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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
GM announces plans to build more Chevy Silverados in Michigan
General Motors said on Tuesday it is expanding production of its gas-powered SUVs and trucks and is adding new capacity for Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light duty pickups at a Michigan assembly plant. The Silverado is also manufactured at GM's Oshawa assembly plant. GM announced in May that it would drop from three shifts to two at the plant in the fall, a move a spokesperson said at the time was linked to "the evolving trade environment." Around 700 workers will be impacted, the union representing them said at the time. The vehicle is also assembled at factories in the U.S. and Mexico, Unifor said. GM said Tuesday it is also moving its Cadillac Escalade to the same Michigan plant that will produce the additional Silverados. The Escalade is currently being produced in Arlington, Texas, alongside other large SUVs such as the GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Suburban and Chevy Tahoe.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
What Trump's environmental plan targeting key pollution rules means for carmakers
The Environmental Protection Agency's plan this week to relax rules aimed at cleaning up auto tailpipe emissions is the latest Trump administration move to undo incentives for automakers to go electric. As part of a larger effort to undo climate-based governmental regulations, the EPA said it wants to revoke the 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. That would cripple the legal basis for limiting emissions from things like power plants and motor vehicles. President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending law already targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 USD on a new electric car. The tax law approved in early July also includes another provision that will hit Tesla and other EV makers in the pocketbook — repealing fines for automakers that don't meet federal fuel economy standards. Automakers can buy credits under a trading program if they don't meet the mileage standards. EV makers like Tesla, which don't rely on gasoline, earn credits that they can sell to other carmakers. The arrangement has resulted in billions of dollars in revenue for Tesla and millions for other EV makers like Rivian. That is all set to go away under the new law. Trump has also challenged federal EV charging infrastructure money and blocked California's ban of new gas-powered vehicle sales. It adds up to less pressure on automakers to continue evolving their production away from gas-burning vehicles. And that's significant because transportation - which also includes ships, trains and planes - is the sector that contributes the most to planet-warming emissions in the U.S. Push and pull on tailpipe and mileage rules Stringent tailpipe emissions and mileage rules were part of the Biden administration's pledge to clean up the nation's vehicles and reduce use of fossil fuels by incentivizing growth in EVs. EVs do not use gasoline or emit greenhouse gases. The Trump administration and the auto industry have said both rules were unreasonable for manufacturers. Automakers could meet EPA tailpipe limits with about 56 per cent of new vehicle sales being electric by 2032 — they're currently at about 8 per cent — along with at least 13 per cent plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, and more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon. The Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pressured the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this year to reverse the rules, and has recently said Biden's inclusion of EVs in calculating them was illegal. NHTSA will likely reset or significantly weaken them. The fines that are going away Then there are the fines that automakers will no longer face for falling short on the fuel economy rules. "With the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, new penalties for automakers not complying with an illegal fuel economy standard designed to push EVs will be zero," NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement. Some legacy automakers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for not meeting them. Just last year, Jeep-maker Stellantis paid $264-million for model years 2019 and 2020, and General Motors paid $178 million US for the 2016 and 2017 model years. Automakers that didn't meet the standards could also instead buy credits from carmakers that did — or even surpassed them — such as Tesla. That provision earned Tesla $3.9 billion in 2024 — revenue it will no longer see. Elon Musk sharply criticized the big tax-and-spending bill in June, saying it "gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future." Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the law's effect on those credits. The agency wrote to carmakers earlier this month informing them the penalties wouldn't be issued from the model year 2022 onward. Some automakers confirmed receiving the letter but declined to comment further. Experts say without them, the law "invites automakers to cheat on government fuel economy rules by setting fines to $0, ensuring consumers will buy more gas guzzlers, pay more at the pump and enrich Big Oil," said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign. Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former acting NHTSA administrator under Biden, called it a "stunning decision" for NHTSA to essentially forgive the fines from 2022 onward. She said it amounted to a windfall for companies that chose to pay penalties rather than produce more efficient cars. Carlson said backing away from future fines also "poses a dilemma for auto manufacturers who may feel bound to comply with the law, even if there is not a financial consequence for failing to do so." Where auto manufacturers go from here It takes a while for carmakers to shift their product lines, and experts say automakers might be locked into their technology and manufacturing decisions for the next few model years. But changes could come for model year 2027 and beyond, they said. EVs aren't as profitable as gas-engine cars, so automakers may make fewer of them if they no longer have to offset emissions from their gasoline models. Already, some automakers have pulled back on their ambitions to go all-electric with a slower pace of EV sales growth. "Automakers also know every presidential administration eventually comes to an end, so they won't abandon their EV development efforts," said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at "But they will reduce their near-term efforts in this area."
