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☆ G.M. Will Retire the Chevrolet Malibu to Make More Electric Cars
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

General Motors said on Wednesday that it would stop making the Chevrolet Malibu, the last affordable sedan in its U.S. model lineup and a venerable nameplate that was introduced in the 1960s when the company was a dominant force in the U.S. economy. For years, American drivers have been gravitating toward sport utility vehicles and away from sedans, compacts and hatchbacks. G.M.’s two Detroit rivals, Stellantis and Ford Motor, have also largely wiped their slates clean of cars in the United States. Last month, Subaru, a Japanese automaker, said it would stop making its Legacy sedan next year. produces the Malibu at a plant in Fairfax, Kan., and will continue to manufacture the car until later this year, when it plans to retool the factory to make a new version of the Chevrolet Bolt, an electric car, and the Cadillac XT4, a luxury S.U.V.

Persons: Motors, Chevrolet Organizations: Chevrolet Malibu, Detroit, Ford Motor, Foreign, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Subaru Locations: U.S, United States, Japanese, Fairfax, Kan

☆ G.M. Reports Big Jump in Profit on Gasoline Car Sales
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

General Motors on Tuesday reported a big jump in profits for the first three months of the year, based on the strength of its gasoline vehicle business, and raised its outlook for the rest of the year. The company saw slow growth in electric vehicles, but robust sales of internal combustion vehicles, especially pickup trucks, helped raise its profit to $3 billion in the first quarter, a 24 percent jump from the same period a year ago. also said that it now expects to make $10.1 billion to $11.5 billion in profit this year, up from a previous forecast of $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion. business and improving profitability,” G.M.’s chief financial officer, Paul Jacobson, said in a conference call with reporters, using the shorthand for internal combustion engine. He repeated an earlier forecast that G.M.’s battery-powered cars and trucks would start generating profits in the second half of this year.

Persons: ’, Paul Jacobson, Jacobson, G.M Organizations: Motors

☆ How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me)
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Kashmir Hill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren’t informed, and the tracking led insurance companies to charge some of them more for premiums. This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but it didn’t have driving data on it. Though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M.

Persons: Bolt, heeding Organizations: General Motors, LexisNexis Risk, LexisNexis

☆ Opinion | Elon Musk Wouldn’t Be the First Car Company Founder to Flame Out
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Before there was Elon Musk, there was William Crapo Durant. It’s highly unlikely that Musk, one of the world’s richest people, will die penniless, but in other respects he and Durant have a lot in common. One thing I found out is that the world is not always kind to visionaries with self-control issues. Durant flamed out at G.M. In contrast, the prudent organization man who eventually succeeded him, Alfred Sloan, went from success to success.

Persons: Elon Musk, William Crapo Durant, Billy Durant, Durant, It’s, Durant flamed, Alfred Sloan, ”, Steve Blank Organizations: General Motors, Chevrolet, Durant Motors, Tesla, Harvard, Stanford Locations: G.M

☆ Read the Class Action Complaint Against G.M. and LexisNexis Risk Solutions
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

On March 11, 2024, the New York Times reported an investigative piece about this exact issue.² The article highlights individuals who have had their insurance rates increase due to Lexis publishing, among others, General Motors car drivers' data. For one consumer "[i]t felt like a betrayal" because GM took "information that [he] didn't realize was going to be shared[.]" In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundaí, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people's driving. Some drivers may not realize that, if they turn on these features, the car companies then give information about how they drive to data brokers like LexisNexis... Especially troubling is that some drivers with vehicles made by G.M.

Persons: G.M, Last Organizations: New York Times, Lexis, General Motors, Honda, Kia, LexisNexis, Chevrolet, Smart

☆ Florida Man Sues G.M. and LexisNexis Over Sale of His Cadillac Data
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Kashmir Hill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

According to a federal complaint filed this week seeking class-action status, it was because his 2021 Cadillac XT6 had been spying on him. When Mr. Chicco requested his LexisNexis file, it contained details about 258 trips he had taken in his Cadillac over the past six months. The data had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of his Cadillac. In a complaint against General Motors and LexisNexis Risk Solutions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Mr. Chicco accused the companies of violation of privacy and consumer protection laws. LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and another data broker called Verisk, claim to have real-world driving behavior from millions of cars.

Persons: Romeo Chicco, XT6, Chicco, General Motors Organizations: Liberty Mutual, LexisNexis, General, General Motors, Southern, Southern District of, The New York Times, Solutions Locations: U.S, Southern District, Southern District of Florida

☆ How China Built BYD, Its Tesla Killer
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-12 | by ( Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s BYD was a battery manufacturer trying its hand at building cars when it showed off its newest model in 2007. “They were the laughingstock of the industry,” said Michael Dunne, a China auto industry analyst. BYD is building assembly lines in Brazil, Hungary, Thailand and Uzbekistan and preparing to do so in Indonesia and Mexico. And the company is on the cusp of passing Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, as the market leader in China. The last automaker to accomplish that in even one year in the American market was General Motors — and that was in 1946, after G.M.

