UAW is now on strike – Jeep 4xe is the only EV currently affected
The United Auto Workers union has begun a strike against all three major American automakers, with about 12,700 workers currently on strike, and the potential for up to 146,000 total to go on strike in the future if automakers do not offer the union a satisfactory agreement.
While this strike is not specifically EV-focused, this story is nevertheless related to our coverage since it affects the auto industry as a whole, and many EVs are built by union labor by the “Big Three” US automakers (GM, Ford and Chrysler, which is now a part of Stellantis).
However, currently the strike doesn’t include all unionized US auto workers. Of the ~146,000 UAW workers in the US, only 12,700 of them have walked off the job for the time being, at one plant for each of the three automakers.
The plants targeted for shutdown are GM’s Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Ford’s Michigan Assembly in Wayne, MI, and Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio.
Of those three plants, the only one that currently produces an electrified vehicle is the Stellantis plant in Ohio, which builds Jeep Wranglers. This includes the Wrangler 4xe, a plug-in hybrid Jeep with a 17.3kWh battery pack and 21 miles of all-electric range.
There are no pure BEVs built at the three plants in question, so EVs have mostly escaped for the time being. In fact, with fewer gas vehicles being built, this could even benefit EVs in the short-term – but that could change at any moment.
New leadership, new tactics
As of this year, the union is under new leadership. In March, it held the first direct election in its 88-year history, electing its current president Shawn Fain after previous appointed presidents were subject to scandal.
Fain has called this new tactic of closing a few plants at a time a “stand-up strike.” This allows the union to show that it is serious about striking, but to gradually increase pressure on the Big Three with the threat of expanding the strike to more plants if automakers do not offer enough to the union. It also means that strike funds will last longer – the UAW current has around $825 million in strike funds earmarked to pay workers while they’re off the line.
This new “stand up” nomenclature is meant to contrast with the “sit-down strikes” of the past, where workers would arrive to work at their stations and then simply sit down in place – thus preventing the potential for companies to hire scabs to replace striking workers.
Previously, the UAW would normally strike against a single automaker at a time, typically with one or a few plants. This is the first time it has held a strike against all three automakers at once, though it is still only walking out of some facilities for the time being. But that could change, and the strike could expand to cover more vehicles – and potentially some BEVs – if automakers don’t improve their offers.
In the runup to this strike, automakers have already offered significant pay increases, but these fall short of what the union considers acceptable. At first, automakers were offering around a ~10% increase, and more recent proposals have risen to around ~20%, though there are other provisions that are being negotiated for as well.
But the union says that these numbers are not high enough. Fain points to executive pay, which he says has gone up 65% over the last four years, in comparison to autoworker pay which has risen only 6%.
The Big Three counter this by stating that if their labor costs increase, this could put them at a disadvantage against non-unionized automakers like Tesla, Toyota and other foreign automakers in the US. Many of these automakers are building factories in the US already.
And with the economy in somewhat of a rocky place recently, a swift end to this strike is in the interest of many. It is estimated that just a ten-day strike could cost the US economy $5 billion, so negotiations will surely be frantic.
Unions have been having a bit of a moment this year, with many strikes happening around the country. Public approval of unions is around its highest point since 1965, which has given labor the momentum to push for better protections as several industries are in times of disruption. Americans tend to favor striking auto workers and film & TV workers over their employers at a margin of three or four to one.
Electric cars and unions
In the auto industry specifically, electric cars have been in focus because electric cars typically have fewer parts than gas-powered vehicles, and thus require fewer human assembly hours. This is a benefit as the cars are less complex, but it also means that fewer auto workers may be needed to build the same number of cars.
Also, as automakers are building battery plants in the US, some are trying to start battery assembly jobs at lower hourly rates than traditional auto assembly jobs have paid. GM’s Ultium battery workers, who unionized earlier this year, just earned a 25% pay raise last month, noting this discrepancy in starting pay.
