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Chevrolet announced this week that Bolt production will be down the rest of the year. GM is having trouble replacing all of the batteries in recalled bolts let alone produce new vehicles. Keep in mind that this is still one of the first attempts at an all electric vehicle by one of the big 3 US automakers and it has gone up in flames, literally.
Ford isn’t doing much better. Despite the fact that they are barely able to produce any vehicles right now the CEO of Ford, Jim Farley, is claiming they will double EV production capacity in the next two years. Farley said in an interview recently, “The demand is so much higher than we expected,” and “It’s a really new experience for this big company, trying to be agile.” I found this hilarious because they are making promises like these huge auto manufacturers are going to be able to completely reinvent themselves after 100+ years of doing things the same way with a very different type of product. I think it was best put by Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest. Ark Invest is an investment company with over $60 billion in managed assets that specialize in technology investing. When the CEO was asked why she had no confidence in GM and Ford in the EV market she stated, “they don’t have the DNA for this brave new world” of electric vehicles. I think that is very well put but I don’t doubt that our tax dollars will go to subsidize these multi billion dollar companies until they figure it out.
Stellantis just layed off around 400 workers at the Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere Illinois. They said the layoffs will take effect on Jan 14th. This plant assembles the Jeep Cherokee and on the 10th of this month Stellantis sent a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) to the employees affected, the city of Belvidere and the UAW. The automaker said in a statement, “As we continue to balance global sales with production of the Jeep Cherokee produced at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, which has been further exacerbated by the unprecedented global microchip shortage, Stellantis has determined that additional staffing actions are needed as a result of changes in the plant’s operations.” I’m sure the procurement team that is failing to supply parts to the facilities will still be cashing their huge paychecks as their lack of foresight and planning and inability to think outside the box will add another 400 hard working people to the unemployment line. Seems fair to me.
Toyota is looking at building a multi billion dollar battery plant just outside of Greensboro, NC. They have not madea final decision yet but the automaker is expected to team up with Panasonic in this operation. Toyota as well as most large automakers are earmarking several billions of dollars to increase their EV production including Ford motors and SK innovations proposed $11.4 billion dollar EV assembly plant and 3 separate battery factories in Tennessee and Kentucky.
GM’s EV unit called BrightDrop is said to be talking with Merchants Fleet, a leasing company, for the order of an additional 5,400 new BrightDrop EV410 medium sized electric parcel delivery vehicles on top of the 12,600 EV600’s, the full sized cargo version they have already ordered. We are in contact with the BrightDrop team regularly and hope to have their EP1 electric delivery carts for our local FedEx team soon. We will show more information on this product as we get them.
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