Persons: China’s BYD, ”, Michael Dunne, General Motors — Organizations: Volkswagen Group, Audi, General Motors Locations: Guangzhou, China, BYD, Brazil, Hungary, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Europe

☆ G.M. Profits Hurt by Unsold Electric Vehicles and Strike
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

has also struggled to produce such vehicles in large numbers because of manufacturing problems with a new battery technology the company calls Ultium. has also pared its electric vehicle ambitions. expected to produce 400,000 electric vehicles by the middle of 2024, but consumers have not flocked to battery-powered cars as fast as auto executives expected. sold more than 19,000 electric vehicles, but most were Bolts, which are no longer being produced and used an older battery technology. Only about a third of the electric vehicles that were sold used the newer battery packs produced at a factory in Ohio that G.M.

Persons: Ultium, G.M Organizations: Ford Motor, Chevy, LG Locations: Ohio

General Motors is slowing the expansion of its Cruise automated driving division and significantly cutting spending at the unit after suspending operations in response to growing safety concerns about its driverless cars. The company had been planning to roll out a ride service in San Francisco and three other cities and begin testing Cruise vehicles on the streets of several other markets. It now plans to focus on only one city as it works to improve the operation of its fleet of driverless vehicles it has been testing. “We expect the pace of Cruise’s expansion to be more deliberate when operations resume, resulting in substantially lower spending in 2024 than in 2023,” G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said Wednesday at an investor conference. “We must rebuild trust with regulators at the local, state and federal levels, as well as with the first responders and the communities in which Cruise will operate.”Last month, California regulators suspended Cruise’s license to operate in the state after an incident in which a Cruise self-driving vehicle in San Francisco ran over a pedestrian who had been hit by another car and dragged her for 20 feet.

Persons: ”, ’, Mary T, Barra Organizations: Motors, Cruise Locations: San Francisco, California

☆ Union Workers Ratify Contract at General Motors
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

United Automobile Workers union members at General Motors have ratified a tentative contract in a closely contested vote, according to a tally of results from all the G.M. locals posted by the union on Thursday. The contract had the support of 55 percent of the nearly 36,000 members voting. Tentative agreements with Ford and Stellantis, the maker of brands including Jeep and Chrysler, appear headed for approval by larger margins, incomplete results there show. The agreements raise the top wage for production workers by 25 percent, to more than $40 over four and a half years, from $32.

Persons: Shawn Fain Organizations: United Automobile Workers, General Motors, Ford, Jeep, Chrysler

☆ G.M.’s Contract Deal With U.A.W. Faces Surprisingly Stiff Opposition
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A United Automobile Workers union vote on a tentative contract agreement with General Motors that provides record wage increases has run into unexpectedly strong resistance from veteran workers. A majority of workers at several large plants in Michigan, Indiana and Tennessee rejected the contract, though union members at a large sport utility plant in Arlington, Texas, voted in favor of it. G.M., Ford Motor and Stellantis agreed to similar contracts with the union after U.A.W. Workers walked off the job at the first three plants on Sept. 15 and stayed on strike for more than 40 days. The agreement appears to be headed for ratification at Ford and Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, by comfortable margins, according to running tallies the U.A.W.

Organizations: United Automobile Workers, General Motors, Ford Motor, Workers, Ford, Chrysler, Jeep Locations: Michigan , Indiana, Tennessee, Arlington , Texas

☆ Automakers Delay Electric Vehicle Spending as Demand Slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Jack Ewing | More About Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But when the number of electric vehicles sold in the United States grew that much during the third quarter from a year earlier, it was a disappointment. Instead of celebrating, auto executives worried that demand for electric vehicles was slackening, raising questions about their plans to invest tens of billions of dollars to develop new models and build factories. In recent weeks, General Motors, Ford Motor and Tesla cited slower sales and signs that the economy was weakening in announcing that they would delay that spending. future is as strong as ever,” Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of G.M., told analysts on a conference call last month. is waiting several months to begin selling some new electric models, including a battery-powered incarnation of the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle.

Persons: Carmakers, Tesla, Biden, Mary T, Barra Organizations: General Motors, Ford Motor, Chevrolet Locations: United States

☆ Union Victories May Lift Biden, as U.A.W. Targets Tesla and Others
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | More About Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

agreed to bring its electric vehicle battery joint venture, Ultium, under the national contract, a boon for Ultium workers but also a pressure point for unions as they seek to organize battery plants sprouting up around the country. “This historic contract is a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to build strong middle-class jobs while helping our most iconic American companies thrive,” Mr. Biden said Monday evening. “It highlights the lie peddled by Donald Trump and at times the Big Three that the E.V. transition means lower-quality jobs in a nonunion work force.”The U.A.W. In May, the autoworkers’ union opted to withhold an endorsement of Mr. Biden’s re-election, openly expressing “our concerns with the electric vehicle transition” that the president was pushing through legislation and regulation.

