Tesla Service goes on strike in Sweden; dockworkers refuse to unload cars
Tesla Service workers have gone on strike across Sweden due to Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement. In response, Swedish dockworkers have stated that they will refuse to unload Tesla vehicles in Swedish ports unless the conflict is resolved quickly.
Tesla does not have any manufacturing presence in Sweden, but it does have a significant sales presence.
Electric cars are incredibly popular in Sweden – not as much as in neighboring Norway, but pretty close, with about a 60% market share for plug-in cars in Sweden.
And, like in most other markets, the Tesla Model Y is the best-selling car there. (Tesla’s other models are far behind in sales.) Tesla has sold around 14,000 Model Ys in Sweden so far this year, about 6% of the total car market with just this one model.
So there are quite a few Teslas out and about, and those Teslas need someone to service them.
The problem is those service workers haven’t felt too appreciated by their employer. They say that working conditions are worse at Tesla than they are for other auto mechanics and want Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement to ensure that conditions are brought in line with the rest of the industry.
Collective bargaining agreements are incredibly common in Northern European countries. Union membership is high on its own – with about two-thirds of employees in Sweden belonging to a union. But many nonunion employees are still covered by collective bargaining agreements that are often negotiated industrywide. In terms of collective bargaining coverage, some 90% of workers across the Swedish economy find themselves protected by some sort of agreement. The country doesn’t even need a legally mandated minimum wage, since that is covered by collective bargaining agreements.
So, if anything, it’s a bit of a surprise that Tesla has gone this far without an agreement. Tesla famously opposes unionization, but as it has moved out of the American market (with its tiny ~10% union membership rate) and into international markets where collective bargaining is considered a matter of course, there were always bound to be conflicts.
One of those conflicts is happening now, with Swedish Tesla workers declaring a strike Friday, after posting notice last week of their intent to do so. Tesla did not come to the table in response to the notice, and thus workers have gone forward with the strike.
The strike includes around 130 workers in seven locations (Tesla operates 9 service centers in 7 cities in Sweden – we’re not sure, via translation, if the strike covers seven service centers or all seven cities). Not everyone who works at these locations is unionized, and because of European data privacy rules, neither the union nor the workers need to specify exactly which workers are part of the union.
It is being led by IF Metall, a major union covering hundreds of thousands of industrial workers across Sweden. The union says that it will remain on strike until a collective bargaining is in place and that it has plenty of funds to sustain the strike for months if need be.
It remains to be seen what the effects of the strike on Tesla’s operations will be. This will make servicing a car much harder in Sweden, but Tesla has committed to hiring strikebreakers (also known as “scabs”) so that operations can continue smoothly.
Scabs are a common feature of strikes in America, but they’re incredibly rare in Sweden. An IF Metall spokesperson said “that would be crossing all boundaries. That kind of thing happened in Sweden in the 1920s and 30s,” as reported by thelocal.se, an English-language Sweden news site.
There are other third-party auto shops that service Teslas and are not currently covered by the strike. But IF Metall says that it plans to expand the strike to 20 of these third party workshops starting November 3 if Tesla still does not come to the table. These shops would continue work as normal but stop working on Tesla cars specifically.
But that’s not the only way the strike might expand. This morning, the Swedish dockworkers union said that it would stop unloading Tesla cars from ships at four Swedish ports – Malmö, Södertälje, Gothenburg and Trelleborg – if the strike isn’t resolved. That action will start on November 7 if Tesla has still chosen not to come to the table with the union.
Electrek’s Take
We aren’t experts in the history of Swedish labor action, or Swedish labor law, but this seems like quite the misstep by Tesla. It sounds like few people think that Tesla will prevail here, and their refusal to come to the table smacks as either stubbornness, ignorance of Swedish culture, or simply a lack of focus (as some Tesla efforts are wont to fall victim to).
