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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
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Wednesday September 11 2024, @02:09PM (4 children)
I question that "40%". The piston drive train has thousands of moving parts, an EV drive train is its electric motor with one moving part. Yes, piston technology is mature, but so is electric motor technology.
My guess is that the "extra 40%" comes from the fact that they only make expensive cars into EVs, cars like the Mustang and Cadillac. The one I bought last year was the roomiest, most comfortable car I ever drove, and I've been driving since 1968.
The only reason to not make an affordable EV is that with the EV they lose the dealer to junkyard gravy train on replacement parts. The submitter must hate EVs, as they will kill his profession. When was the last tiome you had your ceiling fan serviced? Its starter or fuel pump replaced?
How does a car with thousands of fewer parts to manufacture and assemble cost 40% less? I smell bovine feces.
And here in Springfield, gasoline is four times as expensive per mile as electricity. A few months back when it was $3.75 a gallon it was five times as expensive.
By the way, that dealer to junkyard gravy train is why you don't know that an EV handles and brakes better than anything you've ever driven and is far roomier than the same sized piston car, and you have heat in the winter as fast as AC in the summer, no more having heat only when you get to where you're going. Oh, and the reason I bought mine was so I wouldn't freeze in the snow while it fills, I just plugged it in and went inside.
I miss that car, it got totaled last month. No vibration, no shifting jerks, no noise. Getting another one as soon as I can.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday September 11 2024, @02:54PM
The McKinsey link I gave says that the 40% is the battery, and gives the saving from removing the Internal Combustion Engine components as being relatively minor in comparison. This is somewhat credible, because automakers have had many decades to improve the manufacturing efficiency of ICE motors, but are still learning on battery capacity.
Batteries are unlikely to ever match the energy density of petroleum products, which have the advantage of external oxidiser (oxygen from the air) and throwing away the waste products. If ICE vehicles had to carry tanks of oxygen and capture the carbon dioxide, things would look rather different. That said, new battery technology could improve things: solid-state batteries have a lot of advantages in the lab, and are becoming available in vehicles.
https://electrek.co/2024/01/11/toyota-solid-state-ev-battery-plans-750-mi-range/ [electrek.co]
https://electrek.co/2024/09/10/mercedes-getting-new-ultra-efficient-all-solid-state-ev-batteries/ [electrek.co]
Automakers don't want to make batteries cheap, and cheap and easy to replace, because that would cannibalize future sales.
(Score: 2) by Goghit on Wednesday September 11 2024, @05:34PM
Yeah, I think we might be seeing some RIAA accounting or cop math happening. Could be something related to the shitfuckery we see with actual replacement parts when something goes wrong with a BEV - dealer insisting on replacing the whole transaxle for $16k when the problem is two worn bearings at $50 each, or trying to charge more for a new battery pack than the price of a new vehicle. Our BEV is just your basic commuter hatchback shitbox with a bit more room inside than a comparable ICE vehicle. Same telemetry so GM can harvest my data and sell it to insurance companies and other fine upstanding citizens. They didn't completely retool their assembly lines when they started manufacturing these vehicles and start from scratch, handcrafting in a tent.
47,000 manufacturing jobs is a real gut punch but I wonder how many jobs the government could have provided with that money if they'd diverted it to reducing wildfire risk in parks instead of burning it in some Cxx's yacht.
As far as anything manufactured by Stellantis goes, nothing of value has been lost. Stellantis does provide a service though as a black hole of suck, containing all the worst turds in one convenient to avoid location. I grieve for those badges of old.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2024, @03:58AM (1 child)
> The piston drive train has thousands of moving parts, an EV drive train is its electric motor with one moving part.
tl;dr: BEVs also have thousands of moving parts to fail.
You are missing something critical. The BEV has thousands of individual cells in the battery pack. At least with current Li-ion batteries, these are all moving parts. As cells charge they expand internally, and shrink on discharge. They also change size with temp (heating up with high rates of charge or discharge). These small motions cause mechanical fatigue that combines with other chemical & electrical damage to reduce the capacity of the battery (over time, if everything works as designed).
Or, if a slightly out-of-spec cell fails, then the whole battery may be ruined. The battery packs are (mostly) liquid cooled/heated to keep the cells near an optimal temperature. The sealed and heavy container makes it difficult/expensive to replace individual cells that go bad--most likely the whole battery pack will be recycled...once the recycling companies are up to speed.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday September 12 2024, @04:28AM
The "thousands of moving parts" claim is untrue, as is the "one moving part." However, calling batteries moving parts is stretching the definition beyond credulity. There's more than one moving part in an electric motor; winding, shaft, and the magnetic circuit all move. Depending on the design, there may be motor bearings that move. Axles, wheels, wheel bearings, universal joints, etc. are all parts of the drive train and all move.
There are more mechanical moving parts in a piston engine. There was no reason for the original poster to exaggerate in order to make his point.