Trade News

Shawn Fain, president of the UAW since March, has declared “war” on the Detroit 3 automakers, with contract demands that even he calls “audacious,” including proposals for a 46 percent raise, a return to traditional pensions and a 32-hour work week.

Now the 54-year-old who began work as an electrician at a Chrysler casting plant in 1994, is threatening to take his 150,000 UAW members out on strike. If he doesn’t have contracts with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler parent Stellantis by the Sept. 14 deadline, the UAW could strike all three simultaneously — something it has never done.

“The deadline is the deadline,” Fain said an interview earlier this month at the UAW’s Solidarity House headquarters along the Detroit River. 

Fain, whose demeanor leans more Sunday school teacher than fire-breathing union leader, has brought back a tough-talking style evoking the labor movement’s roots in America. He’s part of a new generation of leader…

Unifor members at the Detroit 3 automakers followed the lead of the UAW and delivered overwhelming strike mandates, authorizing job action, if the union and the companies can’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Unifor’s current contracts with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis expire at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sept. 18, 2023.

The two sides opened formal negotiations Aug. 10 in Toronto.

Unifor paused negotiations to hold the strike votes over the course of the weekend. The results of the strike votes are tabulated and broken down by company below. The results were similar to the votes by UAW members announced Friday.

On Aug. 27, Unifor said it will continue to provide regular updates on the status of negotiations at the autotalks.ca website.

Union President Lana Payne previously said “members’ expectations are very high.”

“Canadian autoworkers have sent a strong message to [Detroit 3] automak…

BYD said its electronics unit has struck a deal with U.S.-based manufacturer Jabil to buy its mobile electronics manufacturing business in China for 15.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion).

The deal will expand BYD Electronic's customer base, product portfolio and its smartphone components business as it looks to capture Jabil's potential growth in the sector.

Singapore-based Jabil Circuit, which manufactures printed circuit boards, established a unit this month that absorbed its product-manufacturing businesses in Chengdu and Wuxi, which will now be sold to the Chinese group.

Although now best known for its electric vehicle business, BYD started out by selling electronic components. In 2007, it listed its BE unit on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

BE's major business has been selling electronic components for consumer electronics products such as smartphones and laptops. This was one of three key business segments for BYD Electronic, accounting for more…

HONG KONG -- Chinese EV maker Xpeng said it would buy Didi's electric car development business in a deal worth up to $744 million that will see it supply vehicles to the ride-hailing giant, boosting production and cutting costs.

The all-stock deal with Didi calls for Xpeng to launch an A-class model next year under a new brand, in a project called MONA, which will be priced in the 150,000 yuan ($20,000) price tier. Xpeng's current offerings are mostly priced above 200,000 yuan.

The deal comes after Xpeng and Volkswagen Group in July announced a partnership in which VW will invest $700 million in Xpeng and the two companies jointly develop electric vehicles in China.

"As an EV startup, we are not as skilled as established automakers like Volkswagen in terms of scale and cost management in the 150,000 yuan segment ... the partnership with Didi will ensure better-than-expected initial scale for the car …

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor Co.'s unionized workers have won permission to go on strike, the union said on Monday, raising the probability of the company's first wage-related industrial action in five years.

The National Labor Relations Commission, a South Korean government organization that handles labor disputes, cleared the way for strike action at the country's top car maker, the Hyundai Motor union said in a statement.

The commission recognized large differences in positions between the company's management and union, Yonhap News Agency said on Monday. A commission spokesperson was not available for comment.

The union said it would gather on Wednesday to decide what the next move would be. Members had voted on Friday to walk out unless the company accepted demands for wage increases and an extension of the retirement age.

Union officials have said they would continue talks with management regardless.

If the strike goes forward, it would be …

The ordinary orange construction cone has become a symbol of resistance in an insurgency against self-driving vehicles.

Members of a group called Safe Street Rebel started placing construction cones atop the hoods of robotaxis last month in San Francisco. The action renders the cars unable to continue driving until a human removes the cones or reboots their systems.

The vigilantes began their vehicular mischief — it quickly became known as "coning" — ahead of a controversial vote this month in which the California Public Utilities Commission approved the expansion of commercial self-driving service throughout the city.

That green light came over the objections of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and city police and fire department officials, all who said self-driving vehicles often interfere with emergency responders and cause traffic fiascos.

Both Waymo and Cruise, the two robotaxi companies operating…

It wasn't all that long ago that big-box retailers had to devote dozens of feet of shelf space to stock the proprietary power cords that every electronics maker required to recharge their individual devices. It was an inefficient mess of a system in what was then a wild, fledgling industry. But on the other end of most of that myriad of early cords was the same small, innocuous rectangle: The Universal Serial Bus A, or USB-A.

First developed in 1995, the USB-A helped impose some small bit of order on that chord chaos, and over the next 15 years, its functionality and capacities expanded to deliver at least five — and up to ten — times its original 1.5 watts of power and exponentially more data, up to 15 gigabites per second.

But now 25 years on, the USB-A's original flaws — its tricky, one-way-or-nothing connection; its data and power limitations; its oversized form in a world of downsized electronics — have made it obsolete. And it's being rep…

2 Cs or not 2 Cs? That's the USB question for automakers

It wasn't all that long ago that big-box retailers had to devote dozens of feet of shelf space to stock the proprietary power cords that every electronics maker required to recharge their individual devices. It was an inefficient mess of a system in what was then a wild, fledgling industry. But on the other end of most of that myriad of early cords was the same small, innocuous rectangle: The Universal Serial Bus A, or USB-A.

First developed in 1995, the USB-A helped impose some small bit of order on that chord chaos, and over the next 15 years, its functionality and capacities expanded to deliver at least five — and up to ten — times its original 1.5 watts of power and exponentially more data, up to 15 gigabites per second.

But now 25 years on, the USB-A's original flaws — its tricky, one-way-or-nothing connection; its data and power limitations; its oversized form in a world of downsized electr…

DETROIT — Hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles may not be dying as fast as some predicted in the auto sector’s rush to develop all-electric models.

Ford Motor Co. is the latest of several top automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Chrysler parent Stellantis, planning to build and sell hundreds of thousands of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. over the next five years, industry forecasters told Reuters.

The companies are pitching hybrids as an alternative for retail and commercial customers who are seeking more sustainable transportation, but may not be ready to make the leap to a full electric vehicle.

"Hybrids really serve a lot of America," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at New York-based investment manager Ingalls & Snyder. "Hybrid is a great alternative to a pure electric vehicle (and) it's an easier sell to a lot of customers."

Interest in hybrids is rebounding as consumer demand for pure electrics has not accelerated …

Thilo Koslowski, board member for Arbe and a longtime industry advisor, says traditional automakers must change their cultures and attitudes now to keep their status in the future. He predicts that 10 percent of legacy automakers will be redefined or defunct because they failed to embrace the digital transformation.

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