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The GM Ultium battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, has voted to unionize. This is the 2nd GM battery plant to unionize – but this one is different because it’s in Tennessee, where unions are less popular.

Unions have been seeing a lot of strength in the US lately, with pro-union sentiment at historic highs in the US.

The UAW has been both contributing to and riding this wave of union support in pushing for unionization across the US auto industry, particularly in the realm of electric vehicles and battery plants.

Its first big win was when GM’s first Ultium plant voted overwhelmingly to join UAW in 2022. Then, during UAW strike negotiations in 2023, Ultium workers won their right to be placed under the union master agreement, meaning better pay and protections for battery workers.

UAW’s strike success led to pay raises across the industry, even for nonunion workers, showing how union wins can buoy pay across larger populations.

This string of wins seems to have earned the attention of the GM Ultium battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, as a majority of the 1,000 workers there signed union cards indicating that they want to join UAW, as announced today by the union. UAW points out that GM and LG (who are partners in the Ultium Cells venture) did not interfere with the union vote and has agreed to recognize the union.

The Spring Hill location is the second Ultium plant to start production, which it did earlier this year. It follows Lordstown, which started production and unionized in 2022. Today’s announcement means that both of GM’s currently-operating plants have voted to unionize.

Another plant in Lansing, Michigan is just finishing construction and should start producing cells by the end of this year. Workers at this plant have not yet voted either way on whether to join UAW.

Spring Hill’s decision is notable due to its location in the US South, which is historically more union-hostile than the North. This is part of the reason that many automotive companies have opened factories there – because of the lack of unionization, labor protections and pay scales are lower.

However, we have seen some signs of this changing. In April of this year, the VW plant in Chattanooga, TN voted to unionize. This plant had been VW’s only factory worldwide not to have a collective bargaining agreement in place, and the vote marked the first time a foreign automaker’s plant voted to unionize in the US.

We also saw a newly-unionized Blue Bird school bus factory in Georgia, where electric school buses will be made.

Momentum faltered when a Mercedes EV plant in Alabama declined to join UAW after Mercedes brought in anti-union firms to sway the vote. And six Southern governors – including Kay Ivey of Alabama, who signed an anti-union law during the Mercedes voting period – made a joint statement to encourage workers against seeking greater labor protections that union membership would bring them.

But now, momentum may be back in the hands of UAW, after this Spring Hill vote succeeded today. And it could be a big deal, given the developing “battery belt” in the US South, where many companies have decided to build battery plants, with hundreds of billions of dollars in investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs on the docket. If other factories see the success at GM, they might start getting their own ideas and unionization could spread through the industry.


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Dealers are slashing prices on 2025 Kia Niro EV, nearly 25% off!

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Dealers are slashing prices on 2025 Kia Niro EV, nearly 25% off!

Just like it says on the tin – retailers are advertising killer deals on the fun-to-drive Kia Niro EV, with one midwest auto dealer reporting more than $10,000 off the sticker price of the Niro EV Wind. That’s nearly 25% off the top line price!

SKIP THE STORYget straight to the deals.

The Kia Niro EV gets overshadowed by its objectively excellent EV6 and EV9 stablemates – both of which are currently available with substantial lease cash and 0% APR financing, in fact – but that doesn’t mean it’s not an excellent little electric runabout in its own right.

The last time I had a Niro EV tester, my kids loved it, I liked that it was quicker and more tossable than I expected it to be, and my wife liked the fact that “it doesn’t look electric. It looks normal.” And, with well over 200 miles of real world range (EPA-rated range is 253 miles), it was more than up to the task of commuting around Chicago and making the trip up to the Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee and back without even needing to look for a charger.

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It’s not the primary family hauler I’d choose – but as a second car? As a primary car for a slightly smaller family (1-2 kids, instead of 3-4)? The Kia Niro EV Wind, with a $42,470 MSRP, seems like a solid, “can’t go wrong” sort of choice. You know?

You won’t even have to pay that much, though. Raymond Kia in Antioch, Illinois is advertising a $42,470 Niro EV for $32,431 (that’s $10,039, or about 24% off the MSRP), and several others are advertising prices in the $33,000 range.

And, while we’re at it:


SOURCE | IMAGES: CarsDirect, Edmunds, Raymond Kia.


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Lion Electric leaves US school districts stuck with unsafe, broken buses

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Lion Electric leaves US school districts stuck with unsafe, broken buses

Many school districts who used EPA funding to help purchase Lion Electric school buses are now stuck with broken down or unsafe vehicles – but Lion’s new Canadian investors seemingly have no plans to make things right.

“All four Lion buses that we own are currently parked and not being used,” Coleen Souza, interim transportation director of Winthrop Public Schools, told Jay Traugott over at Clean Trucking. “Two of them are in need of repairs which would cost us money which we are not willing to invest in because the buses do not run for more than a month before needing more repairs.”

The story is much the same at other US school districts who deployed Lion Electric buses over the last few years – and the trouble they describe isn’t isolated to a single component or system. One district we spoke to had onboard chargers that failed almost immediately after being plugged into a L2 AC charger. Another that spoke to Traugott reported emergency door gaps, power steering failure, loss of power, and braking issues.

As bad as the revelations of safety and drivability issues and $250 million in unresolved debt have been, it’s the objectively stupid design choices that have been the most shocking.

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“Lion built an auxiliary diesel heater to heat the bus, essentially writing the manual as they went,” explained a school superintendent in the midwest, who asked not to be named. “It was fascinating to watch but there were design flaws with the heater. For example, the intakes pointed downward and we’re driving across rural roads and the intake sucks in that dirt.”

“Using a diesel-powered heater to warm an electric bus also somewhat defeats the purpose of going 100% zero-emissions,” added Traugott.

Despite a new electric school bus rebate and a fresh cash injection from Vincent Chiara, president of Quebec real estate powerhouse Groupe MACH, and Lion director Pierre Wilkie, however, it seems like no help is coming.

It just gets worse and worse


Decommissioned Lion electric buses; via Winthrop Public Schools.

Despite early speculation – some of it my own, in fact – that the new investors would take the Canadian government up on its offer to help subsidize more electric school bus production and honor the company’s outstanding warranty claims, it appears the only vehicle line the new investors are interested in reviving are the the Class 8 electric semi manufacturing operations in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec.

The US school districts who spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in the hopes that Lion buses would help decarbonize their fleets and reduce students’ exposure to harmful diesel emissions? Many of them are back to using diesel, while others are trying to get their deposits back so they can buy something else.

Here’s hoping any school districts on the fence for electrification recognize that their are very real, very well-engineered, and very financially sound electric school bus manufacturers out there who can deliver on their promises.

SOURCES: Chicago Tribune, Clean Trucking, Electrical Business.


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Mitsubishi debuts EV battery swap network for cars AND trucks in Tokyo

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Mitsubishi debuts EV battery swap network for cars AND trucks in Tokyo

Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!

Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.

That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.

How battery swap works for electric trucks
How battery swap works for electric trucks; via Mitsubishi Fuso.

A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.

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Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.

The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.

Electrek’s Take


Fuso eCanter battery swap; via Mitsubishi.

Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.

Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.

SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.


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