Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Ford Is Reportedly Killing The U.S.-Market Transit Connect
It sounds like trouble might be brewing in small commercial van paradise. Automotive News reports that Ford plans on making 2023 the last model year for the Transit Connect in America. With the Nissan NV200 put out to pasture, numbered days for the Mercedes-Benz Metris, and the reported upcoming demise of the Transit Connect, the only smaller mainstream commercial van sold new in America could soon be the Ram Promaster City. It’s a bit of a shame considering these city-sized vans are perfect for florists, pool repair companies, dealership parts departments and the like. This segment contraction poses a really big question: how long will these smaller vans stick it out in fleets across the country? Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari commercial vans stuck around for absolute ages after they exited production, so I’m curious to see if the Transit Connect and its ilk will have a similar legacy. The automaker scrapped that plan earlier this year, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal decisions that have not been made public. Ford will stop importing the van for the U.S. market by the end of next year, the people said, although the nameplate will live on as a Europe-only model.
Another American Hyundai Supplier Faces Allegations Of Child Labor Use
Terrible things often happen, but if they happen twice is that a coincidence or a pattern? Reuters reports that the U.S. Department of Labor alleges another Hyundai supplier in Alabama is using child labor. These allegations come after claims of child labor at Hyundai subsidiary SMART Alabama LLC. This is a troubling story to see and it raises the question: Where else is this happening in the supply chain? Since last November, SL Alabama “repeatedly violated” labor regulations by “employing oppressive child labor” and “minors under the age of 16,” the DOL said in a six-page complaint. In a statement to Reuters, SL Alabama admitted children had worked at the plant, which makes headlights, rear lights and other components for companies including Hyundai and its Kia affiliate. SL said the minors had been hired by an outside labor recruitment firm, which it didn’t identify.
Volkswagen Reportedly Plans To Source Battery Materials From Canada
Volkswagen may have found a way around America’s EV credit battery sourcing requirements, and it includes a generous helping of maple syrup. According to a Bloomberg report, the German automaker has reached a deal with Canada for raw materials. As a Canadian, this agreement makes a ton of sense. We’re generally a little bit more aligned from a social perspective with Europe than we are with the U.S., plus we have a traditionally natural resource-based economy. It certainly helps that Volkswagen Group does alright up here sales-wise, with mainstream and high-end models all enjoying decent popularity, plus Volkswagen ID.4 production in Chattanooga, Tenn. and battery production nearby helps simplify the potential supply chain freight situation. Volkswagen and Canadian government leaders have scheduled a virtual press conference for Tuesday “to announce an agreement to jointly advance electric mobility in the country.”
Ford To Cut 3,000 Jobs In Shift To EVs.
Reuters reports that Ford is trimming 3,000 salaried and contract jobs as it restructures its workforce for the EV future, a fairly sizable blow to the global automotive workforce. That’s a lot of people who are about to be given early retirement packages and pink slips, and the last thing we need given rampant inflation [Ed note: I don’t actually think inflation is as bad as some people are making it out to be and given the number of open jobs this could be cast as a realignment – MH] is people out of work. Higher costs of living mean it’s harder to put food on the table and keep on top of bills while searching for a new job, adding stresses that job seekers shouldn’t have to suffer through. While the 3,000 jobs lost will be scattered across the globe, Reuters says that most of them are positions in America, Canada, and India. It’s not great hearing that many positions will be cut close to home and I wish everyone caught up in this the best of luck in finding new jobs. “We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business. You will hear more specifics from the leaders of your area of the business later this week,” Farley and Ford Chairman Bill Ford wrote in a joint email.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. It’s almost hard to believe that August is winding down. I hope everyone had a wonderful automotive summer, and I’m curious to hear what car-related plans everyone has for the autumn. Do you hope to take your toy to a pumpkin patch, wish to hit up your local drive-in theater as the evenings cool, or plan on completing some much-needed maintenance? Whatever the case, I’d love to hear what you’re cooking up for the next few months before snow flies. Lead photo credit: Ford It seems like this is driven by the TC being replaced by a rebadged VW in Europe, so there isn’t a business case for a US-only next gen TC. I’m a bit sad though since I had pushed hard for a TC wagon instead of the mall explorer I have now… Not much planned, outside routine day-to-day stuff. Though we do have another camping trip planned, then will probably load the trailer to restock on firewood. Or is this a sign that the market here in the U.S. big van only at this point? The venerable E-150 seems to slot size-wise between the Transit Connect and the Transit, which makes me wonder if that’s the actually most useful size for the kinda businesses that use these. Pepperidge Farm remembers when Gov Snyder rammed through right-to-work in Michigan, promising all sorts of factories would locate here instead of other states. Hasn’t really made a difference. I seriously thought about (but never did) think about acquiring one as a sort of poor-man’s camper with room for a dirt bike, a hammock, a gas cooker, and jugs enough for 10 or 20 gallons of water… you perhaps couldn’t get too far off road, but otherwise you could anywhere. As harsh as it is to say this, one of the primary drivers of inflation is how few people are out of work. More people laid off would on balance reduce inflation, and the Fed raising rates so quickly has the unspoken but implied goal of cooling off the labor market. We can feel sorry for the people affected without implying that inflation would be affected negatively by the layoffs. It’s hilarious how every bank and government puppet media organization will write endless editorials about how “the bailouts won’t cause inflation”, which turned to “well, there is inflation but it’s only 4%” which turned to “inflation is actually good”, which became “Ok, inflation is here but it’s because the economy is doing so well” which turned to “actually we need to get rid of workers”. And people will parrot this nonsense. And I didn’t say get rid of workers, or even endorse the Fed’s policy. But the wage/price spiral is pretty well studied and understood, and if you’ve spent any time at all reviewing job openings the last year, you know that nominal wages really are going up. “”job creators” need their taxes cut and subsidies, regular people are just lazy and should just pull themselves by their bootstraps, while also paying taxes to keep the trough full. Moving this to the Escape Platform, with a hybrid and PHEV setup, seems like a no brainer here. But Ford is notoriously prone to shooting themselves in the foot. This insane fixation on profit margins is eliminating entire segements THAT FORD LEADS OR IS HIGHLY COMPETITIVE IN SALES. See the Focus/Fiesta/Fusion stupidity. The commercial sector, as a whole, is deeply overlooked in the North American market, and its super obnoxious. Perhaps Stellantis will use this as an opportunity to refresh the Promaster City and offer the midsize Peugeot/Citroen vans which have PHEV and EV powertrains, and take over the market. The first manufacturer that actually realizes that small-medium businesses NEED an efficient, reliable work van that is small enough to navigate tight urban cores will absolutely PRINT money. But every manufacturer seems to think that businesses should just rebuild old Econlines/Expresses and even crusty old Astros/Safari’s permanently. Meanwhile, every other market in the world has dozens of commercial vehicle options. The perpetual abject neglect of a multibillion dollar sales sector here in North America absolutely bizarre. It’s available on orange, which is cool. I thought Ford already pulled out of India completely LOL Stellantis doesn’t seem to care much about the PMC, either – at least for the US. They just sort of allow it to continue to exist as is. I’ve never driven a full-size Transit but I daily’d an E-150 for seven years and got pretty well used to it, even felt fun sometimes. I actually think I’ve hit curbs on tight turns more with my Prius, somehow. I’m just sad it’ll probably be 20 years before conversion E-Transits are even close to affordable on the used market… Second hypothesis. One of the factors causing inflation, over time, is that consumers just can’t buy the cheap version of many goods any more. They’re not being made.