Strikes are generally rare in Sweden. The high levels of collective bargaining coverage and high levels of social welfare in the country, along with pay transparency and a strong social commitment to equality, mean that everyone across all industries is pretty much on the same page when it comes to worker treatment. And when collective bargaining coverage is so high, companies (minus a few of the less-internationally-aware American ones) generally recognize that workers are going to get their way if it comes to blows, so it’s best to just come to the table and negotiate in good faith to begin with.
While 130 workers may sound like a small amount across a whole country, this is not the first time a similar situation has happened in Sweden. In 1995, Toys ‘R’ Us entered Sweden and refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement, and about 80 retail workers decided to strike over it.
That strike spread to delivery workers, warehouses, banks, advertisers, even garbage collectors who all refused to do business with Toys ‘R’ Us, and word continued to spread to consumers and workers in Sweden and across Europe to avoid shopping there. While Toys ‘R’ Us had previously had a global policy not to sign collective bargaining agreements, they ended up relenting to this strike in Sweden. So it doesn’t sound like the right country to mess with in this respect.
As for a personal anecdote: I have some Swedish friends who came to visit me in America on vacation in their early 20s. One of them worked an entry-level job at a sporting goods store, and yet was able to afford a 6-week paid vacation to Hawaii, California and Florida, with no trouble or pushback from her job. They were still doing their best to not overspend on the trip, but getting 6 paid weeks off an entry level job to travel to expensive tourist destinations is the kind of thing that Americans just generally cannot even conceive of doing in this day and age, unless subsidized by their parents.
And yet, despite all the warnings we hear in America about how companies can’t possibly work with unions or they’ll go out of business, companies are still able to do business in Sweden, and the country still does well economically. After all, they’ve got enough money that ~6% of new car sales are Teslas, and that’s higher than the US average even.
So maybe high collective bargaining coverage, even for retail employees, isn’t all that bad of a thing.
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Capable of delivering up to 1,200 kW of power to get electric commercial trucks back on the road in minutes, the new ABB MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System is part of an ecosystem of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that ABB’s bringing to this year’s ACT Expo.
ABB E-mobility is using the annual clean trucking conference to showcase the expansion of its EVSE portfolio with three all-new charger families: the field-upgradable A200/300 All-in-One chargers, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System for heavy-duty vehicles shown (above), and the ChargeDock Dispenser for flexible depot charging.
The company said its new product platform was built by applying a computer system-style domain separation to charger design, fundamentally improving subsystem development and creating a clear path forward for site and system expansion. In other words, ABB is selling a system with both future-proofing and enhanced dependability baked in.
“We have built a system by logically separating a charger into four distinct subsystems … each functioning as an independent subsystem,” explains Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “Unlike conventional chargers, where a user interface failure can disable the entire system, our architecture ensures charging continues even if the screen or payment system encounters issues. Moreover, we can improve each subsystem at its own pace without having to change the entire system.”
The parts of ABB’s new EVSE portfolio that have been made public so far have already been recognized for design excellence, with the A400 winning the iF Gold Award and both the A400 and C50 receiving Red Dot Design Awards.
New ABB chargers seem pretty, good
ABB says the systemic separation of its EVSE enhances both reliability and quality, while making deployed chargers easier to diagnose and repair, in less time. Each of the chargers’ subsystems can be tested, diagnosed, and replaced independently, allowing for quick on-site repairs and update cycles tailored to the speed of each systems’ innovation. The result is 99% uptime and a more future-proof product.
“The EV charging landscape is evolving beyond point products for specific use cases,” continued Halbherr. “By implementing this modular approach with the majority of our R&D focused on modular platforms rather than one-off products … it reduces supply chain risks, while accelerating development cycles and enabling deeper collaboration with critical suppliers.”
Key markets ABB is chasing
- PUBLIC CHARGING – with the award winning A400 being the optimal fit for high power charging from highway corridors to urban locations, the latest additions to the A-Series All-in-One chargers offer a field-upgradable architecture allowing operators to start with the A200 (200kW) with the option to upgrade to 300kW or 400kW as demand grows. This approach offers scalability and protects customer investment, leading to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings over 10 years.
