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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: 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.