Increased labor costs are potentially insurmountable and uncontrollable challenges facing the automobile industry for the government mandates in wealthy countries for lower emission EV’s.
Published September 15, 2023 at Heartland Institute https://heartland.org/opinion/will-the-uaw-strike-perpetuate-the-death-spiral-already-mandated-for-the-automobile-industry/
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for Heartland, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”
The UAW strike that began September 15th by 146,000 UAW union members seeking a 46 percent pay raise, and a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, and restoration of traditional pensions, will most likely have one of two outcomes, both of which may perpetuate the death spiral for the automobile industry.
- Increased cost of American manufacturing which will further increase the cost of EV’s that are already unaffordable to most, and/or,
- Increasing the cost of U.S. manufacturing, may result in more offshore manufacturing needed which may decimate U.S. stateside manufacturing.
The UAW members are not fazed by death spiral already mandated for the automobile industry. The few healthy and wealthy countries of the United States of America, Germany, the UK, and Australia representing 6 percent of the world’s population (505 million vs 7.8 billion) are mandating social changes to achieve zero emissions via EV’s that may be fueling (no pun intended) a death spiral for the automobile industry.
Simply put, in those healthy and wealthy countries, every person, animal, or anything that causes emissions to harmfully rise could vanish off the face of the earth; or even die off, and global emissions will still explode in the coming years and decades ahead over the population and economic growth of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and Africa.
The UAW wants a more lucrative package and are not concerned with the “pieces of the EV puzzle” that may be the formula for an automobile industry death spiral:
- Extremely limited supply chain for the lithium to make current technology EV batteries.
- Lack of sufficient number of buyers, outside the elite profile of existing EV owners
- Shortage and inflation for all the material supplies to make vehicles.
- Due to EV battery fire potentials, questionable means of transporting EV’s from foreign manufacturers to the USA consumers.
- Concern about renewable electricity being able to charge EV batteries.
- The Governments’ lack of ethical, moral, and social responsibilities, by encouraging the exploitations of people with yellow, brown, and black skin that are mining for exotic minerals and metals in poorer developing countries to support the green movement in wealthy countries.
Where are the batteries?
The UAW race is on for a better contract, while the race is on to produce more lithium in the United States as the supply chain for the major component of EV batteries, lithium, is already being compromised internationally. The following international dark clouds on the lithium supply chain may be a prelude to an American rejection of strip mining in the most environmentally regulated and controlled communities in the world:
The Chilean Supreme Court stopped the mining of lithium in Salar de Atacama, Chile – a huge chunk of terrain that holds 55 percent of the world’s known deposits of lithium.
- Initiatives around the world to open mines and ore processing plants have caused a public uproar as environmentalists and the local population are fearful about the impact on nature and people’s livelihoods.
- The European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) risk assessment committee is aiming at labelling three lithium compounds as dangerous for human health.
Where are the buyers?
Fair wages are number one to UAW, while EV’s are already unaffordable to most. The current EV ownership profiles are reflected in the oligarchic elite that are highly educated, highly compensated, multi-car families, with low mileage requirements for the families second car, are dramatically different from most vehicle owners that are single-car owners, not highly educated, nor highly compensated. Mandating a change to EV ownership and further austerity may face a rebellion from those that need transportation.
Where is the transportation from the foreign manufacturers to the car dealers?
Increasing production costs in the U.S. may increase manufacturing outside the borders of America. In 2019, China, Japan, India, Germany, and South Korea were manufactured more than 50 million vehicles compared to the 11 million that were manufactured in the USA
Bringing those foreign built cars to America may be an insurmountable insurance problem. The Felicity Ace, a 650-foot-long cargo ship carrying hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of luxury cars sunk in March 2022. The salvage crew working on the burning ship said electric-vehicle batteries were part of the reason it was still aflame after several days. The estimated market value of the Felicity Ace was $24.5 million, while the total value of the 3965 vehicles was over $500 million.