Persons: Mr, Biden, Jason Walsh, Walsh, Donald Trump, Biden’s Organizations: BlueGreen Alliance

☆ G.M. Said to Reach Tentative Deal With U.A.W.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The agreement comes days after the union announced tentative agreements with Ford Motor and Stellantis on new contracts. The three deals contain many of the same or similar terms, including a 25 percent general wage increase for U.A.W. The tentative agreement with G.M., the largest U.S. car company by sales, requires approval by a union council that oversees negotiations with the company, and then ratification by a majority of its 46,000 U.A.W. The most recent escalation of the strike came on Saturday, shortly after the union reached a deal with Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. told workers to go on strike at G.M.’s plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., that makes several sport utility vehicle models.

Persons: Ram Organizations: Motors, United Automobile Workers, U.S, automakers, Ford Motor, G.M, Stellantis, Chrysler, Jeep Locations: U.S, Missouri , Michigan , Tennessee, Texas, G.M, Spring Hill, Tenn

☆ What to Know About the Automakers’ Deals With the U.A.W.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Santul Nerkar | More About Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The tiered wage system, which allows the companies to pay newer workers much less than seasoned workers, was eliminated at two plants. and Stellantis, but the benefits are expected to mirror those in the Ford agreement. Then the agreements must be ratified by a majority of union members at each of the automakers. Shawn Fain, the president of the U.A.W., announced this month that G.M.’s battery plants, which it owns through a joint venture, would be covered by the national labor contract reached by the two sides. The union also said its agreement with Ford would make it relatively easy for workers at the company’s battery plants to join the U.A.W.

Persons: Shawn Fain Organizations: Ford, G.M Locations: Stellantis

Altogether, about 45,000 workers at Ford, G.M. and Stellantis are on strike across the country, including 8,700 workers at Ford’s Kentucky truck plant in Louisville, the company’s largest, and almost 10,000 others at Ford factories in Illinois and Michigan. The tentative deal with Ford could increase pressure on the other companies to reach an agreement with the union. In the past, once the union reached a deal with one automaker, tentative agreements with the others quickly followed. Last week, Ford’s executive chairman, William C. Ford Jr., said the union’s demands risked damaging the ability of Detroit automakers to compete against nonunion companies like Tesla and foreign rivals.

Persons: Shawn Fain, William C, Ford Jr, ”, “ Organizations: Ford, Detroit automakers, Toyota, Honda Locations: Ford’s Kentucky, Louisville, Illinois, Michigan

☆ G.M. Profit Down 7% in Strike-Affected Quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

said the strike had lowered its earnings before interest and taxes by about $200 million in the final weeks of the third quarter, and by about $600 million since the fourth quarter started on Oct. 1. The automaker also estimated that the strike could cost it $200 million a week going forward. gave the union a contract offer that included a 23 percent increase in wages over four years. wage from $32 an hour to more than $40. At that wage, an employee working 40 hours a week would earn about $84,000 a year, not including extra pay for overtime or profit-sharing bonuses, which have topped $10,000 in the past two years.

Persons: Motors, “, ’, Paul Jacobson, G.M Organizations: United Automobile Workers

☆ U.A.W. Expands Strike to G.M.’s Texas Plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In another major expansion of its six-week long strikes at the three large U.S. automakers, the United Automobile Workers union on Tuesday told 5,000 workers at General Motors’ largest U.S. plant, in Arlington, Texas, to stop working. The union expanded the strike on the same day that G.M. On Monday, the union also struck at a Ram pickup truck plant, the largest U.S. factory operated by Stellantis. has also struck Ford Motor’s largest plant, in Louisville, Ky.“Another record quarter, another record year. As we’ve said for months: record profits equal record contracts,” the U.A.W.

Persons: Ford, we’ve, Shawn Fain, “, ” G.M Organizations: U.S, United Automobile Workers, General Motors, U.S ., Stellantis Locations: Arlington , Texas, Louisville, Ky, “

☆ Biden Joins U.A.W. Strike President Heads to Picket Line in Michigan to Court Autoworkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Katie Rogers | Neal Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The high-profile contract fights have played out across the country, just as public opinion has been turning more in favor of organized labor. UPSThe union representing more than 325,000 UPS workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, spent months negotiating a new contract with the company. The workers’ key demands included better pay for part-time workers, whom the company relies on heavily during busy periods, and improved heat safety. The work stoppage has grown in scope since, with the union expanding its strike to include spare-parts distribution centers for G.M. has pointed to growth in profits and chief executive compensation in making its demands for improved compensation for its members.