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Ford hits the pedal on EV production with US$2 billion overhaul of Kentucky plant
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ford Motor Co. will invest nearly US$2 billion retooling a Kentucky factory to produce electric vehicles that it says will be more affordable, more profitable to build, and will outcompete rival models. The automaker's top executive unveiled the new EV strategy at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant which, after producing gas-powered vehicles for 70 years, will be converted to manufacture electric vehicles. 'In our careers, as automobile people we're lucky if we get to work on one, maybe two, projects that really change the face of our industry,' CEO Jim Farley told plant workers in Kentucky on Monday. 'And I believe today is going to light the match as one of those projects for all of us here.' The Big Detroit automakers have continued to transition from internal combustion engines to EV technology even as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unwinds incentives for automakers to go electric. Trump's massive tax and spending law targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new electric car. Yet Farley and other top executives in the auto industry say that electric vehicles are the future and there is no going back. The first EV to roll off the revamped Louisville assembly line will be a midsize, four-door electric pickup truck in 2027 for domestic and international markets, the company said Monday. The new electric trucks will be powered by lower-cost batteries made at a Ford factory in Michigan. The Detroit automaker previously announced a $3 billion investment to build the battery factory. The automaker sees this as a 'Model T moment' for its EV business — a reference to revolutionary changes on the production line led by the company's founder, Henry Ford, when it began churning out vehicles from a factory more than a century ago. Farley said the changes will will upend how electric vehicles are made in the U.S. 'It represents the most radical change on how we design and how we build vehicles at Ford since the Model-T,' Farley said. The company said it will use a universal platform and production system for its EVs, essentially the underpinning of a vehicle that can be applied across a wide range of models. The Louisville factory — one of two Ford assembly plants in Kentucky's largest city — will be revamped to cut production costs and make assembly time faster as it's prepared to churn out electric vehicles. The result will be 'an affordable electric vehicle that we expect to be profitable,' Farley said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. 'This is an example of us rejuvenating our U.S. plants with the most modern manufacturing techniques.' The new platform enables a lineup of affordable vehicles to be produced at scale, Ford said. It will reduce parts by 20 per cent versus a typical vehicle, with 25 per cent fewer fasteners, 40 per cent fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant and a 15 per cent faster assembly time, Ford said. The traditional assembly line will be transformed into an 'assembly tree' at the Louisville plant, it said. Instead of one long conveyor, three sub-assembly lines will operate simultaneously and then join together, it said. Other specifications for the midsize electric truck – including its reveal date, starting price, EPA-estimated battery range, battery sizes and charge times — will be announced later, the company said. Ford revealed in its release that the truck will have a targeted starting price of about $30,000. Ford said its investment in the Louisville plant will secure 2,200 hourly jobs. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that the automaker's plans for the Louisville plant will strengthen a more than century-old partnership between Ford and the Bluegrass State. 'This announcement not only represents one of the largest investments on record in our state, it also boosts Kentucky's position at the center of EV-related innovation and solidifies Louisville Assembly Plant as an important part of Ford's future,' Beshear said. Ford said its combined investment of about $5 billion at the Kentucky assembly plant and Michigan battery plant is expected to create or secure nearly 4,000 direct jobs between the two plants while strengthening the domestic supply chain with dozens of new U.S.-based suppliers. Ford previously forecast weaker earnings growth for this year and further losses in its electric vehicles business as it works to control costs. Model e, Ford's electric vehicle business, posted a full-year loss of $5.08 billion for 2024 as revenue fell 35 per cent to $3.9 billion. Ford's new EV strategy comes as Chinese automakers are quickly expanding across the globe, offering relatively affordable electric vehicles. 'We're not in a race to build the most electric cars,' Farley told the AP when asked about competition from China. 'We're in a race to have a sustainable electric business that's profitable, that customers love. 'And this new vehicle built in Louisville, Kentucky, is going to be a much better solution to anything that anyone can buy from China,' he added. Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press