With potential fires from the EV batteries in vehicles, who is going to take the insurance responsibility for their safe passage from the foreign manufacturers to American ports, the cargo ships, or the manufacturers?
Where are the vehicle materials?
Most people, as well as UAW members, do not know that crude oil is useless unless it can be manufactured into something usable. All the material for the EV, from electronics, plastics, glass, leather, tires, etc. are all made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.
Today’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) divesting in fossil fuels are all the rage to divest in all fossil fuels. ESG is working but will result in shortages and inflation as the new norm as society’s demands for the products from crude oil are exceeding the supply from the diminishing number of manufacturers.
There were almost 700 oil refineries in the world as of January 2020, but as a result on continuous over regulations, permitting delays, aging equipment, over the next five years 20 percent of the them are projected to close. That is a whopping 140 manufacturers that will close. Shortages and inflation in perpetuity may be the new norm as society’s demands for the products manufactured from crude oil are continually exceeding the supply from the diminishing number of manufacturers.
Where is the electricity?
The government’s zest for zero emissions electricity in favor of intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine are eliminating coal fired and natural gas power plants that have been generating continuous uninterruptable electricity.
We have all read about the concerns toward “grid stability” to be able to charge those EV batteries. Well, the UK may have given the world a heads-up on why electricity rates may be rising in perpetuity.
In the UK, their concerns for grid stability with fewer and fewer continuous uninterruptible power generations facilities has implemented regulations that went into force in June 2022, that restrict charging times.
In the UK, new chargers in the home and workplace now automatically switch off in peak times to avoid potential blackouts. New UK chargers are pre-set to not function during 9-hours of peak loads, from 8am to 11am (3-hours), and 4pm to 10pm (6-hours).
In addition, all home installed UK electric vehicle chargers are required to be separately metered and send this information to a Smart meter data communications network. Potentially, this UK legislation allows the electricity used for charging EVs to be charged and taxed at a higher rate than domestic electricity. Obviously, the EV electricity users are the ones that will be paying to upgrade and maintain the grid.
Where is the ethical, moral, and social responsibility for the lithium supplies to meet the mandate toward EV’s?
The Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy, does an excellent job of discussing the lack of transparency to the environmental degradation and humanity atrocities occurring in developing countries mining for those exotic minerals and metals to support the “green” movement.
The subsidies to purchase EV’s are financial incentives to encourage further exploitations of yellow, brown, and black skin residents in developing countries. Are those subsidies ethical, moral, and socially responsible to those being exploited?
In summary, the UAW strikers want more compensation and are not influenced by the passion of the few wealthy countries to achieve zero emissions at any cost, will face major supply chain issues of lithium and all body parts, affordability, safety from spontaneous fires, availability and affordability of electricity from breezes and sunshine, and the ethical challenges that are exploiting folks in poorer countries, just for the elites to drive an EV manufactured by the few that survive the government mandated death spiral.
Ronald Stein, P.E.
Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure
http://www.energyliteracy.net/
Fossil fuels are therefore cheaper, more reliable and better for the environment provided CO2 is not a climate driver.
We all know it is not but will the rest of the world ever realise that ?
no but they don;t wah to pay higher costs either
Yes, when they are freezing in the dark.
Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute Mark Mills has done a detailed study including comparing the life-cycle CO2 emissions of equivalent battery-powered and ICE vehicles:
“… ICE bans will lead to a massive misallocation of capital in the world’s $4 trillion personal mobility industry. It will also lead to draconian constraints on freedoms and unprecedented impediments to affordable and convenient driving. And it will have little to no impact on global CO2 emissions. In fact, the bans and EV mandates are more likely to cause a net increase in emissions“.
“Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim” (George Santayana).
Shifting production to Mexico would be an option.
Who would Mexico get to do the production? They’ve all moved to the United States.
s. In fact, the bans and EV mandates are more likely to cause a net increase in emissions“.
in the same Breathe he argues that Nobody knows how much c02 emmisions will decrease from
ICE bans.
selective ignorance
Whereas your ignorance is permanent. !