- PUBLIC TRANSIT AND FLEET – the new Charge Dock Dispenser – in combination with the already in market available HVC 360 – simplifies depot charging with a versatile solution that supports pantograph-, roof-, and pedestal charging options with up to 360kW of shared power and 150m/490 ft installation flexibility between cabinet and dispensers. The dispenser maintains up to 500A output.
- HEAVY TRUCKS – building the matching charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles and fleets represents a critical innovation frontier on our journey to electrify transportation. Following extensive collaboration with industry-leading truck OEMs, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System delivers up to 1,200kW of continuous power — 20% more energy transfer than 1MW systems — providing heavy-duty vehicles with purpose-built single-outlet design for the energy they need during mandatory driver breaks. To support other use cases, such as CCS truck charging, a dual CCS and MCS option will also be available.
- RETAIL – the award winning C50 Compact Charger complements the family as the slimmest charger in its category at just 9.3 inches depth, optimized for convenient charging during typical one-hour retail experiences. With its large touch display, the C50 takes the award-winning A400 experience even further — setting a new standard for consumer experience and very neatly echoing our own take on that “Goldilocks” timing zone for commercial charging.
ABB says that the result of its new approach are chargers that offer 99% plus uptime — a crucial statistic for commercial charging operations and a key factor to ensuring customer satisfaction. The new ABB E-mobility EVSE product family will be on display for the first time at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo (ACT Expo) in Anaheim, California next week, then again at Power2Drive in Munich, Germany, from May 7-9.
Electrek’s Take
The ACT Expo is one of – if not the most important sustainable trucking event in North America, featuring all the big names in heavy trucks, construction equipment, material handling, infrastructure – even Tier 1 suppliers. Mostly, though, it’s many fleet buyers’ only chance to test drive these zero emission trucks before writing a big PO (which just makes it even more important).
Electrek will be there again this year, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest news from press events and product reveals as it happens.
SOURCE | IMAGES: ABB E-mobility.
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Along with Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-based ultralight aircraft company Whisper Aero has secured a $500,000 grant to help advance the company’s innovative electric jet motor concept off the drawing board and onto the testing phase.
Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced plans to award $500,000 to Tennessee Tech and Whisper Aero through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.
“We look forward to using these award dollars to place students in internships working directly with Whisper Aero leaders,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. “By learning from an electric propulsion innovator like Whisper Aero, our students will gain invaluable perspective and can take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it right here in Tennessee.”
The grant will see a Whisper Aero glider fitted with a pair of the company’s eQ250 electric-powered jet “propulsors” for UltraQuiet flight. Tennessee Tech faculty and students will carry out copper-bird ground testing to ensure the safe integration of engines, batteries, and controllers, and kickstart Tennessee Tech’s new Crossville Mobility Incubator.
Those propulsors, by the way, are super cool.
Whisper Aero’s main claim to fame is its innovative UltraQuiet WhisperDrive (above). It’s effectively an electrically spun ducted fan jet engine that uses a large number of stiff composite fan blades inside a lightweight, acoustically treated duct. With so many blades, the Whisper Aero propulsor can push more air than a conventional prop while spinning much more slowly. As such, the “blade passage frequency” moves up to more than 16,000 Hz – outside the range of most human hearing but not, supposedly, high enough to freak out the beagles.
The Whisper Aero ultralight is effectively an Aériane Swift3 glider fitted with a pair of Whisper’s eQ250 propulsors, each capable of up to 80 lbs. of thrust. The Ultralight has a wingspan of over 40 ft with a maximum L/D of 35:1 and can be stressed to a design loading of +6/-4g, making it capable of some pretty impressive acrobatic feats.
The Swift3 glider is designed for a low speed, low power cruising speed of 45–55 knots with “just” 6.5 hp. Power-off glides from a few hundred feet showed a low sink rate, and a climb rate of 1,250 ft/min with full self-launching power (in other words: the Whisper glider doesn’t have to be towed by a launch vehicle, like a conventional ultralight glider).
