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Sept. 20, 2025 | Weekend Drive: Ford’s HQ move; EVs surge ahead of tax credit sunset
Sept. 20, 2025 | Weekend Drive: Ford’s HQ move; EVs surge ahead of tax credit sunset
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About this episode
Ford's decision to demolish its Glass House headquarters and move to a new engineering campus is part of a broader strategy to attract top talent in a competitive job market. The discussion also covers the implications of recent ICE raids on Hyundai's battery plant and the surge in EV registrations among legacy automakers as federal tax credits near expiration. Additionally, the episode highlights job cuts at Ford's German EV plant due to lagging demand and the ongoing contract negotiations between VW and the UAW, signaling significant shifts in the automotive landscape.
Topics:
ford headquarters move
ev tax credits
hyundai battery plant raid
job cuts at ford
vw uaw negotiations
legacy automakers ev sales
competition with china
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Automotive News’ Michael Martinez and Hannah Lutz discuss Ford’s plan to demolish its longtime “Glass House” global headquarters and move to the automaker’s nearby engineering campus. Plus, they talk about the rush to buy electric vehicles ahead of the end of federal tax incentives Sept. 30.
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Welcome to this weekend drive edition of Daily Drive
for the third week of September, 2025.
I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.
We're breaking down some of the biggest stories
in the auto industry from the past week
and looking forward to what's in store in the days ahead.
Joining me today are Hannah Lutz,
Director of Technology and Innovation Coverage
at Automotive News.
Hannah, welcome back to weekend drive.
Hi, Co.
And Mike Martinez, who covers Ford and the UAW.
Welcome back, Mike.
Thanks for having me.
All right, guys, let's get into some news.
So, Mike, we're gonna start off with you, my friend,
and probably the biggest news of the week so far
has been Ford's decision to demolish
its longtime headquarters, the Glass House,
and move to a new building at its engineering campus nearby.
Now, Mike, Ford has been making a lot of capital investments
in recent years between this and its new innovation hub
at Michigan Central in Detroit.
Do you think that's all part of a bigger strategy?
I do, and I think it goes beyond Ford to GM
with its announcement of its new headquarters
moving out of the Renaissance Center,
going to the Hudson's Development,
closer to the heart of downtown Detroit.
And I think it basically gets to the fact
that all of these companies, I don't think I know
because they've said it, say they're in a war for talent.
And one way to attract and retain the best talent
is by having the most state-of-the-art
desirable places to work, especially in this post-COVID era
where some companies are starting to call back their workers
four or five days a week.
New age employees want collaborative spaces,
they want top amenities, outdoor areas
that they can go to easily.
They don't want these sort of traditional offices
in these traditional buildings
that the automakers have had for years.
Ford's been in the Glass House for 70 years,
and it was a different era back then.
Bill Ford made some remarks this week
saying how back then everybody just really desired
that corner office, so you could go to your office,
close the door, and get work done.
That doesn't happen the same way these days.
So if these companies are going to find the best talent,
especially software tech talent,
they're competing with the Apples
and the Teslas of the world for,
they better have some fun places to work,
and this is all part of that effort.
Good point, Mike, because one thing I know
about millennials in the workplace
is that we like break rooms with really, really good snacks.
And if you don't have all the snacks,
like it's not a good day, I'm just saying,
that's key for millennials,
because we like the snack, don't we?
I love snacks.
I'm just saying, just saying, putting that out there.
Well, automakers, they are smart to do this
because they recognize who they're competing with.
They're competing with Silicon Valley,
especially if they want the talent to move here to Detroit
or anywhere that is not Silicon Valley,
they have to have the same or better amenities,
so it makes sense.
Tell me, if you've ever seen the break room
at Google or Facebook, you're like, wow,
they pretty much have an entire Starbucks in here.
Just putting that out there.
Okay, now, Hannah, you've been following
the Hyundai LG immigration raid story
closely for the past couple of weeks.
Earlier this month, ICE raided a joint venture
battery plant in Georgia and arrested hundreds of workers
who were later released and returned to South Korea.
This week on Daily Drive, we brought listeners' comments
on the situation from Hyundai Motor Executive Chair,
Yusun Chung, and LG Energy Solutions, Bob Lee.
What's the latest on that story?
So Hyundai hosted its investor day
from New York on Thursday, and Jose Munoz,
who's CEO of Hyundai Motor Company,
reiterated his hope that the US government
will enable appropriate visas for foreign,
short-term specialized workers,
and those were many of the workers working at that plant.
He said, many of the ones who were detained
were working on the final calibration and testing
of advanced battery production technology.
So that was the first time I saw exactly
what they were working on at the time.
He also emphasized the long-term economic benefit
that the facility will bring to the area in Georgia.
So it's similar comments to what we heard previously
like at our Congress event earlier this month,
but it shows that Hyundai remains really committed
to this market and wants to work with the US government
on a solution pretty quickly.
All right, good stuff.
Coming up, EV sales jumped again
for legacy automakers in July and plunged again for Tesla.
We'll talk about that in other EV news
as federal incentives get set to expire next on Weekend Drive.
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Welcome back to Weekend Drive.
