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General Motors will add another $1 billion to its investment tab, promising significant upgrades for two of its long-standing manufacturing centers in Flint, Michigan. Rather than investing in electric tech, however, this money will go towards next-generation Chevrolet and GMC heavy-duty pickup trucks with combustion engines.

Specifically, GM’s Flint Metal Center will gain new stamping dies and refurbished equipment, costing $233 million. Another $788 million is earmarked for the Flint Assembly plant, where numerous updates along with new equipment and expansions of various facilities are planned. Flint Assembly is where the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD trucks are built.

The latest announcement comes after another half-billion investment earmarked for Flint. In January 2023, GM committed $579 million to update its Flint Engine Operations facility, preparing it for the company’s next-generation small-block V8 engine. At the same time, GM announced $216 million for another plant in nearby Bay City, Michigan. All total, that’s $1.8 billion from the Detroit automaker going to this region of Michigan alone.

Moving outside the Great Lake State, GM committed $650 million in February for a Nevada Lithium mine to produce EV batteries. $168 million is going to upgrade manufacturing centers in New York, Ohio, and Indiana, and these are just announcements within the last several months. It’s all part of a $30 billion commitment from GM to invest in various US-based facilities going back to 2013.

“Today we are announcing significant investments in Flint to strengthen our industry-leading full-size pickup business by preparing two plants to build the next-generation ICE HD trucks,” said Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president for global manufacturing and sustainability. “These investments reflect our commitment to our loyal truck customers and the efforts of the dedicated employees of Flint Assembly and Flint Metal Center.”

Built in 1947, Flint Assembly is the oldest assembly plant still operating in GM’s North American network. It’s also the last remaining vehicle assembly plant left in Flint, which was once a hub of manufacturing in the auto industry dating back to the early 1900s.

Automakers cut about 41,700 more vehicles from their production plans last week because of microchip shortages, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.

Most of those losses were at assembly plants in Europe and China. Europe axed about 16,400 vehicles from production schedules last week, while about 15,500 were removed in China. 

About 8,000 were eliminated from plans at factories in the rest of Asia, while plants in the Middle East and Africa cut 1,700 vehicles.

For the second consecutive week, no further microchip-related production cuts were made at North American factories, which have been hit harder by the shortage than those in other regions. Likewise, South American assembly plans were unaffected by semiconductor supply, AutoForecast Solutions said.

UAW leaders on Wednesday delivered a clear message to members: The union has high demands for this upcoming round of contract negotiations with the Detroit 3 and are prepared to strike if the companies don’t meet them.

In a first-of-its-kind virtual town hall, UAW President Shawn Fain, Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock and the union’s three vice presidents laid out priorities that include ending the tiered wage system, reinstating cost-of-living increases and adding stronger job protections to prevent future plant closures. They said Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis have made enough profits in recent years to no longer need concessions from their work forces.

“They can afford our demands, and we expect them to pony up,” Fain said. “This is our time to get our fair share of the pie.”

The leaders struck a defiant tone at times, using charts and graphics to contrast corporate profits with union wages. Fain said the Detroit 3 have made so much money over the past decade that they could collectively use those profits to purchase every pro baseball, basketball and hockey team and still have billions left over.

Vice President Rich Boyer, head of the Stellantis department, blasted CEOs Mary Barra of GM, Jim Farley of Ford and Carlos Tavares of Stellantis for their high compensation relative to the average worker’s wages.

“Remember that when they say we’re family,” Boyer said. “We’re not family.”

The upcoming round of negotiations are expected to be difficult and contentious as the union fights for better wages and benefits while the automakers attempt to keep costs under control. Union leaders, most of whom are newly elected and have not shied away from divisive rhetoric, said Wednesday they weren’t afraid of going on strike. The automakers’ contracts with the UAW expire in September.

Honda’s Anna Engine Plant in Ohio has produced its 30 millionth powertrain. The 2.0-liter four-cylinder hybrid unit, destined for an Accord or CR-V, signifies the shift happening throughout the industry that will be pivotal to the plant’s future.

