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First lets touch on the parts shortage and plant closures. Toyota has announced that they will be cutting global production in November. They will be cutting production by about 15% but the global procurement manager said, “I think we are over the worst period.” This is much better than the 40% reduction in September and October as Toyota seems to have a much better handle on the semiconductor shortage than the big 3 in the US. Even with a 15% reduction in vehicles produced, I still expect that Toyota will be the #1 light vehicle manufacturer in the US by quite a long shot beating GM who has held the title for many years.
Ford is suspending output today at their plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. This plant makes the Bronco Sport and Maverick pickup. Ford is stating that the parts shortage is the reason for this closure and as stated in previous episodes these models were announced to have limited production.
GM is extending downtime for the Bolt EV. This is mostly due to a shortage of battery packs. GM recently has to recall all of their Bolts, again, due to batteries catching on fire. It looks like they are having trouble replacing all of the current Bolts batteries and continuing production of new bolts. This recall has really strained the relationship between LG and GM. LG being the battery supplier for the Bolt plant. In a recent agreement GM has stated that LG will pay $1.9B of the $2B costs for the recall.
The big 3 automakers invoke a vaccine mandate for employees in Canada. They will require all employees, contractors and visitors at their Canadian facilities be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and show proof beginning later this year.
Vietnamese auto manufacturer VinFast will begin taking orders for their vehicles in the US in the first half of 2022. VinFast will be unveiling 2 of their latest EV models at the Los Angeles auto show in November. These vehicles are the VF e35 and VF e36. VinFast was founded in 2017 and have their assembly plant in Haiphong, Vietnam. They plan on doing most of there US sales online but have talked about as many as 60 US showroom locations in the next year.
John Deere looks like they are having some trouble as more than 10,000 Deer and Co. workers go on strike after the United Auto Workers Unions were unable to deliver a new contract that they could agree on. UAW President Ray Curry said, “The almost one million UAW retirees and active members stand in solidarity with the striking UAW members at John Deere”. The last strike against John Deere was 35 years ago but after working long hard hours during the pandemic, the workforce was much more emboldened to ask for what they feel they deserve.
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