Rivian Delays, EV Sales Surge, and Tesla’s Labor Dispute

[00:00:21] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host and on today's episode we are going to talk about news. But before we get to news, I just have to let you know I have a number of articles in my queue. I would really like to talk about literally all of them, but I can't on a show that's released two days a week.

[00:00:44] So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to release a show once a day until that queue is cleared out. Now, just to give you an idea, before I started preparing for the show I had 77 articles to go through. After I went through them and wrote this show, I knocked that down to 50 because some of those are repeats. Some of them once you start reading into it, you're like, you know what, there's really nothing here in terms of news.

[00:01:12] So, you know, you might get three episodes this week, you might get four, probably not much more than that. But I just want to let you know you're going to get more than the two standard episodes this week.

[00:01:24] All right. I had a lot to say on that, but honestly, I don't want to waste your time. So let's move into our EV news. We recently talked about Rivian restarting construction on their plant in Georgia for the R2 and R3 vehicles.

[00:01:41] Now they haven't started construction just yet, but according to filings, it looks like production won't begin at that factory until sometime in 2028. And that's the earliest in 2028.

[00:01:54] Once the factory is up and running and they reach scale, they will be able to produce 400,000 vehicles a year, which is pretty good. Until then, production of the R1, excuse me, the R2 and the R3 will take place at Rivian's normal Illinois plant, which is where they build the R1 platform, the R1S and the R1T.

[00:02:14] By doing this, by moving production initially anyways to the normal plant, it actually saves the company $2 billion and will get R2 to market faster. So that makes sense.

[00:02:28] Our next article comes from Allison Sheridan. She tipped me off to this. EV sales are up 30.5% around the globe in September. So that's really good. In the United States and Canada, sales were up 4.3%, which is right around 150,000 vehicles delivered in that time period.

[00:02:49] And in Europe, sales were up 4.2%, which equated to 300,000 vehicles. But China led the way in terms of sales. Sales were up 47.9% in China, which was about 1.12 million vehicles. So all in all, EV sales on the rise a little bit here and there in the United States, Canada and Europe, and then a significant amount in China.

[00:03:20] Nissan is recalling 23,877 Nissan Leafs because of a potential high voltage battery fire. Now, I wouldn't be too concerned about this. We'll talk about that in a second. I just want to put that out there because when I read that headline, everybody's going to go like battery fire. That's not good. No, we'll get to that in a second here.

[00:03:43] But the vehicles that are affected were built between August 2018 and November 2020. The danger actually occurs when you're DC fast charging. So the battery could heat up so quickly that it could catch on fire. And you might be thinking to yourself, well, that's okay. The car is going to tell me that the battery is getting too hot.

[00:04:01] Well, it turns out there are no audible or visual warnings when this occurs. Right now, Nissan doesn't have a fix, but it will come out in a software update.

[00:04:11] I do not think for those model years that Nissan has the ability to do over-the-air updates. I could be wrong, but this is probably going to be drive your car to the Nissan dealership and wait and drink terrible coffee and eat stale donuts until the dealership can update your vehicle.

[00:04:29] It does sound like, and this is the good news, that level two charging is fine. If you own one of these vehicles and you're affected, Nissan will reach out to you.

[00:04:38] And I'm not aware of any fires that have occurred because of this. I think it's the problem is the lack of warning is really the big deal.

[00:04:48] Let's talk about some leases. You can now lease a Fiat 500 or a Subaru Solterra for less than $300 a month.

[00:04:58] So let's talk about the 2024 Fiat 500 first. It's the Fiat 500E. You get 141 mile range. There's this big, beautiful 10-inch center display.

[00:05:08] It's a 36-month lease, 7,500 miles a year for your allowance, which is not great.

[00:05:14] You're going to have to put $3,000 due at signing, but that brings your payment down to $199 a month, which is pretty good.

[00:05:23] Now, if you combine that effective price where you combine the due at signing costs with your monthly payment over that 36-month lease, it averages out to $277 a month, which is pretty affordable.

[00:05:37] And then you go to the 2024 Subaru Solterra Premium. So this vehicle is going to get you more room. You'll get four doors instead of two.

[00:05:46] 228-mile range. 36-month lease. 10,000-mile allowance. So we're already better with the Subaru Solterra for sure.

[00:05:56] Zero due at signing. So you just walk in. You say, I want one of these cars. Great. Zero due at signing.

[00:06:03] The car is going to cost you $279 a month. And at the end of the term, if you want to buy your car, you can buy your car for $20,390.

[00:06:15] So this is actually a $46,000 car that you're effectively buying for $30,000 before tax and licenses and all that stuff, which is not a bad hack.

[00:06:28] If you're looking to get into a cheap EV and you think the Solterra is a good-looking car and a car that's right for you.