In the US, nearly 60 percent of Accord and CR-V sales are of the brand’s two-motor hybrid-electric system. The powertrain bridges the era of pure combustion engines the facility started producing in 1985 and the battery-electric components it will build in a few short years.

Honda is investing $700 million to retool its Anna Engine Plant, East Liberty Auto Plant, and Marysville Auto Plant so it can produce battery-electric vehicles. Anna will make the cases for Honda’s Intelligent Power Unit that will house the battery module and its controlling hardware.

The Anna facility is Honda’s largest engine plant in the world and has produced more than just engines. Over the years, employees have made transmissions, suspension components, and wheels. It employs 2,900 people today who build Honda’s V6 and inline-four engines, including hybrids, and the company expects to sustain employment levels at its facilities during the transition to EVs.

Honda’s EV hub will also include a new joint venture battery facility with LG Energy Solutions, which recently broke ground. The combined investment is projected to reach $4.4 billion, and the facility will produce lithium-ion batteries for the EVs that will be produced at Honda’s East Liberty and Marysville factories. Honda had initially planned to begin EV production in Ohio in 2026, but it changed course and moved the start forward to 2025.

Honda will transfer engine production out of Anna by August as it preps the facility to produce the cases. Other changes include moving Accord production from Marysville to Indiana to consolidate production lines so the automaker can begin producing EVs.

While the automaker is investing considerably in electric vehicles, the company believes combustion engines could linger beyond 2040. However, it’s also pushing for EVs and hybrids to account for 40 percent of its sales by 2030, as that’s the direction the industry is heading.

With more than 40,000 units sold in March, the Model Y was Europe’s best-seller in the first quarter, marking the first time a Tesla model achieved that milestone, according to market researcher Dataforce.

Elon Musk on Tuesday visited China for the first time in three years, highlighting the importance of the world’s biggest electric car market.

Model Y ranked first in global sales, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Hilux, Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Camry, according to the data. The Model Y is the only full-electric car on the list.

Musk recently told CNBC that growing tensions between China and the U.S. “should be a concern for everyone.” Tesla also recently held talks with Indian officials about building a new factory in India.

As part of the accommodation agreement, customers also agreed not to “exercise certain rights of set off, recoupment or deduction” and not to resource parts components to other suppliers.

The deal imposes a deadline of Oct. 31 for the company to be sold to a qualified buyer. The agreement may be terminated by a customer if a default occurs. The company must formulate a restructuring plan, hire a chief restructuring consultant and engage an investment banker within 30 days.

“The accommodation agreement provides for specified price increases to be paid by customers during the term or other funding to be provided by customers to the company through the purchase by customers of a junior tranche of debt to be established under the credit agreement of up to $15 million in the aggregate,” the filing said.

The financial struggles of Unique Fabricating, which supplies plastics, rubber and foam, became apparent earlier this year when it failed to report its financials for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31 due its statements being investigated for inaccuracies. Additionally, the company is being investigated for alleged labor rights violations at plants in Mexico.

In its most recent financial report — the one under review — company executives said it took a $6.2 million operating loss and $10.6 million net loss in the third quarter, with projected full-year sales of $136 million. It had just $500,000 in cash and $1.3 million in liquidity under its revolving credit facility.

The company, which also counts Rivian Automotive Inc. and Bosch as customers, aims to continuing operating amid the restructuring process and potential sale.

Unique Fabricating could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“GM is aware of the developments at Unique Fabricating and is supportive of it as a going concern,” GM spokesman David Barnas said in an email. “As such, we are working with several of Unique Fabricating’s other customers and its creditors to allow them to be viable long-term through either a restructuring or sale. We do not expect any interruption to GM supply during this process.”

Stellantis declined to comment.

Like other automotive suppliers, Unique Fabricating has struggled with production volatility, shrinking volumes and inflation, which have had an outsize impact on smaller companies further down the supply chain.

The accommodation agreement indicates that automakers and Tier 1 suppliers are still willing to make financial concessions to suppliers to keep them afloat, as they did during the supply chain snarls over the past couple of years. When Gissing North America LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last August, GM, Toyota and BMW agreed to fund Gissing’s projected liquidity shortfall of more than $14 million as a bridge to it being sold.

