Sept. 20, 2025 | Weekend Drive: Ford’s HQ move; EVs surge ahead of tax credit sunset

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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

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