[00:06:34] And if you're looking for something a little bit bigger, then look at the VinFast VF8.

[00:06:39] The VF8 is a really good-sized SUV.

[00:06:44] You're looking at 264 miles of range. 36-month lease.

[00:06:48] $894 due at signing.

[00:06:50] And it is $199 a month.

[00:06:54] And then if you're like, you know what?

[00:06:56] I think that's great.

[00:06:58] But I'm really looking for luxury.

[00:07:00] Well, I've got another deal for you.

[00:07:03] You can actually get a Lucid Air Pure, which is the most affordable Lucid Air vehicle at $71,000.

[00:07:13] But it does give you 419 miles of range.

[00:07:16] You can lease a Lucid Air Pure for $549 a month.

[00:07:21] It breaks down like this.

[00:07:23] You get a 36-month lease, 10,000-mile allowance.

[00:07:26] Now, here comes the pricey bit of this deal.

[00:07:33] It's $5,549 due at signing.

[00:07:37] And then you also have to pay taxes, license, registration, and other fees according to Lucid's small print.

[00:07:44] But that does get it down to $549 a month.

[00:07:47] So I didn't do the effective price because I don't know what all the taxes and license and registration and other fees, I don't know what that means.

[00:07:55] So it is something to look at if you are interested in a Lucid Air.

[00:08:01] But there are definitely better deals to be had in terms of price.

[00:08:07] Okie doke.

[00:08:08] Let's move on to our final story in the EV segment.

[00:08:13] And this story comes from Thomas.

[00:08:15] EV charging company Iona, or Iona?

[00:08:19] I think it's Iona.

[00:08:21] But we'll see.

[00:08:22] EV charging company Iona has broken ground on their new EV charging site in Apex, North Carolina.

[00:08:29] It is called the Iona Chargery.

[00:08:32] Now, if I'm saying this wrong, please let me know.

[00:08:34] But I'm going to say Iona for now.

[00:08:36] If you're not familiar, Iona was founded by a group of automakers in this big partnership.

[00:08:41] Those automakers include BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota.

[00:08:50] And what they're doing is pretty cool in Apex, North Carolina.

[00:08:54] They're actually converting a gas station in the historic district of Apex.

[00:08:58] They're converting this into what they're calling a rechargery, which is it definitely gives us cool gas station feel.

[00:09:08] I hope the name doesn't stick.

[00:09:10] I don't love the name rechargery.

[00:09:12] Where are you going?

[00:09:12] I'm going down to the rechargery.

[00:09:14] It doesn't sound great if you're asking just my opinion on this.

[00:09:18] This charging station is going to feature 10 parking bays with CCS and NACS connectors.

[00:09:27] So you can charge whatever vehicle you happen to have.

[00:09:30] It'll deliver 400 kilowatts and will accommodate vehicles that are built on an 800-volt architecture.

[00:09:37] And actually, it said 800 plus volts.

[00:09:39] What that means exactly, I don't know.

[00:09:42] But 800 volts, you're fine.

[00:09:44] Now, what are you going to do once you're there?

[00:09:46] Well, there's actually a lounge that you can go in and get food, coffee, any other type of beverage.

[00:09:52] There's Wi-Fi.

[00:09:53] It's going to be pet friendly.

[00:09:55] And Apex, North Carolina, isn't the only place that they are building these.

[00:10:00] There's another location coming soon in Houston.

[00:10:07] All right.

[00:10:07] Before we get to our Chesla news, I do want to take a second and just mention that we do have a Patreon for this show where you support the show directly.

[00:10:16] So the show is supported by two methods.

[00:10:19] One is listener support through Acast Plus and Patreon.

[00:10:22] And the other one is ads.

[00:10:24] At any level, if you listen to this, if you support the show on Patreon Plus or Acast Plus, you don't have ads.

[00:10:32] And if you do have ads and you are supporting the show, let me know.

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[00:10:42] So you don't have to listen to the ads.

[00:10:45] But all of the money goes back into the show.

[00:10:49] None of the money goes into my own pocket.

[00:10:50] All the money goes back into paying for all of the services that I have to have to keep this show running.

[00:10:57] And then also I'm going to be using some of that money to go to Vegas to CES this year.

[00:11:05] And, you know, that's a pretty expensive trip.

[00:11:08] I'm not going to lie.

[00:11:10] I'm already into it for right around $700.

[00:11:13] And I'll be driving myself there.

[00:11:15] So that's just hotel cost.

[00:11:17] It's not cheap to stay in Vegas.

[00:11:20] And I stayed at one of the cheaper places.

[00:11:22] But they hit you with all the taxes and fees.

[00:11:24] And then I get a resort fee for every night that I'm there, which is great.

[00:11:31] Vegas isn't what it's used to be.

[00:11:32] Let's just put it that way.