This was the first big union win in US EV production, as US battery production has heretofore mostly been non-unionized. In particular, the largest US EV maker, Tesla, has seen some unionization efforts, but those efforts have mostly met with retaliation from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Unions have at times been somewhat skeptical of the transition to electric vehicles, largely due to this reduction in total hours of labor needed for assembly. Though this doesn’t apply to all unions – in Germany, Audi’s worker union demanded that EVs be built at the main plant, thinking that if they did not embrace the EV transition, they might lose their jobs entirely anyway as the industry moves towards EV.
Labor was also central to President Biden’s original Build Back Better proposal, which would have added an additional $4,500 tax credit for union-made EVs, but that provision didn’t make it to the final bill due to opposition from all Senate republicans and Joe Manchin. That proposal ended up going into law as the Inflation Reduction Act, which gives a $7,500 tax credit to EVs that are built in the US, though without a union requirement attached.
Electrek’s Take
Personally, I’m pro-union. And I think that everyone should be – it only makes sense that people should have their interests collectively represented, and that people should be able to join together to support each other and exercise their power collectively, instead of individually.
This is precisely what companies do with industry organizations, lobby organizations, chambers of commerce, and so on. And it’s what countries and regions do with local, state or national governments. So naturally, workers should do the same. It only makes sense.
But at times, unions can have conservative views on manufacturing. In particular, they are interested in maintaining jobs for all of their members, which makes sense from their perspective.
But if the climate crisis requires that we produce fewer and/or smaller personal vehicles, as it does, and if those vehicles must be electric, as they must, then this means we simply have to have fewer auto manufacturing jobs in the future. It’s just going to happen. There is simply no way to get around it while also working to reduce emissions.
This could put unions in a tough spot, because they want to protect their workers, but hopefully still recognize the necessity of a rapid transition to cleaner transportation options.
There’s no reason we can’t have both things, and currently the unions don’t seem to be working against the transition at all, nor do I expect them to. I hope we can continue on this same path, and unions and the auto industry can both embrace electrification in the most rapid way possible (that is, even more rapidly than anyone currently is), while still maintaining worker protections and high levels of manufacturing quality.
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Volkswagen is putting its Tesla Robotaxi rival through its paces in Wolfsburg, Germany, where the self-driving Gen.Urban research vehicle is now driving autonomously in real urban traffic – without a steering wheel or pedals!
VW’s Gen.Urban research project sets out to explore how passengers experience riding in a self-driving vehicle on real roads, among real drivers, and without a traditional steering wheel or pedals, and what those requirements might mean for future vehicle concepts.
Some of the key questions VW is asking include:
- How do people spend their time in a self-driving vehicle?
- Which digital features best support work, entertainment, or relaxation?
- How should interaction between the vehicle and passengers be designed, particularly for older people or children?
- Most importantly: Do people feel comfortable?
“The technology for autonomous driving is making rapid progress,” explains Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation. “With our Gen.Urban research vehicle, we want to understand exactly how passengers experience autonomous driving. Because: The key to a positive customer experience is to build trust – through meaningful interaction, a relaxed atmosphere, and intelligent assistance systems that respond precisely to the needs of passengers. Ultimately, technology should fit people, not the other way around. We will benefit from these insights across the entire Group in the long term.”
Not QUITE fully autonomous
It’s important to note here that, while Volkswagen designed the Gen.Urban without a steering wheel or pedals, the vehicles participating in these test have a trained safety driver monitoring the vehicle from the passenger seat, ready to step in to control the vehicle using a specially developed control panel with a joystick – which means we’re still a long way from the 2022 Volkswagen Gen.Travel concept (above).
Even so, Volkswagen’s autonomous driving efforts have been in public testing phases since at least 2023, when the company unveiled a fleet of ten specially modified VW.Buzz AD electric vans. Tests with those vans have gone well enough, at least, to lead Volkswagen to announce plans for large-scale production.
The current test phase is limited to Volkswagen Group employees as riders, and is planned for a period of several weeks. If results are satisfactory, VW could expand its rider base by the end of Q1.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volkswagen.
