Stellantis, the corporate behind Fiat, Dodge and Jeep, introduced plans to close down one in all its factories and lay off 1,200 staff in February. His reasoning? The strain of COVID-19, in fact, with a touch of chip shortages – however above all all these electrical autos that he should manufacture.
The plant in query is the one which builds Jeep Cherokees in Illinois, and the information comes because the automaker prepares for labor negotiations. Whereas United Auto Employees argues that “the transition to electrification additionally creates alternatives” on the plant, an unnamed Stellantis spokesperson mentioned CNBC and The Wall Street Journal that was slightly the explanation for the stoppage. “The most important problem is the rising prices of electrifying the automotive market,” the corporate says, including that it’s exploring different makes use of for the plant and looking for jobs for it. the employees it lays off.
Stellantis spends billions on electrical autos
However let’s again up for a second – one of many world’s greatest automakers says it has to shut a manufacturing facility indefinitely due to how a lot does electrification price? That is a daring declare, particularly because it comes from an organization that I’d contemplate in distant third within the race for the massive three American automakers to maneuver their lineups from fuel to batteries. It additionally would not assist that Stellantis has promised fairly just a few electrified Jeeps, and it is laborious to see why that manufacturing facility could not play an element in making these autos, at the very least one in all which is to be published next year (and plenty of of which have been very laborious to search out).
That is to not say Stellantis is not spending quite a bit on electrical autos — it is promised to separate a invoice of as much as $3 billion with Samsung for a battery plant in Indiana, and that is invest $4.1 billion in an analogous facility situated in Canada, this time with LG. But it surely’s not an extremely giant funding in comparison with a few of its friends: GM is spend $7 billion on one in all his Three EV Battery Vegetation In Progress, Honda help build a $4.4 billion factory in Ohio (and spending an extra $700 million to retool present amenities), and Ford announced it’s constructing three EV-related places with a price ticket of over $11.4 billion.
Ford is an fascinating comparability, because it additionally suffered a current spherical of layoffs, chopping round 3,000 jobs. No prizes for guessing one of many excuses he gave to the workers; “We now have the chance to steer this thrilling new period of related and electrical autos,” learn a note from CEO Jim Farley and Chairman Bill Ford. “Constructing that future requires altering and reshaping just about each side of how we’ve got operated for over a century.” This, in fact, meant chopping jobs.
It is too early to inform if electrical autos will turn into a typical scapegoat if the auto business continues to put off staff, however now we’ve got at the very least two corporations making an attempt to showcase the livelihoods of 1000’s of individuals like the price of the longer term. (Native EV corporations like Tesla or Rivian, which additionally had their clean massive rounds of layoffs this 12 months, haven’t got that luxurious.)