[00:11:34] But anyway, if you want to support the show for a dollar, you get an ad-free experience.

[00:11:39] Now, I'm not making much money on that.

[00:11:43] That's tens of cents.

[00:11:45] But it does go a long way to show your support.

[00:11:48] And that's all I ask for is a dollar.

[00:11:50] At some point in time, that dollar tier is probably going to go away because all this

[00:11:53] stuff between Patreon and Apple, which I'm not going to go into here.

[00:11:57] So if you would like to lock yourself in at that dollar, because if you're locked in,

[00:12:02] I'm not going to take it away.

[00:12:04] Go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt, or you can look in the show notes.

[00:12:08] And you can also find that we are supported through ACAST+.

[00:12:12] And I'm also looking into using a service like Substack as another method of

[00:12:19] you being able to support the show.

[00:12:21] Because I know not everybody loves Patreon.

[00:12:26] And then I get that.

[00:12:27] And by the way, not everybody loves Substack either.

[00:12:30] They have their own set of problems.

[00:12:32] But we won't get into that either.

[00:12:34] But the point to this is, if you want to support the show, please do.

[00:12:40] It means a lot to me.

[00:12:41] And it does help cover those expenses.

[00:12:43] Like I said, the monthly costs of doing the show.

[00:12:48] And then on top of being able to go to CES and look around and talk about all the cool

[00:12:55] stuff and do a bunch of interviews.

[00:12:56] I'm really, really excited.

[00:12:58] I'm looking forward to it.

[00:12:59] All right, let's move into our Tesla news.

[00:13:02] And we don't have very much in this regard in the Tesla news.

[00:13:07] I'm going to talk about very few people's favorite subject, which is unions and Tesla.

[00:13:14] I actually get quite a bit of mail on this.

[00:13:19] So I expect mail in the future.

[00:13:22] Here we go.

[00:13:23] Back in February, we talked about Tesla Sweden not following the Swedish norms when it comes

[00:13:32] to labor laws.

[00:13:34] So and I would say labor norms instead of labor laws.

[00:13:39] And here's why I say that.

[00:13:42] In Sweden, from what I understand, I'm not an expert on this.

[00:13:46] From what I understand, the Swedish government does have protections in place for workers in

[00:13:52] terms of labor laws specifically.

[00:13:54] But they let the labor part and the management part work out what those labor regulations look

[00:14:03] like.

[00:14:04] So 90% of Sweden is union.

[00:14:08] So 90% of the people who are labor in Sweden belong to a union.

[00:14:13] But the 10% that don't, most of those workers, if not all, again, this is a lot that is outside

[00:14:20] of my domain of expertise.

[00:14:22] But most of those workers, if not all, still fall under those labor management negotiated

[00:14:30] rules.

[00:14:30] So I'm going to do my best to explain this.

[00:14:33] Sorry.

[00:14:33] Give me a second.

[00:14:34] If I was going to give you an example, if I was a pipe fitter in Sweden, right?

[00:14:41] And I did not belong to a pipe fitters union in Sweden, I would still fall under these labor

[00:14:50] management negotiated rules between the pipe fitters and management, right?

[00:14:56] It doesn't necessarily transfer over if you're a cafe worker in Sweden.

[00:15:04] The rules for cafe workers and the rules for pipe fitters aren't going to necessarily be

[00:15:09] the same.

[00:15:11] It's what is negotiated in that category of work, right?

[00:15:16] There could be some crossover for sure.

[00:15:18] The problem is, is Tesla doesn't want to work through unions in Sweden, even though, or even

[00:15:28] follow labor norms.

[00:15:30] And by the way, Tesla's defense on this is that they are providing more than what the

[00:15:36] norms are.

[00:15:38] I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what they say.

[00:15:40] All right.

[00:15:41] Hopefully that wasn't too confusing.

[00:15:43] Now let's get back to the problem at hand.

[00:15:48] The labor union, in this case, that would cover most of the Tesla workers, if not all, is called

[00:15:54] IF Metal, and it's two L's at the end.

[00:15:57] They called on Tesla workers to strike because Tesla wasn't following, in their opinion, the

[00:16:03] labor norms of that country.

[00:16:06] And it sounds like some of the Tesla workers did half-heartedly strike.

[00:16:13] They didn't go to work.

[00:16:14] But for the most part, Tesla workers were still going to work.

[00:16:18] IF Metal called on other labor unions to do kind of like these sympathy strikes.

[00:16:24] Not necessarily that they're striking, but they're not helping out Tesla.

[00:16:29] For instance, mail carriers weren't delivering license plates to Tesla.

[00:16:34] So if you bought a Tesla, Tesla would fill out the forms on your behalf and they get sent the license

[00:16:43] plate and then they give you the license plate and you're good to go.

