Featured Lots of turmoil in the automotive industry

My intepretation (use your own judgment) from an EV perspective is: Volksagen IDs, Nissan Leafs and Ariyas, and Fiat 500e's, and some other EVs are possibly in a bit of trouble along with their parent companies that also produce a lot of ICE vehicles.

Stellantis CEO Quits During Critical Period For The Automaker

• Volkswagen wanting to close plants and lower wages and is being met with strikes in home country Germany.
• Stellantis CEO quits while company is floundering,
• Nissan CFO leaves while company may have only 12 months of funds to keep alive.

There is likely going to be some major changes in the near future. Or this is just a bunch of hype to get our emotions stirred up. I guess we'll find out.

I do wonder what this all means for EVs. It seems that Chinese EVs are doing well, whether you like them or not. Tesla is too, but is quite expensive still, for some of us at least. Is Chevy our only hope to have affordable EVs in the near future? I don't know, I can't foretell the future. I do hope there's a 4-seating Aptera that gets at least 15 miles a day on solar on sunny days and costs less than $20,000 brand new. Hey, I can dream can't I!?

 

Maybe they'll do better with a new CEO. Stellantis just got the approval for a $7 billion loan from the US government to make a deal with Samsung SDI for making another EV battery gigafactory.
Stellantis, Samsung SDI Announce Plans to Build Second StarPlus Energy Gigafactory in the United States | Stellantis

 

I wonder if all this combating Chinese cars flops and legacy car manufacturers go bankrupt anyway.

Stellantis jumped on the chip-shortage price jump train and never got off. They raised their prices by the greatest percent of all car manufacturers and never went back down. Now their dealers and customers are fed up.

 

It seems like China is already starting to fight fire with it's own fire even before the fire starts from the USA side.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-bans-exports-gallium-germanium-antimony-us-2024-12-03/
They are banning exports of certain minerals to make manufacturing chips and other tech harder in the USA.

I guess that means they don't have any interest in negotiating. It's a trade war, and war is war.

 

Good question. I would venture a guess that if one were to buy a motorcycle that an Aptera is likely the safest motorcycle out on the roads. I would also venture a guess that a 4 seater Aptera, if one ever comes out, would be classified as a car with all car safety regulations applied.

On the other hand, how many people die from smog? It's pretty hard to create more smog when your vehicle charges off of the sun directly, no need to buy a house and install solar panels.

But like I said, hoping for a 4 seater Aptera that I can actually afford and is safe only a dream. Show me a car that's interesting and safe; I don't think such a car actually exists. Yes, if push comes to shove I will choose safety and economy over fun. My other dream is we abandon this crazy idea that we need vehicular transportation and just go back to walking everywhere. Unless one could make an air-cooled VW safe. That would be a fun car to drive if it still felt and looked like an original air-cooled VW.

 

I'd love to have solar on my home! But solar roofs aren't options for us apartment dwellers. I can't even get permission to install a small satellite dish. And no, I can't just move to another part of town where magically I can afford to live and be able to install solar on my home at the same time.

As I've said many times before, if certain ways of doing things are a requirement to do it correctly (drive EV, install solar on roof, etc.) then in my case the only option is to just stop using motorized transportation or stop using electricity as I don't have the means to do what others state as "the only way" to do something.

Yeah, I checked into that and my electric company no longer offers those. Besides, you're talking about pure practicality, which I get. But I was talking about a dream, the dream of merging practicality and fun together at the same time. Paying for environmental charity is a good thing, but not exactly something that puts a smile on one's face every day.

I personally don't see a problem putting a solar panel on a vehicle that will use all the electricity that solar panel will offer. And before you go into "well, it's not at a proper angle" neither are home solar panels most of the time. How many people put their solar panels on pivots that point them towards the sun as the sun goes across the sky?

 

While obvious, that doesn't mean Aptera's next vehicle will have 3-wheels (if they ever come out with another vehicle). The future is unknown. And again, it's only a dream. Why? Because the rest of the cars out there are all basically the same. They are tablets on wheels, all shaped like marshmallows on a frying pan, with the only "fun" being they take off quickly to make the immature feel at home and they have internet connectivity.

I'd prefer a unique vehicle. One that has class and feels like I'm driving it.

• Stick shift.
• Let me hear and feel the road and motor and suspension.
  
• No automatic anything (except for safety).
  
• Knobs and levers.
• No power anything (except maybe for safety).
• And NO touchscreens!

But no, I don't think I'll ever own such a vehicle again, so I'm back to looking at the list of expensive transportation appliances that one of them will eventually be my next car.

 

As I reiterated several times, it's only a dream. No, there will probably never be a second Aptera in our lifetimes. There may never be a first Aptera.

The Mini Cooper was pretty close until they dropped the manual transmission option.
The same with the Mazda Miata/MX-5, except even fewer seats.

Again I probably wouldn't buy one because of safety, reliability and economics.

The Nissan Versa with stick shift is probably the closest thing to my brand new dream car. It is getting axed.

No, not one fulfills my dreams completely.

I kind of like the new Ford Bronco with manual shifter (including both crawler gear and low 4x4) and disconnectable front end sway bar.

Would I buy one? No. They are way too expensive, and I don't need to go off-roading on anything other than my feet or a bicycle or a horse.

 

Now there is apparently a strike by UAW staff against the UAW...

Union Employees Strike Against the UAW