Persons: they’ve, —, Shawn Fain Organizations: United Automobile Workers, SAG, Writers Guild of America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Gallup, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hollywood, Guild of America, UPS, United Auto Workers, U.S, — Ford, General Motors, Teamsters Locations: Hollywood, Staten

☆ An Ohio Town Struggles Between Biden’s Clean Energy Agenda and Union Support
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | More About Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the shadow of a shuttered General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, far from the United Automobile Workers’ picket lines, the U.A.W. and the management of an electric vehicle battery plant are locked in a wholly different conflict. officials take pains to say the talks in Lordstown between the autoworkers union and Ultium Cells, a joint venture between G.M. and LG Energy Solution in South Korea that is building the fuel cells to power G.M.’s electric vehicles, are not directly linked to the strikes. Vance, Republican of Ohio, specifically pointed to the struggles of Ultium workers laboring near the old G.M.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, —, Biden’s, J.D, Vance Organizations: General Motors, United Automobile Workers, Ultium, LG Energy, Democrats, Republican Locations: Lordstown , Ohio, Ohio, Lordstown, G.M, South Korea, Michigan

☆ U.A.W. Widens Strikes at G.M. and Stellantis, but Cites Progress in Ford Talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United Automobile Workers union on Friday significantly raised the pressure on General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Ram, by expanding its strike against the companies to include all the spare parts distribution centers of the two companies. Shawn Fain, the union’s president, said Friday that workers at 38 distribution centers, which provide parts to dealerships for repairs, at the two companies would walk off the job at noon. He said talks with two companies had not progressed significantly, contrasting them with Ford Motor, which he said had done more to meet the union’s demands. “We will shut down parts distribution centers until those two companies come to their senses and come to the bargaining table,” Mr. Fain said. distribution centers that employ a total of 3,475 workers, and 20 Stellantis centers with 2,150 U.A.W.

Persons: Shawn Fain, “, Mr, Fain Organizations: United Automobile Workers, General Motors, Jeep, Ford Motor

☆ For Tesla and Musk, Auto Strike Carries Benefits and Risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Jack Ewing | More About Jack Ewing | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Activists must get at least 30 percent of workers to sign union cards and force a vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Companies often do all they can to dissuade workers from joining, hiring lawyers and consultants who specialize in defeating union campaigns. The company reported profit of $2.7 billion on sales of $25 billion in the second quarter, giving it a profit margin of about 11 percent. That profit margin is more than that of Ford or G.M., even after an exceptionally profitable period for those companies. In August, United Parcel Service employees won their biggest raises ever in a contract negotiated by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Persons: Tesla, Biden Organizations: National Labor Relations Board, Companies, Amazon, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot SA, Hollywood, United Parcel Service, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Locations: Staten, unionize, United States

☆ Ford Reaches a Labor Deal in Canada as U.S. Talks Inch Along
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Unifor’s talks with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, started on Aug. 10 but have been overshadowed by the U.A.W. Ford has an assembly plant and two engine plants in Canada. Unifor selected Ford as the “target” of its talks, meaning it focused on securing the best deal it could from the company before turning to the other two automakers. Ford’s deal in Canada appears to have little bearing on the U.A.W. ; a Ford truck and sport-utility vehicle plant in Wayne, Mich.; and a Stellantis S.U.V.

Persons: Unifor’s, Ram, Ford, Unifor Organizations: Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Jeep, ’ Locations: United States, Canada, Wentzville, Mo, Wayne, Mich, Toledo , Ohio

☆ Union and 3 Detroit Automakers Resume Talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Neal E. Boudette | More About Neal E. Boudette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The United Auto Workers union and the three Detroit automakers on Saturday resumed negotiations on a new labor contract as a targeted strike entered its second day. The union is striking against all three manufacturers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — but for now has limited the work stoppages to one plant at each of the companies: a Ford plant in Michigan, a G.M. plant in Missouri and a Stellantis plant in Ohio. “We had reasonably productive conversations with Ford today,” the union said in a statement. On Friday Ford said it had told 600 workers who are not part of the strike not to report to work, and G.M.

Persons: “, Ford Organizations: United Auto Workers, Detroit, Motors, Ford, G.M Locations: Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Kansas

The union is also seeking cost-of-living adjustments that would nudge wages higher to compensate for inflation. As of last Friday, the companies offered to raise pay by around 14.5 percent to 20 percent over four years. It was not clear how much progress the union and the companies have made on the other issues. The companies say that they are investing billions in a transition to battery-powered vehicles, which makes it harder for them to pay substantially higher wages. They say they are at a disadvantage compared with nonunion automakers like Tesla, which dominates the sales of electric cars.

Persons: G.M, ” Ford, ”

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