I'm Kellyn Walker with Automotive News journalists,
Michael Martinez and Hannah Letts.
Hannah, we're just about days away,
about a week or so from September 30th
from the end of federal EV tax credits.
This week, our own Lonnie Eilif wrote
about the latest EV registration data
from S&P Global Mobility,
which suggested that customers
were still flocking to dealerships
to lock in those credits in July.
Now, legacy automakers saw a 27% jump in EV registrations,
but that was dragged down to a 6% increase
for the overall market
because Tesla had another dismal sales month.
What do you make of all of this?
So we're seeing again that EV incentives
and new products are helping those legacy brands in July,
and they gave Tesla more competition to contend with.
So that's kind of a continuation
of some trends we've been seeing this year.
And overall, the numbers are really good for EVs.
And S&P Global Mobility expects that strength
to continue in August and September.
But come October, when the $7,500 tax credit
is no longer available,
those EV sales will likely drop significantly
in favor of hybrids or gas vehicles.
So we'll have to wait and see
if and how automakers react to that,
if they will let the market drive decisions
or drive sales, or if they'll incentivize EVs
to make up for those missing credits.
It probably depends on how many they have
on the lot at that point.
Interesting.
And meanwhile, Mike, Ford announced this week
that it's looking to cut 1,000 jobs at its German EV plant
because demand in Europe is lagging
far behind industry projections.
Mike, what does this say about automakers' global EV strategies
which seem to be facing headwinds
even outside of the United States?
Yeah, I would say that automakers beyond just Ford
are running into this demand problem all over,
even outside of the US where you had, in some cases,
much more strict government mandates
in terms of the phase out of internal combustion engines
and the banning, in some cases, in various cities.
But it's another sign that companies, including Ford,
really overshot the mark here
in terms of what they thought would be required
to meet that demand in terms of production,
in terms of shifts, in terms of number of plants
building these kind of products.
Another factor to keep in mind here
is that Ford in Europe and the other automakers in Europe
are facing that China threat we keep hearing about
much more acutely than, obviously, we are in the United States
because China's already selling there
and undercutting companies like Ford
and the other legacy brands, in many cases,
with much cheaper EVs.
Yeah, that point on China is very clear.
I mean, in the US, we don't have the competition
of Chinese vehicles, especially for EVs.
All the global markets are so different,
and that is one big differentiator in Europe
that they do have to compete with Chinese vehicles.
And Michael Dunn from Dunn Insights
talked about it at our Congress event.
He was saying that the Europeans are really terrified right now
because the Chinese have the products at a low cost,
they have the technology, and they're winning.
So they're definitely facing some competition there.
Well, Nissan also announced that it's canceling
its ARIA compact EV crossover for the US market.
Now, Hannah, it seems like this trend
of product cancellations and job cuts continued
since we talked about the same thing a couple weeks ago.
Yeah, automakers are definitely recalibrating
based on the EV demand changes
that we talked about, the elimination of the tax credit,
and also tariffs.
There's a lot of factors at play
that are driving these decisions around vehicles
across the board and especially EVs.
And quickly before we end, Mike Volkswagen and the UAW
have been trying to reach a contract for almost a year
at VW's plant in Chattanooga.
This week, VW said this latest contract offer
is its last, best, and final offer.
Mike, how do you interpret the situation in Chattanooga?
Well, the situation's really starting to heat up.
Last, best, and final is a bargaining term
that is pretty self-explanatory.
This is VW saying this is everything we're gonna offer,
can't go up anymore, can't do any better benefits,
take it or leave it.
Now, what happens from here?
There's still a few things that could happen.
The UAW could put this to a vote.
They could call for a strike authorization vote.
They could file unfair labor practices.
Even though it's supposed to be last, best, and final,
we have seen instances where a company will propose that,
the union will reject it,
and they'll come out with an updated last, best, and final.
So it doesn't necessarily mean it's the end,
but it's a pretty clear ploy by VW
to get things moving here in the hopes
that there will be some sort of conclusion.
And you do have to worry also about the fact
that as long as VW has said this,
that they're walking away from the table now,
if the UAW doesn't engage, that could lead to an impasse.
And if that happens,
you could see a third party mediator come in.
Keep in mind, even in the 2023 negotiations
with the Detroit three didn't get to that point.
So a lot still up in the air, a lot could happen,
but after a year, it does seem like it's finally
coming to that end game now.
I can't believe it's been a whole year.
Long time. Crazy, crazy.
Mike, Hannah, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks, Kyle. Thanks.
That's all for this weekend drive edition of Daily Drive.
I'm Kellan Walker.
Thanks to Automotive News executive producer,
Jake Nier for his help on today's podcast.
You can get the latest news on labor talks, electrification
and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.
Come back on Monday for a conversation with Larry Dominique,
president of LD Management Consulting,
about how legacy automakers should respond
to growing competition in China.
There is going to be a big impact on how the legacy Williams
respond to this kind of onslaught, this new technology,
faster manufacturing, software developed vehicles.
So I think it's going to be a profound impact to the industry.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know what you think of the show
and the topics we covered today.
Send us an email at dailydrive at autonews.com
or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.
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