Unique Fabricating shares were trading at 23 cents per share as of Tuesday, having lost nearly all of its value since launching its initial public offering in 2015 at $11 per share.

The enactment of new tax credits for electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act is a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s commitment to fight climate change by revolutionizing the way we fuel our trucks and cars. These incentives of up to $7,500 per vehicle will provide a huge boost to clean-car production, making the goal of a low carbon future for the auto industry far more realistic.

But in the haste to ensure such incentives will benefit domestic production, Congress created a daunting new obstacle to that very goal. The law’s complex and restrictive sourcing requirements may actually slow domestic EV production, handing a competitive advantage to China, which already has a huge lead in EVs. While this was obviously not the intent, Biden and Congress must work together to implement the act in a way that avoids such a perverse outcome.

While allies continue to fume over the Inflation Reduction Act’s North American assembly requirement, perhaps a greater obstacle is the law’s restrictive rules on the sourcing of critical minerals essential to battery manufacturing. By mandating that within seven years 80 percent of these minerals be sourced within the United States or from free-trade partners, the law risks bifurcating global pricing, raising domestic input costs for U.S.-based auto companies while lowering them for producers elsewhere. This could render the credit unusable for many U.S. auto producers, creating higher sticker prices and even shortages of our EVs while we watch China, Japan and Europe expand their output, the exact opposite of the IRA’s objective.

How bad can this dichotomy become? Analysts broadly acknowledge that we cannot power an EV revolution based solely on the minerals accessible under current rules. And not only EVs require battery production, but solar and wind farms needed to meet higher electricity demand. Moreover, the EV revolution is occurring worldwide, intensifying the scramble to secure long-term supplies of critical minerals. Even with new lithium mines coming on stream, the U.S. will probably produce less than a quarter of future demand for that crucial input. Meanwhile, the U.S. has less than 1 percent of global cobalt and nickel reserves. An even bigger problem is that China is already the dominant world refiner of critical minerals, refining 73 percent of the world’s cobalt, 68 percent of its nickel and 60 percent of its lithium.

While some of our free-trade partners, such as Canada, Australia and Chile, have significant reserves of certain minerals, they also have existing markets with long-term buyers. We can count on them for a share of our needs, but locking out other lower-cost suppliers who don’t enjoy free-trade agreement status puts us in a perilous position. Many of these countries hold huge shares of global reserves in key minerals. They are crucial to our success, and if we don’t bring them inside our supply chain it will only strengthen reliance on China as the market for mining output. Partnership with these potential critical mineral suppliers is crucial to breaking China’s stranglehold over global battery production.

So far, Indonesia, the Philippines and Argentina have asked to initiate critical mineral agreement talks with the U.S., and negotiations are ongoing with Europe. Securing critical mineral agreements quickly, as was done with Japan, can be part of the solution to the materials challenge. We must acknowledge that without building a network of critical minerals suppliers the promise of the Inflation Reduction Act from an environmental and jobs standpoint will not be realized. By engaging as many trade partners as possible through critical mineral agreements, the U.S. has a major opportunity to impact the way in which countries exploit their resources, while also securing our own supply chain. Further, this would give us a chance to promote higher environmental and worker standards in these markets vs. China.

In short, if the United States truly wants to succeed in becoming the world leader in EV production and other battery driven technologies, the Biden administration has no choice but to widen the U.S. supply chain and start competing for access to key sources of critical minerals around the world by aggressively pursuing critical mineral agreements with as many trading partners as possible.

The CX-5 is Mazda’s most popular vehicle, selling 365,135 units last year. Even with that volume, it was rumored to be living on borrowed time thanks to the launch of several newer models. But now it looks like the CX-5 will get a reprieve in the form of a new, third generation. 

According to Drive, the official launch date has yet to be finalized, but Mazda confirmed a new version of the CX-5 would be in showrooms along with the CX-50 and larger CX-90 SUVs. The new CX-5 will likely utilize a configuration similar to today’s model, including a four-cylinder engine, front-wheel drive, and optional all-wheel drive. 