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Ask anyone who owned or owns one, and they’ll tell you that Honda Element was ahead of its time, delivering a flexible interior, car-like ride, and SUV-levels of visibility – and, if Honda really wanted to, they could roll out an all-new, all-electric Element riding on an Ultium-style electric skateboard tomorrow.
Honda’s first Element made its debut way back in 2003, when it was still a bit strange to think of companies like Cadillac, Volkswagen, and Porsche selling anything as big and clunky as an SUV. It earned plenty of fans, however, and for all the same reasons, they’ll love an electric Element even more.
Consider the following:
Car-like handling
The original Element rolled around on a lot of bits originally developed for the Honda Civic – widely regarded as a fun-to-drive, great-handling little car. That car-based chassis earned it some mockery among automotive journalists who, more than two decades ago, still widely believed that an SUV had to have some off-road chops to it.
Today, we’re a more enlightened bunch. In 2025, an SUV needs to be practical above all else, emphasizing the “Utility” aspect. With a low-slung, low-cg, and low-intrusion electric skateboard underneath its boxy body (more on that in a minute), a modern Element would be than more than capable of delivering a “car-like” ride with plenty of sporty acceleration, as well.
Flexible interior
Remember that comment about the low-intrusion nature of the Ultium EV chassis? Without a transmission tunnel to get in the way, Honda was able to offer a massive, flat floor that made the Element ideal for moving, camping, beach days, tailgating, antiquing, and (not to put too fine a point on it) drive-in movies – which we still had those in Florida until at least 2010.
In an EV, all that flat-floor goodness is still there, with the added benefit of being able to offer a flat floor without a transmission tunnel ruining the bedroom cargo bay.
Add a bit of extra width inherited from the Prologue, toss in a friendly ASIMO interface to keep the investment class happy, and offer a full range of inflatable tents, dog beds, and other overlanding, pet, or surf-friendly accessories, and Honda could watch the money roll in. At the very least, if Honda had built a modern Element instead of the Prologue on GM’s skateboard, they might have an easier time moving them in post-rebate America, I think. What do you guys think?
You guys are smart, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find all the problems with this particular take – and I can’t wait to hear them! Should it be FWD only? A plug-in hybrid? Ship with a tent? Scroll on down to the comments and let me know what you think it would take to make a battery-powered Honda Element revival make sense to you.
Original content from Electrek.
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File this under “wishful thinking” if you want, but a fresh trademark filing for the Buick Electra name could mean that the storied nameplate is set for a return to US shores.
GM Authority reports that Buick parent company General Motors has renewed its trademark for the Buick Electra name in the US in a filing from 09DEC2025 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and received an assigned serial number 99538079. The application carries a Goods and Services of, “Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles.”
Electra a nameplate that holds a long history with the near-luxe Buick brand and has generally been believed to be one that’s especially relevant to Buick’s electrification strategy in the US. That’s a notion that seems especially true when you consider the following two facts:
- the Buick Electra nameplate is already featured on a number of hugely successful GM products being sold in the ultra-competitive Chinese market
- 2027 is the fortieth anniversary of the Buick Grand National, and GM’s marketers are way too smart to let that moment slide
It’s worth noting, of course, that this most recent renewal for the Buick Electra trademark is a long, long way from a confirmation of a new all-electric Buick for the US market and even further from a confirmation that we’re getting the hot, sexy Electra GM sells in China. If anything, it’s likely just a matter of course legal thing that GM needs to protect its IP in China while, at the same time, preventing some kind of disastrous Sierra Mist scenario from playing out at home (which– yeah, I get that it’s not true, but you got the idea).
That said, I want to believe.
Electrek’s Take
I’m a huge fan of GM, GM’s EVs, and the way Mary Barra has managed the General over the past several years. I also think a big, sexy sedan is sorely missing from GM’s lineup, and the fast, flashy electric sedan formula might play better at the Buick store than at the Cadillac brand.
Combine that with an overwhelming desire to see a new-age Buick Grand National parked in my garage next Christmas and you can see that I’m not to be trusted. So, what say you? Head on down to the comments and let us know what you think of an American Electra revival just in time for the 2027 model year.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GM Authority; GM.
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