[00:16:46] They're not doing that in Sweden.

[00:16:51] There are cleaners that refuse to clean Tesla offices.

[00:16:55] It just kind of goes on and on and on.

[00:16:57] We'll talk about this more in a moment.

[00:16:59] But it was all meant to build pressure on Tesla to recognize the labor norms of the country

[00:17:07] and sign a collective bargaining agreement.

[00:17:09] And again, we all know Elon's not going to do that.

[00:17:12] Now, back in February, we talked about the mail carriers not delivering post mail to Tesla.

[00:17:22] Sweden's postal service, PostNord, was refusing to deliver the license plates to Tesla.

[00:17:27] But Tesla was able to work around this and they basically told, you know, Tesla buyers they had to apply for plates on their own.

[00:17:37] Tesla couldn't apply for them on their behalf and then have the plates delivered to their home, which, you know, fine.

[00:17:42] That that's not that big of a deal.

[00:17:45] But Tesla did sue or requested a ruling on this.

[00:17:50] I don't know if they technically sued.

[00:17:53] And the Swedish court had a preliminary ruling for Tesla saying, hey, we're not going to get involved.

[00:18:00] Tesla appealed.

[00:18:01] And now we have the answer to that appeal.

[00:18:03] And the answer is, we're still not going to get involved.

[00:18:07] You guys got to figure this out yourselves, which is a blow to Tesla in Sweden.

[00:18:13] But it's not the end of the world.

[00:18:15] But like I said, there's other Nordic unions that are sympathy.

[00:18:22] I don't know if striking is not the right word, but they're definitely slowing things down for Tesla.

[00:18:28] Like there are dock workers in different Nordic countries and truck drivers and stuff like that, that maybe aren't being as helpful as they could be.

[00:18:36] Let's put it that way.

[00:18:37] Now, that brings us to a suit that IF Metal has brought against Tesla.

[00:18:43] IF Metal claims that Tesla failed to inform employee representatives of workplace changes, which is required under labor laws in Sweden.

[00:18:55] What happened was, is Tesla reorganized one of its Swedish branches without informing IF Metal, to which it does not have a contract with.

[00:19:05] And I don't believe that any of Tesla's employees in Sweden are affiliated with in any official way.

[00:19:13] Tesla phased out the entire sales group and some other groups without officially informing IF Metal.

[00:19:21] IF Metal is claiming that this is a violation of Sweden's Co-Determination Act.

[00:19:26] Now, I genuinely don't know if this violates anything.

[00:19:30] It doesn't seem like it should.

[00:19:31] If you don't have a collecting of bargaining agreement with somebody, I don't know why you would have to tell them anything.

[00:19:36] Again, I'm not familiar with Swedish law.

[00:19:40] And again, I'm not familiar.

[00:19:41] I don't think that any of Tesla's employees in Sweden have officially voted to organize and form a union or join a union.

[00:19:49] So I'm not sure IF Metal has any legs to stand on.

[00:19:52] Again, they might because I'm not familiar with the laws in Sweden.

[00:19:58] But I think this is more of a move by IF Metal to irritate Tesla and just kind of continue to make their job harder and not be particularly helpful in any sort of way, shape or form.

[00:20:12] Again, this actually could be a violation of law.

[00:20:16] I'm just not sure.

[00:20:19] So hopefully I explained that in a way that made sense.

[00:20:23] This is this is a story that has been going for quite a while back.

[00:20:27] Like I said, January, February of 2024.

[00:20:30] I am bringing this back up right now.

[00:20:32] Hopefully that it does make sense.

[00:20:35] And if it doesn't, you know, send me email, ask me questions.

[00:20:39] Tell me where I need to clarify.

[00:20:41] It is interesting.

[00:20:42] I do think eventually Tesla is going to have to recognize labor unions.

[00:20:48] And by the way, just so everybody knows where my biases lie, I am a proud union member.

[00:20:54] I almost always fall on the side of union or labor workers.

[00:20:59] I wouldn't even say union workers.

[00:21:00] I almost always fall on the side of labor.

[00:21:03] I do also recognize that sometimes unions or just us, you know, regular employees don't help ourselves out in any way, shape or form.

[00:21:16] So I also recognize that we can very much be a part of a problem that didn't exist prior to us deciding to do something.

[00:21:25] So I think I have a pretty fair outlook on these things.

[00:21:30] But it's been a while, like I said, since we've talked about this.

[00:21:33] So hopefully that gets everybody up to date.

[00:21:36] And as we learn more, I will give you more information.

[00:21:42] All right, everybody, that is it for me today.

[00:21:46] I'm going to post this, go to bed and get up and write a whole new episode tomorrow.

[00:21:51] So I'm looking forward to it.

[00:21:52] I hope you all have a wonderful night and I will talk to you in roughly 24 hours.