What you are saying is that Chinese manufacturing emissions don’t count.
And the emissions from burning transport ships don’t matter.
Because, for sure the CO2 emissions for running an EV are highly unlikely to decrease, since they will all RELY on Gas and Coal electricity
I hope you are driving only an EV… would be very hypocritical if you weren’t, wouldn’t it.
Does whichever climate trough you are now swilling from pay you enough for that sort of virtue-seeking ??
Will The UAW Strike Perpetuate the Death Spiral Already Mandated for The Automobile Industry?
YES! At least for “the big three”.
The legacy costs from UAW pensioners already had them headed that direction before any of demands of the government for EVs came about.
The fundamental problems that lead GM and Chrysler to the brink of insolvency during the last great recession did not change after the “Too big to fail” bailout and so the path was already set for their eventual demise even before the issue of EVs came up.
Add to that the massive losses due to the chip shortage a couple years ago. At the truck plant in Ft. Wayne, IN (Actually Roanoke) they had fields full of trucks parked out by the local airport. To satisfy the UAW they had continued to build new vehicles despite not having the chips for them. As they came off the line they put a chip in them and then drove them the short distance to those fields, parked them, took out the chip, and then went back to get more. A GM employe told me about a year ago they had crushed 30,000 new vehicles due to rodent damage that occurred while vehicles without chips were parked and they were still at it.
For want of a nail…
30,000 new vehicles due to rodent damage
Amazing, if true.
I find only the “my brother-in-law told me” story.
I realize local papers have few reporters, but this would be news.
The 30,000 was for all of GM and not just the truck plant in Ft. Wayne. GM parked over 280,000 due to lack of chips so I would bet that 30,000 is conservative.
The big 3 would have gone out of business back when Obama was president, except the Democrats passed bills that had the government subsidizing many of their pension costs.
It appears that the only lesson the unions learned from that near death experience is that no matter how much they demand, the government will cover it.
Unions are a death knell for any industry that they take over.
That’s UAW logic for ya!
BYD cars are already about 20% cheaper than Tesla. Other western car makers have even less experience of electric vehicles than Tesla or the Chinese.
Toyota may be able to compete through better battery technology. But the rest of the legacy carmakers are not a good investment.
Once you get past the explosive quality issues with BYD vehicles…
They must be of good quality because their rate of warranty repairs is low.
Thought I might provide a little inside baseball. When I hired in as a driver for Carter Express in 2007 GM was the single largest customer for the company. That changed during the last great recession. That recession nearly did the company in.
Now the company’s customer base is still centered on the automotive industry, with Toyota being their single largest customer. Long before I hired in Carter had been the primary carrier for TENNECO which makes Monroe shocks and struts and supplies many exhaust system components to most of the Auto manufacturers.
After recovering from the recession the company has grown by leaps and bounds.
Though I am now retired I still have plenty of contacts in the company and try to keep up with how things are going.
One of those contacts sent me this letter put out by the management this week:
Subject: UAW Strike Information
To:
Dear Carter Team Members,
I’m certain you’ve seen the headlines covering the UAW Auto Workers’ strike against the Big 3 Domestic Automakers. As you know, the main commodity that Carter hauls is auto parts for OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and Tier 1 auto parts suppliers (suppliers that directly serve the OEMs, like Tenneco and Purem). We do very little business directly with the Big 3 automakers, but our Tier 1 Supplier customers do service those OEMs.
We are watching this strike closely as it has the potential to affect our shared milkrun customers like Tenneco and Purem. We are hopeful that the union and the automakers can come to terms quickly. If they are unable to do so and the strike causes a prolonged shut down, it could force our customers to shut down as well, which will cause them to temporarily cancel our transportation services.
