point one to five million vehicles in the first half, up thirty three percent from a year ago. However, that's
less than half of its five and a half million target for the full year. Revenue was up twenty three
percent and its net profit of two point two billion dollars was up fourteen percent in the first six months, but its net profit in the second quarter took a big hit and dropped nearly thirty percent, the first time its quarterly profit fell in three years, and the second half of the year looks like it will be tough for byd. Its sales in China fell for the third
straight month in July, and it made production cuts and delayed expansion at plants in China. Mercedes is testing out
a couple of high tech solutions.
Speaker 2: In the hopes of making its plants it's more efficient.
Speaker 1: One is a robotic like dog called Airis, which looks just like Spot the Dog from Boston Dynamics, but there's no mention of either in the press release. Airis is
already performing a wide range of tasks on the inside of one of Mercedes plants in Germany, while on the outside it's testing a drone to monitor containers located at the site. In the future, the company plans to use
autonomous robotic systems for spotting maintenance issues or possible constraints in its logistics. Speaking of Mercedes, it claims it's the
first F one team to transport its cars to a European race with a fully electric truck. The company's e
Actro six hundred truck, which has a six hundred kilowa hour battery pack in five hundred kilometers or three hundred and ten miles of range, made the truck from its home base in England to the Netherlands for the Dutch Grand Prix, which kicks off this weekend. Honda is going
to move its headquarters in Tokyo to a new building in twenty twenty. We know this is not headline worthy,
but it does give us the excuse to bring up an old story that would have been headline worthy. Did
you know that back in the nineteen nineties, Honda seriously considered moving its headquarters to the United States. That's because
the US is by far its biggest market, accounting for nearly half of its sales and profits. Obviously, in the end,
Honda decided not to make that move. But there's a
quick historical tidbit it might not have heard before. It's
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Speaker 2: And that's a rap for this show.
Speaker 1: And this week we'll be off on Monday for the Labor Day holiday, so I'll see you back here again on Tuesday.
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