Electric vehicle skepticism from auto workers puts Biden in a tough spot

[mahatmakanejeeves]

ECONOMIC POLICY

Electric vehicle skepticism from auto workers puts Biden in a tough spot

White House faces an awkward balancing act as UAW negotiates contract with automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis

By Jeanne Whalen
July 10, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

As contract negotiations between big automakers and the United Auto Workers get underway this week, President Biden faces an awkward balancing act between high-profile priorities: Championing labor rights and advancing green-energy policy.

The UAW’s new leadership has sounded a string of alarms in recent weeks about the Biden-backed push toward electric vehicles, criticizing the relatively low pay workers are earning at one new battery factory and blasting the closure of older gasoline-vehicle factories. In contract negotiations with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the UAW’s priorities include ensuring that workers at older factories can transition to new EV jobs, and securing pay and benefits for EV workers that match those in the gasoline era.

The union has also directed unusual ire at Biden, a longtime ally of the labor movement, asking why the government is using billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize battery and EV factories without requiring strong pay.

If progress isn’t made on the multiyear contracts covering roughly 150,000 UAW workers, some plants could go on strike as early as September. ... For their part, the companies have said they are committed to creating thousands of new union jobs with attractive wages, while also controlling costs in an increasingly competitive global industry.

{snip}

Lauren Kaori Gurley contributed to this report.

Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3NCZANK

By Jeanne Whalen
Jeanne Whalen is a reporter covering business around the world. She previously reported for the Wall Street Journal from New York, London and Moscow. Twitter https://twitter.com/JeanneWhalen

[progree]

1. Well, that may help clear out some excess EV inventory

Last edited Mon Jul 10, 2023, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Unsold electric cars are piling up on dealer lots, Axios, 7/10/23

EV sales, which account for about 6.5% of the U.S. auto market so far this year, are expected to surpass 1 million units for the first time in 2023, Cox forecasts.

... Sales aren't keeping up with that increased output. Details:

The nationwide supply of EVs in stock has swelled nearly 350% this year, to more than 92,000 units.

That's a 92-day supply — roughly three months' worth of EVs, and nearly twice the industry average.

For comparison, dealers have a relatively low 54 days' worth of gasoline-powered vehicles in inventory as they rebound from pandemic-related supply chain interruptions.

In normal times, there's usually a 70-day supply.

... Hybrid vehicles have much lower inventory levels, supporting Toyota's argument that consumers want a stepping stone to fully electric cars.

More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/unsold-electric-cars-are-piling-up-on-dealer-lots/ar-AA1dEXeJ

Re: "supporting Toyota's argument that consumers want a stepping stone to fully electric cars."

This Toyota marketing piece (link below) slams plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles ("battery electric vehicles" or "BEVs" ), and tout the benefits of non-plug-in hybrids (aka traditional hybrid). Makes sense reading that piece, until one realizes that every foot that traditional hybrid vehicle moves is propelled by burning gasoline. It just does it in a more efficient way (e.g. utilizing regenerative braking). So essentially from a climate standpoint and gasoline-burning standpoint, a traditional hybrid is a higher mpg version of a regular gasoline ICE car.

Which is good. But cutting gasoline consumption by a third or so is not carbon neutral by a long shot.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127163999

I'm confused about what that graphic is trying to say -- how can one vehicle use 90 times the raw materials as another if they weigh approximatedly the same? So I assume that "raw materials" means certain critical minerals.

I couldn't enlarge the graphic to read the footnotes, until I clicked on the link to the source Jalopnik article. Then on that article I could zoom my Edge browser enough to easily read the footnotes. But the footnotes don't say hardly anything, little more than long URLs that one must tediously type in (since it's a graphic) in order to check out those URLs. I haven't done that yet.