Please note that this strike does not affect two of our largest customers, Toyota and Honda, or any of their suppliers. Therefore, the majority of our operations and our drivers will proceed as normal even if this strike is prolonged. However, if prolonged, the strike has the ability to temporarily cancel the majority of our shared milkrun routes which could affect up to 80 drivers and the associated support personnel. If they are able to come to terms over the weekend or early next week, it will not affect our operations and things will proceed as normal.
We are monitoring the situation and talking frequently with our customers that could be affected. You have our word that we will be communicating frequently and transparently with you as we learn more. It is always a good idea to have a “rainy day” fund for unforeseen situations, and this could become one of those situations. Please let us know if you have questions or concerns at this point, you can reply all to this email or reach out to a member of the management team. Please also keep an eye out for future communications. Lastly, if praying is something that you do, please join us in prayers for the union leaders and auto executives that they can reach a mutually beneficial agreement that provides fair pay for honest work and keeps our domestic automakers competitive in this global manufacturing environment.
Thank you for all you do and stay safe out there.
Oh, and BTW, years ago when GM was the company’s largest customer, the Teamsters showed up to meet with the owner, Mr. John Paugh. They plopped paper sacks holding 4 million dollars on his desk to bribe him to allow a vote for the union to come in. Mr. Paugh refused.
During the recession the company was saved when Hitachi bought controlling interest. They kept Mr. Paugh and all the management team on without putting any of their own people in. Today Jessica, Johns daughter is the CEO with John keeping tabs, and the company has been doing great.
Such integrity and transparency is not often seen.
There were several reasons why I drove for them for over 15 years and retired from there. There were times I was driven hard and put away wet. But your going to get that with any job. And besides when your a trouble shooter you’ve got to expect that sometimes. Trouble comes in clusters usually.
Did you ever run into Biden? He said that he used to drive a big rig.
Haaa!
You mean in between the time he stood up to Corn Pop, or was teaching political theory at the University of Pennsylvania, or when he was playing football on the varsity team, or was talking to a dead Amtrack conductor, or wasn’t busy watching a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, or visiting the 9/11 attack sight, or working on plagiarizing more stuff?
When he was VP I was held up coming back east on the I-270 Bypass around Clevland due to his motorcade coming through. That is as close as I have ever been to that scumbag.
I think you meant either I-271 around Cleveland or I-270 around Columbus?
Cleveland. Drove it many a time when going back and forth on I-90 heading east and then coming back. From the terminal I-69 N to I-469 E, to US 30 E, to I-76 N at Mansfield, OH. to I-480 E, to I-271 E, to I-90 E.
More often than not heading to and from Tonawanda, NY, auto parts going in and high temp insulation coming back, but plenty of times hauling Nestle’s loads and going further east to the MA and sometimes up to ME to get my back haul of either paper from a mill or Canoes from Old Town.
😎
Hope I didn’t sound like I was nit-picking.
We’ve lived in the Columbus area for over 30 years now.
My wife grew up in the Cleveland area. I grew up in Northern KY.
Familiar with the roads.
Glad to hear I wasn’t as close to Brandon as you were! 😎
Also plenty of loads of Pepsi cans from Ball container going to Ayre, MA.
I didn’t realize I had typed I-270 instead of I-271. Sorry.
Speaking of held up, I wonder how many hundreds of trains and tens of thousands of commuters riding on Amtrak’s NE Corridor were held up so Ol’ Lunch Bucket Joe wouldn’t be inconvenienced on his DE-DC commute.
Good job Hunter wasn’t the then CEO!
There’s no escaping our death spiral
“”Sunak commits to 2030 petrol and diesel ban saying a change of policy would be damaging to the industry””
https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/sunak-commits-to-2030-petrol-and-diesel-ban-saying-a-change-of-policy-would-be-damaging-to-the-industry/289830
He is Doubling Down on Stupid.
That’s what fanatics do.
What “industry”?
Story tip
“”uncontrollable challenges””….