Quiet cool
Range under full power is about 109 miles with current battery tech, but it’s expected that range under the latest EPiC 2.0 energy batteries would rise to nearly 170 miles.
Nathan Millecam, CEO of Electric Power System, said, “EPiC 2.0’s leap in energy density and thermal performance has enabled a significant increase in range, a clear validation of our next-gen cell technology. We are impressed by what the Whisper team continues to achieve in advancing electric aviation.”
The press release concludes explaining that flight tests are expected to show that the Whisper Aero glider can be flown, “a few hundred feet away from neighborhoods without any disturbances, while carrying a 220 lbs. payload with full range,” which is all kind of ominous in today’s political climate, but still pretty neat from a purely tech perspective.
The TNGO grant follows a separate grant from NASA awarded last year, though that grant aims to develop the eQ250s – not as a propulsion system, but as a key component in future spacecraft ventilation systems.
Tennessee Tech announces TNGO grant
With support from TNECD’s Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, Tennessee Tech University and Whisper Aero are partnering to advance next-generation propulsion technology in the aerospace industry. This collaboration will enhance aerospace research and workforce development, ensuring Tennessee remains a leader in cutting-edge mobility solutions.
SOURCE | IMAGES: TNECD; via eVTOL Insights, New Atlas.
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A Tesla Cybertruck owner believed Elon Musk’s claims that the Cybertruck would be able to “act as a boat” and “cross rivers”, and he got his $100,000 stuck because of it.
Elon Musk has often made claims about how Tesla vehicles could float and briefly serve as a boat in the past.
We have never been taken too seriously because Tesla’s warranty states something different about taking the vehicle into water.
However, the CEO doubled down on the claim specifically for the Cybertruck.
Ahead of launching the production version of the Cybertruck, Musk claimed the vehicle would be “waterproof enough” to serve as a boat and cross rivers:
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.
The CEO added that the goal is for a Cybertruck to be able to cross the water between SpaceX’s Starbase and South Padre Island in Texas, which is about 360 meters (1,100 feet).
We have been taking the Cybertruck more seriously with water because we learned that Tesla built a ‘wade mode’ for the truck to be able to go into the water. Tesla says the mode increases the ride height to the max and temporarily “pressurizes the battery pack.”
The problem is that it is activated through the off-roading mode, which is not covered under Tesla’s warranty – so we are taking everything with a grain of salt.
Whenever Tesla’s warranty contradicts what Musk says, it is better to follow to the warranty.
A Tesla Cybertruck owner in Truckee, California, appears not to have received this sage advice since they activated the wade mode and attempted to get into the water.
The Cybertruck owner quickly got stuck. The local California Highway Patrol (CHP) shared some pictures of the aftermath (via Facebook):
CHP Truckee helped with the recovery and commented on the incident:
Cybertruck activated “Wade Mode”… and waded a bit too far… We’re all for testing boundaries… but maybe not the waterline. Remember folks, “Wade Mode” isn’t “Submarine Mode.” If your plans include exploring the great outdoors, make sure to know your limits and the terrain.
There’s no detail on the damage to the Cybertruck, if any.
As we recently reported, repair costs for the stainless steel electric pickup truck can increase rapidly.
This Cybertruck owner is also not the first one to get stuck in water. We previously reported on a Tesla Cybertruck sinking into the water when launching a jet ski.
Electrek’s Take
At the risk of stating the obvious, this is clearly more of a user error than a Cybertruck problem.
I think the verdict is clear: Cybertruck is far from the best electric pickup truck for off-roading.
However, in general, you shouldn’t expect a truck to get out of water on a muddy bank.
I think a lot of Cybertruck owners are new to trucking and off-roading, and they are making the truck look worse than it is at off-roading.
If you want to take your Cybertruck off-road, I recommend to first go with an off-roading guide that can help avoid some simple mistakes like this.
Also, in general, don’t take Elon Musk’s claims at face value when he says that Tesla vehicles can do something that sounds like an exaggeration. It probably is an exaggeration.
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