Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 10 submissions in the queue.
posted by hubie on Wednesday September 11, @03:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the again? dept.

A multinational automaker prepared to lay off more than 2,000 American workers in August after benefiting handsomely from the Biden administration's subsidies for electric-vehicle production:

Stellantis, the parent company to famous brands like Ram and Jeep, has been awarded hundreds of millions in grants from the federal government to promote its EV manufacturing. But the Biden administration's largesse has not prevented the company from laying off American workers.

In July, the Department of Energy awarded Stellantis subsidiary Chrysler a $334.8 million grant to convert a shuttered Illinois plant into a facility for building EVs and another $250 million grant to make a ...(aaaand, paywall)

The AP ran a story a few weeks ago foreshadowing this action:

The statement comes as the company faces increased capital spending to make the transition from gasoline vehicles to electric autos. It also has reported declining U.S. sales in the first quarter, and it has higher costs due to a new contract agreement reached last year with the United Auto Workers union. Stellantis has about 43,000 factory workers.

[...] Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has said his company has to work on cutting costs globally in order to keep electric vehicles affordable for the middle class. Electric vehicles, he has said, cost about 40% more than those powered by gasoline. Without cost reductions, EVs will be too expensive for the middle class, shrinking the market and driving costs up more, Tavares has said.

I've been working on cars for most of my life and my observation is Chrysler/Ram are the worst vehicles on the road. I also own two Jeeps that are 50+ years old, however Chrysler has ruined the Jeep name by what I assume is cutting corners to save money because they're poorly designed and flimsy. Interesting the powers that be at Stellantis don't seem to be concerned about these issues.

Previously: Chrysler to Go All-Electric by 2028, Starting with the Airflow in 2025

Related:
    • General Motors Lays Off Hundreds Of US Workers
    • Tesla Lays Off 'More Than 10%' of its Global Workforce


Original Submission

 
This discussion was created by hubie (1068) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday September 11, @05:13AM (2 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Wednesday September 11, @05:13AM (#1372106) Journal

    I do not care about workers much but when it is more profitable to not produce cars than to produce cars I am calling that a recession.

    I am sure Ford knew better, some 120 years ago. He had no problem with shrinking market, he fundamentally created a market non-existent previously. Which is, obviously, a higher difficulty.

    --
    Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -1  
       Troll=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday September 11, @01:49PM (1 child)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Wednesday September 11, @01:49PM (#1372147) Homepage Journal

    I do not care about workers much but when it is more profitable to not produce cars than to produce cars I am calling that a recession.

    Why not call it what it is rather than making up your own definition for "recession"? We have these things called Dictionaries. [merriam-webster.com]

    --
    We not only don't have all the answers, we don't even have all of the questions.
    • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Thursday September 12, @02:25AM

      by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Thursday September 12, @02:25AM (#1372250) Journal

      Prosperity is not for everyone.

      --
      Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.