“”Fears over solar panel safety as number of fires rises six-fold
…
NHS worker Tracey Adams and her 13-year-old son Leo were forced from their West London home when a fire last month sparked by solar panels on their roof tore through their council house.
…
the pair have been forced to live in three different budget bed and breakfasts since the blaze, which left the building declared too unstable for them to return to.””
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/fears-over-solar-panel-safety-as-number-of-fires-rises-six-fold/ar-AA1gNz5x
I don’t understand the “Big Three” incentive for not letting the UAW strike. The government pays management with the subsidies.
Now they’re subsidy farmers, not carmakers.
If they have to build cars, they have to build a certain number of EVs they can’t sell. Which means they eventually lose money by keeping the plants open. Sounds like the UAW is doing them a favor.
I don’t see this being settled any time soon. I just hope Honda, Toyota and Subaru somehow keep making real cars. Either that, or mechanics start hoarding parts now, because the cars we have need to last a long time.
That’s Bidenomics for you. Pay the CEOs to move manufacturing overseas in order to meet “Net Zero” (whatever that means). Screw blue-collar Americans. Exploit slave labor in foreign countries. And 10% for the “Big Guy.”
When the history books are written, the demise of the auto industries in the west will be attributed to the Unions.
… and the politicians and the climate ‘scientists’.
The unions are the ones funding the politicians, who fund the climate ‘scientists’. The left tries to scream that Citizens United allowed corporations to be considered people and ruined politics. The truth is Citizens United merely ruled that corporations have the same status as unions. Democrats controlling controlling Congress at the time could have blocked the corporate funding of elections, by knew they couldn’t survive without union kickbacks.
exploiting folks in poorer countries
Countries aren’t poor, people are. There is no shortage of poor people in the “developed” world. What about them? Aren’t they exploited as well? Most of the West operates under the ideas of the Protestant work ethic and applies that same thinking to the rest of the world. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. While Western culture defines “children” as anyone under thirty, other cultures expect their younger members to contribute to the well-being of the family. What justifies the West’s attempt to impose their own ethics on others? A good example is this article originally from Bloomberg. Story tip.
What is classified as “poor” in western countries, is not the squalid poor I saw in my travels to places like Liberia and Nigeria. In Liberia we had to put CS powder on our garbage, which also included medical waste, or the women would come at night and root through it.
In the US popular “dumpster diving” is foiled by locking the receptacles up in order to prevent unauthorized deposits. The poor scavanging for discarded food or clothing are completely out of luck.
If you think that the poor in third world countries walking around in rags and shoeless with no support systems of any kind is somehow equivalent to what is classified as poor in this country, then I suspect your heading towards your Little Big Horn. Hopefully reality, when and if it hits you, is not as harsh as it was for Custer and the men of the 7th.
I have never seen a dumpster that was “locked”?
To the extent that this does happen, you can blame the lawyers. If someone gets hurt dumpster diving, you can almost guarantee that they will sue the owner of the dumpster for failing to keep them out.
BTW there were not dumpsters. We dug a garbage pit that we periodically burned off. And we weren’t in the boonies. We were located in the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital, on a military base.
I thought that was pepper jack cheese.
I used to work with a Chinese immigrant that moved here (legally). He told me that his incentive was that he noticed even the poor in the U.S. were fat. He wanted to go to somewhere that had food.
I’m sure there were other factors but survival was his prime motivator.
Where exactly is the definition of children “under thirty”?
Most of the west also operates under the Ten Commandments and freely gives charity food stuffs to the poor countries or like Moroccan folks who had a disaster.
The people who are truly harming the poor now are those trying to rid the world of CO2 emissions. Their efforts are driving up the cost of energy, driving out some energy supply, and forcing child labor to mine the minerals needed to make batteries.
It is not the Protestant work ethic causing the exploitation of the poor it’s stupid liberal unscientific ideas.
In the US, the poverty line is defined as a certain fraction (30%?) of the median income. This means that no matter how wealthy the country, there will always be poor people.
