The automotive industry drove headlines in Michigan this past year. In 2023, we saw the historic UAW Stand Up strikes followed by a subsequent record-making contract. We also saw lower than anticipated electric vehicle sales, and the Detroit Three began staking their claim in the tech industry.
Detroit News reporter Kalea Hall and Automotive News reporter Michael Martinez spoke with Stateside to recap what happened this year in cars.
The UAW Stand Up Stikes
For the first time ever, the UAW helped coordinate a strategic national strike across all three Detroit-based automakers: Stellantis, Ford, and GM. The six week long strike cost the Detroit Three billions of dollars in profit.
Martinez called the strikes “historic” and “unprecedented.”
“The union ultimately really succeeded in changing the narrative and changing the way things are done,” Martinez said. “Everything from the lead up in terms of the new leadership that was elected for the first time in decades, right up to the ramp up in the negotiations, to the discussions themselves, there was a completely new playbook.”
The contracts the UAW and its members negotiated with the Detroit Three won back many of the concessions made during the Great Recession in 2008. They also included raises, as well as bonuses for company workers. Martinez said that while during the negotiations automakers complained that they could not afford the workers’ demands, they’re now singing a different tune.
“Since those contracts were signed and the ink is finally dry, the companies have essentially said, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, we can absorb those costs easy. No big deal.’ So there is a bit of a disconnect from what they were saying during the talks, and the optimism they're projecting now.”
But this isn’t to undermine the hard-fought wins for the UAW members. These new contracts will have immediate material effects for workers on the ground.
“These contracts are life-changing for many people, especially the newer, younger workers that were not making nearly as much as some of the older workers,” Martinez said.
What people are buying
Martinez said that when it comes to buying cars, people want products that are functional and “elicit some type of emotion.”
“Whether it's, you know, the trucks that can tow and haul if you need it, even though most people who own a truck don't really use it for its intended purposes, or if it's an SUV, or even a sports car or something that's fun to drive, maybe something you can take off-road,” Martinez said. “Those types of passion products really seem to do well for Ford … as well as GM and others.”
In particular, Hall said that one of the shining stars for GM this year was the Chevrolet Trax, a crossover SUV at a competitive cost.
“It's at a good price point and it's a cute little SUV that people seem interested in,” Hall said.
Trucks, as always, fared well this year. But as Hall noted, we also saw an unexpected champion gain traction: hybrids.
“Those sales are performing better than expected. Earlier this year, there [was] some hate thrown at Toyota for continuing to stay on hybrids, but it looks like they're doing pretty well,” Hall said.
The Detroit Three push EVs
Tesla dominated the electric vehicle market this past year as the Detroit Three and others struggled to play catch-up.
“[Tesla has] had a decade-plus head start,” Martinez pointed out. “Tesla has had the best charging infrastructure of anybody, because they invested in it themselves early, and that hasn't been an issue for their customers. So the Fords and GM's and Volkswagen's of the world are going to have to do a lot to ever try to reach what Tesla is doing today.”
While the Detroit Three projected higher EV sales than they achieved this year, Martinez said there still is a lot of potential for an EV market.
“All this talk about doom and gloom over slower demand than expected shouldn't erase the fact that EVs are still growing in the U.S. Sales are improving, just not at the rate everybody wanted,” said Martinez.
[Get Stateside on your phone: subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify today.]