It’s also highly likely the new Mazda CX-5 will feature a hybrid powertrain, similar to the one in the Toyota RAV4 or Corolla Cross. Toyota owns a five percent stake in Mazda, and the two companies have collaborated on several vehicles, including a Japan-market-only Mazda 3 hybrid. In the US, both the Toyota Corolla Cross and Mazda CX-50 are assembled at the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama.  

Previously, Mazda announced plans to produce three electric vehicles, five plug-in hybrids, and five conventional hybrids by 2025. However, it has not indicated which models would offer versions of those powertrains. There are also rumors of several rotary-powered hybrids. Mazda has hinted that it might offer a rotary engine hybrid version CX-30 in the US and has filed patents for a sportscar using a rotary PHEV.  

Unlike past rotary-engined cars, the internal combustion engine will not power the CX-30’s wheels. Instead, it will generate electricity to recharge a 17.8 kWh battery, which provides an electric-only range of up to 53 miles. Jeff Guyton, Mazda’s North American CEO, said the automaker has not ruled out the return of the rotary to the US market but is currently prioritizing the CX-30’s launch in Europe and Japan. 

Instead, the US market gets the CX-90, a three-row SUV, a hugely popular vehicle in North America. It will be joined later this year by the CX-70, a two-row version of the CX-90, giving Mazda a complete lineup of SUVs, including the CX-5, for the foreseeable future. 

Ree’s first product will be the P7-B box truck, which targets the core of the medium-duty electric market.

The selling point is the novel wheel-based drive system called Reecorner, said KC Heidler, CEO of Tom’s Truck Center, a two-store chain based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Each corner has an electric motor as well as steering, braking and suspension components packaged into a module positioned between the chassis and the wheel. The system is controlled by wire, similar to how commercial aircraft operate, but is scaled and modified for the everyday driver rather than a skilled pilot, said Daniel Barel, Ree’s co-founder and CEO.

The modules allow for a flat skateboard platform, creating a low step-in height with more room for cargo or passengers if used as a shuttle. The vehicle has significantly more agility — especially useful for dense urban environments — than other commercial vehicles. It has a 39-foot turning circle.

The truck offers a 150-mile range with up to a 7,000-pound payload, consistent with the drive cycles of box trucks. The vehicle architecture would allow for a bigger battery pack and longer range, but customers neither need nor want to pay for that extra capability, Barel said.

The system also makes for easy service. Technicians can swap a module out in about an hour, limiting the time the truck would be out of service, a key metric for commercial vehicle users, he said.

Ree demonstrated the technology for guests at its headquarters Monday during EcoMotion, a conference and weeklong series of events focusing on Israeli automotive technology.

Ree has a plant in Coventry, England, where it will launch production this year. Barel said Ree could assemble up to 20,000 vehicles annually, working two shifts at the factory.

When it reported its first-quarter financial results Tuesday, Ree said it had 100 truck orders. It set a production target in the low hundreds of vehicles for 2024 and into the low to mid-thousands by the end of 2025.

Ree is recruiting independent truck dealers to build its distribution network. Tom’s Truck Center, with stores in Santa Ana and Santa Fe Springs, Calif., is among the first eight.

Heidler said he sees a market opportunity to help businesses tap federal and state incentives to transition their fleets to ZEVs. He’s working with Nikola Corp. and GreenPower Motor Co., among others, and gets pitched constantly by green vehicle startups.

“Most will be out of business or merged into something else in two or three years. But we have vetted many of these startups and think we are picking the ones that will survive,” Heidler told Automotive News.

One problem is that few offer innovative technology that would provide an advantage to businesses, Heidler said. They typically have similar, conventional designs, he said.

But the Ree technology offers advantages that could make it a survivor.

“In the commercial space, weight and space is everything,” Heidler said. “The corner technology opens up everything else on the truck for us to design for the customer.”

Ree is the only company Tom’s is working with that doesn’t have a product already on the road, he said.