The reality is that the poverty line in the US would count as upper middle class in most of the rest of the world.
As for the Protestant work ethic, what is wrong with the belief that you need to work for your living?
Do you believe that demanding that others work to support you is superiour?
“In the US, the poverty line is defined as a certain fraction (30%?) of the median income. “
What a convenient way to ignore the issue Mark and stay on your high horse. And of course a simple check finds you have just made this up. So the truth is….. Poverty in the US is determined by…
“using an official poverty measure (OPM) that compares pre-tax cash income against a threshold that is set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 and adjusted for family size.”
Simon lives in a world entirely of his own making.
So you lied Mark and a despicable one at that. And your effort to correct that is you put me down. What a sad excuse for a man you are…… pathetic.
The myth that EVs are zero emmission.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3149905521978832
Great video.
got my fingers crossed
Fair wages are number one to UAW
I wouldn’t just quote that assertion. Fair wages would produce affordable goods – functional autos that people would voluntarily buy – and keep the business going.
Notice that no one is withholding anything from those auto-purchasers to coerce their buying – unlike UAW withholding labor from the factories to coerce those ‘fair’ wages.
Coercion is a nasty way to run a society.
To most of those on the left, the definition of a “fair” wage, is always “more than they are making now”. Regardless of whatever they are making now.
The true definition of a “fair” wage is one that both the employee and employer agree on when there is no coercion involved.
And having a union that will beat the sh!t out of anyone who tries to cross a picket line is coercion.
A good skeptical proof-reader for such stories would be nice. Consider the underlined words.
“… that causes emissions to harmfully rise
“… different from most vehicle owners that are single-car owners, not highly educated, nor highly compensated.”
Why is “harmfully” used? Unharmfully works just as well.
Instead of “most”, the word many could work, but the three adjective clauses get in each other’s way and confuse the issue.
There is a key difference between many and most. Many just means “a lot”, while most means “more than half”.
Between the UAW demand for lots of pay and benefits for less and less work, and Biden pushing the green new deal masquerading as the inflation reduction act, we can all say good bye to the US auto industry. The UAW is following the example of the USW (United Steel Workers) who eventually priced US steel out of the world market, but apparently they live for the moment. I admit their wages aren’t keeping up with Biden’s inflation, but they voted for the SOB. As Saint Obama once said (approximately) “Elections have consequences.” PS: Who is the UAW supporting in 2024?
Big Labor Unions are a key special interest for democrats. Maybe a revolt by Big Labor will temper some of the extremist agenda?
I was going to say inject common sense into the debate, but that’s not accurate.
You know it will probably be a moot point because on heck of a lot of people aren’t going to be able to afford a new car, truck, SUV if things keep going they way they are.
Democrats Don’t Want You To See This: Five Charts on ‘Bidenomics’ – Analyzing America
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for Heartland, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”
The UAW strike that began September 15th by 146,000 UAW union members seeking a 46 percent pay raise, and a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, and restoration of traditional pensions, will most likely have one of two outcomes, both of which may perpetuate the death spiral for the automobile industry.
A. Im pretty sure WUWT will be the last stand for ICE lovers.
I love how skeptical geniuses see all the problems, but none of he solutions.
basically life and science is passing you by.
you realize youre dinosaurs, and think you alone can spot the weaknesses in changing technology.
ICE is dead because fossil fuels are dead.
What do you drive Steven? And how far do you drive?
And so typical of your type. Little kids digging holes mining caustic with not protection of any kind. No Problem.
moosh’s little fantasy world.
So funny !
ICE don’t need a solution, especially not EVs.
What “emission problem” exist are purely political, and not based on any reality.
The transition to EV’s which are totally impractical, very expensive, and without coal and gas, will be very unreliable, is pure fantasy, and based on absolutely nothing real.
Do you drive and EV yet, moosh ?
Does whichever climate trough you are currently swilling from pay you enough to do that ?
“basically life and science is passing you by.”
You have NO life… and you have absolutely ZERO science.
You are just a sad little puppet. !
The left is told anything different is progress, anyone objecting to them is a Luddite, and they are all stupid or egotistical enough to believe it.
1) The prices are not coming down much at all. Government policies make the difference between ICE and EV artificially closer.
2) Any advances in automation can also be applied to ICE. There is no trend that points to EV’s costing less than ICE.
3) Every single person that’s looked into lithium manufacturing knows it is a problem. And as if EV demand wouldn’t be enough to take up all capacity, the increased demand for data centers for AI and 3-D will wipe out all capacity as well.
As far as I am aware, the UK requirement for chargers to be separately metered is to be able to shut them down when there is not enough power on the grid to charge them.
Thank you for that summary, which even the most technically-illiterate political nominee should be able to understand. How can I get a copy to send to every aspiring politician in our country? We have a nationwide General Election next month here in New Zealand, yet almost every political speech seems to repeat the pro-EV nonsense which can never happen!
The industry economics of automaking are the worst of any industry I can think of: massive upfront capex, low margins and low barriers to entry. The high ratio of fixed to variable cost means that competitors (Asian) may price at marginal cost making full-cost margins negative. Product differentiation is generally low forcing price competition. Legacy producers carry huge legacy post-retirement benefit expense. Most producers are unionized. Is there anything good to say about automaking? Certainly the stock market doesn’t think so.
With potential fires from the EV batteries in vehicles, who is going to take the insurance responsibility for their safe passage from the foreign manufacturers to American ports, the cargo ships, or the manufacturers?With potential fires from the EV batteries in vehicles, who is going to take the insurance responsibility for their safe passage from the foreign manufacturers to American ports, the cargo ships, or the manufacturers?
This is known as an externalility.
bottom line post WWII the united states Made the oceans safe for Shipping.
Our investment in a blue water Navy dedicated to inforcing open seas.
allowed for global shipping to Thrive.
allowed Oil to be shipped through narrow straits without fear of sabotage. we bore this cost.
and others benefitted.
imagine what goods would cost if ships had to be protected through the straits of mallaca
as for EV batteries they wont be on he open seas
we will build them here.
with us Lithium
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a45086253/worlds-largest-lithium-deposit-found-in-nevada/
Another load on incoherent nonsense gibberish from a failed pigeon-english student.
You can tell the part that he copy/pasted… it is literate.
The rest is so much gobbledy-goop that it is pointless trying to formulate a reply. !
from the popmech article
But of course, that won’t matter to the “greenie” agenda. !
Lithium to save the environment.. Hilarious. !
The goose seems to be sick and the UAW is squeezing it trying to make it lay a bigger egg.
Bye bye.
The unions have already killed the steel industry.
They would have already killed the auto industry, but Obama stepped in with massive subsidies to help them, This time, I don’t know if there is enough money in the US budget to save the auto industry.
Too easy. Just import subsidized cheap coal fired EVs from China-
Europe’s influx of affordable Chinese electric cars causes political flashpoint (msn.com)
The unemployed can catch the bus or ride wooden bicycles or some such as the elites need more subsidized chargers to get about-
“Backflip and betrayal:” NSW scraps rebates and stamp duty exemptions for EVs (thedriven.io)
PS: You need to strangle affordable choices for the deplorables off the road with ever tougher ICE emissions Regs that carmakers can’t meet of course-
Mercedes-Benz Accused Of Using Defeat Devices, Faced Recalls In Germany (motor1.com)
The US car industry has rebuilt itself into selling really expensive, ridiculously over featured bunches of junk – EV or ICE variants are the least of the problems.
If you look at what people are driving where cars are actually being sold (i.e. China, Russia, India etc) – they are driving ICE cars made in China.
In this context, the UAW people are not the issue – it is their management.
Look at what they are demanding: their average hourly pay is $14 to $21 an hour. It is hardly outrageous.